After many hours of curiosity and restlessness, I finally managed to get my hands on American Crisis, an unreleased (and unknown) Nintendo game. I knew the game was going to be fun when the title screen features former President George Bush (senior), Saddam Hussein, and the Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran. The title screen alone is priceless.

George Bush shoots arrows out of his eyes at the enemy, then the game itself loads. The player is given the option to play through two missions, either Iran or Iraq. After you select your mission, the game itself starts.

Due to the recent happenings with Saddam Hussein in Iraq, I naturally decided to try that mission first. The player has ten lives, and he is dropped off in the middle of the Iraqi desert armed with 10 grenades and a machine gun. The objective of each stage is to reach the exit (hidden randomly at the top of the stage) while surviving the wrath of Saddam's regime. I know it sounds easy, but it really isn't. One shot from a machine gun will kill your player. To make things even tougher, mines are hidden throughout the stage as well.

If you are lucky enough to escape the stage alive, you are prompted to make a selection as to where you want to go next. After you decide, your player is once again dropped off at some undisclosed location and you perform a similar activity as the one I just desribed above.

The Iran mission is much easier. Your player is armed with an unlimited supply of explosives. He also sports a knife, which is good for short range attacks. The object of the Iranian mission is the same, escape the stage to move to the next stage. Since the soldier is better equipped for this mission, I did much better (though I still haven't completed it).

I am assuming that at some point during the game, you can duke it out with either Saddam Hussein or the Ayatollah Khomeini. However, I just haven't gotten far enough in the game just yet. The game is not nearly complete, as there are still many bugs. American Crisis also lacks background music, though there are some nice sound effects. The graphics aren't too bad, though I've certainly seen better.

I'm sure that you now want a brief background history on the game itself. American Crisis was programmed by a few folks at C & E Inc (the same folks which made Mermaids of Atlantis and Tiles of Fate). The game was passed to American Video Entertainment for publishing, though AVE folded before it happened. Crisis was to be an American Video exclusive, and it was never released anywhere in the world.

Overall I'm pleased that an unknown piece of NES history has been discovered. The game itself is worth playing for a laugh (sort of like Operation Secret Storm) though it really isn't THAT great when it comes to actual gameplay. Click here to see a cart scan, here for a PCB scan. More information will be added as I discover it so stay tuned.