Cat Hui Trading’s 2024 NES/Famicom game Changeable Guardian Estique stars a transforming mecha from another planet, fighting through six levels to save Earth from invading space pirates. You can use one of two weapons – a wide Wave shot focusing on offense, and a weaker Bit shot that includes two satellites that rotate around your ship for added defense. Though you only have a single life, you can take a few hits thanks to your rechargable shield. Power-ups regularly fly out that let you switch between these two types, plus they add an extra super attack charge.
You can switch between ship and mecha form, which affects a few things. This includes your super attack, activated by double-tapping the fire button – in ship form, this briefly powers up your ship with strong, rapid-fire shots, while in mecha form you’ll send out a super wave punch. You also won’t take damage when colliding into scenery with the mecha form, but considering that most stages are open air, this ability isn’t all that useful. Enemies defeated with either super attack will add more to your score, which is handy since every 80,000 points you’ll summon a little cat creature called Maruino. Grab this guy and you’ll get a nice chunk of extra bombs as well as a shield replenishment. This system encourages you to use your super powers regularly to help stay alive. Your form also determines your shield regeneration rate, as the mecha is much faster than the ship.
It’s a well-balanced design, but Changeable Guardian Estique truly shines through with its masterful programming and visuals. It was developed by Takayuki “Jemini” Hirono and Satoshi “Pac” Fujishima, two veterans that had worked on Compile shoot-em-ups back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and they certainly put the 8-bit NES through the ringer. Many of the enemy patterns will be familiar to fans of games like Zanac and Power Strike, though they certainly feel different considering Estique uses a side-scrolling perspective, instead of the vertical view typical of Compile games. It certainly fits a ton of enemies on the screen with no slowdown and minimal flickering, which has long been a problem with 8-bit shooters. Normal and Hard mode may not pose much of an issue for veteran shoot-em-up players, but the highest level, God of Game, increases the bullets while decreasing your shield and super weapon stocks, making for a much more challenging experience.
Just on a pure artistic level, this is one brilliant looking game. The first five levels take place in different regions across Earth – Hong Kong, Bayern (Bavaria), London, New York, and Kyoto – with famous landmarks appearing in the background. Many stages have such incredible use of color that it’s shocking that it’s still within the 16 color and palette limitations of the NES. Between stages, you see Estique pilots Mary and Kanon enjoy some cuisine or taking in the local culture. Each boss is also absolutely enormous, and filled with intricate details. It also has an unusual but catchy assortment of tunes from veteran composers like Shinichi Sakamoto (Wonder Boy), Ayako Saso (Ridge Racer), and Shinji Hosoe (Dragon Spirit).
Estique also pays tribute to the international localizations of the 8-bit era, offering different introduction and ending sequences between the English and Japanese versions. These aren’t just slightly modified cinemas, but rather have completely different text and visuals, so each is unique. However, it also unintentionally emulates the worst of the era – in the Japanese version, Mary and Kanon clearly have a romantic relationship, something which doesn’t appear at all in the English version. Considering the conservative backlash against LGBTQ representation that began in the 2010s, it ends up feeling more uncomfortably like censorship than a cheeky joke. The different language variations would’ve been better off as an in-game option, rather than delivering on completely different ROMs. But that’s only something that affects the NES or Famicom cartridge releases, because the console/computer version coming in 2026 will include both versions.
Otherwise, this game is a marvel to behold. Many other indie NES shooters are either brief score attack (Habit) titles or games that are closer to tech demos (Over Obj), but Estique is just as fully featured as any classic shooter, and looks amazing to boot. The only downside is that the roster is limited compared to the Compile games it resembles – Estique only has two, compared to the eight special weapons found in Zanac – but the two ship/mecha forms and the super attacks help make up for it.
English Version Intro/Ending
Japanese Version Intro/Ending
Links:
Official site
Homebrew Factory Order a physical cartridge!
