Abadox: The Deadly Inner War (NES) Playthrough

A playthrough of Milton Bradley's 1989 shooter for the NES, Abadox: The Deadly Inner War.
Abadox was developer Natsume’s second game to see a stateside release. Arriving four months after the Taito-published niche RPG Dungeon Magic: Swords of Element, Abadox broke into the US market with a heavy marketing push, complete with a nationwide television commercial campaign that undoubtedly gave countless children nightmares.
Capitalizing on the popularity of arcade shooters and horror movies, Natsume merged the two - like Konami did in Life Force - and the result was an extremely difficult console-exclusive shoot 'em up that proudly flaunted some of the most graphic visuals to ever appear in an officially licensed NES game.
Set in the distant future, the titular planet faces imminent destruction by Parasitis, a creature of unimaginable size that can take the shape of anything it consumes. As Lieutenant Nazal is waiting for his ship to be repaired on a nearby space station, he watches in horror as the giant being inhales the entire planet of Abadox, along with a satellite hospital where the beautiful Princess Maria is currently staying. Nazal, the lone survivor, pilots his ship into Parasitis for the sake of his people, his planet, and his true love.
Each of the game's six stages represent an area of Parasitis's body. Nazal enters the mouth and makes his way down the throat and through the esophagus and stomach, and once he has destroyed the core, he'll have to jet through the colon at top speed to escape.
Stages alternate between scrolling horizontally and vertically, most forcing Nazal's fairly large sprite into claustrophobic corridors brimming with enemies and incoming fire, and the action gets pretty hairy. It's intense and demanding, but the game does give you a fighting chance.
Like in the Gradius series, power-ups are key to surviving. Item ships drop speed ups, weapon upgrades, missiles, option pods, and shields. But, without shields, Nazal goes down in a single hit, and since death robs you of all your accumulated upgrades, getting wiped out places you at a serious disadvantage.
The graphics are a big part of the fun. Many of the neon, organ-themed backdrops pulse and squirm, and the enemy design as often creative as it is disturbing and gross. Granted, Life Force did something similar, but Abadox pushes the boundaries of taste a bit harder, and I loved the look of it.
"Bau" (Engrish for "Bow," I assume?), a skeletal zombie dog covered in clods of rotten flesh and being ridden by a parasite, guards the entrance to the mouth. Once you've blasted your way through him and breached the lips, you'll dodge teeth and uvulae and skim the surface of a writhing tongue as you make your way toward the throat. Before you can pass through, however, "Deathface" erupts from a mass on the wall and attacks, spitting fire at you as his stalk-mounted eyeballs track your movements. And that's all just in the first stage!
The music was composed Kyouhei Sada, an ex-Konami veteran who was responsible for the Contra, Rush'n Attack, Blades of Steel, and The Adventures of Bayou Billy soundtracks. His catchy synth leads and punchy basslines are an excellent complement to the action, and the quality is easily on par with the work he did at Konami.
For those that love a challenge, Abadox delivers the goods. It's an incredibly fun shooter, and it's an easy recommendation for those who loved Life Force, or for anyone looking for a polished title with a fantastically realized horror theme.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
NintendoComplete (www.nintendocom...) punches you in the face with in-depth reviews, screenshot archives, and music from classic 8-bit NES games!

[@NintendoComplete]

Abadox is a superb 8-bit shooter that will appeal to anyone who loves Life Force, gross-out visuals, or Konami soundtracks.

[@KarnovJr]

Natsume like Capcom and Treasure was established by former Konami staff. Not a coincidence!

[@KarnovJr]

Abadox's composer Kiyohiro Sada worked on the NES/Famicom version of Contra.

[@Palamedes2009]

Escape the Planet Abodox

[@Palamedes2009]

March

[@hannibalharkonnen7612]

Got my copy back in the day, not an easy game.

[@tinytrashcan2840]

The decision to flip the vertical stages to go from top to bottom was such an ingenious aesthetic touch. Really made you feel like you were just going deeper and deeper into this titanic beast. Love how old games had to get creative like that instead of just taking realistic graphics for granted.

[@Unaliq]

What I love about this game is the fact that there was a first rescue team sent to save the princess though that ended up in failure, but the team did end up destroying one of the orbs in order for our protagonist to destory the second and final orb to save the princess and destroy the organic planet. Super neat storytelling by not having any in-game dialogue, unless you read the manual for the game.

[@oosha2000]

I found this game after searching for so long. Thank you for recalling my childhood days.

[@Dorian_Scott]

Never heard of this game, but seeing Natsume credited on the title screen *_immediately_* sold me lol. Love all of the NES & SNES games they developed.

[@therealquinnzack1819]

Your play through’s are amazing; I love this game but I’ve always found it incredibly difficult

[@Criminally_Insane]

12:51 that OST is PRECIOUS Thanks for sharing! :3

[@volvoguy804]

I remember the commercial for this game, pretty sick.

[@rjcupid]

This game is awesome and I still play it to this day. Abadox sounds like a laundry detergent that disintegrates your clothes.

[@NintendoComplete]

Hahaha Borax for the hardcore.

[@Dorian_Scott]

I can already picture the ad: _"For all those tough to reach stains that even the leading detergents can't remove, try 'Abadox'!"_

[@rjcupid]

⁠@@Dorian_Scott”Works in cold water too! Also, it will turn all of your white clothes pink!” Don’t worry about your socks, just Abadox!”

[@rjcupid]

@@NintendoComplete Hahaha awesome. This soundtrack reminds me of S.C.A.T.. Natsume goodness right here.

[@matthewbeavers5423]

I still remember the cheat code; AA up, BB down, AB start. Loved this game!

[@DasMachineBrettK]

Finally- someone who know’s!!! After all these years I have found you brother- you are the chosen one

[@goremall]

One of the best side scrollers out there, I was more of an Abadox guy than life force

[@ZEKESPILLEDINKMUSIC]

Yes, the game mentions Milton Bradley: the same company that made all those board games. This represents part of their brief venture into helping make video games.

[@GreatMewtwo]

Yes. The Milton Bradley Company (having just been bought by Hasbro 5 years earlier) was very interesting as a Nintendo licensee. They had a hand in bringing their share of Gems to the NES, including this and a few games ported by Rare.

[@azforu29]

Didnt they do Time Lord and Gotcha! as well? Maybe not, cant remember at the moment.

[@bnelson383]

I played this a lot as a kid as a friend of mine had it, but it took me a long time to remember what it was called trying to find this again as an adult. All I remembered was it was a shooter with eyeballs and sound that reminded me of contra. If you haven’t played it give it a shot its not a hard game but harder than it looks here.

[@oosha2000]

Same here and I'm happy that I found it after numerous years of searching

[@theusher2893]

One of my NES faves. Only beat it once back in the day, but damn did Natsume make some awesome titles.

[@SoulCrusader]

What a classic! Those sound fx and music!

[@vgaoct91]

This game would've gone to the wind for me if I didn't come across Mark "Masoumi" and his vid regarding Abadox. Good job, though! I'll take my chances with it, no matter how hard it is. (And I'll be anticipating its difficulty from the start) Wanna know something crazy about the JP release? Unlike the localization, the planet that Parasitis has devoured is the Earth and the damsel in distress is Lieutenant Nazal's girlfriend as opposed to a Princess. (Who, once you rescue her, isn't clothed, shockingly)

[@godagon97]

I remember playing this game at 8 years old and thinking, "This game is like a rated-R movie!! Yesssss!" 🤣🤣🍻

[@lordlickorice]

This was one of the best and most difficult I played as a kid. It took me forever to beat it. You basically have to play it over and over to memorize what’s coming, so you know which upgrades to get, to avoid, and where to place yourself during attacks and boss fights.

[@rockymitsu]

Yes, you have to admit that this game is also terrifying, This game scared me a lot when I played it as a kid

[@D-Major_Beats]

This was my favorite game... I still have, after all these years & still haven't beaten it 😅😅

[@grimey5.565]

This is a rare one and was glad to watch your playthrough. Edit Found your Guardian legend playthrough!

[@01MEGABOB]

I beat this game as a 7 year old. Seeing this now I have no idea how. This was a great play through too! Some of these screens get absolutely insane.

[@SomeOrangeCat]

This one's a classic!

[@POLE7645]

Junji Ito’s Remina: The Game… 20 years before. And with a more uplifting ending.

[@freon22]

Fun solid shmup that’s not ball crushingly hard. Feels like an old Irem and Konami game had a kid.

[@GreatMewtwo]

The game featured music by Kiyohiro Sada coming off of being at Konami for 3 years. His contributions at Konami include the music for Contra, Rush 'n Attack, and Castlevania. Notice that even Konami's signature pause tone appears in this game.

[@suprememagnetic4850]

Thanks for the upload

[@dwightdixon8508]

Missed this back in the day but found out about in an hidden gem vid a couple years ago and it’s got great visuals, sounds, gameplay and music that you’d think it was developed by the likes of Capcom, Konami or SunSoft it’s that good IMO

[@dundundata7603]

Never seen this one, nice graphics!

[@classicgameplay10]

Those were the days.

[@bryangronstrand8850]

This was an awesome game I wasn't able to beat it.. but it was one of my favorites

[@TheNei]

Nice game! Like Gradius!!

[@azforu29]

Who remembers the commercial for this? The kid covered in slime saying how great and gross Abadox was?

[@thecunninlynguist]

I don't recall ever seeing the marketing push for this, nor reviews or box art. Looks fun yet challenging. But not recca level crazy

[@bigduke5902]

Like 10% of games in the 2D era ever got any kind of advertising.

[@ryanv3858]

Loved this game as a kid. Was hard as hell tho. No idea if I ever beat it, If I did it had to be with cheats. Loved the music too. Takes me back to the early 90s

[@metallsnubben]

That blood covered logo lol

[@Dorian_Scott]

I'm guessing this was released *_slightly before_* Nintendo of America established their ridiculous censorship policies in the '90s. I also recall seeing crosses in "Mappy Land" for NES. And that game was, like... a year or two before this one I want to say?🤔

[@NintendoComplete]

Reminds me of that blood filled swimming pool in Monster Party.

[@KarnovJr]

​@@Dorian_ScottFaxanadu, Dragon Warrior series, Final Fantasy all got religious imagery removed from the Japanese originals which all had crosses and wiccan pentagrams.

[@theusher2893]

​@@NintendoCompleteOr when in Monster Party Mark's freaking FACE MELTED OFF IN THE ENDING?!? Good grief that was a shock as a kid

[@Jexel999]

Love this game it’s kinda like contra and light force mixed

[@RagingRowen]

My only real critique with this is that the bosses are a tad half-baked, normally with notable safe spots. Some are kinda odd too, like how you can only hit one of Stage 1's Main Boss's eyes, how you've only gotta destroy 1 of the 3 Droids which make up Stage 5's Mid Boss, and you've specifically got to destroy the left side of the final boss and not both sides.

[@NintendoComplete]

If you can hang on to the laser and use autofire like the manual recommends, you can kill most of them in just a second or two.

[@jam2007]

Looks like a fun game. 😮

[@darylortiz7636]

Like the old times, nice game it should have a remake, it would be sick.

[@reubenguttenberg7405]

From Milton Bradley and Hasbro gaming since empire strikes back for atari

[@reubenguttenberg7405]

The princess has been captured and it's up to you to rescue her inside the belly of the beast, fight ugly eyeballs, twisted worms, skeleton fish 🐟, guardian ghouls, mutant dogs, and save the planet and the princess from total destruction.

[@NintendoComplete]

Is that the commercial?

[@reubenguttenberg7405]

@@NintendoComplete yes

[@daviddavenport1485]

We need a remake of this

[@williamcrowe2576]

Well, I've heard of surgical strikes, but this is ridiculous!

[@jorgesilva19844]

Superb ost!

[@mistermax3034]

Without the cheat code, brutally difficult game.

[@Vub.]

Can someone PLEASE help me find the old 2004 gamespot Mansoumi videos of him playing this as the hardest game ever and freaking out. I miss it so much

[@VJFranzK]

Looks like Defender Sidearms + Life Force, Sounds Like Contra!

[@leroyvisiongames2294]

The shield balls orbiting around the player definitely remind me of the “Bit” powerup from Side Arms; definitely some inspiration here. Too bad there’s no co-op mode (which many ports of Side Arms itself also seem to leave out)

[@Supperdude9]

>Natsume Wut. My favorite farm maker made this?

[@zakataksbizarreworld1844]

Abadox is awesome

[@j.r.3664]

I wonder how Sydlexia is doing, and I hope he and his family are doing great.

[@adrianhorror]

Which version is harder? Famicom or NES? Did someone play both?

[@digitalworms]

There was some goodie shooters on nes/snes but sega genesis and TurboGrafx had shooters down to a science!

[@bigduke5902]

This is definitely one of those games that gets way, way too much praise simply because it's fans think it's a lesser known hidden gem that's criminally underrated. Not a great game in the least, but it's got a really cool theme.

[@KarnovJr]

Tell me you're bad at this game without telling me your bad at this game.

[@theusher2893]

Or maybe people can enjoy something on the merits of its good aspects alone without having to justify themselves to you.

[@LittleBrother-t6n]

Probably the best shmup on the system.

[@colintitcomb2544]

This game was incredibly fun... an invincibility code was the only way I could beat it, though. Adding to the fun of the invincibility code was that pausing and then unpausing the game got you a full stock of power ups: four shields, missles, the laser, and both "B" powerups which caused the Luitenant to flash pink. Hate the boss music, though... it's far too generic and not scary enough for my tastes.

[@NintendoComplete]

Oh right, I forgot it had that code. It also makes you invincible if you play again after beating it.

[@Palamedes2009]

Stage 6 Part 3 19:18 Recieve Orb perfection.

[@Palamedes2009]

EPIC 19:55

[@xxHUNGRY4THETRUTHxx]

After getting greeted immediately by what seems to be reanimated roadkill and other blood guts n' gore monstrosities which seem to be inspired by John Carpenter's The Thing. What do the horrors that await you for the last lever include? Teddy bears?

[@dr.charlesedwardflorendobr3952]

It has a soundtrack that reminds me of Super C.

[@zeromusura3497]

Natsume should remake this one.

[@cholder649]

I had a best friend,he was my age and mad cool ,but he had a mean older brother I would go to their house and watch his older brother play this game he would never let us play, even when he died he would never give up the controller he would just restart I swore to all gods when I got older I would never be mean to anyone like he was

[@chill9371]

cool 👍

[@Palamedes2009]

Deep castle Benjamin

[@samuelpie5254]

I wanted to play this game in super nintengo but it never made it till this time.

[@MattisCarlgren]

Love it, but i cant beat stage 2 XD

[@MLTPLMGZ2006]

A A up B B down AB Start.

[@Palamedes2009]

It’s a matter

[@RiverwindGames]

You took way too many hits and didnt die, weird. Another TAS player?