Totally Rad (NES) Playthrough - NintendoComplete

A playthrough of Jaleco's 1991 platformer for the NES, Totally Rad.
Somehow, Totally Rad doesn't stand out for its strangeness against many of Jaleco's other NES offerings. It's a fairly average game, but the strong control mechanics put it well above much of the platforming dreck on the NES.
Totally Rad (or "Magic John", in Japan) was developed by Aicom, the company that also handled the development of Jaleco's 1990 release Astyanax, and though the two aren't directly related, it's easy to see where much of the groundwork for Totally Rad was first laid.
Totally Rad stars a kid - a rad one - who speaks looks and speaks like Keanu Reeves in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure. He is learning magic from a creepy floating wizard head named Zebediah, and as they're doing their thing, someone swoops in and kidnaps Jake's valley-girl girlfriend. Jake goes after her after she informs him that "they're like stealing me or something."
At first glance Totally Rad looks like any run-of-the-mill platformer, but there's a fair amount more to it that running to the right and jumping. Jake has access to four different forms that he can switch between at any time (providing he has enough magic to do so), and they each provide some sort of advantage. The fish can throw ninja stars and swim, the bird can fly and chuck boomerangs, the tiger can do power swipes with his claws, and as himself, Jake gets access to a chargeable fire shot that looks an awful lot like Mega Man's buster arm, as well as a few magic spells that can do things like temporarily freeze enemies or refill his life gauge.
The gameplay is straightforward and fairly smooth (even if some NES-style chugging and slowdown does show up at times), and I personally found it to be a lot of fun. There are a number of ways to go through the game based on which forms and abilities you use, but there are "ideal" choices in many situations. If you find that the game is unforgivingly difficult, mess around with your different forms - you'll probably find something that makes life a bit easier. The mini-bosses are quite difficult, and many of them require a lot of attention be paid to their attack patterns. The end-of-level bosses, however, tend to be extremely easy, which is bit disappointing considering how cool their designs are.
The graphics look great, here. It looks like a late-game NES release thanks to its impressive use of parallax, color, and the earlier mentioned boss battles. The whole story is also told in cinematic cutscenes like those found in Astyanax, and Totally Rad's cringe-inducing humor is actually pretty funny. This is not Ninja Gaiden by any means, but it does do a nice job of providing some sort of rationale for the action. The audio was a bit weak though - most of the music isn't terribly memorable, and some of it verges on super annoying thanks to the drums - are they using a square wave as toms? Whatever it is, I find it a bit grating.
Overall, Totally Rad is a quirky bit of solid NES gaming that embraces the ridiculousness of its era, and because of that, it's pretty endearing. Or dare I say... it's totally rad.
(This is a new playthrough to replace my original, ancient 240p video of the game. The video quality, and my playing, are much improved in this one.)
_
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!

[@CowboyJoseph64]

jake, they're like stealing me or something.

[@pixelgoat7317]

Hahaha, I just remembered Danny from Game Grumps saying this line lmao 🤣

[@Avrelivs_Gold]

beavis and butthead type of dialogue

[@reloadpsi]

I still use this line. It's hard to find uses for it, but it's so satisfying when I do.

[@drakewoody2506]

I will never forget the crazy ass bosses in this game. Definitely unique

[@Avrelivs_Gold]

like, totally rad, dude

[@NintendoComplete]

Are you a rad enough dude to save your girlfriend? Totally Rad is totally rad. It's also totally dated, but that just makes it all the more fun.

[@Invidente7]

The original dialogue was as generic as they come so they did it a favor

[@Idkwhatiam]

1:19

[@largadeugnt]

You're totally right, friend! haha

[@SamFlador]

I used to get drunk as shit and enjoy the hell out of this game lol

[@SirBuzz]

The game composer was definitely watching Police Academy when they came up with the cut scene music.😂😂😂

[@thomasdepalma2534]

I heard this game was supposed to have the best salad bar in town.

[@KAISER-OUTDOORS]

The Blue Oyster bar 😂

[@lucywillis4535]

Defy anyone not to play level 2 without signing "polkadot, zebra, afro"....

[@4dthinking432]

I'm, like, so glad I found this. It's, like, the gnarliest walk through ever. Like, Totally radical.

[@nanakojo]

ONe of my favourite games when I was a kid. Was very happy when I completed it

[@juiceala]

13:22 “Jake, I kinda want my dad back or something” “Hey, how about I save him or whatever?” “That would be like swell and stuff!” “Yeah, totally bodacious!”

[@Avrelivs_Gold]

"We're there, dood"

[@SevenLivesGaming]

This brings back so many childhood memories

[@MrCodeerror]

I know this was also known as magic Jon but this was one of the very first few Nintendo games I played back in the early 90’s along with spr Mario bros/duck hunt, Batman, smash tv, probotector aka contra, the legend of zelda, astyanax, double dragon 1,2&3, shadowgate, wizards & warriors III, Jackie chan, ninja turtles 1 & 2 and a few more that I could name

[@largadeugnt]

This game is an absolute blaster. Impressive sound and graphics still amazes me in the present days.

[@Xanifur]

As a kid I never got past the 2nd level, probably because I didn't care, or someone interrupted me.

[@geardog24]

Can't tell if the people who Americanized the dialogue of this game really loved or hated the 90's.

[@NintendoComplete]

I feel like it's more an echo of the 80s than it is the 90s. Especially since the game was originally released in 1990. But awesome either way. Both were super tacky and loaded with neon :D

[@YukaTakeuchiFan]

Jaleco USA had kind of a weird sense of humor about their work. I want to say I heard somewhere that the Japanese branch wasn't particularly forthcoming with advice or help regarding localization (remember that this was in an era where it'd be about three years before Squaresoft hit upon the novel idea of having a single guy localize entire JRPGs within one-month time limits, so I can entirely buy this as true), and it seems like the American branch just did their best with what they had, and had some fun with localizing a simple, silly little platformer.

[@BhChicagoTVStationhistoriesand]

I was lucky enough to be able to play through either all or part of pretty much every one of the ~700 US NES games, all thanks to the mom n pop video store our town had. I saw the name and knew I remembered playing the game. Sure enough I was right. It’s been MANY years since I’ve seen any of it. I played it when it originally came out. I got to know the owner of the video store, normally he’d put out new releases to the public on Fridays but a vast majority of the shipments came in a few weeks before the games got put out. Though it took time to get the games in their system and put out, he’d call me every Tuesday to tell me which ones came in that week’s shipment so I got to play a lot of the games a few weeks before everyone else. The owner was a really nice guy who I don’t know if he’s still alive or not. Was a great store that I still miss!

[@Mike_Hawk_Is_Huge999]

I've only watched the game grumps playthrough of this, and I was NOT expecting Jake to turn into a fish-man at 3:07. This truly is poor-mans Mega-man

[@rachelwindsor850]

The visuals of this game are downright pretty. I'm convinced you could even pass this off as a "modern retro" game, with how good it looks. Too bad the pretty graphics come at a price though; that frame-rate is chugging pretty badly at times.

[@maximustitan8171]

First level parallax scrolling heaven.

[@umop3plsdn]

it took me FOREVERRRRRRRRR to find this game. I used to play this all the time but couldn't remember the name for some reason. I had to go through every game ever made to find it.

[@bieeoemar4468]

Miss my chillhood 😭

[@DerivativeWorker]

1) I've seen the title screen of this game used as a meme. 2) I could swear Evan Dorking wrote this.

[@susanfit47]

Finally, a game that speaks your language!

[@dosfaya]

Cadê os BR que curtiu essa porra? 🇧🇷 Nostalgia!!!

[@adilsongosvener8716]

BR presente haha

[@largadeugnt]

TMJ mano. Só os tiozão que curtiu de verdade hahaha

[@marcem.r6676]

El mejor juego de la historia

[@octoman511]

ahhhh good ol 90's..... the tude era

[@alxxz]

No Wait! This game seems to surpass the NES' base color palette of 16 colors on screen! What kind of sorcery is this?!

[@andreasgoksyr8214]

wow totally radical

[@louiskeiflin5858]

Pretty neat title for a game!

[@mariusamber3237]

Well, at least this localization stands out somewhat. I believe the script in the Japanese version (Magic John, I think?) was as bland as they come. :p

[@NintendoComplete]

Yeah, it reminds me of Yo! Noid in that way.

[@79HBFerr]

The predecessor of Ben 10.

[@ipetris86]

Yeah,the original ben 10 😎

[@lukethedrifter3363]

That one boss has an eyeball for an asshole. A real brown eye so to speak.

[@rogerios1018]

marcou minha infaçia >>> achei de novo estou acompanhando >> obrigado>

[@Madness832]

Once had a NES, but I've never heard of this one (don't even think Blockbuster had it). But Jake is like a "magician's apprentice," until someone/thing steals his girlfriend, then suddenly, he's this bad-ass wizard?

[@mariusamber3237]

That's probably 'cause this translation was a joke, in part. www.carbon-izer.com/mirror/rad/index.htm - lots of interesting facts regarding this localization here. In short, they localizers figured that the original script was really bland (which it was), so they went for the 'totally rad' style with this game. If nothing else, the western version at least stands out somewhat from the crowd, lol.

[@RoyStantz]

NC17 was such a pillock to hate this game.

[@rand64444]

You are doing God's work

[@FranciscoRodriguez-lp6zg]

I used to own this game back in '91. It totally sucked!

[@Avrelivs_Gold]

Yes! It was such a disappointment. Magic John made much more sense.

[@JacobTremblayAndTheMultiverse]

nasaan si Jacob Tremblay

[@ali6ism]

Because of the box art i always thought this game was a ninja turtle knock off because i never bothered playing it. Now i see its a mega man knock off instead

[@garretttolbert7685]

Dude please make this game on Xbox or something.... I loved this game back when it came out... unfortunately I don’t think I made it past 3rd level

[@0DRONZER]

i can't find the rom of this game online

[@Chef_Alpo]

Try "Magic John", the Japanese vers

[@Memelord2020]

Game Grumps sent me here

[@ДмитрийМаксимов-г9т]

Нормуль 8 бит музон из 90х)))

[@steveairport]

"His name was like, Mr. Pong, but I told him that it wasn't Totally Rad enough and his new name was Zebediah. He seemed pretty mellow about it."

[@hootyhaha]

This games is so expensive on Ebay. Allow me to get nerdy .. wish I could go back in time and buy this one, Rad Gravity, and that Restaurant one I can't think of the name of right now. 2 of each, one for me and one to sell on ebay :) Use it towards my kids college tuition.

[@YukaTakeuchiFan]

Oh man, you have no idea how much I wish I'd seen the giant price leaps in retro gaming coming. My SNES broke about 5-10 years too early... and I thought back THEN that I was makin' some bank by selling my fully-boxed, w/strategy guide copy of Earthbound for THIRTY BUCKS. WHAT. COULD. HAVE. BEEN.

[@SamFlador]

So I just realized this is just Magic Man instead of Mega Man - and thats fine

[@jellybryce7742]

great old school soundtrack.

[@90s-Trance_86]

A nice NES game. Pretty hard though

[@ladgrove]

What a game. One of my favourites. Still have the original box. Was very challenging, but had cool music. Your gameplay is next level. Probably the hardest thing about this game was that using the powerup that gave you half or full health required you to switch back to human form first, which made it very tricky when playing on the console. Thanks for the upload mate.

[@CaptmagiKono]

It's like they had 3-4 different artists doing the sprites in this game.

[@the-NightStar]

Or it's like they replaced Anime artwork with generic 90's US magazine advertisement models. Oh wait, that's kinda what they actually DID do. (look up "Magic John")

[@CaptmagiKono]

@@the-NightStar Oh wow, that is weird as hell. Seeing both, Magic John looks a lot better graphically, since it actually has a more cohesive style going on for the whole game. It makes me think the people porting "Totally Rad" got lazy, there are so many things they could have changed, like the creepy magician, his face does not fit AT ALL with the 90s style they were going for.

[@mariusamber3237]

​@@CaptmagiKono www.carbon-izer.com/mirror/rad/index.htm - check this out. It explains why they went for this weird artstyle. If nothing else, the western version at least stands out more, haha. I agree that it's really disjointed though, just like the localization itself.

[@SylphidUndine]

"You've been a totally decent apprentice" missed opportunity to call him "totally rad apprentice" the game should have just been called Totally Decent.

[@reloadpsi]

I didn't find a single comment about Kid Radd. That makes me Big Sadd.

[@bluescat581]

Zebadiah look oddly modern-looking for a 1991 NES game

[@Avrelivs_Gold]

after games like batman and ninja gaiden, this was quite a letdown for me but for megaman fans it's decent

[@puzzlejinx]

It's Mega Man but you already start with powers

[@cyborgtwins9710]

The intro music is a little similar to Chocolat's Brasilia Carnaval

[@SA77888]

Kinda reminds me of a more difficult version of Little Samson

[@knucaccino]

Came here from the cover art, ended with Megaman.

[@pixelgoat7317]

(Remembers Game Grumps playing this) "Oh no, we're too late doctor....he's gone...TOTALLY RAAAAAAD!"

[@allissonfisico]

This is my childhood when I used to rent this game and then discovered that it wasnt able to play in my NES because the cartridige was pirate.

[@thecolorforbidden9015]

I have been looking for this game for 20 years. I thought I'd go to my fiery grave not knowing what it was called. Holy smokes.

[@susanfit47]

The title screen bears a 1991 copyright on the title screen, while the back of box has a 1990 copyright.

[@Toadallythebest]

BR?

[@callieohpeee9068]

Mudo Channel BR.