Sam's Journey (NES)
A downloadable new NES game
Sam's Journey · NES
Are you ready for a brand-new epic NES platform adventure?
About
Sam's Journey is a brand-new original scrolling platform game for your Nintendo Entertainment System. It's about a cute little hero called Sam who finds himself on an unexpected journey in a strange world.
Guide Sam through a variety of different locations such as deep forests, hot deserts or frozen mountains! Find hidden gems and discover secret passages, but beware of the creatures!
Sam can run, jump, climb and swim. He can pick up items, carry them around or throw them at enemies. And with the power of special costumes, Sam completely changes his appearance and gains additional skills!
Features
The game is big and has a lot to offer! Have a look at this comprehensive feature list:
- Classic 8-Bit Platform Action
- Colorful Graphics
- Fast Free-Directional Scrolling
- Many Basic Moves Plus Climbing And Swimming
- 6 Special Costumes With Additional Skills
- 3 Overworld Maps
- 27 Huge Levels With Multiple Sections
- 2000 Screens To Be Explored
- 14 Different Graphical Themes
- 19 Beautiful Tunes
- Sound Effects
- Hidden Items To Be Found
- Secret Passages To Be Discovered
- Speed-Adjusted Versions For NTSC And PAL
- Checkpoint System
- Savegames
Awards & Accolades
Sam's Journey has already received multiple awards! Here's a selection:
"This is as playable as the top NES platformers and deserves a place in your collection." – Retro Gamer UK #252
"The absolute platformer on the C64 is confirmed as a masterpiece on the NES as well." – Zzap! Italy #10/95 (translated)
"It's a really solid platformer with impressive graphics and music, and many secrets. I highly recommend it for SMB3 fans." – @ecmyers on X
"Sam's Journey for NES gave me Kid Chameleon Vibes" – JohnRiggs on Youtube
"Streamed […] Sam's Journey for about two hours last night cause I was having so much fun and lost track of time!" – DonValor on Mastodon
"I genuinely think it's one of the best NES games ever, homebrew or not." – @WhiteHat94 on X
"This game is great, pretty much exactly my jam as far as video game platformers go." – @ecmyersvids on YouTube
"If you like Mario 3, try Sam's Journey!" – solitarytoad on Reddit
"With a vast world to conquer and tons of collectibles to unearth, Sam's Journey is a delightful throwback for any NES explorer seeking a new adventure." – Tyler Werrin on CBR
"I love the soundtrack, it's got a Codemasters vibe to it." – Mike Siddons from RetroStage
Boxed Editions
Do you like a real cartridge, a printed manual, and some additional goodies, all in a fancy box?
Our partner and retro publisher poly.play created some awesome editions of Sam's Journey for the NES!
Get the cool Standard Edition or treat yourself with the even cooler Ultimate Edition! A Famicom Edition is available as well.
Browse Editions And Add-Ons At Poly.Play
Hint: If you buy a boxed edition from poly.play, you'll get the download for free!
The Creators
Sam’s Journey is our very first game production on the NES. We really appreciate your support and hope that you have as much fun playing this game as we had making it! :-)
Chester Kollschen
Code, Design, Additional Graphics, Sound Effects
Stefan Gutsch
Pixel Art, Level Design, Additional Design, Cover Art
Alex Ney
Soundtrack
Purchase
In order to download this new NES game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $18 USD. You will get access to the following files:
Download demo
Development log
- John Riggs plays Sam and gets Kid Chameleon vibes18 days ago
- Sam Reviewed In The New BrewOtaku Magazine87 days ago
- Sam At Gamescom 202491 days ago
- Sam's Journey On The NES Hits 500 Sales!Jul 27, 2024
- Free Demo And Full Game Available On Itch.io!May 03, 2024
- Sam's Journey NES Ultimate Edition Prepared For ShippingMay 03, 2024
- Sam got himself a Sizzler!May 03, 2024
- Update on the Ultimate EditionMay 03, 2024
Comments
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Have you guys thought about maybe doing a native PC port? I'd be down for that!
Additionally other consoles like Playsation, Switch, Xbox.
Ciao, avete portato il grande capolavoro per c64 anche su nes.
Veramente spettacolare
https://youtu.be/mWIHsB0VA3o?si=XaMgDQ8wn_OqM86A
Grazie mille per il tuo bel commento. Mi fa piacere che tu abbia dato una possibilità a Sam anche su NES! 😃
This look absolutely stunning! I love the character so much.
Glad you like it! 😃 Sam is very versatile. He can be the common guy in one moment and a sword-swinging buccaneer in the next...
Six different costumes will completely change his appearance and give him additional skills.
Is there copy protection? I bought it, but what if someone posts the ROM internet?
Thanks for purchasing Sam's Journey! 😃
There's no copy protection as it would only drive up the costs, and people would find a way around it anyway.
We put our money on the majority of loyal fans of retro-gaming who support us by buying our games, posting comments and reviews, and spreading the word.
I'm currently on the third boss, it's challenging and I'm not really enjoying it, so I'm trying to figure out if I should bother beating it. Without spoiling too much, is there substantial content (additional regular levels) after this, or am I at the end of the game anyway?
You have indeed reached the final boss, but we'd say it's still worth to beat it in order to see the game's ending! 😀
Any particular attack that you haven't found a way to handle yet?
I tried both NTSC and PAL versions on OpenEmu using two cores: Nestopia and FCEU. With Nestopia, the sound is a bit distorted with random slowdowns. The PAL version feels a bit smoother in terms of sound, but it's still distorted. However, with FCEU, I didn't get any video output at all with either the PAL or NTSC versions. 😞
Has anyone tested the game in emulators? Or does anyone have a good experience with any emulators they can share?
The NTSC version is working fine for me in Nestopia. It's possible the sound is distored and I haven't noticed because I don't know what it's supposed to sound like—but I'm definitely not getting slowdown (and I think it sounds really good).
I'm also using OpenEmu, but it's a build based on 1.0.4 because I'm weird and run an ancient version of OS X. My Nestopia core is based on Nestopia v1.49 r967.
Yeah, it might be something wrong with my OpenEmu. It's visible on more challenging games as well. Now as I downloaded Nestopia port for macOS from Richard Bannister's website it works just fine. Thanks!
Glad it works! Enjoy the journey! 🙂
In multi-platform emulators, the used cores are often some versions behind their stand-alone versions. You could try a current stand-alone version of nestopia or fceux and see if the problems still persist. Another new emulator worth trying out is Mesen2 which you can get here.
Oh my god that opening theme is a banger! Have yet to really dig into this but very excited to, and extremely pleased you decided to release a digital version. Thanks!
Thanks, glad you like it! 😀 Have an awesome journey then. We think there are quite some NES fans out there who don't have access to the real hardware anymore. In order not to exclude them, a digital version was a matter of course.
The music felt a little crunchy and weird. I couldn't get what it was going for. Otherwise, great game, playing it on my DSi right now! 😀
Thanks, glad you're enjoying it! 😀 Does the game, apart from the music, run smoothly on your DSi?
Well, I tried it out on my DSi(as mentioned before), but the starting image of Sam that's at the top of the page, some tiles couldn't load.