Solar Jetman: Hunt for the Golden Warpship

Released in 1990 by Zippo Games (published by Tradewest in NA, Nintendo in Europe), Solar Jetman is a cult cousin to Rare’s earlier Jetpac. It dropped late in the NES lifecycle and slipped past most players — which is a shame, because once the controls click, almost nothing on the system feels quite like it.

The conceit: a Jetman is dispatched in a small Jetpod to scour twelve dangerous planets for the dismembered pieces of a Golden Warpship. Each piece is heavy. Each planet has gravity. Each piece you carry changes how your ship moves. Your ship has no brakes.

Below: the Golden Rule, the per-planet objectives, and (hidden) the techniques that turn a frustrating game into a rewarding one.