J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings: Volume One

Story

The player starts the game as Frodo Baggins and gradually takes over the other members of the Fellowship: Samwise Gamdschie, Peregrin Tuk, Meriadoc Brandybuck, Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli and Gandalf (Boromir, strangely, only makes a single brief appearance). With additional controllers and the Super Multitap, the game could be played with more than four players. Players could play as Frodo, Samwise, Pippin, Merry, Gimli and Aragorn. Using cheats or an emulator, players could also play as Legolas or Gandalf, who did not fight and supported up to 8 players (although Legolas cannot do anything other than move and take damage). All characters not controlled by the players are controlled by the computer AI. The game progresses through a series of "fetch quests" where the player must explore large environments to find items that are important to the game's story. These items are often simple trinkets that have been misplaced by the game's non-player characters (NPCs). Similar to the book, the game begins in the Shire, the land of the hobbits. The plot of the game takes the player to various locations from the book, such as the village of Bree, the elven city of Rivendell and the Mines of Moria. Unlike in the book, however, the finale of the game is the battle between the Fellowship and the Balrog creature in the Mines of Moria (the first volume of the book ends much later). If a character dies, the death is permanent and the player cannot use it for the rest of the game. The sequel, The Lord of the Rings: Volume II, was supposed to pick up where Part I left off, but due to poor sales, a sequel was never released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System.