Tecmo's Famicom version of Solomon's Key. Create and destroy blocks to navigate tricky puzzles. Timeless concept, difficult to master. A classic of demanding puzzle games.
Your verdict
Category
Puzzle1 player3+
Description
American version of the Solomon's Key puzzle-action game featuring Dana creating flame blocks. Published by Tecmo, released in the USA in 1987. American version of Tecmo's Solomon's Key on NES.
Solomon's Key review
4/5
Art direction
★★★★★
"Striking"
3/5
Music
★★★★★
"Memorable"
1/5
Story
★★★★★
"Anecdotal"
Every room fits in a single screen where everything is functional: blocks created or destroyed by the player, motionless demons, a key and a door to reach. The magician and the creatures are drawn as small, highly contrasted sprites, and the repeated-pattern stone walls leave the geometry of the problem perfectly visible.
The American NES edition of Tecmo's puzzle-action game, released in 1987 a year after the Famicom original. It was this more widely distributed Western version through which Solomon's Key built its reputation among English-speaking players. Common in loose form and reasonably priced, its interest lies mainly in the Tecmo cart and the game's standing as a puzzle-action landmark on the console stateside.
Is Solomon's Key still worth playing in 2026?
A puzzle action from Tecmo, Solomon no Kagi stars the wizard Dana who solves rooms by creating and destroying blocks at will to carve a path, fight monsters and reach the key then the exit. The block creation concept, of remarkable elegance and depth, demands thought and timing in a fearsome difficulty. The impeccable logic makes it a peak of puzzle action. For a demanding retro brain teaser fan, someone curious about a Tecmo classic or a collector, the title keeps an intact intelligence and challenge.
