Play Karnov Online
Play as a fire-breathing Russian strongman hunting treasure in this quirky NES side-scroller. Grab power-ups, jump boots, and weird gear like wings or scuba helmets.
Karnov came out on the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1987, developed by Data East. It was one of those games that felt a little different from the usual platformers of the time, with a strange protagonist and a mix of action and exploration that stood out in the NES library.
You control a former circus strongman named Karnov, who breathes fire and hunts for treasure across nine stages. Your main goal is to find a magical artifact called the Mirror of Fate, which involves navigating side-scrolling levels filled with enemies and traps. You collect various power-ups, like jump boots for higher leaps or a scuba helmet for underwater sections, and you use your fire breath as your primary weapon. The game progresses screen by screen, and the difficulty is pretty unforgiving, with limited continues and tricky enemy placements. Playing it feels like a constant, deliberate push through a world that is both absurd and punishing.
Download Karnov ROM
You can download this ROM to play Karnov offline using an Nintendo (NES) emulator (Top Emulators).
*This ROM is provided for backup and educational purposes only.
