Action RPG's #3

StarTropics (1990)
By: Nintendo R&D3 Genre: Action RPG Players: 1 Difficulty: Medium
Featured Version: Nintendo NES
Also Available For: Nothing

This game is unusual in that it was an NES game made by Nintendo themselves but only released in the US and Europe, with poor Japanese players having to do without. This has probably happened with certain types of sports games or tie-ins to things only popular in the west but this was an action RPG - a genre more popular in Japan than maybe any other! It's also, oddly, a game I never heard about in its day from magazines or other gamers, only learning of it later from collectors. It has, however, intrigued me since then, mainly due to its name and the images it conjured in my head - something to do with spacey, sun-bathed alien worlds overflowing with lush vegetation and glowing sands, punctuated by curious creatures and hiding some sort of magical adventure. The other day I was oafing around in my garden and decided it was time to see what the actual game was like, and if it bore any relation to the version I have been having visions of for many moons. Join me as I venture forth, into the mysterious tropics...

NES Shmups #6

Over Horizon (1991)
By: Hot B Genre: Shooting Players: 1 Difficulty: Medium
Featured Version: Nintendo NES First Day Score: 322,860
Also Available For: Nothing

I used to greatly enjoy reading the multi-format games magazines back in the 80s and early 90s and getting a taste of what delights were available to lucky owners of systems I did not own. Sometimes it could be frustrating, admittedly, and other times it gave me ammo for mocking said owners, but now and then, seemingly unremarkable games from these pages would get stuck in my head forever. Many of them were NES examples since I never owned it in its day, nor knew anyone who did (it wasn't popular here in the UK for some reason), and one such game that has been making its presence well known in my brain lately is Over Horizon which I have oddly-specific memories of seeing in the mighty Mean Machines magazine. As I recall, it received only a mediocre reception from Jaz and the gang, but, as sacrilegious as this may sound, I've become aware increasingly in my advancing years of just how often their opinions did not necessarily correspond with mine. Let's see if this is another example of that!

Random Game I've Never Heard Of #15

Banana (1986)
By: Victor Musical Industries Genre: Puzzle Players: 1 Difficulty: Medium
Featured Version: Nintendo NES First Day Score: 2,170 (yes, I'm crap at puzzle games)
Also Available For: Nothing

Selecting the next game to review for this series of posts isn't usually a very complicated matter - just look at lists and see if any names stand out! For some reason, I've always enjoyed games that feature fruits and vegetables. They usually take the form of collectibles for bonus points but here was a game that was actually named after a fruit! The reason for this is unclear but it made it stand out to me in any case. A quick perusal revealed that it was a pretty early release for Nintendo's sprightly Famicom and never made it out of Japan for some reason, which goes some way to explaining why I hadn't heard of it. I also soon learned that it was a puzzle game starring a nameless mole, who for review purposes we'll call Gronk, and it's his job to rescue a nameless female mole, who we'll call Fleeple. She must be a bit of an airhead too, as she apparently gets re-kidnapped (or lost, or whatever is going on) prior to every single stage of the game! C'mon Gronk, sooner or later you've just got to accept that anyone who takes such bad care of themselves perhaps doesn't deserve to get repeatedly rescued.

Cover Art Face-Off #2

Oh hey, what's going down? If you've visited this ridiculous page recently you might recall a post I made featuring the various famous Sega IPs that, for one odd reason or another, appeared on their own console's rival, the NES. They were mostly of reasonable quality, though of course inferior to the versions found on the mighty Master System, but it was interesting to take a look at them. While on the subject, however, I also looked into the cover artwork for the NES releases since they were unlikely to be using the MS's white grid covers, and indeed they were not. So I figured I might as well make a follow-up post about those too! Therefore, behold:

After Burner (1987/89)

This was one of the first ever games I had in my possession and therefore one of the first game covers to dwell on my shelf so it holds some nostalgic value for me, but let's face it - it looks like something a low-level factory worker doodled in his/her lunch break! The NES offering was for the US market and features a much more impressive-looking F-14 fighter front and centre. I'm not sufficiently knowledgeable about US military hardware to know how accurate it is, but it sure looks cool here, especially surrounded by tracer fire and explosions. It even has the title in its correct font! Though it pains me slightly to say it, there can only be one winner here...

NES Shmups #5

Burai Fighter (1990)
By: KID / Taxan Genre: Shooting Players: 1 Difficulty: Hard
Featured Version: Nintendo NES First Day Score: 121,120
Also Available For: Game Boy

There are an absolute ton of NES games that I've heard of but know bugger all about. This is due to a combination of buying multi-format games mags back in the day such as Mean Machines, and not having an NES and therefore paying little attention to reviews of said games. One of them, you may be shocked to hear, is Burai Fighter. I've known of the name for over 30 years but I wasn't even sure what genre it was until my interest in it was recently piqued by its soundtrack - its most derided aspect, I've subsequently discovered (not sure why though). It turned out to be a (mostly) horizontal shooter in the same vein of Side Arms and Forgotten Worlds, and that's no bad thing since both are at least decent games. It's also a game that, much like the recently-reviewed Dragon Ninja, is named after its bad guys rather than the hero. Indeed, the Burai are apparently a 'race of super-brains' who, for thousands of years, have used their intellectual gifts to conquer the universe. Can't accuse them of lacking ambition, I guess!

Top Five Sega NES Games

Back in the 8-bit days I think most would agree that Sega suffered a little when it came to challenging Nintendo's dominance in the console world. Sure, the Master System was popular here in the UK, in Brazil and a few other places, but in most places, including the two most important, the NES/Famicom was king.

Part of the reason for this was the sheer number of titles available for Nintendo's machine owing to extremely strong third-party support. This was an area the Master System greatly lacked in. In fact, I often remember thinking back then that Sega were lucky they had their own arcade games to port over as well as numerous other IPs and in-house games or the MS might not even have any games for it!

It therefore came as something of a surprise when I found out that some of Sega's games did appear on the NES/Famicom. That didn't make much sense to me but I guess Sega must have had their reasons. I've never played any of them though, and upon recently realising this, I was ultra-intrigued as to what they were like. How did they compare to the Master System versions? Let's find out, shall we?

5. Space Harrier by Takara (1988) - Japan Only

I've always enjoyed this landmark title in the arcades whenever I've been lucky enough to find it but I've never really spent too much time with it at home. I have played the MS version though, and know that it's pretty good. In fact, I think the only thing I don't really like about it is that it uses background tiles for the sprites which makes the graphics look a bit whiffy now and then. As would turn out to be the case with most games in this feature, this NES port has smaller sprites and slightly washed out colours, and slightly worse (though certainly recognisable) audio, but is for the most part pretty similar. It's not an easy one to call actually. Neither version is particularly fast and both are about as smooth as you could hope for, all things considered, so I suppose it's more about which visual style you prefer - big sprites and bright colours but that distracting tiling effect, or... well, as I said, smaller sprites, duller colours, etc. To be honest, I've enjoyed both versions so if I had to choose, I would say the MS, but that's only out of loyalty. And the fact that the NES apparently can't do the "Aaaahh!! Get ready!"

Game News - Most Expensive Game Ever!

As any of us who try to collect retro games these days must already know very well, prices have been steadily increasing for years to the point where now it's just not realistic to covet certain titles, with more joining that number daily. I always wanted to collect all the decent PC Engine games, for example (or at least the ones that can be played by non-Japanese-speakers), but many of those now go for three-figures. Bah! Things are obviously much worse for anyone that collects factory-sealed games too, as this news that found its way to me today proves.

Indeed, for during a public auction of vintage comics and original comic art held by Heritage Auctions in Texas on July 10th, a copy of the original Super Mario Bros for the American NES went under the hammer. This was not, however, a normal version of what is, let's face it, one of the most common games in the world. This copy was in fact complete with its original factory seal and hangtab - something which made it the highest graded (9.4) copy ever sold and which also, unsurprisingly, increased its value significantly. The result was a final sale price of..... $114,000!! This eye-watering figure quite comfortably makes it the most expensive video game ever sold at public auction!

Quite what the buyer (who wishes to remain anonymous) plans to do with the game is therefore anybody's guess but I suppose its most likely fate is to sit on a shelf or in a drawer (or safe!) gathering dust, but let's hope it at least has an interesting view. I suppose this huge price shouldn't be all that surprising though - as they get older it's inevitable that some copies of games will earn higher and higher prices, so we can probably expect this new record to be broken again in the not-too-distant future.
 

NES / Famicom A-Z

The mighty NES conquered all in its native Japan and the US and is understandably beloved by many. With a library of well over 1,000 games over all territories, it will take a huge effort on my part to feature them all here, but I'll give it a go, and since I never had an NES growing up, I'll be playing many of them for the first time. Up next, not counting text-heavy Japanese language games of course, is:

C is for...

Cabal by TAD Corporation / Rare (1990)

This military-themed single-screen 3D shooter was quite innovative for its day, and Rare did a good job with this conversion considering how little support they had, but it has never been a particularly appealing one to play, or even look at. Fans of the arcade original will probably find much to enjoy here though.

First Look NES #3

Kira Kira Star Night by Riki (2013) - Famicom/PC

Although the NES/Famicom serves as inspiration for many indie games these days, it doesn't seem to get too much in the way of homebrew releases itself. This one caught my eye a while back though, due to its dazzling graphics and pleasing accompanying artwork. That isn't enormously surprising upon learning its creator, Riki, is a manga artist! Indeed, his talent in that field serves to make KKSN a visual treat filled with neon backgrounds and sharp sprites. Well, I say 'sprites' as in plural but there's only one really - the main character, a young girl known as Fami-chan. Further investigations reveal a game of early 80's simplicity which tasks you, as Fami-chan, with collecting as many stars as possible. These drop from the top of the screen or zip into view from the sides and you simply have to run/jump around the totally flat auto-scrolling stages collecting as many of them as you can.

NES Platform Games #7

Kid Kool a.k.a. Kakefu Kimi no Jump Tengoku (1991)
By: Vic Tokai Genre: Platform Players: 1 Difficulty: Medium
Featured Version: Nintendo NES
Also Available For: Nothing

The mighty and wonderful Psycho Fox has been among my favourite platformers (and therefore my favourite games) since the Elder Days, and has spent many moons in my Master System's 'slot' (tee hee!). Back then I always thought it was an actual Sega game - it wasn't until several years later that I discovered the marvellously named (and also very excellent) MegaDrive platformer, Magical Flying Hat Turbo Adventure was made by the same team at Vic Tokai, a Japanese developer who made games for many formats of their day. One of them has only just come to my attention, owing mainly to the Nintendo allergy that ailed me in the NES era, and it has turned out to be what basically amounts to a semi-prequel or practice run for Psycho Fox itself. This means - hooray! It was released only a year earlier and, as other fans of the stonking Master System game will quickly see, there are many similarities.

Puzzle Games #21

Binary Land (1985)
By: Hudson Soft Genre: Puzzle / Maze Players: 1Difficulty: Medium
Featured Version: Nintendo NES First Day Score: 153,400
Also Available For: MSX, Fujitsu FM-7, NEC PC-6001, NEC PC-8801

I don't get game-related gifts for Christmas that often but this year my wife bought me a cool little clone handheld thingy. It looks like a PSP but is actually filled with NES games along with an emulator, and the first one I've spent much time with is Binary Land, an early Hudson Soft puzzle/action game which tasks you with reuniting two penguin lovers. This is done over a series of single-screen stages, each formed from a grid of 15x10 blocks and viewed from overhead, in which both penguins - Gurin (male) and Malon (female) - are dropped in separate locations. Your job is to bring them together at their special meeting point - a heart at the top of each stage which grows cold and diseased in a harsh metal cage until their combined splendour liberates it. The twist is, in an unusual and initially-confusing move, you control both of the stumbling flappers simultaneously, with the movements of one mirroring those of the other!

Puzzle Games #20

Kero Kero Keroppi no Daibouken (1991)
By: Character Soft Genre: Puzzle Players: 1 Difficulty: Medium
Featured Version: Nintendo NES First Day Score: 14,400
Also Available For: Nothing

There are several members of the animal kingdom whose presence in a game is usually a good sign of its quality. Everyone knows if a game stars a monkey or a penguin, it's likely to be good, for example, and frogs have a pretty good track-record so far too. I was therefore keen to check out this game after seeing its smiling amphibious star beaming out from its cover, who is, I believe, named Keroppi. It's hard to be totally sure as the game was perhaps unsurprisingly a Japanese exclusive, but he shall henceforth be referred to accordingly anyway. After muddling through a couple of options screens (which allow you to choose one or two players, and whether to start a new game or enter a code), it quickly becomes clear that his game is not only a puzzle-based one but also aimed at younger players too. As Keroppi (probably), it's your job to rescue what appears to be a female frog named Keroleen (so identified by her large eyelashes and what look like pigtails) who has become 'trapped in the castle'.

Top Five NES Arcade Adventures

My classification of some game genres has not always been shared by other gamers but I've always been keen on a one that's often known as 'Arcade Adventures'. I generally consider these to be kind of like watered-down action RPGs - faster paced with more arcadey gameplay but retaining some RPG-ish qualities like the collection of equipment, puzzley elements, back-tracking to access new areas, etc. They can be platform-based, overhead, isometric, or a combination of some or all of these, as long as they possess the aforementioned qualities.

And that brings me to the last NES Top Five I posted here (which was a somewhat startling 9 months ago now - has it really been that long?). After getting a little grief for leaving some games in particular out of my 'Top Five NES Platform Games' list, I decided it would be a good idea to make another list to which they would be better suited. Deciding which to include was nearly as tough as deciding which ones were even eligible (the distinction between genres gets mighty blurry sometimes), and I suspect it may also be derided to some degree, but here are my choices:

Games-Related Top Fives Disclaimer: I've traditionally stuck to the games I know and love so far, and these game-related top fives reflect that. One of the purposes of this blog is diversify my gaming experiences, to play games I haven't played before, so I will do new game-related top fives in a few years to see how different they are!

5. Gargoyle's Quest II (1992)

This game may actually be unique in that it's an NES-only sequel to a Game Boy-only original! That game cast you as Firebrand, the idiotic red demon thing from Ghosts 'n' Goblins, who was given the job of traversing a series of challenging platformy stages linked by an Zelda-style overworld with lots of towns and random battles. And this sequel is exactly the same! Well, more or less. It's actually a prequel, technically, with the story taking place during Firebrand's formative years, but the format of the game is very familiar. Which is a good thing I guess - the original was an enjoyable adventure after all, and so is this, but with the added bonus of colour graphics! They're quite pretty as well, and include a decent variety of landscapes as well as some nice ghoulish sprites, and the music isn't bad either. The stages feature perhaps more hazards than any other game I've played - it's often hard to find a spot that isn't covered with spikes or fire or something! Firebrand's floaty ability makes things much easier though, and it's a satisfying, enjoyable, and even reasonably fair game to play through. Not the most loved game here but it deserves your time.

Bat 'n' Ball Games #11

Thunder and Lightning (1990)
By: Visco / Romstar Genre: Bat 'n' Ball Players: 1 Difficulty: Hard
Featured Version: Nintendo NES First Day Score: Missed It (not displayed while playing)
Also Available For: Arcade

You would think after the immense success of Arkanoid that many of the clones that followed would also meet with some degree of fame and fortune too, especially if they were any good, but this release by Visco went largely unnoticed. This is even stranger when you realise it first appeared in arcades - the birthplace of most popular games of the day, and was also ported to the NES - the most popular console of the time. Perhaps it stank of poop? Many clones were tremendously generic and highly uninspiring to play after all. After just a few minutes playing Thunder and Lightning, though, that definitely didn't seem to be the case here. Impressions of Romstar's NES conversion were initially very positive - it's bright and colourful, the presentation is nice, and my time spent with it was enjoyable, but I couldn't shake the feeling that it was going to suddenly start sucking hard and I would then come to understand the reason for its apparent anonymity.

Top Five NES Platform Games

In the early days of Red Parsley I was excitedly rustling up these lists left right and centre with the intention of making revised lists after a few years once I had played more games of the appropriate type. Sensible enough, I thought, as the lists provoke discussion and also motivate me to find and play more games I've not found time for before. This particular list, however, is one I've long been a little wary of. The NES is known as a platforming powerhouse (amongst other things) after all.

This is mainly thanks to a certain moustached plumber, of course, but, as I've found while 'researching' this list, he doesn't really have a huge amount of competition. I expected to be inundated with dozens of quality examples; I thought it would be really tough to narrow the list down to five; but it hasn't actually been very tough at all. It's true that I tend to disregard certain titles - Metroid and the Castlevania games, for example, which I class more as 'arcade adventures' than platformers, and stuff like Contra are more run 'n' gunners, as are the Mega Man games, some might say, but I'm afraid I found them far too annoying to include anyway.

I played numerous other examples, too, and wasn't overly enamoured by many of them, quite honestly, but I did eventually find five examples I liked and settled on the list below. Maybe there are still some hidden gems out there, though, lying in dark, dusty corners known only to the handful of fans that have stumbled upon them, so I'm still sticking to that disclaimer for the time being!

Games-Related Top Fives Disclaimer: I've traditionally stuck to the games I know and love so far, and these game-related top fives reflect that. One of the purposes of this blog is diversify my gaming experiences, to play games I haven't played before, so I will do new game-related top fives in a few years to see how different they are!

5. Kid Icarus (1986)

The oldest of the games on the list and long known as an NES classic, Kid Icarus is a game I first played a few years ago during an 'Exploring' post here at RP. Revisiting it for this post confirms my opinion of it too - it's good but very tough! It consists of three worlds known as Underworld, Surface World, and Sky World, each of which is divided into three side-viewed stages, some of which scroll vertically and others horizontally. It's definitely not among the flashiest games on the system but the graphics are quite appealing, the music is great (if a tad repetitive), and the action is very addictive. It's renowned as a highly frustrating game and it is rather unforgiving but it's also one of those games where the second you die you're immediately convinced you can do better next time, and it's often the case too. I'm not sure it's the kind of game I'll ever be able to breeze through in an hour but it is the kind that I'll keep trying.

First Look NES #2

Lot Lot by Irem / Tokuma Shoten (1985) - NES

I've been playing video games for a long time now and I'd like to think I've got a pretty good general understanding of them, so it's not often I play a game that baffles me beyond recourse. When I gave Irem's puzzler here a try, however, I was and remain stumped. The object is to guide the many pellets from the top of the screen down to one of the 'scoring pits' at the bottom of the screen by moving them from cell to cell, making sure to avoid the evil orange crab in the process who is eager to grab as many pellets as he can. This is done by using two arrows. One is under your control, the other mimics its actions with a four-second delay. The only trouble is, I've been unable to find any kind of connection between what I do with the arrows and how the pellets move. This has proven mighty frustrating to say the least! I've watched clips of the game being played and looked for instructions online but all of them make it seem as though it should be obvious how to play. Can someone explain to me how in the blue blazes this game is played? Unless I'm just too stupid to learn, obviously... :(

RKS Score: N/A
 

NES Platform Games #6

Yume Penguin Monogatari (1991)
By: Konami Genre: Platform / Shooting Players: 1 Difficulty: Medium
Featured Version: Nintendo NES
Also Available For: Nothing

Penka turns her back on her bulky beau...

There are several kinds of animals that are always welcome in video games. One obvious example is monkeys but I've come to realise in recent years that another one is penguins. I can't personally recall a single bad game starring a penguin so I had high hopes for this odd example which was released only in Japan by Konami. Accordingly it features their usual flapper known as Penta (of Antarctic Adventure amongst others) who it seems has let himself go somewhat since his earlier exploits. Indeed, the once-athletic penguin is now a portly waddling behemoth whose beloved girlfriend, Penka, has just dumped him for evil top hat-wearing rival, Ginji. Our hero doesn't take his misfortune lying down though, and quickly resolves to get back into shape and win Penka back. This involves collecting as much 'Fat-B-Gone' as possible which Ginji and his 'gang' have stashed across the six stages that now lie between Penta and Penka. And so begins the 'Story of the Dream Penguin'.

NES Shmups #4

Gun-Nac (1990)
By: Compile Genre: Shooting Players: 1 Difficulty: Easy-Medium
Featured Version: Nintendo NES First Day Score: 1,512,690
Also Available For: Nothing

Our talent for gradually destroying our own planet is quite remarkable and, if this vertical-scroller from Compile is anything to go by, we won't be learning our lesson any time soon. The splendidly-named Gun-Nac, you see, is set in the 'distant future' by which time we have irreparably shagged up our planet by consuming all of its resources. Much like Agent Smith says, our only way to survive is to 'spread' to a new place, in this case artificial solar systems called 'IOTA Synthetica'. Even these are now in danger, however, from a mysterious wave of destructive cosmic radiation sweeping through the area. The Galactic Federation therefore apparently has little choice but to send the brave Commander Gun-Nac, son of the Legendary Xan, to investigate the cause of the radiation and wipe it out. It doesn't take long, however, before he discovers that this floopy energy flooding the galaxy has actually 'caused ordinary inanimate objects to spring to life and attack the solar systems residents'. Eeek!

NES Platform Games #5

Spelunker (1985)
By: MicroGraphic Image / Broderbund Genre: Platform Players: 1 Difficulty: Hard
Featured Version: Nintendo NES First Day Score: 48,410
Also Available For: Arcade, Atari 8-bit, Commodore 64, MSX
Download For: Wii Virtual Console

Games with funny names always appeal to me but what about the ones that aren't so pleasant? Well, I suppose the opposite must be true. Take this early NES game, for example. I've known of it for many years but I only recently realised I had made no effort whatsoever in finding out anything about it. I can only attribute this to its highly off-putting name which I had long assumed was created specially for the game. It turns out, however, that it's actually a real term used to describe 'people who explore caves' and, while understandably that may disappoint said people, it should in theory reveal much about what kind of game this is. It was first released on the 8-bit Atari computers by MicroGraphic Image, a new company comprised of three former VCS developers, and it does indeed involve exploring caves. Being from the era that it is, that most likely means a platform and ladders game, and that is also correct, but the intentions of our nameless 'spelunker' may not be as honourable as his real life counterparts.

Crap Games #7

Crackout (1991)
By: Palcom / Konami Genre: Bat 'n' Ball Players: 1 Difficulty: Medium-Hard
Featured Version: Nintendo NES First Day Score: 7,990
Also Available For: Famicom Disk System

In my last review for this series of features I spoke of the lowest magazine review score I could remember from back in the good old days but I may have spoken too soon. Recently re-entering my conscious mind from the dark realms of depravity that lurk in its basement is this game; an NES game which was rather unusually released in neither the Japanese nor American markets. Us lucky Europeans got to sample its delights though, but probably not too many gamers bothered based on the review I can now vaguely recall which savagely hacked it to pieces, then ate and pooped out the pieces, then set them on fire, then peed on the ashes. Such savagery was probably as much in jest as genuine disdain but I think it's likely that Crackout is not generally viewed as the pinnacle of its genre all the same. I'm nonetheless keen to find out just how bad it really is, especially since it's an example of a genre I'm rather keen on, no less. So... shields up, phasers on stun, energise...