Famicom friday, three games

I had a nice little famicom friday, two days ago.
Took a little while to get the videos ready though.

A good news is that I can now upload longer videos on youtube again. I think that my fair use request for Magic Knight Rayearth (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxIbKqu9Dsc) was accepted! To my suprise, actually.

I think I wrote something like this in my request:
"This video shows the intro of the 15 year old video game. It does not hurt the economical interest of magic knight rayearth anime in any way. It is used to promote the series and the game to make it sell more" and so on.

Okay back to famicom friday.
I tested out three games that seemed interesting to me and I hadn't played before. To be honest, I played four games, but the fourth game, Kiki Kaikai on FDS, I couldn't figure out how to play properly so I won't talk about it.

Aces: Iron Eagle III on famicom

175 SEK for this game

Another flight simulator !? Yes incidentally. I just got this game in my last package from Japan and I got curious about. It is an uncommon game that I haven't had before. I have a theory that some of the more interesting games on the famicom are uncommon because the majority of famicom gamers were kids and that's why the best selling games were made for kids. They had cute anime characters and not too advanced gameplay. Later games like Aces: Iron Eagle III were made for teenagers, and they didn't sell that much so that's why they are uncommon.

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The game reminded me of an early PC games. After you shoot down three planes in the flight simulator mode, you go into the isometric view that is more common in PC games.
I played the first four missions they have. After that, there are another four missions. I don't know what happens after that.

After each course you get a password, which I think the is mature way of playing a video game for people like me who don't have the unlimited time of a 12 year old.

The flight simulator part isn't too hard. The first two times it was somewhat hard to aim, but I quickly got into it. The isometric view had me confused at first. One important knowledge is that in the top left there is an arrow that points to a target on the map. I really enjoy these games where you move around freely and just shoot and bomb things as you see them. It took a few minutes to understand how to aim and hit. That's why I only uploaded missions 3 and 4 where I had learnt to play it properly.

I am also a bit nerdy learning about games with speech, because I know how hard it was for the developers to create them and put them into carts. They take up space too. This game has some nice and crisp spoken words, which I liked.

In all, a solid title. It has some Japanese text but the essential text is in English.

Captain Silver on famicom

175 SEK for this game also

A game with the same name was also released on the Sega Master System, and is considered to be a good game. The famicom game doesn't have a good score on gamefaqs, but I thought I'd take a shot at it. It turns out that it is a solid title. The main thing that saves it is that the gameplay is solid, with decent controls, good music and graphics; and that you have unlimited continues with short levels. I think any game that has unlimited continues and short levels immidiately should get a score of at least 7/10, to put it above the frustrating and almost unplayable games where you replay first first stages hundreds of times because of some impossible fourth level boss. That is torture and I refuse to play such games for more than a few minutes.
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As you see, I died a lot but just start over and within soon you have reached the end of the level. I read there are 6 levels in the master system games. If that's true, the game is simple. I felt that 5 levels were enough for my friday evening. Completing games isn't necessarily a goal of mine.

You also get some cool powerups.
The graphics in this game also looked like a PC game, or maybe an Amiga game. In any case, I liked the game, and it has enough originality to make it worth trying out.

I don't know why it has a rating below 5 on gamefaqs. I don't see anything wrong with it.

Gun-Nac on famicom

228 SEK for this cart

Wow, this was a cool game. I think I have previously written about Zanac AI that played on the FDS. This game was made by the same team, I think, and has the same powerup system. It also has the same frenetic but fair gameplay. Good music, nice flowing graphics without slowdowns or too much flickering. A very nice shoot'em up game. I played a few levels and it didn't seem to hard but maybe it gets harder later on.

I have so many games to play and I rarely play one to the end.


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Anyways it was enjoyable to play. I've already watched my own video twice. It is such an awesome game to watch.
It took me some time to try and understand the powerup system, and I am also not sure what to do in the shop at the end of each course.
Understanding and mastering the powerup system may be the most important thing to beating the game. As in Zanac AI, the different numbers represent a different powerup. I liked number 3. You can also boost this powerup. And there is a secondary weapon that you change by taking a letter.

There you have three of the four games I tried out for my famicom friday.
I don't agree with the people who say that 70 or 80% or whatever of the famicom library is crap. So far I've had two successful famicom fridays. I don't play a game for very long if I don't enjoy it.

Maybe you have to dig a bit in the library, underneath the baseball and RPG games. These are three games I haven't even had before so it was a nice experience. I am already looking forward to next week.