Wit's & Family Pinball on famicom

Last week I played a game called Wit's. Not very common, I think I have had it once or twice before. Unknown to most. The main problem may be the name and the label that don't say anything about the game. I had myself forgotten what it was about when I put it in the console. They should have called it Psycho Snakes or something. What is "wit's", or who is "wit"?

Around 10$ for this - 65 SEK

The game is basically a Snake clone (see wikipedia article) for two players to race against each other. In 1 player mode, you play against the computer in a campaign mode. This mode is not that difficult. It took me a few minutes to figure out a good strategy, and then I quickly made it to the last stage. I died there and had to restart, and it took me 45 minutes to get there again, but then I beat the last stage.

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A little explanation might be needed for the controls. With A you speed up. With B you make a short jump. You only get one jump, at least in 1-player mode.
My guy is the one who starts on the left side. Also I forgot to cut out the first 1:50 minutes, sorry about that.

The most difficult stage is 5, where there is ice and you glide around. The faster you go, the more you glide. Level 5-5 is the fastest. Stage 4 with the water was also difficult because when you get the faster boats on 4-4 and 4-5 there is little room to move around. If you die your lives, it is game over with no continues. You get one new life for every stage though.

This game is actually not primarily a 1-player game. It was most likely made with the intention of being a party game. You can play 2-player vs mode, or 2-player coop (probably difficult!), a 3-player vs mode if you have a famicom extension controller. Or something like a joyball which is actually more usable than you might think, and can often be found cheap because people are suspicious of it.

There is even a 4-player vs mode in Wit's for which I think you need a 4-player adapter. I have never seen a famicom 4-player adapter for sale actually so I don't know for sure how to play that mode.

I think the game is fun. The computer AI wasn't challenging but I felt good after beating it. Famicom games that are made to be multiplayer are uncommon, so it is worth trying out. Even though it is uncommon it can usually be found for a few dollars.

Second game I played was Family Pinball.

78 SEK, 12$

There's some handwritten notes with the game. Are they cheats? Passwords?

I want to mention first that pinball is one thing I don't enjoy playing, in general. I never can understand if it is luck or skill that decides the game. I also really hate whenever the ball drops! The pinball game I've enjoyed most so far in my video gaming was Necronomicon on Saturn (watch my video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkZNU8uCtBc).

Anyways, Family Pinball has a normal pinball game that is called Pac-Man. It seems to have a highscore but doesn't actually save scores. I kept on dying, and I'm not sure how to evaluate pinball games. Maybe it is a good game. I think the key is to master the hitting of the board (the "tilt"). It really makes the ball bounce when you press the buttons to hit the board left or right.
When you get the item on the right the controllers change function, which is why I kept on dying after taking it.

The second mode is a game where you play two players against each other on the board. This is original, to me at least. One of the players (you or the computer) takes the upper part, and the other player takes the lower part. Then try to make the ball drop on his side. Again I think that mastering the board hitting would be good here. A silly game but not too bad.

The third mode is something I call "pachinko" mode. The ball goes up and then it drops down, hopefully into one of the holes. I saw in the manual that you are supposed to form patters of the holes the ball enters to get a good score. Such as a square. The number 1 has something to do with the score too.

The fourth mode was hilarious form of air hockey, or maybe shufflepuck. It was silly but I had fun with it. With A you make the paddle turn one way, and with B it turns the other way. And: You can't move the paddle while you turn it. It is harder than you might think, but I did manage to score a few goals. I suppose this might be fun 2-player against each other.

Here is a video of me trying out the different modes. In the vs modes I am red, the one who is always losing.
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A few silly game, but nothing wrong with that. You could possibly play an entire 3-set of Hockey before a modern console booted up, opened the game, shown all intros, logged in you, downloaded upgrades, shown more info screens, etc. This game made me smile anyways, even if it didn't make much sense. The game can usually be found cheap, complete in box.

More Saturn games 2-player. Such as Marvel Super Heroes.

I had a friend to visit yesterday and I decided we'd play some Saturn games.


First we played Twinbee Deluxe Pack. I seem to play it with all my friends. It was fun. I have already written about that game in an earlier post ("did we play co-op"). I have this game for 150 SEK, which is 23$.


Then we played Marvel Super Heroes. With my experience from Street Fighter II, I have to say I was superior. Fun game, at least for me.

I went back today and played it 1-player mode. The game has support for a 1 MB RAM cart. Some say it won't work well with a 4MB RAM Card. If that is true, then it probably won't work with the Action Replay 4M because I experienced that the action replay sets itself to 4M mode. But with a 1MB Ram Card, such as the HSS-0150 that is included in several other games, you will get an option in the option menu called "3M Mode" (whatever that means), it indicates that something happens. In my opinion, the game runs smoother in this 3M Mode and there is never any slowdowns. 

What I liked about this game
First of all, it has all the Street Fighter II (SF2) move scheme. Block the opponent, use a few special moves, hit opponents on their way down, throw the opponent when close, and all that stuff that a SF2 player would take for granted. (It isn't something that was taken for granted before SF2, as I mentioned in a review of early fighting games (http://japanspel.blogspot.se/2013/02/kieta-princess-and-fuuun-shourinken-for.html)).

Some stuff that isn't in SF2 is that you can jump real high with the R button. With R button I mean the Right shoulder button, that is called R on the SNES/SFC. While high in the air you can punch several times, and you can also throw the other guy in the air if you catch him. I think it works well.

You can press Forward-Forward quickly to run forward, and Back-Back to jump back. This will often surprise the opponent. As with the Jump thing I found it to feel like a natural move that you will soon use all the time.

The cartoon like animation is nice and colorful. The sound and music is as good as you can wish for. Here is a little clip.
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In 1 player mode, there are only 8 fighters to beat. I like this, because it goes much faster to beat the game. I was able to beat the second highest level today without too much difficulty, I think I died a total of 5 times. 3 on the last boss. So it isn't too hard for someone who knows how to play these games. Your computer opponents aren't too smart. Even on the second highest difficulty level you can often use the same moves over and over, and they often come running right at you so you can attack them.

In the game you can collect gems. This, however, isn't that useful. The gems are like powerups. I think you activate them by pressing a half-round on the D-pad and then the L button, after your Power meter has become full enough. I don't care about this idea, it seems unnecessary.

In the end I'd say this is like a more playful and colorful version of SF2. I have this game for sale at 95 SEK which is around 15$, so it isn't too expensive.


After that, Striker 1945 II, a shootem up game I received recently. I think we played it on Easy mode because we had unlimited continues. We did finish it rather quickly. A nice arcade shootem up with classical airplanes. No complaints there. My price for this one is 275 SEK,  43$. Here is a clip (not of us).
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After that, a 3D fighter. I thought we would be more even here, and we were quite even. Dead or Alive. I mentioned this game in a recent post. It is a tricky game because you can have different strategies. You have a grab move that lets you grab your opponent if he is too aggressive. And there are a lot of special moves ou can use. The manual lists around 25 for each character, although most are simple. I think it is a good combination of strategy and action, but I think I've only scratched the surface of how to play. This one is 75-95  SEK.


Necronomicon Pinball has a 2-player mode, as it says on its back, so I thought it would be interesting to try it out. Pinball was never my type of game but I have recently learnt that the Saturn has a couple of cool pinball games.

I think I'm starting to understand what pinball is about in general. You select a Mission, then you accept it. Then you try to hit the ball where the board indicates in some way. At this stage, Necronomicon would often throw out lots of extra balls that will give you many extra points.
I suppose that as long as a pinball game has cool music and flashing graphics, and the gameplay is fine, the game is pretty enjoyable. In 2 player mode, you play one player at the time while the other one watches (as you would in Super Mario Bros.), so it isn't that much 2-player mode. But I thought it was fun to watch the show when he played. Here is someone else's clip.
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I think the story behind the original Necronomicon is interesting. According to Wikipedia, a story of a Necronomicon, a book of the occult, was invented by someone around 100 years ago in a horror story. The book was then believed by others to actually exist. Believing in the occult is silly and only makes for good horror stories.  The Japanese people know this, but anything related to "the occult" can be a sensitive subject in the West. But it's just a pinball game, and a good one.

Comparing with the graphics of playing a real pinball game, I can't see how Necronomicon on the Saturn could have been improved really.  It's a blast. This one is 125 SEK.



We also played a little Sega Rally in a 2-player competing mode. It's a fun and easy game to pick up and play. But I have to say that the graphics is dated, and when you hit a wall because the road and wall are a mess of pixels from a distance, it is annoying. Other than that, the game is perfect at what it sets out to do. And at 30 SEK, it is cheap. Maybe I'll hook up the graphically improved Sega Rally 2 on the Dreamcast some day, after I feel finished with Saturn games.