Famicom Friday: Wing of Madoola

A SunSoft game that is not very common, but still pretty cheap to get because it's not very popular.


One of the reasons why it might be overlooked is that it's classified as an action-rpg game, but I would say it is 95% action. The only RPG element is that you pick up weapons and upgrades. Use them by pressing Start and then Select to change weapon.

You progress through the stages and enter rooms where you can find these items. One of the rooms has a miniboss that you have to defeat in order to get through the exit. It is hard but not unfair. You continue by pressing Select+Start at the start screen. I won't call it a cheat because the game is unplayable without this. Maybe it is even mentioned in the manual (I don't have the manual though).


The game is entirely in English. Apart from the Select+Start trick, there isn't anything else that needs to be known. The last stage can also be a little tricky from what I read on Strategywiki, because you collect the Wing of Madoola item that allows you to fly by pressing down+jump.

When you continue you get to keep all the items you picked up, so you never have to visit a room twice for items. Still it is very difficult because of the myriad of enemies that appear. I really enjoy these kind of "enemy bombardment". :) See my previous reviews of games such as Ninja Crusaders and Demon Sword.

I read at Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wing_of_Madoola) that the game has 16 stages. I was stuck on stage 12 for over an hour (see some of my game play in the video below) and then I accidentally pressed Start without pressing Select and lost the chance to continue. Arino on Game Center CX did this mistake too on stage 12... But I understand him. Stage 12 is the most difficult stage, according to Strategywiki... After getting beaten so many times you start to go cross eyed.



The Game Center CX video recommends to go back to stage 10 where there is a spring to recover health, then play through stage 10 and 11 without taking too much damage, in order to get to stage 12 with more health...

While the game has this continue function, it doesn't have any password or save function, so it needs to be beaten in one sitting. As long as you remember to press Select+Start you can keep on replaying older stages too to get items on them you missed and then jump forward again.

I recommend exploring all areas to make sure you don't miss any items. Some stages are a bit like mazes and have a Metroid feeling to them but they are actually not that big. If you don't feel patient, you can of course look at the maps on the strategywiki article.

It is still a fun challenge and I hope to go back to it some day when I have more time. Arino on Game Center CX beat it, eventhough he had to replay from the start twice. He had of course full help of his staff that told him what to do and even replayed old stages for him, but the game is clearly beatable while providing a nice challenge.

We have this game for sale at our webshop: http://japanspelshop.se/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=2550

Dragon Scroll for famicom

Yesterday I sat down to play Dragon Scroll, to see if it was playable in Japanese.

Dragon Scroll is an action/RPG game developed by Konami in 1987. It was only released in Japan.

Action/RPG can mean different thing. In best cases, all the fighting is in action, and you have a lifebar and level up. Some games are entirely in English. I have written about two perfectly playable FDS action/RPG games previously.

Dragon Scroll is very much like The Legend of Zelda. It has mostly action and there is no complicated menu system. With Select screen you see some items you can switch between, with English or little text. However, just like in Zelda, the challenge is to figure things out. To do this, you get clues from some enemies that you kill, and the clues are cryptic. According to strategywiki, the game is pretty hard even if you play the English translation (but I haven't tried). In Japanese, it will be impossible to get through it unless you follow a guide.

I played around for a couple of hours but it was hopeless. The good thing I can say is that the action sequences are definitely not unplayable. You have unlimited continues and I made it very far in experience points, to level 13 out of a maximum 15. So I don't think the game is hard if you know how to get through it. If you die, you keep all of your Exp points and can chose to get a password to continue at a later time.

I wasn't able to figure out any of the puzzles. Some of them include to stand between two statues for a couple of seconds, or to shoot certain statues a couple of times. (I read this later) You will in some cases get certain items, that you will have to use later on other items.

The game has typical well made Konami graphics and music. Nice big characters. The controls work flawless as soon as you get used to how your big character gets hit.

I'll quote from Chrontendo:

Konami does a Zelda clone! That's sounds really great, but the game itself turned out to be a bit of a disappointment. You spend most of the game wandering around five worlds (forest world, desert world, moutain world, etc. No ice world, thank God) and various dungeons looks for staffs, books, bells, rings and plants. Dragon Scroll is great looking, has awesome music, and the final dragon vs dragon battle is cool. But something doesn't quite click here. The magic is a little lame -- it's mostly used for finding hidden items. You never really gain any fun abilities from all the stuff you collect. The game feels structureless and lacks character; it mostly plays like a big easter egg hunt. Some of the items and areas are virtually impossible to find on your own (much like Castlevania II), so a FAQ will probably be necessary to finish this thing. -- http://chrontendo.blogspot.se/2009/09/chrontendo-episode-25-is-finally.html

Note that Chrontendo is usually a bit negative towards the games he describes.
I still have to agree with him on most points.

screenshot, taken from gamefaqs

Anyways, the game is perfectly playable and anyone who enjoys top-down NES/Famicom action/RPGs such as Crystalis or Willow should definitely try this out as this is in the same style with the same type of big colorful graphics. It isn't extremely deep and has a very standard story, but is a nice little fantasy game set in a world of waterfalls, castles and dragons, for those who enjoy that. Try it on an emulator with English text, and if you can beat it then try it on original hardware.

On gamefaqs, Dragon Scroll has a score of 4.10, which is pretty high. Higher than Willow, and a little below Crystalis. However, there are no reviews for it yet. It was only released in Japan and is probably not that well known.

Also see:

• http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Dragon_Scroll
• http://www.gamefaqs.com/nes/564419-dragon-scroll-yomigaerishi-maryuu

Galaxy Odyssey, famicom disk system

I asked at the famicomworld forum about this game and was told that it is quite playable.

Ginga Densou: Galaxy Odyssey

So I tried it out and recorded a video.



Here's how it works.
In the shooter stage you collect some kind of power, I will call it Air, that you use when you are walking on the ground (top-down stage).

You collect air either by taking K letter in the shooting stage. You can also collect the glass bottles from enemies in the top-down stage and activate them in the shooter stage as I did the video around 00:10, to fill up the Air meter.

There are some other glass bottles too that I don't know what they do, and I have a talisman that I think increases the gold you collect, but I'm not sure.

In each top-down stage it seems that if you go as far north as possible, you collect that letter for that stage. It will then be shown in white in the select screen. From the manual, I suspect that if one collect all letters A-D, it is then possible to press the WARP option and change around the lit letters, and maybe reach new levels. That's my speculation.

The game has a varied shooter/top-down perspective, and in that sense it is somewhat similar to Guardian Legend that is also a shooter/top-down hybrid with some RPG elements.

Galaxy Odyssey was released with a cassette tape you could listen to. I don't have it though. The manual is half art/text book, with a 100 page story in traditional Japanese writing top to bottom. It has a diagram that explains what cryptic alien writing is in the Japanese hiragana alphabet. I feel sorry that I can't understand any of this. Possibly it is necessary to understand.

I feel that the game is a story driven adventure game more than anything. You are uncovering a story. I haven't played enough to say more.

The shooting stage is quite easy if you have a turbo controller, as I did.

Hudson extension port controller, Famicom

Without a turbo controller you need to have enduring fingers because there is a lot of shooting. Apart from that, the enemies are not hard and you don't need fast reflexes.

The top-down stages are not particularly hard either. With trial and error, and pen and paper, you can get through most of them in 3-4 tries and find everything in them. At least in the earlier A-D stages that I played. But be prepared that they are long ...

If the stages go on through all the letters in the alphabet it might get harder and longer. The game could be quite long. If you enjoy playing longer adventure games where you always seem to be making progress, then this could be worth a try. Personally, I might not be the biggest fan but someone at Famicom World Forum said he loved it!

In the manual there is a screenshot of someone at level 8. It took me an hour to reach level 2 with ONE weapon (20:50 in the video)... The stages feel like a very, very long cave in the Legend of Zelda maybe.

Because of the save function, you will always make progress. So, again, it is like a action/RPG hybrid, but I still feel that due to how simple the action stages are, it is more like a adventure game.

I haven't found out exactly how the Select screen works but I don't think it is too hard to figure out. The game isn't deep enough to be overly complicated. It shouldn't be much problem to play for a non-Japanese speaker, unless it has some hidden secrets somewhere. It is a pity that a non-Japanese won't understand the story then.

Because the game is quite unknown to most, it can often be found at a cheap price. Loose disk 5$. With manual and box 15-20$. Complete with cassette tape is more expensive, around 50$.

Hana No Star Kaidou and Romancia, for famicom

I had another famicom friday...

First I played Hana No Star Kaidou. Chrontendo called this one of the worst famicom games, but he has been wrong in the past, so I thought it might not be too bad.

I was wrong.
This blog explains why: http://plaingamreviews.blogspot.se/2012/09/hana-no-star-kaidou-famicom-1987-victor.html
If you just put the game in and start playing normally, you will NEVER finish it. You'll get stuck at the end of stage 1 because there is a wall there and you can't get past it. The reason for this is explained in the blog post. Sort of like Takeshi No Chousenjou - designed to be impossible without a guide.

Personally I prefer playable games.

At least it seems to have a continue function, unlike the next game: Romancia.

Harcore gaming wrote a nice article about it: http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/romancia/romancia.htm
This game is labeled "action/RPG", but just like the previous game it is somewhat like a cryptic adventure game. The box looks very used so whoever owned it mustve tried really hard.

This is one of the reasons why I enjoy used games, you can almost feel what the previous owners felt about them. Crappy games are usually in good condition (such as Super Pitfall).

The articles mention that an unofficial translation was made easier, or should I say playable. In the original you don't know what to do and have to find your way through with the help of friends or a guide. Maybe some enjoy games that punish you, but it won't be enjoyable if you don't know Japanese. For example: If you talk to the wrong person, or talk to him too many times, you will either die or make the game unwinnable.

It's the quintessential 80s "obscure for the sake of obscure" RPG, and while trying to outwit it is somewhat amusing, it's also extremely difficult to actually enjoy. - hardcoregaming

I basically agree, except that I don't know why people use the word "extremely" so often.

But do give the amateur translation a try, because they removed some of the harder unwinnable tricks.

There is this FAQ for the amateur translation: http://www.gamefaqs.com/nes/578491-romancia/faqs/52973. You can read stuff like:

From here on out, DON'T KILL ANYTHING! You've done good deeds,
which are represented by GOLD RINGS. If you kill an enemy, you'll lose a gold
ring. DON'T LOSE YOUR GOLD RINGS! If you do, you'll be sorry! Trust me, you
won't be able to finish the game, so don't do it!

Romancia is not a long game. Maybe that's why they made it so hard. They figured they would save space (and chips, making it cheaper) by making a shorter game and so they had to make it super difficult. The game is so hard and you have no continues, I think hardly anyone would beat it without save states on an emulator with a walkthrough.

Also see: http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Romancia

After playing games like these, I sometimes consider buying a smartphone to play apps on instead, I think many games are actually better these days. But there are so many of them. With the old games I know that I will have played them all some day.

Dandy on famicom disk system

I have been busy in the last week. Many games to sell and some personal things too.
In the last weekend I finally got some time to play some games.

I have previously mentioned that games in top-down perspective is something I enjoy playing. Here is now Dandy, and action/RPG game, that I think was only released on famicom disk system.

I often write that action/RPG games are "probably playable" without knowing Japanese. It can be difficult to know for sure because sometimes there are hints you need to read. For example, any Legend of Zelda game is pretty hard if you can't read the hints.

I made a video that shows my initial playing, with live spoken commentary. Not perfect, I know. My microphone isn't that good.

_

The house where only one man is standing is actually a shop, but it is only open in daytime. One of the things you can buy there is a potion that will restore your health if you die. You can have a max of 2 potions, and you can see how many potions you have when you press start. In my video, it always says 0.

After about 6-7 hours, I made it to the end. At this stage I had gotten all the items, weapons and orbs.  The game saves right before, so if you reload you can see the ending again, which I did. I think I found a bug in the ending screen too.

Here is the ending:

_

I think the game is pretty fun. I didn't have any problems finishing it without understanding Japanese.
The loading times may be annoying to some people, but I didn't mind.

Super Famicom Friday, four games

It isn't Friday and I didn't even play them on a Friday. As artistical freedom I'll still call this my Famicom Friday (super edition). It is almost Christmas and maybe you expect some Christmas games, but sorry I only celebrate Christmas for two days and don't bother for the rest of the month.

During the week I played a couple of SFC games that you probably are not familiar with.

Blazeon, an uncommon shooter by Atlus.

_
At first I was perplexed but then I discovered I could freeze some enemies and fly into them to get their suit. Interesting idea. Usually when I try crazy stuff like that I die but ever so rarely I discover something.

The game looks like Gradius at first. The most distinct difference is that in this game you fly really slowly sometimes without any enemies appearing. Maybe the enemies will appear if you set it to Hard mode.  It does make the levels take a long time.

There seems to be infinite continues. Because the levels take so long, you still have to replay 5-10 minutes of moving along sequences. If you like this peculiar kind of gameplay, give it a try. It is original in the way that I have never played anything like it.
Also, I read on gamefaqs that the game becomes a real challenge later on. The manual tells me there are only five levels though (or six? don't remember).

The game is uncommon and my copy in a fine collectors condition, as new, will cost you 448 SEK (70$). Worse condition or loose cart would obviously be cheaper.

Also played Popful Mail. I was impressed by this game, one of the more playable action/RPG games I have tried. With all that walking and ladders and so on it felt like Castlevania. Maybe it is just my lack of experience with these games that makes me feel that way.

The game is also on Sega CD and Pc Engine with all games being different. This article explains more: http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/popfulmail/popfulmail.bak.htm. They recommend the Sega CD game released only in Japan and USA. A working Sega CD does costs a bit these days. I could mention that we offer restoration of Sega CD consoles, and can also rather easily make it region free.

_
The levels take a bit long. If you enjoy playing cute hack'n slash games you probably won't mind.

There is some Japanese text in the shop but I quickly guessed my way. There is also a battery save option here. You need to know that you have to trade your Exp for Gold, which you either do in the shop or in some other places.

In the video I made mistake at around 09:30 when I didn't go into town to be health items. Then I died around 13:50 and had to restart. Finally found my way into town and bought the health items I needed by 18:00. I also saved there. At around 21:00 I continued the trip. I played on and beat the boss and then came to an underground level (with bats!).

This game is rather common and can be had for around 175 SEK (25$). I recommend you check it out. As I read on hardcore gaming, this game is rather long and you get more characters you can switch between.  A nice story driven adventure.

Dolucky's A-Leage Soccer.

Another sports game. Sports games are thankful to play because they are easy to into. Some of them have good gameplay, although most have strange problems with controls and I quickly get annoyed. I feel that about modern PS2 and PS3 sports games too. Sports games are fun only if you can beat them, no?

This one I played for some 30 minutes at least, so I would rate it a playable game. After a while the controls got frustrating. You have to tackle all the time and the computer cheats. Also, you can't see much of the playing field. For 48 SEK (7$) it could be worth to try it out. If there is a 2-player mode, and there should be, it is probably fun with a friend long enough to justify the 7$.


When you have charged your power meter, you can press L to go into overdrive mode. This will make you shoot a super shot. A humerous game, and maybe you can play it better than I could.

As a bonus, I will recommend a different soccer game on SFC. Fighting Eleven, by Konami! There is also Fighting Eleven II. The EU/US titles for the games are Internation Superstar Soccer and Internation Superstar Soccer Deluxe. I read on gamefaqs that the Japanese version has more teams, but don't rely on that info. Here is a video I uploaded a month ago where I beat Denmark. I'll include it here as a bonus. More information on how to play is in the video page.
_


Finally, during the week I also uploaded this video I made a while ago of Hashire Hebereke.
_

It is a racing game with inspiration from Super Mario Kart. This was my first time playing. I didn't do well the first race but I quickly got into it. Another game that should be fun to try it for a while.

I don't know if it can be played multiplayer. If so, that should be fun. I sold the loose cart for 75 SEK (12$) and for an uncommon game like this I think it is worth paying that. Getting it Complete In Box would be more expensive.

Dungeon Explorer for Pc Engine

I was happily surprised by Dungeon Explorer. It felt like the game Diablo that I played a lot back in the late 90's. Dungeon Explorer is from 1989, and I think it is impressive how many enemies at the same time on the screen. The SNES might not have been capable of this without slowdowns or flickering.

The screen is a bit dark, I think I used the wrong cables this time... But the game is a bit dark, since it is in dungeons.

_

I think there a lot of action/RPGs well worth checking out. Neutopia is also a nice game. Personally, I don't like the more adventure-like games, such as Legend of Zelda and Neutopia where you walk a lot back and forth a lot. Walking is the main element in those games, in my opinion. A game such as Dungeon Explorer is more straight forward action and is more enjoyable for me. Also this doesn't require Japanese knowledge as far as I can tell from my short playing.  

Velious II (Rolan's Curse 2) for Game Boy

Among the games in my action box I picked out one that looked interesting. I was sceptical at first because it looked like an RPG with lots of text -- and the text would be in Japanese  -- but I trusted my instincts and played along. What a fine little game it was.

I got stuck on the first of the big enemies in the game (aka "bosses"), but I looked up the game, and it turns out you can save at any time from the menu. Then start right where you died. I think that is brave from the developers because they have to make sure the game is good enough to make it challenging.

You walk around in an over head perspective, here in the graveyard course, and again I must compare with Zelda: Link's Awakning. However, in Velious II you don't have to solve any puzzles and you don't need to move back and forth. You can always move forward. That's good for me, who don't read Japanese.

You pick up other characters in the towns. Just talk to them and they'll join you. You can have a max of four characters, and after that you have to replace one of the older ones.

TP is a kind of secondary attack point. Each character has their primary attack and also a secondary attack.

 You level up your characters by taking chests that contain their heads, as in this picture. The trick is that each chest contains one particular head, but if you don't have that member in your party, you will only get a small life powerup. Levelling up makes the characters strong and gives him more HP, as usually in RPGs.

 Here is a map and you can save in one of two slots.

After you beat the last boss you'll see a picture with each party member and their specific ending scene.

The game isn't super hard, and doesn't require any grinding.  Some of the later Big Enemies (aka "bosses") take a couple of minutes to beat. They are usuaully not super hard, but take a lot of hits. You don't actually need to beat them though, except for the end boss. Beating the big enemies might change the ending for the character that has that quest. For example, the Vampire you see in pic two has his quest in the graveyard scene.

Which character that has which quest is well explained in the game, I suppose, but I don't have the American copy.

Some of the scenes are a bit like a maze. Not that I mind that. It can be tricky to navigate around the courses but none of the quests need to take more than 30 minutes to reach the big enemy.  I wouldn't say that there are any extremely difficult parts of the game. You do need to figure out how to beat the big enemies, as you would in any game. Either learn their pattern, or take a chance and stand close and beat them with your characters one after the other. 

The music is well composed and the graphic is excellent for this kind of game. For a game that you just pick up and play I think it is great. There might be a better ending available but that's hard for me to tell. Maybe if you complete all side quests,you get to see the credits. I didn't actually complete them all.

I couldn't read any of the story but still thought it was great. Someone might complain that the game is too short. But that's the limitation with the Game Boy, because the carts are small. It's still a pretty big adventure that will keep you occupied for at least 4-5 hours if you want to complate all quests. I rate the game 5/5.

Boktai 2: Solar Boy Django for GBA

 

About two years ago, before I started with Japanese games, I played Boktai 2 for GBA. I played the European version that has English text.

Action/RPGs or RPGs isn't my favorite type of game. They take too long, and after a while I forget the story. It also takes time to learn how to equip spells and everything else with the gameplay. And I also think the games are just too long for me...

None the less, I wanted to try out this game for the interesting feature of solar detection. The cart has a little solar detector, similar to a calculator. It will detect how strong the sunlight is. You need the sunlight to charge the energy that is used for magic.

I played it during the summer two years ago. A nice side effect is that I got a lot of sun that summer. But then there was a week or two of cloudy weather and I had to stop playing and then I forgot about the game. You can play when it is cloudy but the sun is a lot weaker making it longer to recharge. If it is really cloudy you can't play and obviously you only play during the day. Technically you can play, but you can't recharge your character's energy. And some puzzle require the sun energy.

One of few action/rpgs I have played is Diablo, so I think I can say this game is like Diablo. Or should I say Landstalker? You go around slashing your enemies. You equip spells and talk to people. Every now and then there is a puzzle you need to solve. Sometimes the puzzle makes use of the sun in clever ways. For example, sometimes the sun will shine through a window in a house your character is inside. You may need to cover the detector with your hand to have items move around on the screen.

The reason I picked out the game today is because I bought a UV light for retrobrighting a while ago. It is 15W low energy which is maybe 50W "normal" energy. It brings up the Sun energy a couple of levels, not as much as I thought actually. I suppose stronger UV light would be good for my retrobrighting. Unfortunately my eyes are sensitive to this UV light for some reason.

Well, if you enjoy these kind of games I think it is well worth trying, but unless you have a UV lamp you need to have a period of sunlight.

Druid for FDS

Druid for Famicom Disk System is an action/RPG game that was not released on the NES. The game is a port of the Atari / C64 game called Druid.

 (http://www.gamefaqs.com/famicomds/578559-druid-kyoufu-no-tobira/images )

The game is played in a top down perspective, as in Legend of Zelda. It seems to be entirely in English. The one main feature of gameplay is the items and spells you pick up that you can use as weapons. Your druid is quite a shot so there are no RPG fights. Just walk around and shoot, using the best magic.

__
As so often there is no youtube video of the FDS game, but I found a howto of the C64 version. An annoying reviewer but I think he describes the gameplay well. The reviewer claims that the C64 looks the best because the FDS version looks "NESe". But compare for yourself with the screenshot...

A difference on the FDS according to strategywiki:
Instead of displaying your rating as it accumulates throughout the game, you are instead shown a Destroy meter. The meter has ten bubbles which are red when half full, and blue when full. You fill half of a bubble for killing each enemy. When twenty enemies are killed, the meter will be full. At that time, the meter will empty and your druid will gain a small boost in health. -- http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Druid/Version_comparisons#Famicom_Disk_System

A version was later made for the MSX2 and the Sinclar. I think both of them look better than the FDS version, and at least the MSX2 version has much improved sound.