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

Famicom Friday: King's Knight

Last Friday I sat to play some King's Knight.
This game looks like an RPG but it's not. Its purpose is to be a shooter in RPG style. It has some novelty value, but that is probably the only advantage.

To play this game, there are a couple of things you need to know.
If you don't have a  manual, here they are:
1. At the start screen, you can continue by pressing the Select button. See my video below. Choose character to replay and press A then start, or simply press Start to play stage 5 with your existing characters.
2. You need to find all four special items for all characters so you can make it through stage 5.
3. On stage 5, having all four items on the characters, makes it possible to use their special attack once by pressing B. This must be used at the right moment.

Knight:  Cast Zainen to change into a winged horse.

Wizard:  Cast Naizath to defeat enemies in the water. 

Monster: Cast Cetune to change into a dragon.

Thief:   Cast Balbath to destroy monoliths.  

You upgrade your characters with items they take. For each upgrade you get an extra level added to your character for a maximum of 20.

To make it through the first stages, you are almost forced to know where the upgrades are. Without the attack upgrade, the shots are only half as effective for example, and you will die soon. You can see my video below how hard it was to kill the ghosts before I got the attack-upgrade at 0:55.

The good thing is that the upgrades are always in the same position so you can memorize them. This would take a very long time with normal play, and I think that the game is more fun if you follow a stage map. You can see the stage map for the wizard if you visit http://www.gamefaqs.com/nes/587386-kings-knight/faqs ) so you can follow my path in the video, if you want.



As you can see in the video, I didn't use the map yet, and missed item 1. Actually didn't have all four items with any character and I didn't have any chance on stage 5.

The game doesn't have any save function, but it is pretty short if you know how to play through the stages and know where the items are. If you don't mind playing with a map and maybe a walkthrough, I think you might want to give it a try. The Japanese version is entirely in English. It was also released for NES in the US.

Famicom friday, 5 games

We've had a little more free time recently so Fredrik could take up Famicom Friday.
There are some games that have been laying around for a while that he's been curious about.
All of the games are for sale at our shop, you can reach the items through the title links below.



First the puzzle game Ochin ni Toshi Puzzle Tonjan. A pretty uncommon game, and puzzle games can sometimes be surprisingly fun. However, the game felt very simplistic so it was probably made for kids.


Then he tried Super Chinese 2.



There are three Super Chinese games for Famicom. There are also three games on Game Boy ("Super Chinese Land") and three for Super Famicom ("Super Chinese World). We have a gameplay video of the first game on Game Boy, too.

The first game on Famicom and the first game on Game Boy are full action games, and they seem to be completely in English. The rest of the games have some RPG elements. A fun thing with these games is that they fully support 2 player co-op mode.

But this Famicom game turned out to be pretty hard to play if you don't know Japanese... I suppose it is playable with a guide, but it would take a very long time to get into it. So Fredrik didn't play for long, since he wouldn't understand the story anyway ...

So he went on to some Namco games instead. Namco made many very enjoyable games based on their arcade games and you know you will always get some decent gameplay, even if the games may lack depth.



Dragon Ninja was more fun than expected. It is also called Bad Dudes outside of Japan. The initial feeling is that the movement is stuttering and unresponsive, but you will get used to it very quickly. It has a great "Double Dragon" feeling to it, and the fighting gives satisfaction. A charming and surprising little addition is the "I'm bad" speech when you defeat a boss. The game seems to have unlimited continues so Fredrik kept playing for several stages.



Quinty is a simplistic but perfectly playable little action game. It is also known as Mendel Palace in the US. Like with many Namco games, the Famicom games seems to be entirely in English. It also has unlimited continues. We recommend playing in 2-player mode. You won't get blown away by it, but it's always nice with co-op mode.



Lastly, he played Burger Time. He tried it before but never made it very far. So this time he decided to give it some more time.

Typical for these arcade made games is that they were made to NOT be beatable... It is a difficult game if you don't learn the enemies' movements, much like in Pac-Man. They often don't move directly towards you, but move right and left instead. After a couple of tries, he made it to stage 3. Must have been tough, though, seeing as he had nightmares about the game that night!

ASO (Alpha Mission), for famicom

The game ASO: Armored Scrum Object is a game no one has bought from me in my two years. The game is uncommon (I've only had it twice), is a shooter and entirely in English, so for my Famicom Friday yesterday I was curious about why it is so unpopular.

ASO game was released on the NES as Alpha Mission. On eBay it regularly sells for hardly anything, CIB (Complete In Box) 7$. Since this is a common NES game there are lots of reviews of it. Most of them are hateful it because it is too hard.

Maybe it is another misunderstood game that I need to rescue. It looks cool doesn't it?

I have to admit I bought it by mistake. I thought it was rare and expensive, like these similar looking shooters I once had.

Metal Storm here is worth around 100$, Gun Nac at least 30$. I never understand quite why some games are so much more expensive than others, but I have to follow along and price my games according to market value.

When it comes to vertically scrolling shooters ("shmups"),  I find most of the pure shmups repetitive, dull and uninteresting. There are a lot of simplistic vertical scrolling shooters on the NES/Famicom, such as Exed Exes, Argus, the classic Xevious, Hector '87, Gyrodine, Exerion, Galaga, Dragon Spirit, Star Soldier and Star Force.

I do enjoy shooters if they have some strategy element, like Zanac and Guardian Legend that I have blogged about before. Or Gradius or Twinbee that I have mentioned many times. These are games where you have to think out a strategy and not just madly shoot your way around.


I read that it has a strategy element to it so I thought that maybe I would find some amusement in it.

_

After around 3,5 hours I had found a strategy that took me to stage 5, as you see in the video. A useful strategy is to equip the shield and then collect get E to keep the shield strong. At boss battles I switched to fire that killed them quickly. 

A little explanation of the useful icons: You collect the E icons which will give you energy, up to a max of 24. When you have energy, and possibly collect the airplane icon, you get special items you can use. Change this by pressing Select, navigate to your choice, and press Select again. I soon discovered that the "sheeld" was very useful, while the other special weapons only last for a short time and should be reserved for boss fights.

The M and L icons improve your gun and your missiles. The K icon is useful because it allows you to continue with all upgrades if you die. The W warps you forward. The F icon shows all nearby powerups. S increases speed. Then there is the rare special icon you see at 05:50 that restores your energy to full.

Then the bad icons: The C that takes away all your energy. The inversed K that takes away ALL your ships powerups. The R warps you back (this can actually be useful so you can collect more powerups). Looking at my video, I now realize the inverted E takes away some energy. The C and especially inversed K must absolutely be avoided! It isn't too hard to avoid the negative powerups actually. The inverted K will only appear after you have maxed out one weapon, so after maxing out just be more careful. When your plane is already strong, you have less reason to go around collecting powerups.

Most complaint that the game is bad because it is too hard, except one reviewer who found the game boring because it was too easy http://www.gamefreaks365.com/review.php?artid=1602. I think that is because he played on PSP, PS3 or emulation. On the original NES/famicom hardware, shooters are harder because:

1. The composite video (or worse: antenna!) on NES makes it harder to see bullets
2. The NES controller can't move well diagonally. Look at my video how I mostly move back-forward or right-left.

The game only has 6 stages and then it loops, but the stages keep on counting up to 13 before going back to 1. It might get harder the second time. I think that 3,5 hours of gameplay isn't much for an old school games to make it to stage 5 out of 6. With some practice I probably could make it to stage 6 and then maybe beat the boss there.

Well, I enjoyed it enough to keep me amused for 3,5 hours of a Friday, which is more than most games do. I think I would enjoy keep playing it, as it seems like a game one could master and beat in a short amount of time. Playing to stage 5, as in my video, takes 15 minutes. Looping it once would probably only take 20 minutes. Perfect for a quick fix.

I also enjoyed that the game isn't unfair or has insane enemies. Most enemies and bullets can be avoided without having the die EVERY time you first encounter them (as you would in Salamander / Life Force). The gun turrets on the ground only seem to shoot once, so you don't have to worry about a cheap shot when you are flying over them. The tracking bullets that appear later seem hard at first, but I think they only change direction twice and can be avoided with some practice. I don't think the game has cheap deaths. 

Another complain is that you start slow. Well, you are slow in Gradius too, and the solution is to get speed ups and other powerups, and then avoid dying. The game only gives you three lives and no continues so you do have to avoid dying. According to gamefaqs, there is a continue cheat but I couldn't get it to work and the cheat has three "thumbs down" so I think it is fake.

ASO / Alpha Mission isn't the deepest game but it doesn't deserve the univeral hatred it has. I don't think it is worse than similar NES shooters. 

For some more reviews, see:

• http://www.gamefreaks365.com/review.php?artid=1602 (too easy)
• http://www.questicle.net/2011/01/35-alpha-mission.html (too hard)
• http://www.examiner.com/review/retro-video-game-review-alpha-mission-nes ("For its crimes against the shmup genre, arcade ports, and the act of gaming in general, this mess gets one and a half stars out of five")
• http://www.flyingomelette.com/reviews/nes/alphamission.html (too hard)
• http://www.honestgamers.com/1916/nes/alpha-mission/review.html ("I just can't think of a single shmup I got less enjoyment from than this game and I'd be hard-pressed to think of any game (regardless of genre or system) that provided more negative memories.")
• http://www.gamefaqs.com/nes/587088-alpha-mission/reviews

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.

More twin famicom nerd info

Incidentally today is a Friday, and so Famicom Friday suits well.
The good thing when you make your own videos is that you don't have to worry about them getting deleted (unless youtube deletes them for some reason).

I got a twin famicom with some loose contacts on the back. It is a common problem. In the first video I show you how I fix that. I should add that I am not a "modding guy", and this is about as advanced as my soldering gets. I have colleagues that do the modding. So don't worry, your console don't have to suffer my hands.
_

Alright, then I made another video with a bunch of info about twin famicom and disk systems in general. I didn't mean to make it this long, but I started talking and got into it. It is in English. I hope you'll find it interesting.
_

Then I played three Mario games on famicom to test our latest AV modded famicom.

_

Weird how I have started to find the original Mario Bros game (the plumber game) playable. The first many times I found the controls to be annoying and impossible, but after having played it every now and then for 1-2 years it doesn't feel that bad.

I wonder if I in the future will feel the same way about Mega Drive and Nintendo 64.  I actually played some MD and N64 games during the week, although I didn't enjoy them much. Gameplay videos are on youtube.

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.

_

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.
_

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.

Famicom friday: Rockman 3 / Mega man

My Famicom Friday is about me taking a game I am curious of, and playing it to see what I think. Recently I have also decided to play it to the end, or at least as much of it as I can stand. This week I decided to have a go at Rockman 3, also known as Mega Man 3.

Why did they change the name from Rockman to Mega Man? Could be that they felt Rockman doesn't sound cool. Or could be a trademark reason. In this blog post, I will refer to this specific game as Rockman, but I also refer to the general series as Mega Man.

I thought I should break my NES/Famicom Rockman virginity, because I haven't beaten any of them. I have actually beaten the first three Mega Man games on Game Boy. The first one was super hard, the second very easy, and the third a little more difficult.

I once made it far into Rockman 2, where I played against a dragon. I had to quit then, and as so often I then never picked it up again. There were other games and beating games were not a priority at that time.
The reason why I now chose Rockman 3 is because I don't have the first and second game currently, and because I think Rockman 3 is shorter than Rockman 4 and Rockman 5. The later they got in the series, the more complex and long the games got.

However beating famicom games is now my new years promise. In my Rockman 3 challenge I have two goals:

• Determine how much Japanese text the game has
• Beat the game, not using guides unless necessary.

Introduction to Rockman/Mega Man gameplay

If you have played rockman/mega man before you can skip this section.
To play Mega Man you need to know the following:

• You can play the stages in any order. At the end of the stage there is a boss. If you beat the boss, you get his special weapon. 
• Equip the special weapon by pressing Start and select the weapon you want to use. This will use up the special energy of the weapon. To fill up the energy, equip the weapon when you see an energy capsule. 
• Every boss is especially weak against a certain weapon. To beat the more difficult boss, beat the easier bosses and get their special weapons, and then try it on the difficult boss. 
• The Mega Man games are sometimes referred to as being very difficult. However, they are only hard in one way. Most of the difficulty can be overcome by learning where the enemies are and learning the boss movement. As such, the games are definitely beatable for most gamers if they spend enough time with it. Mega Man games also have infinite continues, although you'll have to replay the stage you are on.

Playing

I rather quickly beat the first three bosses I attempted. Here is a video of my first time playing. I died a lot and I once got game over but it wasn't too hard and this video is almost uncut.

_

I don't want to spoil the game for you so this will be my only gameplay video.

After that, one of the later bosses was very difficult. After some 2 hours on his stage I beat every other boss and then got back to him. Turns our he was vulnerable against the Tornado attack.

After the initial 8 bosses are done, you get to play 4 of them again with harder levels. Some of them are quite difficult, especially the one in the lower-right corner. This was probably the most difficult part of the game for me. After that, you'll see some text and will go to Dr. Wily's castle to play the Dr. Wily stages.
_

The bosses here are of a different type and are more tricky. The stages themselves are however not that difficult. On one of them, I used a trick to stack up on Energy Tanks by picking them up, getting game over on purpose. Then you get to keep the energy tank and can pick up more again.

After the Wily stages are done you have to play all the bosses again. This time you have all the special weapons and with some trial and error you can write down which boss is vulnerable against which weapon. Unless you want to beat them with your normal blaster, this section is more about clever strategy than being a hard core action player.

Finally, you'll get to play against Dr. Wily himself. Luckily, if you are game over on Dr Wily you don't have to replay the bosses. And after Dr Wily, you'll have to play Dr. Wily again in another machine. As earlier, beating him is more about finding the proper attack than button mashing.

Here is a video of the cut scenes on the end stages. It doesn't contain any gameplay, so don't worry about spoilers in case you want to beat the game on your own.

_

Conclusion

Playing Mega Man games is not something I enjoy that much. It is a frustration of playing every stage so many times, and also knowing that you have no way around it. It is like "sigh, boss 1 beaten. Have 7 left, then extra bosses, Wily Stages, Wily, and whatever else". Most of the difficulty comes from not knowing how to beat a boss, and this takes time and feels frustrating. I spent 2 hours on Dr. Wily until I discovered there was a way to beat him with no hardship. If I told you, you would beat him the first time.

However, I also feel a great satisfaction at having beaten it. A couple of days later I still feel truly happy that I accomplished it, all on my own. I didn't use any guides and no previous knowledge of it, with the exception of heaving played Rockman 2 and the first three Game Boy games.

It took played for 2 days and an estimated 15 hours. Would have been shorter if I hadn't made the mistakes I mentioned earlier. Could also have been longer. It is a matter of luck sometimes, if you pick the right weapon the first time or have to replay until you do.

Having played most stages during a period of several hours in the night, I don't remember that much about each specifically. After a while, they all feel the same. A bit tedious, but still rewarding once it is done. That's why I have mixed feelings about the Mega Man series. Not something I love in the way many other gamers do. A classic series none the less that holds a special place in most NES/famicom gamers hearts.

Bonus

Here is a video from a Swedish collector that may have the worlds most impressive Mega Man collection. Including many sealed and graded games for all kinds of consoles.
_ (video by http://www.gaminggrannar.se/ )

She actually inspired me to give the games another chance. I know she prefers the first Mega Man game on NES because it is the shortest, and that part 6 is her least favorite because it is the longest. I'm glad that even she thinks the games feel too long sometimes.

Thanks for reading! Next week's famicom friday game will be: Jackie Chan.

Famicom Friday: The Guardian Legend / Guardic Gaiden

My Famicom Friday series is about me picking up some famicom games that I am curious of, and then just sit down to play and see what I think. Last two famicom fridays were very positive experiences.

If you have played The Guardian Legend, you already know how great it is. But you probably don't know about the Japanese version called Guardic Gaiden, so keep on reading. If you don't know about Guardian Legend, then you must keep on reading as well.

Now is this game HOT!?!? Let me know if you know a better looking game cart on ANY console

My promise for the new year is to try and beat more games, if I enjoy them. 8-bit games are good because they are usually not extremely long. It isn't new year yet but I started early. For this reason, I only had time to play one game for this Friday.

It sure was a good one. I played it all the way through. You may chose not to watch some videos that could be spoilers, in case you want to play it yourself. I'll first show you the first 10 minutes of gameplay, with some parts edited out to make it shorter, that you could safely watch.



Sorry about the music being louder than normally!! I played on an AV famicom instead of my usual Twin Famicom.

I tried it out on my newly arrived AV famicom. See how sleek it is?!?! You can hardly notice it is turned on. Awwwaaa !!! The awesomeness.

The Japanese version has some Japanese text. This got me stuck in the beginning, because there is often a puzzle in how to enter the corridor ( コリドー ) that take you to the shooter stage. Sometimes it is about shooting the gate, sometimes you have to arm a certain weapon and fire, at one corridor you have to shoot the sign, or other things. There are clues for how to enter. The clues are easy to find in the caves, so I don't consider them spoilers. However, I couldn't read the hints in Japanese and finally had to look at a FAQ: http://www.gamefaqs.com/nes/587320-the-guardian-legend/faqs/3027.  Some corridors are more tricky and without a guide you won't complete the Japanese version. You can see me enter the first corridor in this video.

The game is somewhat non-linear. You can explore freely and look for upgrades, but the main missions will unlock new areas and you have to do them in order.

Here is the second problem with the Japanese version: the password.

This password contains your experience points, location and upgrades. For this convenience, you apparently need a 32 character password. Let's see how long it takes me to enter it...


Luckily I only restored from password once. You can either keep the console on, or keep on playing. The game isn't that long that you need passwords, if you are good enough.

Here is the stage after restoring. The boss was difficult. I paused the recorder everytime I died, so you only see the shooting stage once. The rest are the boss battles.
 

It may be of interest that this is the third shooter made by Compile that I have written about. I have previously written about Zanac and last week about Gun-Nac. Great games. You can see how similar the gameplay is in all the three games. With my new years promise, I am considering going back to try and beat Gun-Nac. It would most likely be worth it.

Sure is more frenetic than Xevious, no? Still, Xevious sold more copies than all these three combined, seeing how common it is.
The video below shows the last stage. By this time, I had so many upgrades that playing was a breeze. The last boss took longer but it was mainly about finding the best weapon and a decent strategy rather than shmup-skills.

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Nice ending. It was a nice experience to play this during the Christmas days. I am very happy that I got to experience it. I am not great at shooters, but when you get lots of upgrades the game is almost just flying through. Try to get a high chips count and then be clever with weapons, trying out the one that works best all the time.

I am still trying to think how to enter that last password you get in the ending, since the password screen only has hiragana characters. In the EU and US version, you get the password TGL , that will allow you to play a special world with only the shooter stages.

Among true NES-fans, this is considered a must-play game. I have seen it on several gamers top 10 NES lists. It is still suprisingly cheap (10$ for the PAL or US version). The Japanese version is a bit more expensive (30$), since it is relatively rare. Personally I think the look of the cart is worth 30$ alone....

One thing that may scare people is that it is a shooter/RPG hybrid with some puzzle elements. I know that NES games where it takes time to understand the gameplay are always more difficult to sell. It reminds me of Labyrinth, a lovely famicom game that I played through 10 months ago and blogged about.

Positive points

One thing that I appreciate, now being familiar with so many games, is the attention to small things that the game has. Such as:

• When you die, your health gets fully restored. No long grindings to restore your health.
• No long walks back and forth. You have a map that indicates exactly were the next corridors are. Even if you walk around on your own, you have the map and it never takes very long to walk around (unlike, say, Legend of Zelda).
• If there are many enemies in an area, they appear gradually instead of all at once. This makes you able to walk passed them.
• When you die, you never have to walk very far in order to play the mission again. (maybe a minute, max)
• The missions are also not very long. If you die at the end boss, replaying the mission up to the boss might take 3 minutes and it is fun, so no complaints.
• No boss is extremely difficult. I am not great at shooters, and the most difficult boss took me no more than 10 tries or so. Take this *3 for replaying the level, plus time spent on the boss and walking to the mission, and no mission took me more than 45 minutes (maybe 60, I didn't keep time).
• You are free to escape from the mini-bosses if you don't have enough health. Just walk out when you hear the mini-boss music, before the gate closes.

Tips

Some tips for playing

• As so often in shooters, upgrades are essential. The upgrade system is complex. You have one upgrade for Weapon, one for Shield, your speed, your rapid fire and shooting spread (not indicated in the Select screen); you can upgrade your health meter, your chips count; secondary weapons can be upgraded to level 2 or 3. Take everything your see and fight all mini bosses to get upgrades. You also get upgrades when your score reaches certain levels.
• Chips. You need them for special weapons, but for max weapon power you don't want it to go below 200 (or 100 depending on how far you've made it). You also use your chips to buy items in the store.  Consider not using the secondary weapon if weapon strength is important.  
• Try different strategies and different weapons. Some bosses and mini-bosses are easier to beat with certain weapons. I think I killed them all, but some were harder than others.
• The "EE". This special weapon kills every small item and projectile on the screen. Very useful sometimes.

This is one reason why the game can be completed rather quickly. That doesn't mean it is short. In terms of rooms and contents it is a very big NES game. I think the number of areas it has is comparable to Metroid, although this was just something I picked up at a message board. 

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.

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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.

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

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.

Famicom Friday: Fuzzical Fighter and Palamedes II

Yesterday I had myself a Famicom Friday, with some games that have not been sold for a while.


Palamedes II.

125 SEK

I played this game for about an hour. At first it is almost as annoying as Puyo Puyo but there are two good things compared with Puyo Puyo. First, the matches can be over really fast which reduces the annoyance. Secondly, I won sometimes.
The game has some randomness to it, so one is likely to win after a while.

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The gameplay seems complicated but it isn't. You have the die [sv not: "die" är singularform av "dice"] at the top with a number. Your have to place your dice that will make a poker-like number. The best combination is a straight, such as 6-5-4-3. Second best is four of a kind. Also good is three of a kind, or two of two different sorts. When you get some good combination, you will remove 1-4 rows from your screen, and the opponent will get 1-4 rows added. That's the puyo puyo aspect.

The tricky thing is that you can only place a die that has the same or acjacent number as the die on the table. So if the die on the table has 5, you can place 4,5 or 6. Say you place a 4, then the die on the table will change to a 4. This also effects what the opponent can place.
I think the video explains the rest of the gameplay.

The game was fun for a while. The main annoyance is that the die on the table is hard to see when you look at your own board. They should have put it in the middle, and maybe have a sound indicating what it changes to. The second annoyance is that the game feels random. In one moment you are almost dead, and the next your screen is empty and the opponent is almost dead.


The third game I played was Fuzzical Fighter.

195 SEK

Strange that this game hasn't been sold, but I was happy because I enjoyed it very much. I played it for 3 hours. Not only is it uncommon but also a great game.

Sometimes I think many people don't have very good taste, because I keep on getting requests for games like Trip World, that I don't even think is fun, but I now have a loose copy for sale for 795 SEK (125$). That is the lower end of the current price on eBay. Fuzzical Fighter is unsold for 195 SEK. Oh well.
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At first Fuzzical Fighter may be confusing because you start in this Dragon Quest view and might think "oh no, not another weird japanese RPG". But actually the RPG mode is insignificant and easy to figure out. To prove my point, you get passwords that consists of FOUR NUMBERS and is the same for a level no matter how you upgraded. So it isn't an upgrade-heavy game.

It also starts off slow and easy and may seem boring. But there are 8 levels and they get harder and faster.

You get gold when you shoot enemies and you use it to buy stuff in the shop. In the shop with an ship sign you can upgrade Shoot (シュート ? I don't know), Shield (シールド) or Engine (エンジン). The katakana is literally the English word phonetically. Learning some basic katanaka is actually not that hard. I recommend practice on: http://www.realkana.com/

In the other shop you can buy items, literally アイテム.
You use the Item by pressing Select during gameplay. I know one item will take you back to the last castle you won. One upgrade is "Add Power" (パワー means power) to add HP, and one is "Add Magic" (マジック means magic) to add more Magic points.

The magic that is 16 MP will also take you back to the last castle. This is useful if you are almost dead. Use magic buy equiping it, and press the A button.

To equip your ship, simply press Start when playing and select your upgrades.

A special thing about the game is the Fuzzical mode. This is an autopilot of sorts that will avoid obstacles. I think it is useful on later stages when the screen scrolls fast and there is a ceiling and ground that show up. I actually had the Fuzzical mode on in the video because it made it more fun to play. It feels weird at first but is strangely playable. Easier than when I tried Darius II last week with my not-too-functional Mega Drive controller.

The graphics is nice and the music is well made.
To buy upgrades you sometimes have to "level grind", meaning you play a bit of a level until your HP is low, then you use a magic to go back to base, buy an upgrade, restore health, and restart the level. You restore your health by going to Inn, select the top menu item, and then chose the top item that is cheap and will restore your HP and MP.
I didn't mind grindning because I thought the game was fun to play.

If you are one of the people who read my blog posts regularly, you may know that I enjoy action games with a strategy element. That  is so that my brain will do some work and not just my reflexes, and to keep my from falling asleep by repetitive gameplay.

It is also nice with a shooter where you can keep on trying. Keep on collecting gold and buy upgrades instead of getting game over. It doesn't feel super hard either, which is nice for someone like me who is not a mad-skillz button mashing shmupper (who only plays with a custom made Seimitsu part stick).

I show a video from early gameplay only. It gets more fun later on.

And as bonus, a few days ago I also played some more Super Mario Kart ghost valley 1, to show I could beat the time I mentioned in my recent Mega Drive blog post.
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And I made another Goemon video! Now on super famicom: Gokujou Parodius. Wow, some of my favorite games Twinbee, Gradius and Goemon all in one, what a combination! But I feel that parodius is more of a joke than a game. :) I don't play it seriously.

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