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.

Moto Roader (Pc Engine)

This is a racing game for the Pc Engine where you can play up to 5 players. I think that as a top down racing game it lasts longer than the racing games you drive into the screen. It is probably a lot of fun with a multitap and a couple of friends.
Some people complain that the steering is too difficult but as you can see I quickly got used to it. Secondly, you can easily change your steering in the shop, where you select one of two different types.

This game was so much fun that I spent a couple of hours until I beat it. I had some luck, but I think that's part of the game.

When you reach the end of the screen the car respawns and you lose one on the timer. Go below zero and you are game over. 

The interesting thing is that is a lot of the game is a strategy element in how you spend your money to upgrade your car. If you start by buying a better engine, that money will have been wasted once you buy a better engine. But if you don't buy upgrades you won't win races and get more money. And you can't sell your items for money back, so chose wisely.

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At 00:18 you can see that to change steering, chose between Handle A or Handle B.
Another useful item in the shop is the Gas Tank. It will allow you to fill up the counter once during a game and it can save you from a game over.

I am the white car. In the first race I saved almost all my money but still finished second. Thanks to that, I could be the best possible engine for the second race.


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I cut out some races in between so you'll see the last heats here only. I hadn't played most of the courses before so that's why my actual driving is bad. But I won!

Different upgrades do different things. The Turbo will increase your speed but you will accelerate slower. With higher speeds you will need better brakes and tires.

You can get the game in our webshop right here: http://japanspelshop.se/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=955

Sega Saturn Racing controller

I received this huge thing from Japan, among other stuff.

So I decided to try it out. There are some 20-30 racing games on the Saturn.
First I tried Sega Rally. Sega Rally is a beloved racing game on the Saturn. It is an unusual in that it looks very standard, but the whole idea is to play every course perfect, and the steering is super sensitive. With the racing controller I was powerless, it seemed even more sensitive than a normal controller. So I was not happy with playing that

Then I tried Daytona USA. This game has more speed and is more exciting. Saturn-lovers say the steering is perfect and what great game it is, but I couldn't figure out how to break and again I felt powerless as I crashed at every turn. Not happy with that.

Next, Vatlva. This is a racing shooter in an overhead perspective. Your goal is to kill the other car. So it is more like a destruction game in a way, as Virtual On or such. The game seems like fun, but the steering wheel made it clumsy because you have to press up and down, and the wheel doesn't have up and down. Instead it has two pads on the side and it feels awkward to drive when you have to press those pads and steer, especially when you go backwards. So I give this game a fail aswell; I would rather use a controller for it.

Next I wanted to play Sega Ages: Outrun. I have always been fascinated by this game, because it was so popular on the ferry I often travelled. I never played it there.

I have the wrong model Saturn for it though. As Saturn owners might know,  the Saturn with round buttons (model 2) cannot play Outrun, Space Harrier and Metal Slug. Luckily I still have my HiSaturn Navi that I have written about earlier. The Navi has a BIOS v. 1.02 but internally I suppose it is like a model 1.
It played Outrun just fine. It is nice that I was able to make some use of this system that cost close to 1000$.

I think the Navi has too much stuff on it to look really "cool" but I will say that it looks special. It has so many buttons, relays and inputs and outputs that you wonder if it is a Saturn or what? Mine has the serial number 51100378 and I assume I have 378th console that was made, if they really only produced a few thousand. I would like to buy another one, just because having two Navis is cooler than having one Navi, and so I could see what its serial number is.

Here it is in action next to my white Saturn. The big thing behind it in white protective plastic is the special power supply it uses. I haven't bothered removing the protective plastic from it.

I played around with buttons on the Navi called "Pitch" and "Echo". With Pitch, I think you speed up and down the game. The music and sound in the game definately got a higher pitch and I assume that you speed up the game to give the music a higher pitch.

Playing Outrun with the Racing Controller worked well, but I don't know if the controller improved anything. I don't think you can make sharper turns with it. I felt that you really only turn left and right as you would with a normal controller. There are no steep left as far as I could tell.

After that, I played Manx TT Superbike. Manx is to me what a racing game should be. There is speed and there is good control. I played it for a while, I think I will give it OK rating.

Then, Sega Touring Car Championship. In this game, the car was easier to control than the Sega Rally or Daytona USA. There was also more speed. I wasn't good at it, but the controller worked fine.

I haven't yet played a racing game on the Saturn that I feel strongly about. On the GBA, I spent a couple of hours with V-Rally 3 and some other game, and on the SNES I played Drift King Shutokou Battle 2 for 10-20 hours. But on the Saturn, most games so far have been pixelated and hard to control. They have a very short story mode, sometimes none at all. Sega Rally for example only has four courses.

Well, there are many games left to try.

Doraemon Kart for Game Boy

Doraemon Kart was released only in Japan, in 1998. It is a pretty late game, at this time most games were Game Boy Color games.

The game is not very good. It has one somewhat original idea: you pick up a little power up that does something, such as giving you extra speed. The idea comes from Super Mario Kart, I assume. Maybe this is the closest we will come on the Game Boy.

There is super game boy support, but a bad one.

The game is playable even if it isn't that good. I think most Doraemon games were made for a younger audience, so don't expect any deeper strategies. 

There is at least two different ways of playing. In the first one you start as the boy, and he is a bad driver. In the second mode you can chose character, and Doraemon is a much better driver.

I don't know what the aim of the game is, but there are some different courses and I assume you should win them all. 

The game has some serious flickering and the music is just annoying. Still, I'll rate it 3/5 because I think it is playable. But you should be 7-10 years old and fancy Doraemon.

Roadster for Game Boy

Sorry about another boring review, but this is my home for Game Boy reviews at the moment.


Roadster was  only released in Japan, in October 1990. It is entirely in English and well playable. And you drive a cool car.

If you play with the Super Game Boy, you can have a nice looking red sportscar.

Else it will look like this. But it looks alright on the Game Boy Color too. You may know that you can change the color scheme on the GBC if you press different key combinations when it starts. Left+A always works.

Roadster doesn't actually have any special Super Game Boy support. The game was released long before the SGB.


How to play?
Your car has a Tire meter and a Body meter (see pic 1). When the Tire meter runs out, your car will be hard to control. Low body meter and I suspect your car might stop running. You can fix this by going into a pit stop which is goes surprisingly fast.

Your opponents are made so that they drive slower when you are behind, and faster when you are ahead. This is an unreal scenario, but I find it a good thing for a racing game.

There is a "S----G" meter that shows how far you have to the goal.

The arrows on the course will show you where to turn. That's another feature I really appreciate about a racing game, because it makes it so much friendlier to play. You don't have a map while you play, but you don't need one.

The car drives without any greater annoyance, which is otherwise often a problem with racing games. Just know that A starts your car (low gear) and B turns it to high gear.

What's the story?
You race the computer in 5 or more of courses. If you select a 5-course race, it is only 5 courses and I thought it was pretty simple to win it.

This is all the ending you get.

If you select a 10 course race, you first play the first 5 courses and then just continue with another 5 ones. Course 6 is a dirt course with stones and stuff that make you fly around, but after that they gets simpler again. Still the same ending though, if you win. It is also pretty easy to win, and the game is generous with giving you points and the opponents are nice enough to take turns winning.

If there is a different ending after a 20-course race it would be nice, such as end credits. But I actually doubt it.

The game has a 2-player mode, and there is a link cable icon on the cart. It would be  interesting to try and see if you could race your friend. I don't have two carts so I can't try.

Analysis
My verdict for this game is that I think it is fun to pick up and play. I wouldn't mind taking this game with me if I went away on some trip somewhere. But there should have been more to the story mode. You could unlock something, or have a continue function, or see a different ending depending on the character you have.

The graphics work well for this type of racing game. I don't think the game could have been improved much even if you used 64 bits (or whatever they have these days).

Had this been on a modern console, I think they would have put many different buttons to do different things: driving fast, driving slowly, look in the back mirror, breaking, hand breaking, honking, changing view, hold while turning, and what not. Roadster uses two buttons, and even that is one too many. You don't actually need the low gear button.

The music is more bad than good. Luckily the developers realized this and you can turn off the music before you start to race.

As said, the car drives without greater annoyance. I remember how annoyed I was with the similar Game Boy game Micro Machines because of how hard it is to control the small bastard cars in that game.

Thanks to the arrows, you can often win a course the first time you play it.  Despite a boring story mode, I'll give Roadster one 4/5 until I find some other fun racing games on the Game Boy.

Monster Truck for Game Boy

Game Boy games are so short, I can write a review every day.

Monster Truck was only released in Japan, in October 1990. It was released after Motocross Maniacs (Jan 1990), a game that is considered a defining racing game on the Game Boy. Personally I think it was too complicated though.

These kind of 2D from the side racing games, including Motocross Maniacs but also Excitebike on the NES/Famicom, have fared better than the 3D race-into-the-screen games (F1 Race, Mach Rider). Racing games from an above perspective are playable too (Super Sprint and Micro Machines).

Nice to see gamefaqs has pictures.

You are racing in American cities such as Anaheim, "Huston" and "Indiana Polis".

Pretty alright graphics.

A store after each course. Upgrade your engine and stuff. All in English.

I spent longest time getting stuck, trying to figure out how to pass a car in front of me. I think it took 30-45 minutes until I understood you should drive into them nose down, then change to nose up, and the car will fly up into the air. It is unrealistic.

I don't think I need to say more on how to play because it is standard racing controls.

After some 12 races and 1-2 hours, you will be declared winner and see the end credits. 

Well that's it. It wasn't very hard, but I enjoyed it while it lasted. You die if you receive a lot of damage. I had to use two continues, so if I had died once more I might have been game over.

Since I played it to the end, maybe I should give it a 4, but the gameplay is very simplistic. The music is what you can expect, it sounds like a short loop of "dudelidudli".  You might make the game more challenging if you don't buy upgrades, but that's not really a good way.

I saw that the game was reviewed in a British gaming magazine in 1991, surprisingly. So I used my google skills to download the magazine and took a screenshot of the review.

If you click the image, and it is too small, you can right click and chose "view image".

I remember that games were harder on the old "brick" game boy. That probably explains why the reviewers said the game was hard.

I will only give the game 3/5, even though I enjoyed it. But it is not a game I will remember much about, because there isn't much to remember. I agree with the first reviewer: You shouldn't spend £25 in 1991's money on this game. You can probably get it for £1 in todays money.

It was depressing to buy an expensive crappy games in those days. If you did it too often, you got tired of buying games. I think that happened to me after the unplayable (at least for a kid) Rescue of Princess Blobette. Why couldn't I have gotten Metroid II or Zelda:Link's Awakening? They gave me the discounted games, I think.