Chrontendo Episode 51

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Hey folks it's me Dr. Sparkle

back again with Episode 51 of Chrontendo

Now I'll be honest

I've actually had a pretty rough

last couple of weeks.

Those of you who follow

my Twitter account or check

the blog will know that our

dog Molly passed away recently

at the age of thirteen. And it

was all very sudden. She seemed

fine, healthy, then one day she

acted a little tired. We took her to

the vet and within a week it was -

it was all over. And she really was

an amazing dog. She discovered

breast cancer in two different people, and you

know it's really going to be

difficult without her. And then

almost immediately afterwards

my wife actually lost her wedding

ring. Not lost as in misplaced but

rather gone forever. And even

though it's only a ring she had

a great deal of attachment to it.

You sort of think of your

wedding ring as something you'll

carry with you for your entire life

and she was just so broken up

over it. But regardless Chrontendo

Episode 51 is finally done

and one last thing. I have some

changes planned for Chrontendo in

the near future. Hopefully changes

people will like. More details about

this will emerge soon. For today

we have fifteen games from late

November to early December

1989, including some US-only games.

Prepare yourself for another

Beam-devloped game. And one of the

most obscure US games

published by Nintendo. Also a couple

of military strategy games and two

very unusual RPGs, including one

from Square. So, let's get started.

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Yep, the first of two games

from November 17th, this one's from

Irem, apparently developed by Tamtex.

Gekitotsu Yonku Battle - this is the

second mini Yonku game

we've seen for the Famicom, and the

last - I think. Mini Yonku, as you

might recall, were those little

highly customizable racing cars that

were quite popular among

Japanese kids at this time

and maybe still are. We've

previously seen a Mini Yonku game

from Konami a couple months

back. That one actually

licensed the name of

Tamiya, the most popular

maker of Mini Yonku cars.

This one, however, is totally

generic. Gekitotsu Yonku

Battle is a very minor

slight game. It's a simple

top-down, arena battle

racing deal. Your object

here is to collect Teki

which you do by collecting

flags and you get flags

by destroying the other cars.

Ramming into cars will

destroy them. Getting rammed

or hitting an obstacle will

damge your car. You can see

your vehicle's health on the

bottom left there - it's

Life Meter. So the object is

to ram enough cars to generate

a flag. When this happens the

flag will show up on the main

map. You then need to rush over

to the flag, trying to

destroy cars along the

way. This will raise the

number on the flag.

When and if you flip the

flag you will get the number

of Teki as are on the

flag up to the maximum of

five. There is always the

chance that another car

will collect the flag first.

And then once you've

collected enough Teki

you win the round and

move on. And that's

actually it. Oh yeah,

there are these lame

animated scenes between

the rounds. I'd

hesitate to call these

cut scenes exactly.

So a couple points about

this game. Each round adds

to the selection of cars

you can pick but despite

some rad names like

Battle Super Sabre, the

only difference is these

sprites. The cars all function

exactly the same as far as

I can tell and there's no

customization options

or anthing like that. It's

a very simple game. There

are a few special items

you can pick up on each

level - the turbo thing

that makes you go faster

and much more importantly

a star that gives you

temporary invulnerability.

Other than that there's

really not much here

other than smashing into

cars. There are these

bonus stages where you

drive around picking up

flags for points which have

no end-game purpose other

than aiming for a

high score. And the weird

thing is, there is

no two player mode. That

would seem like a good

idea for a game like

this but I guess it would

require cutting the

screen in half. Bottom

line is, it seems like

a well-done game in

many ways but it's

just a very, very simple

one with not a whole

lot to do.

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It's been a few months

since we've seen a

Taito game's release

in Japan and this episode

we have two. First up is

Ninja Cop Saizou. Though

the Japanese version

was published by Kyugo

Boueki, the same guys

who published the Japanese

version of Air Wolf -

is this about a ninja

or about a cop? What if

I told you it was about

a cop who was also

a ninja? Well, the police

comissioner has been

working on his forearms,

as you can see here.

Apparently someone is

kidnapping some kids

and they need to find

out who. Now if this

sounds a little bit like

Shinobi, then congratulations

on your perceptiveness.

I suppose we can safely

call Ninja Cop Saizou

a ripoff. You have a lot

of enemies shooting

at you from behind

crates and things - really

the exact same mechanic

as Shinobi has used for

attacking. At a distance

you throw a dart of

some sort. Up close you

automatically switch to

a blade and you have

ninja magic as well.

Now one new feature here

is you can walk up to

the guys in red and grab

them, triggering a little

scene where you interrogate

them. This doesn't contribute

to the game as far as I

can tell, but it does

add details to the story.

In April 1990 Taito

released this to the US

under the name of

Wrath of the Black Manta.

Manta, by the way, simply

means mantle, you know

like a cape or something,

in Portuguese though I

assume the name Black Manta

is lifted from the Aquaman

character, who you might

recall from the Superfriends

cartoons and such. The

Black Manta here is no

longer a cop, he's just a

regular New York civilian

ninja. What's interesting

is if you know he's

hanging out at his home,

he's still wearing his

ninja outfit. All the

cut scenes were changed

in the US version. Actually

quite a bit in this

game has been altered.

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For the life of me, I

don't understand how the

kid left a note at the

scene of the kidnapping

saying he was being held

at the waterfront,

since obviously he was

taken to the waterfront

after he got kidnapped.

The game mechanics are

pretty much the same as

in the Japanese version.

Here you see the new

art for when you

interrogate a thug. It's

not known who's responsible

for the US version, but

they lifted a few

drawings from the

old How to Draw Comics

the Marvel Way which

was a book that Marvel

put out in the 70s, I

believe. Here is a

Mindscape game called

Infiltrator, also stole

stole an image from

that very same book.

One unique feature in

Black Manta is doors.

Tons of doors to enter.

Each door leads to

a small room either

containing a note with

a hint or a powerup

or some sort or

a few enemies. Rooms

do have one helpful

function. Killing the

enemies inside a

room restores some

of your health. In

theory, though, what

we want are the rooms

with the kidnapped kids.

Now, the art here

is rather obviously

traced from a photo

art - someone else's

drawing. I don't

know where they stole

this image from. The

bad guy's organization

is called DRAT

(Drug Runners and

Terrorists), and there

is sort of an anti-drug,

you know, cleanup of

streets theme going

on here.

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By comparison, here

is the much more

cutesy, kawaii version

of the kid in

Ninja Cop Saizou.

Here is the first boss,

his name is Tiny. Using

the shadow magic

against him which

creates a duplicate

ninja on top of you,

you can easily shoot

his head, so that

magic is quite helpful.

By contrast, here

is the Japanese version.

He's shorter, for one.

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And this is the

Japanese in-level

cut scene, whereas

the US version has a

sort of slightly more

cinematic cut scene.

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Black Manta and NInja Cop

slightly diverge in

the second level.

Manta has an air

level where you fly

a ninja kite, believe

it or not, then

a jungle scene

and some more

subterranean sunnels,

where in Ninja Cop

Saizou you have

these scenes where

you sort of jump around

in the city landscape

and find like a giant

warehouse or something.

I can't really call

Wrath of the Black Manta

a very good game.

The levels are pretty

repetitive with a few

exceptions. A lot

of time is spent

opening doors and

looking in rooms. Your

character moves slowly.

Just like Shinobi

you have to do a lot

of ducking in order

to avoid any fire,

which gets irritating

after a while. So it's

not a terrible game but

I would hesitate to

call it good.

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Ah, yes, another

entry in the who-cares

file. This was the first

of two games we have today,

published by Asmik Ace.

His logo was a cute

little dragon, and this

was developed by

Home Data, a rather

undistinguished company

whose credit to this

point included Sqoon - that

was that submarine

shoot 'em up game,

and Kanami's Astroboy

game as well as a

few other things that

you probably do not

remember.

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This is a cool intro, and

the whole mech suit

launching itself using

rails was sort of a cliche

that originated in one of

those Japanese space

cartoons. Well this is

obviously a Space Harrier

clone. You know, I like

the look of this.

Rather than going

with the checkerboard

pattern on the

ground they used

airport runways. I'm

really not sure. And the

destroyed city in the

background looks cool.

You have two

weapons - dual

laser beam things,

which you can power

up if you hold down

the fire button, and

a ball of energy

thing that is supposedly

a honing missle

but doesn't seem to

hone in on any

enemies whenever

I fired it. This

is also a 3D game.

Pressing select

activates the 3D

mode. You might

recall Nintendo sold

something called the

Famicom 3D system

which were these

electric shutter-based

3D goggles. Hardly

any games were released

for this things, but

Square put out a few

like Rad Racer

and the second

3D Worldrunner game.

I believe Comic

Epsilon is the last

game that used to

Famicom 3D system.

Nintendo obviously used

the 3D concept a

couple more times in

the future. Other than

that there's really

not much interesting in

this game. Here's the first

boss, which looks like

the thing that

dropped the bomb

in the opening cut

scene. Cosmic Epsilon

alternates between

levels that take place

in outerspace and

those that take place

on the planet's surface -

eight levels altogether.

The anime designs are

kind of cool, I guess,

but unless you can't

get enough of Space Harrier clones,

there's not much reason

to play this.

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Next up is

Terao no Dosukoi Oozumou

from Jaleco. Boy

that guy looks really

excited to be in

this game.

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Jaleco has been

really heavily leaning

on sports-type games

for quite a while

now. They didn't

really start out that

way but it seems

like they've been

almost becoming a

sports game specialist

with tons of baseball

games, bowling,

basketball. They even

did a judo game

and now a sumo

wrestling game. And

this one was of

course developed by

Tosa. And I'm not

going to go as

far to call this a sumo

RPG, but just check

this out. So you move

around on an oval

world and have random

encounters. This will

trigger a wrestling

match. Now the wrestling

is pretty simple. You

can try to smack

your opponent with your

hand or try to grab

him by his jock strap

and move him backwards.

Honestly, just smacking

the guy works pretty

well. Just use up

energy until you can

knock him out of

the ring. Another

pretty simple method

is that when you get

too close to the edge

of the ring you

can just spin him around

so that he's on the

edge and you can

hopefully try to

knock him out.

Defeating an opponent

will cause an item

to drop such as

this coin which boosts

your experience. Maybe

this really is an RPG.

Those things that look

like priestdoms are

actually sumo wrestling

gyms which are

required to make

progress throughout the

story. Here is put

in a throw move

which didn't quite push

him out but it was

close enough for me

to win the match.

Defeating the guy

in the sumo gym

gives you a pass

of some sort to board

a nearby ship which

allows you to travel

to the next island.

So it is very

Dragon Quest-like at

least in the way that

it lays out the game

world. There are also

shops that allow you

to buy new special

moves and a few items

that have uses in the

game. The objective

is to travel around

the world and beat

all the other sumo champs.

Don't expect anything

too complex. The matches

are all very simple

with very little strategy

required. This game

isn't all that bad,

and the whole sumo

angle really puts a

bit of life into what

would have been a

very routine game. So

I'm most certainly not

going to consider this

to be some kind of

unknown masterpiece

on Famicom, but it's

better than I thought

it was going to be.

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Our third game from

November 24th is

Vegas Connection from

Sigma Enterprise and

developed by Graphic

Research. Now there's a

Story Mode and Casino Mode

listed here. And I'll get

this straightaway off

my chest - I could

not get the Story Mode

to work. It looks like

you are just supposed to

select a save spot

and enter your name

just like you would

do in every other game

but I could not

select any of the

three spaces. The

Story Mode definitely

exists. I found evidence

of that on the Internet

but maybe you have to

unlock it somehow by

earning it on Casino

Mode, I'm really not sure.

Maybe the ROM is defective,

I don't know. So much

for the Story Mode, but

the actual gambling

parts of the game are

basic. I like how

they animated the

falling coins. That's

a nice touch.

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So three games. That's

all you get. Slots,

roulette, and blackjack.

Now I really don't

understand the point

of these games. First

of all, slots and roulette

are purely luck games

and seem pretty much

pointless to me. With

the slot machines game

you get to choose

the number of lines you

want, and you can get

jackpots on horizontal,

vertical, and diagonal

matches if you like, and this

costs more coins to play

naturally. So basically

you just pull the lever.

Pretty exciting. Maybe

you'll win some imaginary

money. Roulette is

just plain old roulette.

Put some chips down,

the wheel spins.

You know I guess I

can't really criticize

Stigma that much, putting

out a generic casino game,

but this is really

very, very no-frills.

I'm guessing the Story

Mode version would get

more interesting.

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And finally Blackjack,

a game which requires

at least some basic

decision-making skills

and luck. They threw in

a cute lady dealer

in this one, so I

guess this is probably

the best game of

the three. Bottom line,

this is a completely

unnecessary addition

to the Famicom

library unless the

Story Mode is somehow

actually good.

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Oh boy, the last Famicom

disk system game

of 1989. Lutter, published

by Athena, which is

a pretty small company,

and of which we

have only seen one

game so far. I have

no idea what the name

Lutter is supposed to

mean. It's not any obvious

mistransliteration

of an English word

as far as I can tell.

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So, Lutter is not

the most beautiful

game ever on the

Famicom. In fact,

it looks downright

archaic for 1989

standards. This sure

feels like a Japanese

computer game, maybe

something pulled from

the MSX, but I actually

couldn't find any

evidence online of this

being a copy. Lutter

is also a game that

seems kind of baffling

the first time you load

it up without any sort

of knowledge about

how it is played. It

looks like Lode Runner,

but without the ability

to dig holes and pressing

the buttons just brings

up windows including

a whole bunch of RPG-style

stats. So sure, this looks

worthless, but once

you figure it out it's

really not that bad.

Lutter is divided up

into several castles,

each with multiple rooms.

And the boss you must

fight at the end. The

objective is simply

to make your way through

the castle to the boss

room which will require

you finding keys, opening

up new areas, getting

items that will allow

you to access new parts

of the castle. When you

put it that way, Lutter

sounds almost like a

primitive Metroidvania

game. There are also

RPG elements. You have

levels, stats, and

equippable items. You

actually fight enemies

directly simply by

running right into them.

There's no button-pressing

required. The enemies

seem to do considerably

more damage to you if

you let them walk into

you or if they land on

your head. For the most

part though, if you don't

screw up you'll easily

kill enemies and eventually

level up, raising your

stats. In the early

levels, the castle

layout is quite simple.

You can sometimes

move freely from

room to room and

in other cases you'll

need to find a key

that will remove an

obstruction, or use an

item that fills a gap

in the floor allowing

you to cross over it.

There isn't any sort

of jumping in Lutter,

though you can fall

off platforms to land

on the platform below

unarmed. You can also

find armor and weapons

in these rather

ugly-looking chest things.

Any equipment is actually

equipped as soon as

you open the chest,

so while Lutter has

RPG elements, it doesn't

feel like an RPG with

the battles, leveling up,

equipment management,

all that stuff, is

done automatically

and you can pretty

much just ignore the

RPG stuff completely.

Likewise, the fact

that there's no attack

button or jump button

makes this feel very

out of place on the

Famicom. And from the

similarities to Loderunner

the game will remind you

a lot of ASCII's

Castlequest known as

Castle Excellent in

Japan, another really

ancient game in 1986.

We covered that in

Chrontendo Episode 12.

It also lacks the

satisfaction of a good

Metroid video game. From

what I played there really

isn't a sense of surprise

or exploration. It feel

almost more like a puzzle

game and the first

boss is way easier than

you might think it

would be. Overall, this

is a pretty fascinating

game, way more interesting

than I would assume that

a late-period FDS game

from a very minor

publisher would actually

be. So it's definitely

worth a look.

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Hey, you know what

I could really use

right about now? A

totally unnecessary

golf game developed

by Tosa. Here we have

Golf-kko Open,

published by Taito.

This rather cute and

charming intro ends

with you sort of

killing this dude with

a golf ball and then

teeing up while

standing on his

body. Look at this

guy, he's not getting

up again. So the

game itself starts

with you choosing your

golf clubs and then

getting assigned a caddy.

This is your caddy

here. You can ask your

caddy for advice and

from what I understand,

this caddy's advice

is not particularly

helpful. Reading about

this online, this

seemed to be a common

criticism among Japanese

folks who had played

it. So this is you

standard eighteen holes

of golf - pretty much

a bare-bones golf

video game. If anything,

the control scheme `

is simpler than most

games. There doesn't

appear to be any gimmicks

here, or really anything

to distinguish this

from the several other

dozen Famicom golf

games other than the

relatively clean, simple

yet pleasant graphics.

We have sort of

eached the point

in the Famicom's

library where we have

just seen so much

of this kind of thing

already and in this

point what more can

we expect from a

golf game? There have

been a tiny handful

of titles that have done

something interesting with

the concept, but most

of them are just like

this - just pay Tosa

to play the game, put

a cute cartoon on the box

art, and some people

will buy it. So that pretty

much wraps up Golf-kko

Open. Let's move onto

the next game.

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The last Japanese game

of November 1989 and

it's the one you've been

waiting for - or not.

It's a weird one though,

Square's Tom Sawyer.

The title screen reads

Square No Tom Sawyer,

though the box art does

have the text 'Square's

Tom Sawyer' across the

top. So this is an

RPG based on Tom Sawyer,

and is incredibly the

second Tom Sawyer

Famicom game of 1989.

the first, which is called

The Adventures of Tom

Sawyer, was published by

SETA, and came out in

February. It was more of

a typical action game.

We covered it in

Chrontendo Episode 42.

This game was of course

released in Japan only,

though there was an

old translation started

some years ago and

we now have a partial

translation from some

guys going under the

name D Manufacturer.

Only the first part of

the game is translated

so far but it will

give us a good feel

for the game. So Square's

Tom Sawyer is an RPG,

albeit a rather unusual

one. First of all, rather

than your typical top-down

viewpoint, we have this

three-quarters side view,

and there's so overworld

at all. You move around

entirely on pads that

mostly run left to

right with occasional

intersections that let

you move up or down

one screen. The way this

world is laid out kind

of reminds me of Capcom's

Willow game. The world

is divided into two

types of areas - towns,

where you can talk to

people, enter some

buildings, and where there

are no enemies. Outisde

of towns you'll find

areas where there are

few or no NPCs and you

are randomly attacked

by enemies. These areas

are usually woods, swamps,

and at least in one

case a city. These

outside-of-town areas

sort of act like the

overworld of most

Famicom RPGs. You can

travel through them to

reach a new town or

find an item that moves

the plot forward. In

the first town you talk

to a few NPCs. You get

a few items, can collect

two other party members,

Jim and Amy. JIm,

of course, has had a

much bigger role in

Tom Sawyer's sequel,

The Adventures of

Huckleberry Finn, and

Amy is one of Tom's

girlfriends. The main

female character from

Tom Sawyer, Becky, also

makes appearances in

the game but cannot be

a party member. Tom

Sawyer is sort of an odd

game. It really

doesn't adhere to

RPG conventions of the

time. There are a

number of items

in the game, but these

are either one-use

items you use to fill

your health or something,

or are simply used to

advance the storyline.

There are no weapons

or armor. Neither is there

money or experience

points. You do have

some basic stats

such as attack, defense,

and quickness. You also

have hit points, and

you can level up

sort of when you rest.

For example, you

can rest at Tom's home

in the first village. This

increases your hit points,

attack, and so on. But

for the most part,

traditional RPG mechanics

are not used in Tom

Sawyer. Battles are

also played out very

strangely. The Final

Fantasy side-by-side

view is dropped here

and instead you have

this over-the-shoulder,

Fantasy Star II perspective,

but the enemies are way

off in the distance, and

you run towards the

horizon, in order to

attack them. Likewise, they

jump and land right in

front of your party to

attack you. There's no

magic in this game,

but you do have

what this particular

translation calls

Tech, which does more

damage. You can also

use items in battle,

but for the most part

combat is much

simpler in Tom Sawyer than

it is in, for example,

Final Fantasy. It

mostly consists of

hitting the attack button

over and over again.

Your initial objective

is to make your way

through the swamps,

north of Tom's hometown,

in order to find Huck.

You'll need to give him

a piece of bread in order

to recruit him. He'll

fill out the fourth

slot in your party. At

this point you can go

forward with a full party

pretty much at all times,

and you can also find

new party members and

replace existing ones if

you choose. So Tom Sawyer

feels very different from

previous RPGs like

Final Fantasy I and II.

It was produced by

Hiromichi Tanaka, a

long-time Square employee

who later produced the

Secret Manna, Xenogears,

and Chrono Cross. He was

also the main designer

of Final Fantasy XI

and XIV. Afterwards,

he retired. The music was

made by Lamatsu and

is quite excellent.

Square's Tom Sawyer

marks the end of

the era of old Square

in that it was the last

Japanese game published

by Square before switching

completely to fantasy-themed

RPGs. Square made games

of various genres up

until this, after which

they focused exclusively

on Final Fantasy and

similar RPGs for the

next decade, up until

I believe Front Mission

in 1995 and that wasn't

actually developed by

Square themselves. Square

did release Rad Racer 2

of course, but that was

created specifically

for the US market due

to the popularity or Rad

Racer over here and it

was never released in

Japan. Due to its lack of

a full English translation,

Tom Sawyer is one of

Square's most little

known RPGs in the west.

If anything, it's known

here almost exclusively

for the shocking

offensive portrayal

of Jim. This was pretty

typical of Japan in

the 1980s. They had a

fascination with crude

racial stereotypes

of black people at this

time. You'll recall

last episode we mentioned

the band Rats & Star,

who literally performed

in blackface. Things

have changed quite a

bit since 1989 in Japan,

but at the time, this

was the sort of thing

that was pretty much

accepted over there.

Here we have your

first boss battle. Beating

these guys gives you

the pendent, which is

used to obtain the

license from Becky, which

allows you to get

some guy blocking

your way later in

the game to move.

Eventually you'll make

your way to the final

area, which is acave,

and fight the final boss,

who is Injun Joe. While

this is certainly not

Square's best Famicom

game, it is an intriguing

look at Square exploring

a very different

direction than they

took in the 90s. Once

the new translation is

complete, this will

probably be worth

your time to check

out.

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Before we move on

to December 1989,

we need to finish up a

few US and Europe-only

releases, starting with

one of the most obscure

NES titles published

by Nintendo themselves.

This is To the Earth.

The intro's pretty good.

The story here is that

an alien invasion force

is unleashing a biological

weapon on Earth and

for some reason there's

an antidote but it's

on Neptune, so we have

to fly the antidote all

the way to the Earth,

which explains the title

of the game. You are

literally going to the

Earth. First, however,

you must go to Uranus.

Couple things about this

game. First of all, it's

clearly a zapper game -

one of the last

zapper-based games, the

very last being another

forgotten published game

in 1990. There were a few

later games where using

the zapper was optional

in some spots, however.

Second, it has a

reputation for being

very face-paced and

difficult. All of the

ships move very quickly

and are hard to hit.

However, on emulater

it is virtually impossible.

It's hard to hit anything

when using an emulater,

so I could not get

anywhere. You lose energy

when you fire and miss

an enemy, which makes

it really tough since

it's so easy to miss

when you're playing

via emulation. The third

thing about the game

is we don't know who

made it. Nintendo had

released a couple games

specifically for the US

market that were not

localizations of Japanese

games, but these were

all developed by Rare.

To the Earth clearly isn't

a Rare game, and the

name Cirque Verte was

found in the copyright

records, though we have

no idea who Cirque

Verte is. GDRI speculates

there might be some

connection with Locomotive,

the company that helped

develop the StarTropics,

but there's really no

concrete evidence for

this. To the Earth

appears to be basically

disowned by Nintendo.

It's never been released

in any form as far

as I know. Even Donkey

Kong Jr. Math got a

console release. So

definitely among the

forgotten, Nintendo-published

NES games.

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The last thing anyone

wants to see this

episode is a Mindscape

game, especially one

developed by Beam.

Unfortunately, we are

forced to deal with 720

degrees. Prepare to be

amazed by Beam's

programming skills

in one second.

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Yeah, that music. But

things were made as

quickly and cheaply

as possible, so

we can't expect

Castlevania here. Now

this is the third

Mindscape game we've

seen, the first two

also being part of

the Atari arcade games.

Namely, Paper Boy and

Indiana Jones and the

Temple of Doom. Those

were done by Tengen.

Beam is the Australian

company responsible for

Back to the Future and

Three Stooges for the

NES. 720 degrees is

pretty similar to Skate

or Die. You compete

in a series of skating

events wit some being

pretty much the same

in both games - just

doing tricks on the

half-pipe. There is one

big difference, though.

In 720 degrees, you can

roam around freely in

what's either a skate

park or just a large

public square that

just happens to have

lots of ramps and things.

If you explore the edges

and corners you will

find there is entrances

to competitions as

well as shops to buy

better equipment. Now

this particular game

design element seemed

pretty fresh when 720

first hit arcades in 1986.

While the NES port isn't

fondly remembered, the

arcade game was pretty

popular at the time.

Unlike earlier games

like Track and Field,

which just dropped

you right into each

event, you could sort of

start the game by

goofing off and just

kind of cruising around

the game world before

entering the actual

skating events. You

could practice tricks,

search for money,

and just goof off. It

has an appeal similar

to today's open world

sandbox games like

Grand Theft Auto. Of

course, this was designed

to eat quarters, so

an angry swarm of

killer bees would come

after you if you spent

too much time messing

around. Killer bees

are something that

was much talked about

back in the 80s.

So they never really

did arrive in great

numbers in California and

kill everyone like we

thought they were going

to back then. Now

playing on emulator

is tricky since it has

this circular rotating

joystick, which you

use to control the

direction your skateboard

pointed in. Also, the

sound track, art design,

and even the cabinet

design made it really

stand out at the

arcades. Unfortunately,

exactly 0% of the appeal

was transferred over to

the NES port. Visually,

it completely lacks the

style of the original.

Erratic skater dude is

replaced with some dumb

kid, the music is lame,

and it lacks the wild

80s street-culture feel

of the original. For

example, let's compare

the music of this event

in both versions.

techno game music

regular game music

So 720 has a grand

total of four thrilling

events to compete

in - the downhill skating

event, which we just saw,

the Slalom event, which

is uncannily easy. I

somehow got the goal

the first time I got

it without knowing exactly

what I was doing. The

half-pipe, which 720

calls the ramp. This is

pretty much impossible

compared to the Slalom.

I tried multiple times to

get any sort of medal and

failed. You need to pull

off a sort of keypad and

button press combination

to do tricks while up

in the air. I could

occasionally do a trick

but never really come

close to anything

consistent. This is like

landing the play

in Top Gun. It requires

precise timing which

can only be discovered

accidentally. And lastly,

we have the Jump, which

is actually a single

downhill jump after

a downhill ramp. You

were supposed to do

tricks while in the air.

Not too tough to

get some kind of medal.

So as far as arcade

ports go, 720 is pretty

terrible. It doesn't

really add anything to

the arcade game, which

was only designed to

take about ten minutes

at a time. Two events

can be mastered almost

immediately, and one

event requires quite

a bit of work to get

any good at at all, so

it's certainly not very

well-balanced. The arcade

game's main gimmick,

that is the circular

joystick movement, can't

be replicated here, and

it doesn't really feel

anything like the

original. Overall, it's

not very fun.

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One final US-only title

for November - it's

Tetris. This is the

fourth version of Tetris

for the Nintendo console

that we've seen so far.

Back in December 1988

the Japanese version of

Tetris was released from

Bulletproof Software. Then

in May 1989 there was

the ill-fitted US version

from Tengen. We've covered

the whole debacle over

Tetris rights and Tengen's

Tetris back in Chrontendo

Episode 45. We also

briefly looked at the

extremely successful

Gameboy Tetris, once

again developed by

Bulletproof Software,

and today we look at

the final version of the

original Tetris game

for the NES. This is the

Nintendo-published port

that the Tengen version

would have been competing

with had Nintendo not

quashed its release.

This was developed

internally by Nintendo,

it seems, and it's okay.

There's two modes -

regular mode and also

the second mode which

probably no one ever

plays. There's three music

tracks and there's

really nothing wrong

with Nintendo's Tetris.

However, pretty much

everyone agrees that

Tengen's Tetris is

better. It has two-player

mode, co-op and versus,

more music tracks, it's

simply a nicer game.

Nintendo's Tetris is

just plain old Tetris.

I guess there's nothing

wrong with that, but

it is presented as

pretty much a bare-bones

release. It plays very

well, and if the Tengen

Tetris never existed

then I guess this would

be considered an NES

classic. But unfortunately

it ended up being both

a really great game

and something of a

disappointment at the

same time.

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December 1989 here at

last. Let's kick this off

with a little game called

Conflict. That's a nice

flicker effect here.

So tanks, helicopters,

and jets. What kind of

game is this? A Commando

Clone? A vertical

shoot 'em up? No, it's

actually a military strategy

game, more or less

in the style of Military

Madness.

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There are options for

one or two players and

you can choose if

you want to be limited

to moving three units

per turn as opposed

to being able to move

all your units. There's a

stage select screen,

difficulties headings,

and of course the actual

game itself. Not exactly

super pretty-looking.

The Conflict was released

in the US as well in

the mid 1990s, so

let's take a closer look.

There are two sides,

rather creatively called

blue and red. And you

have your typical

hex-based maps. There's

forests, mountains, and

so on, each of which

will hamper movement

or increase your defense.

There's also cities

and airports which heal

or technically resupply

your units. Those

ugly-looking blue boxes

are factories, which

construct new units.

This uses something the

game calls fame points.

It shows your fame

points when you open

up the command menu,

so here for example

I have five thousand.

Fame points are earned

for doing good stuff

like winning battles

and are lost by losing

battles or even worse,

fleeing from battles.

Everything in this game

sort of revolves

around fame points. As

with all these type

of games, there's a

rock, paper, scissors

element here with certain

units being strong

against some types and

weak against others.

Anti-aircraft guns are

good against planes, for

example, while planes tend

to be good against ground

forces. Now I don't know

if I'd call Conflict

deep, but it does require

a certain amount of

investment to play.

There's quite a few

units that have been

mostly given numbers

for names, like F15s,

A27s, and F23s. There's

a lot of aircraft - nine

types altogether -

compared to three tanks

and two infantry type

forces. Units also

have more than one way

to attack. There's a

primary and secondary

type weapon on these

things. There's a

number of defensive

options, none of which

are intuitively named.

This jet, for example, has

turn, swing, accelerate,

descend, and look. You

definitely need to get

a copy of the manual

or FAQ in order to figure

out how to play this

thing. Here I swung when

I think I should have

accelerated or descended.

Conflict was published

by Vic Takai and I'm

not sure who developed

it. As I mentioned,

it's kind of an

ugly-looking game, and I

hate those rectangular

boxes that your units

appear in. It's sort of

hard to distinguish one

unit from the other

just by the graphics

so they've added text

to the boxes which

unfortunately is kind

of laid right on top

of the graphics, making

it somewhat hard to

read. In other ways,

however, Conflict

is pretty slick. The

animation is actually

pretty cool in this

box. Conflict seems

overall okay. I'd

probably pick Famicom

Wars over this if you

were looking for a fun

military strategy game,

however.

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Hey folks, how would

you feel if I told you

that today we have a

game from the publishers

of Super Monkey Daibouken

but what if this game

was developed by a

company that was one of

the developers who

warped on Mother and

EarthBound. Would you

feel confused, conflicted?

Well good, so now you

know how I feel. This is

Tao, published by VAP

and developed by Pax

Softnica who worked on

several games for NIntendo

such as Volleyball, Ice

Hockey, Mother, and a few

other the Nintendo FDS

adventure games. They

also did some boring

stuff from VAP, mainly

a baseball game and

a badminton game. I

could tell you the names

of those games, but I

guarantee you would not

remember them and

neither can I. Tao was

never released outside

of Japan, but we have

a translation which makes

it playable but perhaps

not completely

understandable. This is

some deep stuff, man.

Okay, so you are the

red guy. Tao is very much

in the mode of the

traditional Dragon

Quest-style RPG, at least

visually, at first glance.

We've seen this so

many times, we know

what to do. You go

around town, talk to

people, check out the

shops, talk to the

main dude who explains

your quest. Except Tao

doesn't really have

you do any of that stuff.

In fact, the concept

behind Tao appears to

be: What if we had an

RPG that was nothing but

fetch quests? Or at

least that's what the

game felt like the

time that I played it.

As you'll see it's a

very odd game. As

you walk around town,

you'll find the typical

collection of NPCs

who say stupid stuff

to you. There's a meteor

crash site where a bunch

of researchers dug up

a mysterious artifact.

There's a train station

and a helicopter pad,

neither of which can

be used at this point.

There's a temple which

mostly has a lot of

monks inside, who gab

about nothing particularly

useful, but instead

discuss various religious

matters. Tao has a

religious theme, as

the name might suggest,

and we get a lot of

talk about Buddhist

themes in the first

village. Later towns have

different religious

beliefs. The first

incident of sorts

really occurs when you

first exit the village

and find this old

lady who demands you

carry her back to

the temple. Upon entering

the temple, she turns

into a demon and

steals some sacred

items. Now at this

point you can move

on to the second village.

The method of transport

is a giant dinosaur that

you ride, which seems

completely out of

place with the rest

of the game. And

again, everyone here is

obsessed with religion

and there's a giant

cathedral and folks

talking about lost pigs

and stuff. One thing you

won't find in either

village is any typical

RPG stuff. There's no

shops, inns, equipment,

guys who teach you

magic, any of that stuff.

There's also no overworld,

per say, just these

little paths outside

the villages which have

a couple buildings

you can visit. You

fight your first enemy

battle here, and again

it doesn't really follow

typical RPG protocol

at all. Rather than

selecting from the menu,

you simple hit the A

button over and over

again, slowly draining

the enemy's health

bar. In a way, this game

takes the Dragon Quest XVII

approach to RPGS. It

takes quite a while

before you actually get

your first battle.

I didn't really encounter

any random enemies

until I reached the

fourth town and there's

only six towns. So six

towns, no overworld,

what is there to do

in this game, you might

wonder. Mostly travel

back and forth from the

same six towns over and

over again, talking to

people which will

occasionally unlock

new events, and occasionally

fighting a boss of

sorts. What's irritating

about all the travel

is it's always done

by trains, which is

linear. So to get

from town four to

town one, you take a

trip from town four

to town three, then

a second train ride

from town three to

town two, and then from

town two back to town

one. I assume the

helicopter eventually

unlocks and lets you

travel directly to any

town using a helipad.

And even though this is

called an RPG, it feels

more like an adventure

game that has sort of

been awkwardly forced

into behaving like

an RPG. You mostly

progress by wandering

around talking to

people attempting

to move the plot forward,

though calling it a plot

is perhaps a bit generous.

There isn't even any

experience points or

stats. You do get money

from winning battles,

but money is mostly used

to pay for the nonstop

train trips that the

game requires. There are

a few things you can

spend it on, however,

later in the game.

In conclusion, Tao is

a pretty strange game.

It looks like an RPG,

but playing it sort of

feels like wandering

around talking to NPCs.

Its subject matter

and strangeness might

appeal to you, but

actually playing it

feels like a pretty empty

experience.

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This is a reasonably

decent intro here. From

Pack-in-video we have

Mirai Senshi Rios.

Also transliterated as

Mirai Senshi Lios. It

was released on December 1,

the same day as Conflict,

which was significant

because both games

are military strategy

games. Though while

Conflict is sort of based

on real-world combat -

it features tanks and

jet planes - Mirai Senshi

Lios is pure fantay and

exists in a world of

RPG castles and anime-

style giant robots,

sometimes called Mechs

by the geekerati.

The good news is

that we have an English

translation by Aon

Genesis no less. I

guess your character

Lios is a prince or some

such nonsense. I

mentioned that this

is a military strategy game

but it's really more

like a tactical RPG

in some ways. The

tactical RPG as we know

it didn't really quite

exist yet, but it's

definitely a different

style of game than say

Conflict. There's a

certain amount of RPG

style customization here,

something not found in

many, if any, of the

tradidional military

game we've encountered.

You have multiple types

of Leg and Arms that

you can equip. These

affect your stats,

the speed over which

you can traverse

different types of

terrain, your weight

point meaning how much

weight you can hold.

It's all very complicated.

You move around on

an overworld and

encounter enemies on

each square. Some

squares will contain

a special weapon or

piece of equipment

while others contain

nothing of interest.

Battles are turn-based.

By default you control

the commander directly.

The commander is the

most powerful unit

and is the one that we

were choosing the

equipment for earlier.

The other units move

automatically but are

controlled using a few

different options. For

example, there's Attack,

Assault, All-Out Assault,

Cover, and so on. Just

like with Conflict you

can sort of study up

on what these commands

actually do. For example,

Attack has the unit

move towards the enemy

commander but will

attack any other units

it comes in contact

with along the way,

while All-Out Assault

will head towards the

enemy commander and/or

the enemy's shuttle,

but not attack any

of the regular units.

There's a total of eight

different army commands,

or you can simply choose

manual, which lets

you directly control

your unit instead. And

another little twist:

you have a shuttle which

resupplies your units.

It's a thing that looks

kind of like a mini

space shuttle. You

don't have to move

it around manually.

You select which unit

you want to resupply.

Then it flies off and

turns automatically.

You can supply one unit

per turn. The object

here is to destroy the

other team's commander

as well as their shuttle.

Once you win the battle,

you turn to the overworld

and proceed. It's

a creative and pleasant

looking little game,

and one that definitely

takes a different road

than the other military

games we've seen so

far. It did feel a little

slow-moving and tedious

to me, possibly because

when the units attack

each other they seem

to miss a lot, but it

definitely might

interest some of you.

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Okay, the last game

this episode and we

are still stuck on

December 1st. From

Kemco it's Hostages:

the Embassy Mission,

a rather strange game.

Note the credit to

Infogrames, we'll come

back to that later.

Pretty sick sound track

as well. However, most

folks watching this will

know it by it's

American title 'Rescue:

the Embassy Mission'.

Not sure why the name

was changed. Maybe

hostages seemed a

little too violent for

a game bearing the

Nintendo Seal of Quality?

Now I mentioned this

was a strange game and

here's the thing:

it's incredibly short

for this sort of game.

While you can't really

assign a length - something

like 720 degrees, Hostage

is an action game with

three different levels, and

it only takes around seven

to eight minutes or

so to play through the

entire thing. I just

released a so-called

long-play video for

this thing, and the

entire video including

opening, cut scenes,

credits - everything

was seven minutes. That

was on regular difficulty

and I was playing

through it as fast as

I can, but still

that's really not much

of a game. And keep

in mind I've never

even heard of this

game until now, and

when I finished it

for the first time, my

clear time, the actual

time playing the action

portions, not including

the menus and those

kinds of things, was

less than five and a

half minutes. So this

is a forty dollar game

that you can easily

beat in less than fifteen

minutes. Now there's

harder difficulty levels

and the message that

you get at the end

is different if for

example none of your

team members get

killed, but there's really

not a whole lot of

replay value to this,

at least as an adult

there's not much. So

as I mentioned, there's

just three sections.

The first is where you

run along a little

stretch of Embassy

wall, and avoid the

searchlight by lying

on the ground or hiding

in a doorway or doing

this rolling jump thing.

Really not that much

to it. if you die the

next guy of your

three-member team

gets to go. And if

you wanted to reduce

your time on this

you'd get one guy

all the way through

safely and then get

the other two quickly

killed. The second

section is a brief

sniping sequence.

So for each of the

team members that

made it through the

first section you can

use them to shoot

guys in the windows

with a sniper rifle.

There are nine windows

in all. There are

terrorists that sort

of move around on each

floor and when you

see them you can shoot

them. If all three

team members are alive

you can do this three

times - put each one

on a different side of

the Embassy building.

Or you can skip the

whole thing. The game

doesn't require you

to shoot anyone and

doing so doesn't really

seem to have that

much impact on the

next section at all.

At least, once again,

not on regular difficulty.

On a higher difficulty

there's a lot more

terrorists in the

building so I guess

it might be somewhat

convenient to take

out a few of them

before going in.

Probably the hardest

part in this game

is right here, repelling

down the walls. This

is done by alternating

between pressing up

and down on the D

pad. Slowly lower

yourself to a window

and then you can sort

of break through the

window and enter the

Embassy building. Once

inside, you simple need

to kill all the terrorists.

Now it might come as

no surprise based on

the modular game

design and the robotic

gameplay, but Hostages:

the Embassy Mission was

originally a European

computer game called

simple 'Hostages',

published by Infogrames

and developed by a

Spanish company called

New Frontier. It was

released on everything

from Commodore 64 to

ZX Spectrum to MSX, but

I believe that the Atari

ST and Amigo versions

were the first versions

of this game, being

released in 1988. Aside

from somewhat better

graphics and sound, the

ST and Amigo versions

are almost exactly the

same as the NES version.

If anything, the computer

versions seem slightly

shorter, as they

appear to have fewer

terrorists to hunt

down in the last stage.

So as I mentioned,

the last section simply

involves going through

each of the Embassy's

three floors and shooting

the terrorists. I

suppose they hypothetically

shoot back at you,

but they don't really

seem to pose any danger

at least in the easy

or regular difficulty

level settings. They

are a bit quicker

on their toes on the

hard difficulty setting.

So really what we're

doing here is just

looking at the map on

the left and making

sure we enter every

room with a dot in it

and then shooting any

bad guys. As crazy

as it seems, the

computer version's got

pretty good reviews

from some game magazines.

A lot of people really

seemed to like the

game when they were

kids, which makes

sense because kids

often like really

repetitive games. So

while this has its

defenders, it's sort

of shocking how little

content Hostages has,

especially for an NES

game that cost like

forty or so dollars

back in 1990.

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Alright, that wraps

up another episode.

Ah, what a horrible

selection of games.

Best game this episode -

I don't know. They're

all really not that

great. Maybe Tetris.

I mean there's a lot

of okay games that I

can't really get excited

about. Lutter was kind

of cool. I think I'll

take a pass on this one.

Worse game... maybe

720 degrees. It was

pretty terrible, though

there ought to be

some kind of mention

of Hostages, the

English edition, just

for being so short.

Well, I am now pleased

to inform you that we

have actual great

games coming up. Yes,

I can assure you that

in the next three episodes,

each episode will have

one of those classic

games, the ones

that you guys have been

waiting for, and there's

even more great stuff

coming up after

that as well. So the

good game drought

is pretty much over,

temporarily. Episode 52

will have an influential

Japan-only title from

Capcom, which just got

a new improved translation.

So keep your eyes peeled

for Episode 52 soon and

thanks for watching!