Chrontendo Episode 51

# Dr. Sparkle Presents

# Chrontendo Title Sequence

# Introduction to Chrontendo Episode 51

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 13.

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
gonna' 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.

Um...

More details about this
will emerge soon.

For today we have 15 games

from late November
to early December 1989,

including some U.S.-only games.

Prepare yourself for another
Beam-developed game

and one of the most obscure U.S.
games published by Nintendo.

Also a couple [of]
military-strategy games

and two very unusual R.P.G.s,
including one from Square.

So, let's get started.

# Gekitotsu Shiku Battle

Yep, the first of two games
from November 17th,

this one's from IREM, though
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, uh,

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 damage your car.

You can see your vehicle's
health on the, uh, bottom left there

- it's the Life meter.

So the object is to ram
enough cars to generate a flag.

When this happens the flag
will show up on the mini 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 collect a flag

you will get the number of Teki
as were on the flag,

up to a maximum of five.

There is always a chance

that another car might
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're...

there are these lame animated
scenes between the rounds.

I...

I hesitate to call
these cutscenes, 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 the sprites.

The cars all function exactly
the same, as far as I can tell,

and there's no sort of

customization options
or anything 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 in-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: It... 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.

# Ninja Cop Saizou // Wrath of the Black Manta

It's been a few months

since we've seen any Taito
games released 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 "Airwolf").

Is this about a ninja
or about a cop?

What if I told you it was about
a cop who was also a ninja?

The police commissioner has, uh,
been working on his forearms,

as you can see here.

Apparently, someone is
kidnapping some kids

and you 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 "Shinobi" ripoff.

You have a lot of enemies shooting
at you from behind crates and things.

Really the exact same mechanic
as "Shinobi" is used for attacking:

at a distance, you, uh, 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 impact the game,
as far as I can tell,

but it does fill in, you know,
the details of the story.

In April 1990 Taito
released this in the U.S.

under the name of
"Wrath of the Black Manta".

'Manta', by the way,
simply means 'mantle'

(you know like a... 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
'Super Friends' cartoons and such.

The 'Black Manta' here
is no longer a cop;

he's just a regular
New York City civilian ninja.

What's interesting is that even
while he's hanging out at his home,

he's still wearing
his ninja outfit.

All the cutscenes were
changed for the U.S. version.

Actually, quite a bit
in this game has been altered.

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 U.S. 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.

Curiously, a Mindscape game
called "Infiltrator",

also 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

containing either
a note with a hint,

or a powerup of some sort,
or a few enemies.

Rooms do have one
helpful function.

Killing the enemies inside will
restore 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

or someone else's drawing;

I don't know where they
stole this image from.

The bad guys' organization

is called DRAT
(Drug Runners And Terrorists),

and there is sort of
an anti-drug, you know,

'clean up the streets'
theme going on here.

By comparison,

here's the, uh, much more cutesy,
kawaii version of the kid

in, uh, "Ninja Cop Saizou".

Here's the first boss;
his name is 'Tiny'.

Using the shadow magic against him

(which creates, like, a duplicate
ninja on top of you)

you can easily shoot his head,
so that magic is quite helpful.

By contrast, here's
the Japanese version.

He's shorter, for one.

And this is the Japanese
end-of-the-level cutscene,

whereas the U.S. version

has a, uh, sort of slightly
more cinematic cutscene.

"Black Manta" and "Ninja Cop Saizou"
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 tunnels,

whereas in, uh, "Ninja Cop Saizou"
you have these scenes where you,

sort of, jump around
in a city landscape

and then 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,

[and] your character moves slowly.

Just like "Shinobi"

you have to do a whole lot of ducking
in order to avoid enemy fire,

which gets irritating after a while.

So it's not a terrible game but
I would hesitate to call it good.

# Cosmic Epsilon

Ah, yes, another entry in
the "Who gives a s---?" file:

"Cosmic Epsilon".

This was the first of
two games we have today,

published by Asmik Ace, whose
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, uh, submarine
shoot-'em-up game)

and Konami's 'Astro Boy' game

as well as a few other things
which you probably do not remember.

This is a cool intro and,
if I'm not mistaken,

the whole mech suit
launching itself using rails

was sort of a cliche
that originated in

one of those d---
Japanese space cartoons.

Well, this is obviously
a "Space Harrier" clone.

You know,
I like the look of this.

I mean, 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 homing missile

but which really didn't seem
to home 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 thing,

but, uh, Square put out
a few: "Rad Racer"

and the second
'3D Worldrunner' game.

I believe "Cosmic Epsilon"

is the last game that
used the 3D system.

Nintendo would obviously

return to the 3D concept a
couple times in the future.

Other than that

there's really not much
interesting about this game.

Here's the first boss,
which looks like the thing

that dropped the bomb
in the opening cutscene.

"Cosmic Epsilon"

alternates between levels
that take place in outer space

and those that take place
on a planet's surface

- eight levels altogether.

The enemy designs are
kinda' cool, I guess,

but unless you really

can't get enough of
"Space Harrier" clones,

there's not much
reason to play this.

# Terao no Dosukoi Oozumou

Next up is
"Terao no Dosukoi Oozumou"

from Jaleco.

Boy!

That guy looks really
excited to be in this game.

You know, 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 getting...

almost becoming, like,
a sports game specialist

with tons of baseball games,
bowling, basketball.

They did a judo game and
now a sumo-wrestling game.

And this one was, of course,
developed by Tose.

And I'm not going to,

uh, go as far as to
call this a sumo R.P.G.,

but just check this out.

Yeah, so you move
around on an overworld

and have random encounters.

This will trigger
a wrestling match.

Now the... the wrestling
is pretty simple.

You can smack your
opponent with your hand

or try to grab him
by his jockstrap

and move him backwards.

Honestly, just smacking
the guy works out pretty well.

This drains his energy

to the point where you can
knock him out of the ring.

Another pretty
simple method is

when you get too close
to the edge of the ring

you can often spin him around
so that he is on the edge

and then you can hopefully
try to knock him out.

Defeating an opponent will
cause an item to drop, eh,

such as this coin which
increases your experience.

Hmmm...

Maybe this really is an R.P.G..

Those things that
look like tree stumps

are actually sumo-wrestling gyms

which are required to make
progress throughout the story.

Here, I tried on a throw move
which didn't quite push him out

but was close enough
that I was able to win the match.

Defeating the guy in the sumo gym

gives you a pass of some sort
to board the nearby ship

which then allows you to
travel to the next island.

So it is, sort of,
very 'Dragon Quest'-y

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 defeat all the other sumo champs.

Don't expect anything too complex.

The matches are all pretty simple
with very little strategy required.

But, you know, this game
is really not that bad,

and the whole sumo-quest angle
kind of puts a bit of life into

what would have been
a very routine game.

So I'm certainly not
gonna' consider this to be

some kind of, like, unknown
masterpiece on the FamiCom,

but it's better, I suppose, than I
thought it was gonna' be.

# Vegas Connection

Our third game from November 24th
is "Vegas Connection"

from Sigma Enterprise and
developed by Graphic Research.

Now there's a Story Mode
and a Casino Mode listed here.

And I'll get this, uh,
straightaway off my chest

- I could not get
the Story Mode to work.

It looks like you
just are supposed to

select a save spot
and enter your name

(just like you would do in every
other game with a battery save)

but I could not select
any of the three spaces.

The Story Mode definitely exists;

I found evidence of
that on the Internet.

And maybe you have
to unlock it somehow

by winning some money
on the Casino Mode;

I'm really not sure.

Maybe the ROM is defective;
I don't know.

So, so much for the Story Mode,

but the actual gambling portions
of the game are pretty d--- basic.

Oh, look how they animated
the falling coins;

that's a nice touch.

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.

For the slot machines game,

you get to choose the
number of lines you want,

meaning you can [then] get jackpots

on horizontal, vertical, and
diagonal matches if you'd like,

and this costs more
coins to play, naturally.

Alright, 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 Sigma that much for

putting out a generic casino game,

but this is really
very, very no-frills.

I'm guessing the Story Mode version
is a bit more interesting.

And finally "Blackjack",
the game which requires at least

some basic decision-making
skills and luck.

They threw in a cute
lady dealer for 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
gambling-game library

unless the Story Mode
is somehow actually good.

# Lutter

Oh boy, the last
FamiCom Disk System game of 1989.

"Lutter", published by Athena,
which is a pretty small company,

and from which I believe we've
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.

So, "Lutter" is not the most
beautiful game ever on the FamiCom.

In fact, it looks downright
archaic by 1989 standards.

This sure feels like a
Japanese computer game

(maybe, like, something
ported from the M.S.X.)

but I actually couldn't find
any evidence online

of this being a port.

"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's 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 R.P.G.-style stats.

Yeah, so sure, this
looks like utter b---s---,

but once you figure it out
it's really not that bad.

"Lutter" is divided up
into several castles,

each with multiple rooms and a
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 kind of like
a primitive Metroidvania game.

There are also R.P.G. elements;

you have levels, stats,
and equipable items.

Now, 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.

Uh...

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 in 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 unharmed.

You can also find
armor and weapons

in a er... these rather
ugly-looking chest things.

Any equipment is actually equipped
as soon as you've opened the chest.

So, while "Lutter" has
R.P.G. elements in it,

it doesn't really feel like
an R.P.G. since battles,

leveling up, equipment management
(all that stuff)

is pretty much done automatically

and you can really sort of ignore
the R.P.G. stuff completely.

Likewise, the fact that there's
no attack button or jump button

makes this feel very
out of place on the FamiCom.

Aside from the, uh, sort of
similarities to "Lode Runner"

the game will remind you, uh, a
lot of ASCII's "Castlequest"

(known as, uh,
"Castle Excellent" in Japan)

another really
ancient game from 1986.

We covered that, I believe, in
Chrontendo Episode 12.

It also lacks the satisfaction
of a good Metroidvania game.

From what I played,

there really isn't that much
sense of surprise or exploration;

it feels almost more
like a puzzle game.

Now, 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 F.D.S. game from a very
minor publisher would actually be.

So it's definitely worth a look.

# Golf-kko Open

Hey, you know what I could
really use right about now?

A totally unnecessary golf game
developed by Tose.

Here we have "Golf-kko Open",
published by Taito.

This rather cute and charming
intro ends with you straight up

killing this dude
with a golf ball

and then teeing off
while standing on his body.

Look at this guy;
he ain't gettin' up again.

So the game itself begins 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, uh,

this caddy's advice
is not particularly helpful.

Reading up on this game online, that
seemed to be a common criticism

among Japanese folks
who have played it.

So this is your standard
18 holes of golf

- pretty much a bare-bones
golf video game.

If anything, the control scheme
is simpler than most such games.

There don't really 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've sort of reached a
point in the FamiCom's library

where we've just seen so much
of this kind of thing already

and at this point, I mean, what more
can we really expect from a golf game?

There have been a tiny
handful of titles that

have done something
interesting with the concept,

but most are just like this
- I mean,

just pay Tose to make 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 on to the next game.

# Square's Tom Sawyer

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
actually has the English text

"Square's Tom Sawyer"
across the top.

So this is an R.P.G.
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 a more
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 new 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 R.P.G.,

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 no
overworld at all.

You move around entirely on paths
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

kinda' reminds me a lot 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)

Outside of Towns
(you'll find areas

where there are
few or no N.P.C.s

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
in, you know, most FamiCom R.P.G.s.

You need to travel through
them to reach a new town

or find some item that
moves the plot forward.

In the first town
you talk to a few N.P.C.s,

you get a couple items,

[and] can collect two other
party members, Jim and Amy.

Jim, of course,

had a much bigger role
in, uh, "Tom Sawyer"'s sequel,

"The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn",
and Amy is one of Tom's girlfriends.

Uh...

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.

Just like "Tao",

it doesn't really adhere to
R.P.G. conventions of the time.

There are a number of
items in the game,

but these are either

one-use items used to
refill 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, um, and you
can Level Up, sort of, when you rest.

Uh...

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 R.P.G. mechanics
are really not used in "Tom Sawyer".

Battles also play out
very strangely.

The "Final Fantasy" side-by-side
view is dropped here and instead,

you sort of have this over-the-shoulder,
"Phantasy 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 is a special attack
that does more damage

but doesn't always work.

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 than Square's previous R.P.G.s

like... like "Final Fantasy" I and II.

It was produced by
Hiromichi Tanaka,

a long-time Square employee
who later produced

"The...", uh, "...Secret of Mana",
"Xenogears", and "Chrono Cross".

He was also the main designer
of "Final Fantasy" XI and XIV;

afterwards, he retired.

The music is by Uematsu
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 R.P.G.s.

Square made games in various
genres up until this,

after which they focused
exclusively on 'Final Fantasy'

and similar R.P.G.s
for the next half-decade,

up until I believe
"Front Mission" in 1995

and that wasn't even actually
developed by Square themselves.

Square did release
"Rad Racer 2", of course,

but that was created
specifically for the U.S. market,

due to the popularity
of "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
R.P.G.s in the west.

If anything, it's known
here almost exclusively

for the shockingly
offensive portrayal of Jim.

This was pretty typical
of Japan, back 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 Pendant,

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 a cave) 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 would probably be
worth your time to check out.

# To the Earth

Before we move on
to December 1989,

we need to finish up a few
U.S. and Europe-only releases,

starting with one of the
most obscure N.E.S. titles

published by Nintendo themselves.

This is "To the Earth".

The intro is pretty good.

The story here is
an alien invasion force

is unleashing
biological weapons on Earth

and, for some reason,
there is an antidote

but it's on Neptune,

so you 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
Nintendo-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 fast-paced
and reasonably difficult.

All the ships move very very
quickly and are hard to hit,

however on an emulator, it
is virtually impossible.

It's hard as hell to hit anything
when using an emulator,

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 playing via emulation.

The third thing about the game
is we don't know who made it.

Nintendo had released
a few games specifically

for the U.S. 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.

G.D.R.I. speculates there might be
some connection with Locomotive,

the company that helped
develop "StarTropics",

but there's really no
concrete evidence for this.

"To the Earth" appears to be
basically disowned by Nintendo.

It's never been re-released
in any form, as far as I know.

Even "Donkey Kong Jr. Math"
got a Virtual Console release.

So definitely among

the very most forgotten
Nintendo-published N.E.S. games.

# 720°

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°".

Prepare to be amazed by Beam's
programming skills in about one second.

Yeah... that music!

But, you know,

these things were made as
quickly and cheaply as possible,

so we really can't exactly
expect "Castlevania" here.

Now, this is the third
Mindscape game we've seen,

the first two also being ports
of Atari arcade games

(namely, "Paper Boy" and
"Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom").

Those were done by Tengen,
I believe,

whereas Beam is the Australian
company responsible for

"Back to the Future" and
"Three Stooges" for the N.E.S.

"720°" is pretty similar
to "Skate or Die".

You compete in a
series of skating events

with some being pretty much
the same in both games

- such as doing tricks
on the half-pipe.

There is one big difference, though;
in "720°", 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 N.E.S. port
isn't fondly remembered,

the arcade game was
pretty popular at the time.

Unlike earlier games like
"Track and Field",

which just drops 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 dicking around

(killer bees being something that was
much talked about, back in the '80s,

though they never did really, uh, arrive
in great numbers in California

and kill everyone like we thought
they were going to, back then).

Now playing on an emulator is tricky

since it had this
circular rotating joystick,

which you used to control the
direction your skateboard pointed in.

Also, the soundtrack, art design,
and even the cabinet design

made it really stand
out at the arcades.

Unfortunately, approximately 0%

of the appeal was transferred
over to the N.E.S. port;

I mean, visually, it completely lacks
the style of the original.

Your radical skater dude is
replaced with some dumba-- kid,

the music is lame,

and it lacks the, sort of, wild '80s
street-culture feel of the original.

For example, let us compare the music
for this event, um, in both versions.

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 Gold
the first time I tried it

without even 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 medal and... and failed.

You need to pull off, uh, certain
D-Pad and button-press combinations

to do tricks while
up in the air.

I could occasionally do a trick

but could never really come close
to anything, uh, consistent.

This is like, uh, landing
the plane in "Top Gun";

it requires precise timing which
can only be discovered accidentally.

And lastly, we have:
the Jump

(which is actually just a
single jump after a downhill ramp).

You are 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 be played for, like,

around 10 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.

# Tetris

One final U.S.-only title
for November - it's "Tetris".

This is the 4th version of
"Tetris" for a 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-fated
U.S. 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 Game Boy "Tetris",

once again developed by
Bulletproof Software,

and today we check out

the final version of the original
"Tetris" game for the N.E.S..

This is the Nintendo-published
port that the Tengen version

would have been in competition with,
had Nintendo not quashed its release.

This was developed internally by
Nintendo, it seems, and it's okay.

There's two modes -
the 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 modes
(both 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 at a...
pretty much a bare-bones release.

It plays very well, and if the
Tengen "Tetris" never existed

then I guess this would be considered
to be, like, an N.E.S. classic.

But unfortunately, it ended up
being both a really great game

and something of a disappointment
at the same time.

# Conflict

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.

Hmmm...

What kind of game is this?

A "Commando" Clone?

A vertical shoot-'em-up?

Well, no, it's actually a
military-strategy game,

more or less in the
style of "Military Madness".

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,
Difficulty settings,

and then of course
the actual game itself

- not exactly
super pretty-looking.

Now, "Conflict" was released in
the U.S. as well, in mid-1990,

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,

uh, each of which will
affect or 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 5,000.

Fame Points are earned by 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 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
strong 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
which have been mostly

given numbers for names,
like F-15s, A-27s, [and] F-23s.

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 a 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 a F.A.Q.

in order to figure out
how to play this thing.

Here, I swung when I think I
shoulda' Accelerated or Descended.

"Conflict" was published by Vic Tokai
and I'm not sure who developed it.

As I mentioned, it's kind of
an ugly-looking game,

and I hate those little 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 often, kind of,

laid right on top of the graphics,
making it somewhat hard to read.

In other ways, however,
"Conflict" is pretty slick.

The animations are actually
kind of cool in spots.

"Conflict" seems overall okay.

I'd probably pick
"FamiCom Wars" over this

if you were looking for a fun
military-strategy game, however.

# Tao

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 worked 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 of the, uh,
Nintendo F.D.S. adventure games.

They also did some
boring stuff from VAP,

namely a baseball game
and a badminton game.

I'd tell you the
names of those, uh, games,

but I can guarantee that
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 R.P.G.,
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 R.P.G. that
was nothing but fetch quests?'.

Or at least that's
what the game felt like,

for the time that I played it.

As we'll see, it's a very odd game.

As you walk around town,

you'll find the typical collection of
N.P.C.s who say stupid stuff to you.

There's a meteor crash site

where some researchers have
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, eh, which again
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, uh, have
different religious beliefs.

The first incident, of sorts,
that actually occurs

is when you 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 a religion,

and there's a giant wrecked cathedral,

and folks talking about
lost pigs and stuff.

One thing you won't find in either
village is any typical R.P.G. stuff.

There's no shops, inns, equipment,
guys who teach you magic -

none of that stuff.

There's also no overworld, per se,

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 R.P.G. protocol at all.

Rather than selecting
from a menu,

you simply hit the A button
over and over again,

slowly draining the
enemy's health bar.

In a way, this game - it sort of takes

the "Dragon Quest VII"
approach to R.P.G.s.

It takes quite a while before you
actually get your first battle.

I didn't really encounter
many random enemies

until I reached the 4th 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
between the same six towns

over and over again,

talking to people which will, um,
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
back 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, you know, even though this
is called an R.P.G.,

it feels more like an
adventure game that has

sort of been awkwardly forced
into behaving like an R.P.G..

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 eh...

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 R.P.G. but

playing it feels sort of like
wandering around talking to N.P.C.s.

Its subject matter and
strangeness might appeal to you,

but actually playing it feels
like a pretty empty experience.

# Mirai Senshi Lios

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 1st,
the same day as "Conflict",

which is significant because both
games are military-strategy-type games.

Though, while "Conflict" is
sort of based on real-world combat,

(it features tanks and jet planes)

"Mirai Senshi Lios" is pure fantasy
and exists in a world of R.P.G. castles

and anime-style giant robots, sometimes
called 'Mechs' by the geekerati.

The good news is that we have
an English translation

- by Aeon Genesis no less.

I guess your character, Lios, is a
prince or some such nonsense.

Now, I mentioned that this is
a military-strategy game

but it's really more like
a tactical R.P.G. in some ways.

The tactical R.P.G. as we know it
didn't really quite exist yet,

but it's, uh, definitely

a different style of game
than something like "Conflict".

There's a certain amount of R.P.G.
style customization here,

something not found
in the many many (if any) of the

traditional military
games we've encountered.

You have multiple types of
Leg and Arms that you can equip.

These impact your stats, uh,

the speed over which you can
traverse different types of terrain,

your 'weight point' (meaning
how much weight you can hold).

It's all pretty complicated.

You move around on an overworld
and encounter enemies on each square.

Some squares will contain a special
weapon or piece of equipment

and 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
head towards the enemy commander

but will attack any other enemy 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 Automated 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 kinda'
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
returns 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 return to the
overworld and proceed.

It's a, uh, creative and
pleasant-looking little game

and one that definitely
takes a very 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.

# Hostages: The Embassy Mission

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 soundtrack, here, as well!

However, most folks watching this
will know it by its American title

"Rescue: The Embassy Mission".

Not sure why the name was changed.

Maybe "Hostages" sounded
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 to something like 720°,

"Hostages" is an action game
with three different levels,

and it only takes around
seven/eight minutes or so

to play through the entire thing.

I just released a so-called
longplay video for this thing,

and the entire video including, like,

opening, uh, cutscenes, credits -
everything was, like, seven minutes.

That was done 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, uh, when I finished
it for the first time,

my clear time, the actual
time playing, like, the action portions

(not including the menus
and those kinds of things)

was less than, like, uh, five
and a half minutes.

So this is, like, a fricking $40 game

that you could easily beat
in less than 15 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 gets 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 searchlights

by lying prone 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 could 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,

with each one on a different
side of the Embassy building

- or you can skip
the whole d--- 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;

take out a few of
them before going in.

It's hilarious but,

far and away, 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 lowering yourself to a window,
and then you can sort of

break through the window [and]
enter the embassy building.

Once inside, you simply 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 simply "Hostages",
published by Infogrames

and developed by a Spanish
company called New Frontier.

It was released on everything

from the Commodore 64 to the
Z.X.

Spectrum to the M.S.X.,

but I believe that the
Atari S.T. and Amiga versions

were the first versions of this game,
being released in 1988.

Aside from the somewhat
better graphics and sound,

the S.T. and Amiga versions are

almost exactly the same
as the N.E.S. 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,

making sure we enter
every room with a dot in it,

and then shooting any bad guys.

As crazy as it seems,
the computer versions

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, you know,

often like really repetitive games.

So while this has its defenders,

it's, uh, it's sort of shocking
how little content "Hostages" has,

especially for [an] N.E.S. game
that cost, like, 40 or so dollars

back in 1990.

# Episode 51 Wrap Up

Alright, that wraps
up another episode.

Ah!

What a horrible
selection of games!

Uh...

Best game this episode?

Uh...

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.

Worst game?

Maybe "720°"?

It was pretty terrible,

though there ought to be
some kind of mention of

"Hostages: The Embassy Mission",
for just... for being so d--- 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,

uh, each episode will have
one of those classic games

(the ones that you guys
have been waiting for).

And there's, uh, 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!

# Episode 51 Credits

Transcribed by Mirror on Amara
bit.ly/mirrorofamara

Edited by Nate Lawrence
twitter.com/natelawrence
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