And I'll be damned if developer Shoei System (aka Bears) didn't turn out one of the laziest games for the Famicom ever.
Clearly, Toei was thinking that since it was based off a popular manga/anime (known as Fist of the North Star in the West), it would sell a certain number of copies regardless of how little effort was put into the game itself. Hokuto no Ken!! Goddamn, this game pisses me off! Listening to my voiceover for this game, I realize I let Hokuto no Ken off way to easily. Games which angry up the blood with their sheer awfulness: Somehow, Super Xevious manages to add a few updates to the Xevious formula (power-ups, actual levels) and still fall short of the original game. Super Xevious is a console only sequel - still a very rare thing in 1986 - to Namco's hit arcade game Xevious. This game makes the serious mistake of giving the player a number of very cool sounding power-ups (Flame, Nuke, "Sheeld", etc.) and then severely limiting the usage of those weapons. I'm sure I can count the number of times I've seen the word "scrum" used on one hand. ASO (Armored Scrum Object) happens to be the first Famicom release from SNK and also contains a very unusual word in its title. Two shoot-em-ups for the price of one! Granted, neither of these are really "cool" games, but they are both somewhat notable. I guess Chrontendo will have to tackle those eventually.ĪSO/Alpha Mission and Super Xevious: Gamp no Nazo I can only assume this game was a success in Japan, since it was followed about by about a thousand other Gundam games. That's right! A Bandai game not developed by Tose! Mark this day on your calender. No such tasty treats are contained in this game, but you do get some decent cockpit-view shooting action, courtesy of Masanobu Endoh's Game Studios. That just sounds like a delicious egg, cheese and sausage based breakfast. I swear that if I ever open my own greasy spoon diner, I'll have a breakfast special called the Hot Scramble. And of course, the giant toad is prominently featured in Jajamaru no Daibouken (even though I referred to it as a giant frog in the voiceover. This game features longer, more horizontally orientated levels, and boss fights after each one. If nothing else, Jaleco has cranked these things out on a regular basis - Ninja Kun in May '85, Ninja Jajamaru Kun in November '85, and now Jajamaru no Daibouken in August '86 - allowing us a clear view of the development of the platformer genre.
NINJA JAJAMARU KUN HARDCORE GAMING 101 SERIES
While no one's idea of a great game, the newest installment in this Jaleco series does incorporate some new ideas from Mario-style platformers. Overall, Adventure Island is quite a relief from the mediocre platformers being released for the Famicom. And like many games of this era, the end of level bosses are virtually identical.
The major drawback is a certain degree of repetitiveness, as later levels are very similar to earlier ones. While certainly derivative of Super Mario Bros, the game is charming, fun and the controls handle well. A very quick run-through of the Wonder Boy and Adventure Island series is given in Episode 10.Īs for the game itself? It is pretty good, at least compared to other post-Mario platformers we've been seeing on the Famicom so far (see Super Pitfall and Musashi no Ken in this episode). For the US release, Adventure Island, the character name was changed to the inappropriate sounding "Master Higgins." Confusingly, both Wonder Boy and Adventure Island had several sequels, and Hudson continued to released altered ports of the Wonder Boy games while developing unreleated Adventure Island games. Oddly, Hudson based the new protagonist on real-life Hudson employee Toshiyuki Takahashi. Thus, Hudson was able to release the game on the Famicom, courtesy of Escape, with redesigned character sprites. What's this? A Sega game on the Famicom! How is this possible? Well, Wonder Boy was developed by a company called Escape/Westone who somehow retained rights to the game itself, even while Sega held the rights to the name "Wonder Boy" and all the characters. Takahashi Meijin no Bouken Jima/Adventure Islandįrom Hudson we have this charming little side-scrolling platformer, which is actually an altered port of Sega's Wonder Boy. But, it does feature 15 more Famicom games from August and September of 1986! What's in store this episode? The first game in a beloved franchise from Hudson, the Famicom debuts from SNK and Victor, a very odd FDS title, an early Square release, and perhaps the first genuine kusoge game for the system. In fact, it is pretty much a standard episode. Yes, it is here at last, the special 10th episode of Chrontendo! Except that it is not really that special.