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REVIEW: Dragon Ball FighterZ (PS4/Xbox One/PC)

I recently wrote a review about Dragon Ball FighterZ for Shonen Jump. 

Check it out.

Image credit: Akira Toriyama (Bird Studio), Shueisha

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Nintendo Classic Mini: Super Famicom

(The original article can be read HERE.)

Special thanks to Terra S. for gifting me this baby. I love you.

As with the Super NES Classic Edition, Nintendo released the Nintendo Classic Mini: Super Famicom in Japan earlier this year. Designed to look like the Super Famicom, the shell of the Super Famicom Mini is different from the North American unit (Europe retains the same shell as Japan but under the Super Nintendo branding), using a warm grey color scheme and rounded edges. Instead of purple colors on the buttons of its American sibling, the Super Famicom Mini uses four colors on its controllers (red, blue, yellow and green), making the whole package look playful and cute. Unlike last year's Famicom Mini console, the Super Famicom Mini uses actual sized controllers and can be plugged in to the console instead of them being hard-wired to the unit. It also contains restore points, backgrounds, video modes, and the Rewind feature, just like the SNES Classic.

There are 21 games in the Super Famicom Mini, with Star Fox 2 also being released there. However, there are five different games the Super Famicom Mini has that the SNES Classic doesn't have. These titles are:

The Legend of the Mystical Ninja

Super Soccer

Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem

Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers

Panel de Pon

These titles replace Super Castlevania IV, Super Punch-Out!!, EarthBound, Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting, and Kirby's Dream Course. Are the Japanese exclusives worth playing? And if so, are they better than their Western counterparts? Let's find out.

Like before, I'll assign a small summary and a number grade to each game, with 5 being the best score and 1 being the worst score. I won't be grading the games I've already graded in the previous essay, since there's very little difference between the ROMs aside from localization.

___________________________________

Score Key

5 ------ Play it loud! 4 ------ Good 3 ------ Decent 2 ------ Bad

1 ------ Don't play it

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LEGEND OF THE MYSTICAL NINJA (Konami, 1991)

Known as Ganbare Goemon: Yuki-hime Kyuushutsu Emaki in Japan. A fun action game that's best played with two players, unless the 2nd player is very uncoordinated. Sadly, some reading is needed to fully enjoy this game, so I'll have to split the score accordingly. 4 (2 if you can't read Japanese and dunno how to advance forward)

SUPER SOCCER (Human, 1991)

Known as Super Formation Soccer in Japan. Easily the weakest game in this bunch. It's Mode 7 soccer, no more, no less. 2

FIRE EMBLEM: MYSTERY OF THE EMBLEM (Nintendo, 1994)

Known as Fire Emblem: Monshou no Nazo in Japan. An epic story involving the bishounen hero lord Marth as he fights some enemy armies and some evil dragon sorcerer. It's a decent strategy game...if you can read Japanese. Otherwise, don't bother. 3 (1 if you can't read Japanese because you'll be stuck)

SUPER STREET FIGHTER II: THE NEW CHALLENGERS (Capcom, 1994)

Known as...Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers in Japan. I've wondered why Japan got Super SFII while the West got SFII Turbo and after playing both I can see why: Turbo is the faster game. And in the case of SFII, faster speeds make a better game, even if it has less characters. It's a shame that Super SFII Turbo wasn't in the SNES/SFC, because we would've gotten the best of both worlds and possibly have the same title in both variants of the Classic/Mini. 4

PANEL DE PON (Nintendo, 1995)

Known as Tetris Attack in the West. It's a shame that we didn't get this game for the SNES Classic. This is the main reason why I wanted the SFC Mini. A fun, cute and competitive puzzle game that can be enjoyed by anyone. And best of all, there's no Japanese required to play once you know the rules. 5

Now, let's stack up each game to their suitable equivalent and see which one is the better exclusive:

Super Castlevania IV vs Legend of the Mystical Ninja Both are Konami games. One is single-player and the other can be played with two players. While I personally liked Mystical Ninja better, for the sake of this collection, Castlevania is a lot easier to play for most people, so it wins that round.

WINNER: Super Castlevania IV

Super Punch-Out!! vs Super Soccer

Both are sports games. One is single-player and the other can be played with two players. However, there is no debate. Punch-Out is the better game.

WINNER: Super Punch-Out!!

EarthBound vs Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem

Both are role-playing games. Both are one-player games although EarthBound is a traditional turn-based RPG while Fire Emblem is a strategic turn-based RPG. Both are good, but EarthBound is better if you have to compare the two. Also, if you can't understand Japanese, then it's hard to enjoy Fire Emblem.

WINNER: EarthBound

Street Fighter II Turbo vs Super Street Fighter II

Both are variants of Street Fighter II. Both can be played with two players. Turbo has a faster game speed, which can be adjustable, while Super has more characters and stages. I personally like Turbo better due to the speed, but they're both really fun to play so I'll award them both a tie.

WINNER: Super Street Fighter II Turbo (if only)

Kirby's Dream Course vs Panel de Pon

Both are puzzle games. Both can be played with two players. However, there is no debate. Panel de Pon is the better game. Again, I honestly wish we had this game in the Western game collection.

WINNER: Panel de Pon

Overall, the Western exclusives are slightly better than the Japanese exclusives but Japan has Panel de Pon......so the whole thing ends in a tie.

......okay. I know how to break that tie. Let's compare the weakest games from each collection together! Kirby's Dream Course vs Super Soccer

Both are the weakest games in their respective collections. Both can be played with two players. One is a strange, isometric mini-golf game with a gimmick based on Kirby's copy powers while the other game is an unremarkable soccer game released early in the console's life cycle with a Mode 7 playing field being the only gimmick it has to stand itself out on the market. I honestly wish these games would be replaced by better games, like Chrono Trigger or even ActRaiser. Whatever. The music in Kirby's Dream Course is cute, so Kirby wins.

WINNER? Kirby's Dream Course

Is the Super Famicom Mini worth ordering? Yes and no. Yes, because it has Panel de Pon and also the controllers have colorful buttons. No, because the game list is almost similar to its Western equivalent, and if you can't read Japanese, you won't enjoy this very much. Should you decide to order one, thankfully the prices are reasonable and as of this writing, you can score one for $100 or less (including shipping!). Be forewarned, though. Unlike the SNES Classic, the SFC Mini does not include an AC wall adapter inside the box.

Happy hunting and happy holidays!

-ray n. (@themistern) 2017-12-21

Sources:

1. https://www.nintendo.co.jp/clvs/index.html 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Nintendo_Entertainment_System 3. http://www.perfectly-nintendo.com/snes-classic-edition-snes-mini-announced-september-includes-21-games/ 4. http://www.perfectly-nintendo.com/super-famicom-mini-announced-japan-october-5th-different-set-games/ 5. http://animatedscreenshots.tumblr.com/post/73755507006/panel-de-pon 6. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dz6-Igq9_KY

All games and images © Nintendo Co. Ltd and their respective third-party partners.

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Nintendo SNES Classic Edition

Due to the runaway success of the Nintendo Entertainment System, Nintendo became a household name around the world. But as the 1990s drew near, there were several competitors looking to usurp Nintendo's reign as the #1 video game maker. Sega Enterprises released their Genesis (Mega Drive outside the US) console, giving them an edge in the market due to the fact that it was twice as powerful as the NES. Whereas the NES ran on an 8-bit CPU, the Genesis used a 16-bit CPU, and that meant the machine was capable of creating bigger and better games, games that were close to being arcade perfect at the time. The Sega Genesis had modest sales in its first years but the claims that Sega did feats in their games that Nintendidn't do was enough to make Nintendo notice they had some semblance of competition. NEC also released their console, the Turbografx-16 (aka PC Engine), but it wasn't a true 16-bit machine; it had a 16-bit graphics processor but an 8-bit CPU. Nevertheless, it did sell well in Japan for Nintendo to worry about their share of the market. Although their 8-bit system was still performing well, Nintendo was preparing to enter the 1990s with a 16-bit super system of their own.

The Super Nintendo Entertainment System was soon released and was met great acclaim. It helped Nintendo win the 16-bit console war, although the Genesis was close to winning had it not been for internal problems happening within Sega. It also helped that Nintendo consistently released a lot of cool games throughout the Super Nintendo's run.

With that said, Nintendo released the Super Nintendo Entertainment System Classic Edition earlier this year. Like with last year's NES Classic, the SNES Classic is a tiny replica of the Super NES with 21 games built into the unit and is packaged with two SNES controllers (with longer cords, thank goodness), a micro USB cable and a HDMI cable. Again, like with the NES Classic, there are enhancements to the games, such as choosing between 4:3, pixel perfect, and analog video modes, twelve backgrounds that can be selected to frame your picture, and restore points for each game are back, with a new Rewind feature, which lets you rewind up to 45 seconds of your game in case you messed up.

Also new to the SNES Classic Edition is Star Fox 2, a previously unreleased game that prior to the announcement of the SNES Classic was only leaked to the Internet as a prototype ROM. It's a neat incentive to pick up the SNES Classic, but is it worth getting if you already own a Super NES and all 20 of the other games?

The SNES Classic Edition is a “greatest hits” package, with lots of winners. Overall, it's a better list of games than the NES Classic Edition, but in my opinion it isn't perfect. Personally, I would replace Kirby's Dream Course with Chrono Trigger, or Turtles in Time.

Just like my NES Classic Edition feature, I'll review every game listed in this collection, including Star Fox 2. I'll assign a number grade for each title, with 5 being the highest score and 1 being the lowest score, along with a small summary.

_________________________________________

Score Key

5 ------ Play it loud! 4 ------ Good 3 ------ Decent 2 ------ Bad 1 ------ Don't play it

__________________________________________

SUPER MARIO WORLD (Nintendo, 1991) Help Mario save the Princess, this time in 16-bits! 4

F-ZERO (Nintendo, 1991) The fast and the futuristic compete in high speed races for 16-bit glory. 3

SUPER GHOULS 'N  GHOSTS (Capcom, 1991) Can you defeat Satan and rescue the princess? How about twice in a row? 3

SUPER CASTLEVANIA IV (Konami, 1991)

Whip your way through Transylvania and defeat Dracula until he comes back some other game. 4

CONTRA III: THE ALIEN WARS (Konami, 1992)

16-bit Contra! The Konami Code won't help you out this time. 3

THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: A LINK TO THE PAST (Nintendo, 1992)

One of the best SNES games, period. Help Link seek out the Triforce and defeat Ganon. 5

SUPER MARIO KART (Nintendo, 1992)

Two-player racing action! It still holds up, and there's no blue shells too! 4

STAR FOX (Nintendo, 1993)

A once-revolutionary game, it hasn't aged well. It's not a bad game by any means, though. 3

STREET FIGHTER II TURBO: HYPER FIGHTING (Capcom, 1993)

A once-revolutionary game, it has aged well. The turbo speeds still makes it worth replaying. 4

SECRET OF MANA (Square Enix, 1993)

No three-player action in this edition but it's still a fun action RPG regardless. 4

MEGA MAN X (Capcom, 1994)

Super fighting robot 2.0 Mega Man X shoots, dashes and wall jumps his way to defeat Sigma. 4

SUPER METROID (Nintendo, 1994) Samus Aran revisits planet Zebes to retrieve the last Metroid from space pirates. 4

SUPER PUNCH-OUT!! (Nintendo, 1994)

Punch your way through various opponents as they try to cheat you out of your title shot. 4

FINAL FANTASY III (Square Enix, 1994)

An evil empire, a rag-tag team of rebels, and a cute race of warrior critters...sounds awfully familiar. Actually the sixth game but y’all already know. 5

DONKEY KONG COUNTRY (Nintendo, 1994)

The game that helped Nintendo win the 16-bit war. Help Donkey Kong and Diddy find bananas. 4

KIRBY'S DREAM COURSE (Nintendo, 1995)

Easily the weakest game in the collection. It's kinda like miniature golf, but with Kirby as the ball. 2

EARTHBOUND (Nintendo, 1995)

UFOs, zombies, and dinosaurs, oh my! Despite the simple presentation, it’s one of the strangest (and most human) role-playing games ever. 5

SUPER MARIO WORLD 2: YOSHI'S ISLAND (Nintendo, 1995)

One of the best platforming games around and the official prequel to the Super Mario canon. 5

SUPER MARIO RPG:  LEGEND OF THE SEVEN STARS (Nintendo/Square Enix, 1996)

A collaboration between the makers of Mario and Final Fantasy, the result actually worked well. 4

KIRBY SUPER STAR (Nintendo, 1996)

Nine games in one! Granted, you can beat these all in under a day but they're all fun rides. 4

STAR FOX 2 (Nintendo, 2017)

Previously unreleased, it improves over the original in some ways. Still, I can see why it got shelved. 3

Is the SNES Classic Edition worth picking up? Yes. Just don't buy it above retail price. With Nintendo actually boosting the amount of stock that's being shipped to stores, you can easily find one at retail price. As of this writing, online scalpers aren't selling these things as high as they hoped to sell them for. But even as the stores do sell out, just wait it out until more come in stock. The SNES Classic Edition is a fun toy to have, but it's not worth paying some jerk an extra $50 over.

-ray n. (@themistern)  2017-12-21

Sources: 1. https://www.nintendo.com/super-nes-classic 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Nintendo_Entertainment_System

3. http://www.perfectly-nintendo.com/snes-classic-edition-snes-mini-announced-september-includes-21-games/

4. http://www.perfectly-nintendo.com/super-famicom-mini-announced-japan-october-5th-different-set-games/

All games and images © Nintendo Co. Ltd and their respective third-party partners.

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❤ ❤  Joss Whedon's Love Quest    ❤ ❤

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NES Classic Edition: Revisited

(The original article can be read HERE.)

In 2016, Nintendo surprised the world of home entertainment by releasing the Nintendo NES Classic Edition, a miniature video game console that became the gold standard of plug and play gaming for the rest of the year. With 30  built-in games, excellent HDMI picture and damn near flawless emulation, the NES Classic became the hottest Christmas toy in North America (and in Japan where it was sold as the Nintendo Classic Mini: Family Computer). It became hot to the point where it was barely on retailer shelves whenever new product came in and much of the units that were sold became scalped for more money online. In April 2017, Nintendo announced the discontinuation of the NES Classic. This announcement has largely ticked off the video game community and has also shot up the resale value of the NES Classic, from the $60 MSRP to several hundred dollars apiece.

Unfortunately, this means that if you want to purchase a NES Classic, you’ll have to buy one from a third-party vendor (read: scalper) for an insane markup. The Famicom Mini is also sold online for a higher price than the MSRP although it’s not as high as what most NES Classics are being sold for, despite it being an imported product in addition to it also being discontinued. So if you want to play your favorite games and don’t mind a different case design and reading menus in the Japanese language, the Famicom Mini is another option. I personally bought one shortly after writing the original article mainly because it had some different games in the line up. And it also looks nice on my counter.

For those of you who just want a portable Nintendo system to play a bunch of illegal ROMs in, both the NES Classic and the Famicom Mini are easily hackable. But I’m not going to provide you with links or lessons here. Anyone looking to buy the Famicom Mini simply because it looks cool, then yeah, it does. However, the controllers are scaled down along with the unit itself because the original Famicom had its controllers hardwired to the back of the machine and they rest on the sides of the Famicom. This means unless you have baby girl hands, you might not like using the Famicom Mini controllers. Still, they’re not impossible to use, since I’ve gotten used to holding the controller after minutes of play. The cords are still short, though. The 2nd controller for the Famicom Mini DOES NOT have an actual mic like in the original Famicom: this eliminates some gameplay elements from the Japanese edition of Zelda (although alternate elements have been coded in).

Speaking of Zelda, games like The Legend of Zelda, Zelda II, Castlevania and Metroid are all the Disk System ROMs. This means that unlike the versions found in the NES Classic, the Famicom Mini versions have differences like increased load times, different sounds, and proper save systems instead of passwords, although both systems have save states so the last thing is kinda pointless. Language aside, most of the games in the Famicom Mini are exactly like the ones in the NES Classic. One notable exception is that Super Mario Bros. 3 is slightly harder in Japanese than the Western versions.

I’ve spent a good amount of time playing every game that the Famicom Mini has to offer and I noticed that eight of the games are different from the NES Classic. Among the list of 30 games, both the Famicom Mini and the NES Classic share 22 of the same games and they each have 8 exclusive games. 

The eight exclusive Famicom Mini games are:

- Yie Ar Kung-Fu - Atlantis no Nazo  - Solomon’s Key - Tsuppari Ōzumou - Final Fantasy III - Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari - Downtown Nekketsu Koushinkyoku: Soreyuke Daiundoukai - Mario Open Golf

Like before, I’ll review each of the above games with a letter grade, with A being the highest possible score and D being the lowest possible score. Score Key ————–

A —— A must play game B —— Be ready for some fun C —— Care to try once or twice D —— Don’t bother

—————

YIE AR KUNG-FU (Konami, 1985) Kick 8-bit butt in this one-on-one fighting game. C

ATLANTIS NO NAZO: The Mystery of Atlantis (Sunsoft, 1986)

Explore a mysterious island as you attempt to discover the ruins of Atlantis...by warping! D

SOLOMON'S KEY (Koei Tecmo, 1986)

A fiendishly tough action-puzzle game. It’s easy to get frustrated if you’re not careful. B

TSUPPARI ŌZUMOU: Shovin’ Sumo (Koei Tecmo, 1987)

A one-on-one fighting game featuring slap-happy sumo wrestlers. It’s more fun with two players. B

DOWNTOWN NEKKETSU MONOGATARI, aka River City Ransom (Arc System Works, 1989)

Two hot-blooded high school delinquents beat up an entire city’s worth of gangs just to rescue a girl. Very fun with two players. A

FINAL FANTASY III (Square Enix, 1990)

Four onion knights get jobs and save the world from bad weather. Your enjoyment of the game varies whether or not you can read Japanese. A (or D if you can’t read Japanese)

DOWNTOWN NEKKETSU KOUSHINKYOKU: SOREYUKE DAIUNDOUKAI: River City Sports Challenge  (Arc System Works, 1990)

A fun school festival style sports game, complete with fighting. Too bad the Famicom Mini doesn’t support four players. B

MARIO OPEN GOLF, aka NES Open Tournament Golf (Nintendo, 1991)

Play a round of golf with Mario and friends! Surprisingly fun. B

Is the Famicom Mini worth buying? If you can get it for $100 or less, then YES. If not, don’t bother. If you really, really want to have a Famicom in your room, then it’s probably easier to collect a used Famicom for cheap from the net (or a used game store if you live in Japan) along the actual cartridges for these games if you really want to try them out. Or just find the ROMs. But I won’t tell you how and where to find them.

-ray n. (@themistern)  2017-5-17  Sources:  1. https://www.nintendo.co.jp/clv/index.html 2. https://www.nintendo.co.jp/clv/manuals/ja/index.html 3. http://www.geocities.co.jp/Playtown-Spade/8838/KUNIO.html

All games and images © Nintendo Co. Ltd and their respective third-party partners

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Nintendo NES Classic Edition

In 1985, Nintendo changed the world of home entertainment by releasing the Nintendo Entertainment System, a video game console that became the gold standard of gaming for the rest of the decade. With hundreds of games, excellent quality control and a damn near unstoppable marketing machine, the NES became the dominant gaming system in North America (and in Japan where it was sold as the Nintendo Family Computer) until the 1990s, when Sega gave Nintendo some much needed competition with their 16-bit Genesis (aka, Mega Drive) console.

The NES had a ten year run in North America, with Wario’s Woods being Nintendo’s last published game in 1994 and Nintendo stopping production of the NES altogether in 1995. While it’s been over 20 years since the end of the NES’ run and over 30 years since its launch, the NES is still remembered as the machine that helped Nintendo take over the video game world. Until they did it again 10 years ago with the Wii, but that’s another story.

Nostalgia can be a hell of a drug and Nintendo is looking to give gamers their fix with the Nintendo Entertainment System Classic Edition. Released on November 11, 2016, it costs $59.99...at least it did at one point. As of this writing, the NES Classic is discontinued from production and sale. If you really want to score one, you have no choice but to buy one online from a third-party vendor (read: scalper) for three or four times the retail price, maybe even more.

The NES Classic is a neat little device (and I do mean little; it fits in the palm of your hand), with 30 classic Nintendo games built into the unit and a controller that feels like the real thing. It’s powered by USB and the audio-visual output is HDMI so you’ll get a nice, crisp picture on your HDTV or monitor. If you’re feeling really nostalgic, you can apply a CRT filter to the picture for that fuzzy scanline retro look. Each game also comes with four restore points, so you can actually save and resume your progress like with modern video games. My only gripe is that the controller cords are short (about 2 feet long) but there are third-party extension cables available online.

I’ve played through all of the games available on the NES Classic and while I appreciate Nintendo’s intent on creating a “greatest hits” selection of games for the thing, I think it’s not a perfect list. There’s a fair amount of third party games on the thing, so I doubt Nintendo would have any issues securing a license to some games I wish it had but it’s all set in stone. Still, I’ll list each and every game that the NES Classic contains with a letter grade, with A being the highest possible score and D being the lowest possible score. Score Key --------------

A ------  A classic B ------ Breddy gud C ------ Could be a lot better D ------ Dookie

---------------

BALLOON FIGHT  (Nintendo, 1984) Head-to-head balloon fighting arcade action. Contains 3 game modes. B

BUBBLE BOBBLE  (Taito, 1987) Two cute dinosaurs spew bubbles at cute monsters. Contains 100 screens and a really annoying song. B

CASTLEVANIA  (Konami, 1986) A vampire hunter enters a demonic castle to slay Count Dracula. He can’t jump very well. B

CASTLEVANIA II: SIMON'S QUEST (Konami, 1987) A vampire hunter slays Count Dracula, only to be cursed. Lift the curse by cremating Dracula's remains. C

DONKEY KONG  (Nintendo, 1983) Help a portly carpenter rescue his girlfriend from a stubborn ape. B

DONKEY KONG JR.  (Nintendo, 1983) Help a diminutive ape rescue his father from a portly carpenter. C

DOUBLE DRAGON II: THE REVENGE  (Arc System Works, 1989)   Two player game about two brothers who avenge their deceased girlfriend by hurricane kicking evil in the face. C

DR. MARIO  (Nintendo, 1990) Eliminate colorful viruses with pills containing the matching color. Can be played with two players. B

EXCITEBIKE  (Nintendo, 1984) Race to the finish with your trusted motorbike! Contains 3 game modes, including a track editor. B

FINAL FANTASY  (Square Enix, 1987) Four warriors of light are summoned together to fight a great evil. Actually not the final fantasy. D

GALAGA  (Bandai Namco, 1985) Blast away menacing aliens in this classic arcade space shooter. A

GHOSTS 'N GOBLINS  (Capcom, 1986) Rescue the princess from the clutches of evil in two hits or less! D

GRADIUS  (Konami, 1986) Command the Vic Viper as you shoot through enemy spacecraft and Moai heads. Don't forget to shoot the core! B

ICE CLIMBER  (Nintendo, 1984) Help a pair of Eskimo children reach the top of the mountain. Do that 32 times. D

KID ICARUS  (Nintendo, 1986) An angel escapes the underworld and searches for three sacred treasures to rescue the good goddess Palutena from the evil goddess Medusa. C

KIRBY'S ADVENTURE  (Nintendo, 1993) King Dedede has stolen the Star Rod from the Fountain of Dreams and it's up to Kirby to retrieve it. A

 MARIO BROS.  (Nintendo, 1983) A pair of portly plumbers are tasked to clean up the sewers of New York. C

MEGA MAN 2  (Capcom, 1988) Help the super fighting robot Mega Man defeat eight Robot Masters and stop the evil Dr. Wily once and for all! (Not.) B

METROID  (Nintendo, 1986) A space-faring bounty hunter explores a planet to exterminate space parasites. There's a twist ending. C

NINJA GAIDEN  (Koei Tecmo, 1988) A lone ninja faces incredible odds as he defeats scores of enemies so he can avenge his father's death. C

PAC-MAN  (Bandai Namco, 1984) The hit arcade game of the 1980s! Avoid ghosts as you swallow pills in a dark maze until you die. B

PUNCH-OUT!! FEATURING MR. DREAM  (Nintendo, 1987) A boxing game where you fight every ethnic stereotype under the sun. Does NOT contain Mike Tyson. A

STARTROPICS  (Nintendo, 1990) Help Mike Jones rescue his uncle from extraterrestrials in this tropical action-adventure game. The frequency is 747MHz. B

SUPER C  (Konami, 1990) Shoot up a ton of dudes in two hits or less! The Konami Code does NOT work in this game. B

SUPER MARIO BROS.  (Nintendo, 1985) A pair of portly plumbers are tasked to rescue the princess from the clutches of the evil koopa king Bowser. B

SUPER MARIO BROS. 2  (Nintendo, 1988) It was all a dream, I used to read Nintendo Power magazine...oh, wait. Help Mario and the gang escape the world of dreams by tossing rutabagas at shy-guys. B

SUPER MARIO BROS. 3  (Nintendo, 1988) Save the princess...AGAIN! Quite arguably the best game in the Super Mario canon and possibly the best game in this collection. A

TECMO BOWL  (Koei Tecmo, 1989) An arcade style head-to-head American football game. Oh, and if you pick the Raiders, you're a jerk. B

THE LEGEND OF ZELDA  (Nintendo, 1986) The evil wizard Ganon has kidnapped the Princess Zelda. Help Link find the pieces of the Triforce of Wisdom and defeat Ganon! A

ZELDA II: THE ADVENTURE OF LINK  (Nintendo, 1987) Princess Zelda has fallen into a deep sleep. Help Link find the Triforce of courage in this drastically different type of adventure game. B

Is the NES Classic Edition worth it? Yes. Just don’t purchase one over the suggested retail price. That is, if you can still find one for MSRP. At about $2 per game, you can legally own 30 classic Nintendo games in a cute miniature replica of the real thing and play these games with modern comfort like plug-and-play portability and restore points so you won’t have to clear these games in one sitting.

-ray n. (@themistern)  2017-1-1 (Updated on 2017-5-17)

Sources:   1. https://www.nintendo.com/nes-classic  2. https://www.nintendo.co.jp/clv/manuals/en/index.html

All games and images © Nintendo Co. Ltd and their respective third-party partners 

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Today marks the 25th anniversary of the release of the original “Sonic the Hedgehog” game for the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive. I received a Genesis as a Christmas present in 1991 and it came with “Sonic”. I really got into “Sonic” and eventually started drawing pictures of Sonic. I always drew for fun and I’d often draw things I like. 

Much of early 1992 was spent drawing “Sonic” characters and naturally I was doodling in class and a classmate noticed Sonic on the paper. He asked me if he could have it. I gave it to him and he started showing off the Sonic drawing I just made. More kids came up to me asking for Sonic drawings so I spent much of my free time in class drawing more Sonics. All of a sudden, I’ve received a lot of positive attention, which was new to me. My drawings made me popular in my classroom.

One year later, after winning a poster drawing contest and learning how animated cartoons were made, I decided that I wanted to draw cartoons for a living. If it wasn’t for “Sonic”, I probably wouldn’t be a cartoonist today. Happy 25th anniverssary, Sonic.

-ray n. (@themistern)

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Amazing.

Here’s something I’ve been working on sporadically for several months. My cousin found a broken Super Famicom for cheap so I gutted it and stuck a PC in it.  The chassis is small and even after using a dremel to remove most of the internal plastic it’s still an incredibly tight fit. Rather than cutting a massive hole in the back for an I/O shield I decided to keep things clean and use the device’s original output ports to place a power button/power adapter jack/HDMI.  I’m using a cheap USB hub to rout two ports to the front, hot glued to the original controller port slot.  There’s a 64GB SSD hidden under the motherboard, and a 64GB flash drive for additional storage stuck into one of the USB ports.  Power supply is a pico PSU with external power brick. It’s got an i3-6100 and 16GB DDR4, and I’ll have to see how things go in terms of heat.  Might have to remove the cartridge slot door at the top and replace it with mesh. As far as I know it’s pretty rare to make computers out of this console, so extra hipster points for me.

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Nice article. Behold: the genesis of Game Freak.

It’s not particularly well known outside Japan, in part because much of the history is documented officially only in Japanese, but prior to being a game developer and going on to make games like Pokemon, Pulseman, Drill Dozer, and a handful of others, Game Freak was actually founded by Satoshi Tajiri in March 1983 as an independent game magazine of sorts. As an offspring of Japan’s doujin culture, Game Freak was much less about an actual profit so much as just an expression of Tajiri’s admiration for video games in general and the companies and people who make them. While things like the Touhou series and Recettear tend to be the most prominent aspects of doujin culture when it comes to games in particular, fan magazines and books about specific games, developers, or even just certain genres are hardly foreign to the scene and continue to be produced even today, often proving to be treasure troves of what can otherwise be obscure information on their subject matter. Indeed, in Game Freak’s case, for the four and a half years it was produced, each issue tended to focus on a game or a handful of them at most, providing overviews, tips, tricks, and other pertinent information on them. It was also during the magazine’s early days that Tajiri wound up meeting Ken Sugimori, a man who needs no real introduction as one of Game Freak’s iconic artists. Over the course of 24 proper issues and a handful of special editions, the magazine went from being a handwritten affair bound by staples and composed entirely by Tajiri alone to a collaborative effort with other people including Sugimori that would be more formally printed and have a respectable subscriber base in the hundreds.

What you see here is the first issue as it’s reprinted in Tajiri Satoshi: Pokemon wo Tsukutta Otoko, a Japanese-only biography on Tajiri and the creation of the Pokemon franchise. This initial handwritten issue that, again, Tajiri produced entirely on his own focuses on Taito games. I won’t translate the entire magazine, but here’s a brief breakdown of the contents for each page:

Page 1: Cover.

Page 2: A letter from Tajiri as the editor. Essentially discusses the leaps and bounds games are already making as a young medium and his desire to document their intricacies.

Page 3: An outline of what games are in a then-contemporary context in a post-Space Invaders boom Japan, how they work as programs, etc.

Page 4: A review page of Taito-produced arcade games. First two columns are the game names rendered in English and Japanese respectively, the third column consists of brief notes for the games (ie: “Lupin the III involves stealing money without getting caught.”), and the fourth column is his personal grade for the game, ranging from E at the lowest and A at the highest.

Page 5: More Taito game reviews.

Page 6: Various bits of arcade game industry news. The table on the left details the best selling arcade machines as of that issue, which are: 1. Xevious. 2. Pole Position. 3. Jangou (Mahjong game produced by Nichibutsu/Tokyo Nihon Bussan; commonly known as Jangou/Jangō Lady overseas) 4. Time Pilot 5. Galaga.

Page 7: Tutorials on how to perform game bugs. Games listed are Donkey Kong, Dig Dug, and Fly Boy (hang gliding game produced by Kaneko).

Page 8: More game glitches. Games included are Qix, Janputer (another mahjong game produced by ADK/Alpha Denshi Corporation), Pengo, and Donkey Kong, Jr.

Page 9: A feature dedicated to new games. This issue focuses on Jangou. Noteworthy for the magazine to include since having a computer able to play majong was a big deal in 1980s Japan, not unlike the proliferation of chess simulations on computers overseas.

Page 10: More information on Jangou.

Page 11: “Easy to Draw Game Characters.” A good number of the characters depicted should be obvious enough, but in order: 1. Pac-Man 2. Sno-bee (enemy character from Pengo) 3. Q*bert 4. Qix 5. Giddospario (Xevious enemy). Bottom box is a call out for additional contributers for game strategy articles, illustrations/manga, bug information, opinions, etc.

Page 12: Back issue orders. This the fourth edition of the first issue, hence why this page exists. Game Freak was known to do multiple print runs and also push out edited editions after an issue’s initial release.

Page 13: A preview of the next issue, which is set to focus on Xevious. Bottom half is concluding remarks from Tajiri thanking readers for checking out the issue. His words discuss later issues and the ongoing success of the magazine, indicating this was inserted into issue 1 sometime after its first edition.

Page 14: Back cover with issue information, including first edition print date (March 20, 1983) and the print date of this fourth edition (May 28, 1983). Game screenshot is Jangou.

Among English-speaking fans, the book where this copy of the magazine is sourced from is known mainly for its inclusion of (thoroughly fantastic) concept art that Sugimori produced for Pokemon Red/Green, but it also has a wealth of other sorts of information about Game Freak’s history. I believe translation efforts have been attempted to bring the book out in English, but to my knowledge, they’ve never been completed. If I find the time to do so, I may also translate the issue listings that detail the contents of every issue of Game Freak the magazine some other time, but either way, hopefully this has been insightful and made for a fun trip into the relatively lesser known history of one of the world’s premiere game developers.

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It’s my birthday today!! And also the birthday of my favorite bunny girl with the booty -- Hibari from “Senran Kagura”! 

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loooool

I DONT KNOW WHAT TO BELIEVE ANYMORE

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Reblog money luffy in the next 20 seconds or you’ll be broke for life

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Check out my new comic strip! A new strip every Monday!  Please follow!

004 - Forbidden Words 2016

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Do as the adorable kitty says.

Dramatis Personae

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What are you thankful for this year?

anime tiddies 

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I did this illustration on Twitter last night. Since it’s video game related, I’m reblogging it here.

Me with Lightning. By @wabbitdoodels #finalfantasy #lightning #suekalergis #squarenix