'80s titles planned for rerelease on Switch and PC

Old-school cool developer Sunsoft has announced that it is planning a crowdfunding campaign in hopes to bring three of its Japan-only Famicom releases to modern platforms. The campaign will officially launch on the Japanese crowdfunding site Campfire between July 14 - August 31.

The three titles up for rerelease are Edo-set platformer Kanshaku Tamanage Kantarou no Toukaidou Gojuusan-tsugi (1986), side-scrolling fantasy adventure The Wing of Madoola (1986), and finally the casually-paced text adventure Ripple Island (??1988). None of the titles ventured outside of Japan and thus have since faded into obscurity, a status that Sun?soft is hoping to revitalize.

[caption id="attachment_388355" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image from Shmuplations[/caption]

Should the Campfire campaign prove successful, the three titles will be ported to PC and Nintendo Switch. In addition, the publisher is hoping to release physical gold cartridges of the games for the Famicom platform. Way back when, Sunsoft was one of the few compa??nies allowed to release its titles on specially branded cartridges, (see image above), and while many of the studio's games were awarded this prestige, gold-tinted cartridges were a goal never achieved by the studio. Hopefully, Sunsoft will be able to realize its glittery dream, if 40 years after the fact.

Localizatio??ns for the titles were not confirmed,?? and seem unlikely, but we will let you know should this change.

Sunsoft plans crowdfunding campaign to port three Fami?com titles to Switch, PC [Gematsu]

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I've lost count of how many times I let Ganon return

[Note: This piece was originally published in 2021. We're bumping it now, as part of our Zelda Week coverage in May 2023, in the lead-up to Tears of the Kingdom. Enjoy!]

Thirty-one years ago, The Legend of Zelda became the first video game I ever beat. A year later, Zelda II: The Adventure of Link became the first video game I ever quit.

To be fair, I didn't finish too many games in my elementary school days. We owned m??aybe five titles total for our NES, and everything else was rented. So most games I played in the early '90s were returned before I got the chance to see the credits roll.

But that's not what happened with Zelda II. Sure, it was a rental to keep me occupied for another stormy Western Washington weekend, but I gave up on it long before we had to take it back to the rental shop. As captivated as I was with everything Zelda following my victory over Ganon in the first game, attempting to play through The Adventure of Link m??ade me want to cry like the little sissy boy?? I was and mostly still am.

Perhaps the game isn't designed to be beaten by six-year-olds, but I also couldn't beat it when I was 18 and it re-released on The Legend of Zelda: Collector's Edition bonus disc, when I was 22 and bought it for the Wii's Virtual Console, when I was 26 and got it for free as a part of the 3DS Ambassador's Program, when I was 31 and tried to beat it in time for the franchis?e's 30 anniversary, and four years ago when I set out to conquer it on my NES Classi??c Edition. This game has been destroying me my entire life, but this year, I finally found a way to see it through to the end.

I cheated my ass off.

To be clear, I tried for years to beat Zelda II legitimately. I never made it past the second dungeon back on the NES, but on my GameCube, I gave it the old college try. Without having to worry about returning the game to the rental shop, I knew I could take my time with it and fully dedicate myself to mastering it the same way I'd mastered the original and A Link to the Past. I even printed up a guide from GameFAQs to p??oint me in the right direction. And while it helped me get further than ever before, one thing it couldn'??t do was get me past Rebonack.

For the unfamiliar, Rebonack is the dungeon boss of the Island Palace. On paper, it sounds like a prett?y easy fight. He starts out mounted on floating horse armor, charging at you from left and right. You need to jump over him with a downward thrust as he passes by to whittle away his energy. However, halfway through the fight, he'll jump off his horse, recover all his health, and come at you as a Blue Iron Knuckle. This is part that has give??n me trouble throughout my life.

As much as I admire Nintendo for not resting on its laurels when creating a sequel to The Legend of Zelda, the move to side-scrolling action combat introduced a host of issues prevalent to NES games of the era that the original was able to avoid. Anyone who's played Ninja Gaiden has probably lost a life or twenty to a bird that ??appeared out of nowhere to hit yo??u mid-jump over a pit.

That's something Link had to contend with on his second outing, though in his case, it's the flying eyeball Moas darting out of the left or right side of the screen to knock him into lava. It's cheap, frustrating nonsense. You have to have amazing reflexes and hand-eye coordination to make it through The Adventure of Link because the enemies you??'ll face are almost supernatural in their responses to your actions. Your foes can turn on a dime to hit you, and Ir??on Knuckles and their ilk are so adept at blocking your attacks that it would be comical if it weren't so exacerbating.

This is why I could never beat Rebonack. As soon as he switched to his second form, I had to deal with an enemy who could easily block all my attacks, who could attack me almost nonstop, and who could be pushed off the screen where I couldn't reach them, but they could still hit me. Regular Iron Knuckles and the lizard Gerus are frustrating enough when they have walls or pits you can knock them int??o. But one that can simply leave the screen while still dealing out ??damage will turn your hair gray.

So yeah,?? when I was 18, I said fuck it and quit at Rebonack. When I played it again on Virtual Console, I said fuck it and quit at Rebonack. On the 3DS? You guessed it. I said fuck it and quit at Rebonack. Then on my NES Classic, I made it past the Island Palace, and hea—I'm just kidding. I said fuck it and quit at Rebonack.

For more than 15 years, that bastard was the bane of my existence. I'm sure, had I stuck it out, I would have eventually made it past him and realized the difficulty of bosses is all downhill from there. But after fighting so many Iron Knuckles?? throughout my quest and knowing the journey ahead of me woul??d be dotted with even more, having to challenge one as a boss battle immediately exhausted me, as if my soul threw its hands up and exclaimed, "Not this shit again."

For years, that's been my prevalent opinion of Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. It's an exhausting game, one seemingly designed to ensure players spend dozens of hours trying to make their way through it by pitting them against frustratingly fast and strong enemies. I didn't hate the game. I didn't even think it was a bad game, it was just more of a hassle than I would have liked it to be, like playing through EarthBound Beginnings.

I mean, did you know you lose XP when certain enemies hit you, and they take away far more than they give when you kill them? It's like the game is trying to be?? as much of a dick toward players as possible. If not for the fact you keep the tools and levels you unlock throughout your numerous attempts?, it might be the most antagonistic game Nintendo has ever created.

With some alterations, I don't think The Adventure of Link would be the black sheep of the series it is today. But after 30-some-odd years, the only noticeable change has been the elimination of the blinking screen when Ganon returns upon your death. It's just as difficult today as when I still wore Velcro shoes because shoelaces intimidated me. The only difference is today, I have the rewind feature of the Nintendo Entertainment System - Nintendo Switch Online.

I probably could have cheated my way through it back on the NES as we did have a functional Game Genie. The only problem is we didn't have a book of working codes, and honestly, I didn't really like the idea of breaking a game so I could beat it. Hints were fine as I needed a lot of help to find my way around Hyrule in the first game, and we did have a few NES Max controllers lying around, but Game Genie codes always came across as a curio to me rather than a legitimate means to an end. It's one thing to enable Moon Jump in Super Mario Bros, it'??s another to give yourself permanent star power.

But that was dumb, six-year-old me. Soon-to-be 36-year-old me is okay with cheating, or at the very least, cheesing the system to my advantage. And there is no better way to cheese your way through The Adventure of Link than abusing Switch Online's rewind feature.

To be honest, I didn't even realize it had a r?ewind feature when I first started it up. I set a goal for myself to beat the game for the anniversary so I could write this post, and at the beginning, I went through it just as I had before. I beat the first dungeon with ease, died a lot reaching the second dungeon, died a lot finding the hammer, and finally starting to kick ass after I unlocked the downward thrust. Then I hit Rebonack and the game immediately started to grate my nerves.

Just as I readied myself to quit, it dawned on me I had comple?tely ignored the Switch Online interface to this point. That's when I saw the rewind feature. I figured I might as well give it a shot, so I rewound my fight with Rebonack and challenged him again.

He beat me, but I did better this time. So I rewound again and did even better. On my fourth rewind, I nearly beat him. Then I started rewinding every time he hit me, and soon enough, like the samurai from Katana Zero, I had rewound my way into a perfect run against my arch-nemesis. A few hours later, I managed a perfect run to revive the sleeping Princess Zelda. A great big smile stretched across my face as I watched the credits roll. I had finally beat a game that had been giving me grief all my life, even if I ne??eded a little help to do it.

In hindsight, I ??realize the rewind feature is a substitute for what I've really been missing all these years: patience. I'm simply not a patient enough person to deal with this game's bullshit.

If you're someone who beat Zelda II: The Adventure of Link without any technological assistance, I tip my hat to you. You're a better gamer than I. But if you're like me, a person who has wanted for years to cross this title off their backlog, don't feel bad using all the help you can get. Rewind the game, go with the SP version that maxes Link out at the start of his adventure, do whatever it takes because Zelda II is a bitch of a game, but on??e with significant ideas that w??ere way ahead of its time.

And once you do beat it, you can sleep easy knowing that now that you've conquered it, you never have to fuck?ing think about it again.

The post My 30-year quest to beat Ze??lda II: The Adventure of Link appeared first on Destructoid.

Cute pink ball in the side pocket

Nintendo Switch Online has updated its library of old-school releases, offering up hours of '80s/'90s entertainment for its subscribers �The March release, which is live right now, includes titles from the NES, SNES, and Game Boy libraries, and includes an appearance from your? favorite pink pal, Kirby!

NES

From the 8-bit console's enormous back catalog of releases, we are offered the NES port of Atari's iconic 1982 shmup Xevious. Titled Xevious The Avenger, this vertically scrolling shmup was initially released on the Japanese Famicom in 1984, and was, at ??the time, one of the very first third-party titles in Nintendo hi?story. It was incredibly successful on release, which lead to a stock shortage within its launch week!

SNES

For the 16-bit counterpart, we're taking to the table for a spot of pool with Data East's Side Pocket, a top-down billiards simulator based upon the 1986 arcade of the same name. The home version offers more modes and revised gameplay, as well as a bevy of rad, 16-bit portraits as well as photo-style portraits of the player characters and various "babes", which were designed to give the home edition an edgy, The Color of Money vibe.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBZVe??qD3nRc&ab_channel?=NintendoofAmerica

Game Boy

This month's Game Boy offerings feature two gaming icons. The first, BurgerTime Deluxe, is a handheld edition of Data East's classic 1982 arcade, and sees a chef negotiate a maze of platforms in order to make the perfect burger �fending off attacking foodstuffs with his trusty pepper. The second Game Boy addition is Kirby's Dream Land 2, the sequel to the legendary and highly acclaimed 1992 release, Kirby's Dream Land. This adventure sees our ever-hungry friend attempt to recover the stolen Rainbow Bridges from Kin?g Dedede, po??ssessed by an evil phenomenon known as "Dark Matter".

Xevious The Avenger, Side Pocket, BurgerTime Deluxe, and Kirby's Dream Land 2 are al?l ??available now via the Nintendo Switch Online service.

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Lemme tell you something

I often opine that video games have not been very good to Ghostbusters. I would think that the entrepreneurial attitude of the original movie depicting a very chaotic and game-like profession would be ripe for translation, but most titles that approach the subject matter fumble it. Sometimes they fumble it catastrophically. Ghostbusters on the NES is among the wor?st games I’ve e?ver played.

The go-to answer for a Ghostbusters game done right is Ghostbusters: The Video Game, and it’s absolutely a decent effort. However, despite getting together the original cast and sticking pretty faithfully to the license, the narrat??ive f??elt tonally off, and the gameplay was merely middling.

If you want the game that really deserves to be considered the best title wearing the tan flightsuit, it’s New Ghostbusters II on the NES. You may have played Ghostbusters II back in the day and thought it was kind of butt, but I’m talking New Ghostbusters II. It was HAL Laboratories' crack at t??he license, and they definitely nailed it.

It's a river of slime

If you need a reminder, Ghostbusters II was the movie where they wore the sequel’s logo on their uniform. It wasn’t the masterpiece that the original film was, being a bit more dopey, commercial, and family-friendly (even though a couple of scenes traumatized me as a child). However, it still had a fun pace, good humor, and the same great cast. It’s definitely still worth watching, but being compared to the original Ghostbusters film is never going to end well for anybody.

While Activision had the rights to cash in on the film’s image in North America, HAL Laboratories got it for Japan, and the very next year in the United Kingdom. This meant that their version never landed on this side of the pond, but a similar game by them, Ghostbusters II on the Game Boy did while being ??publishe?d by Activision.

Hot and ready to pop

While Activision’s efforts are the kind of quality you’d typically expect from a licensed NES game, New Ghostbusters II is a joyful representation of the film. The whole experience is represented as a chibi-styled, top-down affair. You choose two of your favorite busters from a selection of five. ??Rick Moranis�character, accountant Louis Tully, is? also available. There’s no difference between any of them, so it’s all a matter of preference.

One of your chosen characters takes the lead with the proton pack, ensnaring ghosts and holding them into place. The other follows behind with the trap, throwing it out and capturing the entities. It’s all rather quick and snappy. It follows the concepts laid out in the film but manages to avoid making them a chore. It also boil?s down the gameplay to two buttons. Everything is done with the trap and proton pack. Nothing new is added throughout the game, but it gets a lot of mileage out of the basic mechanic.

The one downside this has is that your partner is AI controll?ed. They don’t exactly match your footsteps, instead wandering slightly. While this is definitely a more dynamic way to play the game, it does allow for rare instances where your trapper gets stuck somewhere. There was one boss encounter in particular where I snared my prey, only to notice that Egon wasn’t even on screen. I died as a result, and when I respawned, he was still AWOL. I had to search for him, discovering that he was stuck in the bathroom. Happens to the best of us.

The Titanic just arrived

The levels roughly follow the flow of the film. There are no cutscenes, so it’s up to you to remember how it all goes together. The whole game can be completed in under 45 minutes, but there are limited continues that threaten to push you back to the start. It’s not the hardest game, but it isn’t the easiest by a longshot. The third level in the apartments, for example, is a lot longer than the other stages and can be a test of endurance. New Ghostbusters II also ha?s a habit of try?ing to surprise you, and since one hit can cost you a life, it’s easy to start shedding your extra busters.

While 45 minutes may sound rather brief �and it is �it means that the gameplay doesn’t have a chance to go stale. As much as the core concept is well-executed, not a lot is ??done with it. There are no power-ups, no alternate weapons like the slime blower, and no mechanics beyond enemy disposal that make use of it.

That’s unfortunate because a lot could be done with it. Not just through the implementation of proton-powered door locks, but through a wider foundation. Once again, I’m wishing for some sort of managerial meta for a Ghostbusters game. It’s too bad that New Ghostbusters II wasn’t some resounding success that begged the development of New Ghostbusters II 2. The core mechanics ????are great. Someone just needed to take them and run.

Did you catch the number of that train?

What’s there is a tonne of fun, though. While games like Ghostbusters on the Sega Genesis feel like they try twist the core concepts of ghostbusting to fit into a pre-existing formula, New Ghostbusters II is more like asking how the movie can be made interactive. The biggest issue here isn’t a shortage of e?xecution, it’s a lack of ambition.

Yet, I still recommend New Ghostbusters II to any fan of the films. From the soundtrack t??o the core gameplay, there’s a lot of love in the final product. Considering some of the bombs that have been thrown to fans throughout the franchise’s entire lifespa??n, a competent game from the past is a breath of fresh air.

I mentioned that there was another HAL Laboratories creation released around the same time, Ghostbusters II on the Game Boy. While a lot of the concepts cross over to the platform,?? it’s not the same game. It’s significantly scaled down. Maybe still worth a look, but not as impressive as its NES equivalent.

For other re??tro t??itles you may have missed, click right here!

The post Ne?w Ghostbusters II on NES will make you feel good appeared first on Destructoid.

Something's gonna always keep it down!

I’ve never seen Karate Kid. It was a bit before my time, but I’ve seen movies like The Goonies, so that’s really no excuse. I probably should, but I have a stack of �0s action movies to get through, and I watch movies about as much as I drink water: rarely enough that you should be concerned. It’s funny, I can sit down and play games for most of the day, but a two-hour movie? Nah?.

Instead, I played the NES game. Yes, watching the movie would have assuredly been a better use of my time. I’m sure it would have also provided meaningful context, but th?at's what plot synopsis is ?for.

Karate Kid is actually an adaptation of the first two movies. The first level is a recreation of the tournament at the end of the original movie, while everything after that takes place in Okinawa, the location of?? the second. I suppose that’s one way to adapt the source mater?ial, as I wouldn’t say it’s exactly video game friendly, but that didn’t stop publishers in the �0s.

The first part of the game is essentially a one-on??-one fighting game, but after that, it’s this weird side-scrolling beat-’em-up. You go from the left side of the screen and run to the right, as is law in platformers, and kick dudes in the face. Was that in ??the movie? I read something about grocery thugs, so maybe that’s it.

I guess you can make everything into a beat-’em-up, but Karate Kid isn’t a particularly good one. For instance, I figured out early on that I didn’t need the punch button. There’s no real reason for this, the two attacks are just interchangeable. Most of the enemies die in a single blow, regardless of whether or not you’re touching them with your hands or feet. This changes for the last level because Karate Kid needed a way to be an extra dick.

It’s okay, I know a way around it. See, the game only allows two enemies on screen at a time, so if you jump over two of them and lead them through the level, no more will spawn and you can just walk to the end. I missed my calling as a Game Counselor. It’s like ch????eating, except you’re just taking advantage of lazy programming.

Speaking of lazy programming, you perform the crane kick and the drum punch by standing still and hitting the kick or punch button. This uses a limited res??ource that you pick up through minigames and in the game world. You have to keep moving, otherwise, you just waste your special attacks. It’s ??impressive because it manages to be simple, confusing, and pointless at the same time.

Not that you necessarily need them. Maybe for the boss battle at the end. But when most of the enemies die in a si?ngle hit for most of the ??game, there’s not much sport in hitting them harder.

You’ve got three lives to clear four levels, and while it may take you a few attempts to see the end, Karate Kid ?is disorientingly short. By my count, there are two enemy types. Daniel-san changes his outfit three times throughout the game, which is impressive considering there’s very little variation to everything else. Someone really thought ?the protagonist needed to change his clothes, so that made it in against everything else that might have made the game actually fun.

Karate Kid is really one of those weak license tie-in games that you hear about. Th??e one that gets kids really excited for it then teache??s them to be ready for a life full of disappointment.

Or not, because even though Karate Kid isn’t very much fun, it’s not the worst licensed game I’ve played on the NES. Predator is potentially the worst, but I’ll get back to you with my full report once I actu??ally finish it.

No, Karate Kid is just a waste of time. It feels slapped together and only technically works because its gameplay is so simple it would be hard to fai??l entirely. The design document had to be two pages long. Perhaps it only contained three words: “Karate=Punch+Kick.�It’s not a bad formula, it just seems so commonly applied in the most ?mundane ways.

For previous Weekly Kusoge, check this link!

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Gun*Nac is a worthwhile trip to Iota Synthetica

The NES wasn’t particularly well suited for vertical shoot-’em-ups with its sprite limits and slow processor, but somehow a lot of notable titles landed on it. Life Force, Crisis Force, 1943; the games worked better than they had an?y right t??o.

The one that intrigues me the most is a more obscure title called Zanac. Developed by Compile, I absolutely suck at it. It? was slick and used a scaling difficulty system that you had to caref?ully manage lest you become overwhelmed.

Their follow-up to that went in a completely different direction. It was Gun*Nac and it ditched its scaling difficulty syste?m in favor of ??insanity.

These days, Compile is best known for creating Puyo Puyo, but they have a pretty diverse portfolio that includes Golvelius, The Guardian Legend, and the not terrible Sega versions of Ghostbusters.

Gun*Nac was what drew me to the developer. I actually bought it back in the days when I was collecting retro games because I was poor and they were a cheaper alternative. It’s funny, because now I couldn’t afford Gun*Nac since it’s exceeded $550 on the collector’s market. I bought it largely on? a whim, but it instantly shot up the ranks to be one of my favorite NES titles.

Released in 1991, Gun*Nac feels like a kitchen sink approach to the shoot-’em-up genre. Did you ever fully upgrade your weapons in Raiden? It’s an amazing experience as everything gets wrecked almost the moment it gets on screen. It’s almost too much, but it’s the equivalent of having a pinball machine screaming “Jackpot! Jackpot! Jackpot!�/a> at you. It presses this spot in your grey matte?r that makes you feel like the big cheese.

For other retro titles you may have missed, click r?ight here!

The post Gun*Nac is a weird and friendly shoot-’em-up that belongs in your NES appeared first on Destructoid.

Old-school cool

During today's Nintendo Direct presentation, the publisher revealed a cool new addition to its growing range of Game & Watch LCD-style devices. The Legend of Zelda: Game & Watch features four games in total, taken from the very e?arlies??t adventures of the land of Hyrule.

The system includes the original NES titles The Legend of Zelda (1986) and Zelda II: The Adventures of Link (1987), as well as the excellent Game Boy release The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (1993). As a fun bonus, a fourth game is the classic Game & Watch title, Vermin (1980), o?nly now starring Hyrule's favorite hero. A cute interactive clock/timer is also in??cluded.

The Legend of Zelda: Game & Watch system launches November 12.

//youtu.be/5jp_9gv_N8c

The post The Legend of Zelda Game & Watch system features four classic games appeared first on Destructoid.

The continued adventures of Buff McUpperbod

Growing up, I always saw Metal Gear on the NES as one of its landmark titles. I mean, sure its translation was legendarily horrible, but people seemed to dig the progenitor to the Metal Gear Solid series. Then we got a translation of the MSX2 original on Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence and series creator, Hideo Kojima, said that he disowned the NES port, and suddenly the former classic is just poop.

I don’t know. I get that the MSX2 port is better, but I liked ??the N?ES version just fine.

One game that has always been the black sheep of the Metal Gear family is the sequel to the NES port, Snake’s Revenge. Konami wanted a sequel to Metal Gear for North Americans who like their heroes gruff and their villains villainous, and they weren’t going to wait around for Kojima to make his vision, so they got another team to whip something up. Then, three months later, Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake was released o??n MSX2 exclusively in Japan and it was awesome. As for us North Americans, we got poop.

[caption id="attachment_372547" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Snake’s Revenge is the story of series protagonist, Snake, who is out for revenge. Actually, that’s not true. He isn’t. A hostile nation is building a new Metal Gear and Snake has to sneak in and stop it. There’s probably nukes in there somewhere, as well, because there always is, even in the dollar bin Metal Gear titles.

Surprisingly, Snake’s Revenge goes back and borrows from the original MSX2 Metal Gear; stuff that was cut from the NES version. There are now two alert levels, and punching out enemies causes them to drop rations. With the heightened alert level, walking over to the next screen isn’t enou?gh to make everyone forget about you. Instead, you have to kill enough of them to conv??ince the rest not to come after you.

Honestly, the game feels less shaky than the first NES port. The graphics are cleaner and more diverse, and the mechanics just fit together better. If I have a complaint about the game’s aesthetics, it’s that Snake looks like an �0s wrestling figure. He’s got this big upper body and all the muscle definition the NES could muster. It’s like what an eigh??t-year old boy would consider cool. He’s Rambo.

[caption id="attachment_372549" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

If there’s one major deficiency that Snake’s Revenge has, it’s that it abandoned its interconnected world in favour of a series of more linear levels. Metal Gear was something of a student of Metroid; you explored the world and opened up more o?f it as you picked up new gear. That’s not completely abandoned here, but there’s only so much exploration that can be done on a train.

What’s ridiculous about this is that the horrible key-swapping is still included. If you’re familiar with Metal Gear, you may recall that you pick up eight numbered keys throughout the game and none of them become obsolete. Every time you come to a locked door, you need to pull out your keychain and try each card, one by one, until the door opens. That was a vexing problem for the first game, but its inclusion in Snake’s Revenge feels like it was done out of spite.

Want pr?oof? Towards the end of the adventure, you come to a series of rooms. Each one has three doors, and only one of them can be opened. And it’s locked. So the only way to find out if the door will open is to stand in front of it and dig through your pockets. Tell me what would inspire that little gameplay mechanic if not malice.

[caption id="attachment_372550" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

The most head-scratching addition to the formula is the inclusion of side-scrolling sections. There’s potential to make interesting stealth additions to side-scrolling -- it’s been done before -- but Snake’s Revenge doesn’t do that. You can technically sneak up behind guards, but only if they’re pre-positioned to face away from you. That, or you can crawl between screens, since guards don't know how to look down. Otherwise, you’re just going to play an extremely sucky rendition of Rush’n Attack (Green Beret) where enemies just charge at you.

The bo??sses also just stop short of being offensive. They’re pattern based, but their attacks can be difficult to avoid and cause massive damage when you’re hit. I got through most of the bosses by chowing down on rations li??ke Snake just gave up his New Years�weight loss resolution. It’s not unreasonably difficult, nor is the game as a whole. Most of the lives I lost were to the many bottomless pits that suck you in.

[caption id="attachment_372551" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Maybe you think Snake’s Revenge doesn’t sound so bad, and honestly, you’d be right. It’s certainly not top-shelf, but it isn’t the bastardization that some people make it out to be. It doesn’t come close to even approaching Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, but as a game developed under corporate mandate without the involvement of the original ?creator, it does the job.

It’s just kind of too bad that its reputation is in the toilet. Sure, it was never considered canon, but people still worked on it, and it’s not offensively horrid. Yet, we’ll probably never see a re-release of it unless Konami decides to do a comprehensive Metal Gear collection with all the offshoots, like Metal Gear Acid and Ghost Babel. Honestly, I’m down for that. Put that on the list of thing??s I want from Konami after i??t’s out of rehab and has kicked its gambling addiction.

For previous Weekly Kusoge, check this link!

The post Snake’s Revenge is the kid everyone on the playground picks last appeared first on Destructoid.

Blasts from the Past

Nintendo has announced that it will be adding four new titles to the Nintendo Switch Online Collection app — a compilation of classic NES & SNES releases that are readily accessible to all us??ers who have a Nintendo Switch Online subscription.

Joining the roster on May 26 will be Jaleco's Ninja JaJaMaru-kun, a rarity that first launched for the Famicom back in 1985. From the 16-bit SNES era, the Online Collection will be receiving Natsume's 1991 action title Spanky's Quest, Culture Brain's 1991 sports release Super Baseball Simulator 1.000, Data East's arcade platformer Joe & Mac: Cavemen Ninja and, also from Data East, one of my personal favorite puzzle games, Magical Drop II, which is getting its first ever western r??elease.

Now, admittedly this is hardly the most exciting or world-renown of releases, but it's definitely an interesting batch of oddities. The Nintendo Switch Online Collection seems to be a solid blend of the obvious (Super Metroid, Super Mario World, StarFox) and the sublime (Wild Guns, River City Ransom, Gradius). But I hope that Nintendo will continue to pull both popular and unknown releases ??from its extensive back catalogue of yesteryear's hits.

5 titles are coming to the #SNES & #NES – #NintendoSwitchOnline collection on 5/26!

Super NES – Nintendo Switch Online:
・Super Baseball Simulator 1.000
・Caveman Ninja (also known as Joe & Mac)
・Magical Drop2
・Spanky's Quest

NES – Nintendo Switch Online:
・Ninja JaJaMaru-kun pic.twitter.com/OzYmF7lIYk

— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) May 19, 2021

The post Five more NES & SNES titles are joining the Nintendo Switch Online Collection appeared first on Destructoid.

Don't get pooped on in this week's kusoge

While the phenomenon of appreciating bad games exists everywhere in t?he world, perhaps no player base is as conscious of it as those in Japan. Unlike us, they have a very concise word for describing terrible games: kusoge. That’s "kuso," meaning crap, and "ge," as in geemu or game. Crap game, see?

Perhaps the most infamous, and sometimes believed to be the original recipient of that title, is the Famicom/NES port of Spelunker. For some reason, Spelunker sold decently well, but its reputation for being unreasonably difficult spread to the point of it becoming a cultural phenomenon in Japan. Th?e main character’s frailty even found its way into a turn of phrase, ?“spelunker taishitsu,” or spelunker’s constitution, which is commonly applied to athletes who are frequently or easily injured. I bet you didn’t realize you’d be getting a Japanese lesson here.

Spelunker was initially released on?? 8-bit home computers but was given new life and great notoriety when it was ported to Famicom. The differences between versions are pretty stark, so keep in mind that I’m?? only talking about the Famicom/NES version here.

The first thing you’re going to do upon starting a game of Spelunker is shimmy a bit to the right, fall off the ele??vator, and die. It’s okay, it’s only natural. The gap between the elevator and the ledge is so narrow that you’d expect to step over it, but?? instead, your little cave delver finds his way through the crack, plummets a few feet, and blinks himself to death.

Assuming you don’t repeat the mistake, you’ll probably kill ??your hapless ?character trying to get on the lift less than a screen’s length away. I’m not trying to question your skill at video games, I promise. I’m trying to demonstrate how ludicrously fragile the protagonist is.

Almost everything in his journey will kill him. Small steam geysers, short drops, bat droppings; it’s like embarrassment is poison to him and every small setback he encounters causes it. To be fair, embarrassment is a common weakness for platformer characters, demonstrated by the fact that physical contact is usually enough to fell mighty side-scrolling heroes. Our little spelunker is just a bit mo??re dramatic about his failures.

If I was the paranoid type, I’d probably say that Spelunker is designed to screw with you, like the latter levels in Super Mario Bros. or the entirety of Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels. Obstacles seem to be placed specifically so you’?ll get killed by them. Vines are left so close to the ground that they invite you to simply step off, even though their short drop is fatal. Rocks that you rebound off of are placed next to pits in such a way that if you time your jump even slightly wrong, you’re sent back to your embarrassing death.

The only real enemies in the game are the pooping bats and a ghost that is easily chased away by sacrificing a bit of ?your oxygen. It’s slipping up with simple tasks that will kill you the most, like dismounting an elevator or climbing a vine. Most deaths come from simp??le mistakes rather than challenging design. You’ll burn yourself with your own flare or blow yourself up with a bomb you placed. You’ll step off an elevator at the wrong moment and fall just a smidge too far. The little spelunker is as fragile as a gossamer ballerina.

There are four levels to clear, which may not seem like it’s very long, but a lot of play?ers don’t have the patience to clear the first. It can be difficult to be persever??ant when the game kicks you in the stomach at every turn.

It is possible to meet the game’s unreasonable demands. Once you’ve learned the rules and how every obstacle reac?ts, reaching the end isn’t impossible. It’s just getting to that point is something not everyone will have the fortitude for. Personally, it took me a long time to beat the first level, longer to beat the second, but by the time I reached the third, all the skills were in place for me to topple it. Even today, I can generally get through the game while out of practice. I’ve just learned to speak its foul language.

To be honest, although Spelunker is perhaps one of the most legendary kusoge, I h?ave a soft spot for it -- a fondness, even. It’s like putting your hand on a car hood in the middle of summer, the ??blistering heat is quite painful at first, but once your skin is fried and enough of the heat has dissipated, it can be quite tolerable.

Spelunker is definitely a challenging game, but it behaves predictably and can be overcome by learning its patterns. It’s not quite the most taxing game out there, and reaching the end is satisfying. It then asks you to do it again while turning the keys invisible. Then, having finished that, you do it again, but not only are the keys invisible, you have to jump ?to collect them. The cyclical repeating of the game is pretty pointless, but that was just how games were back then.

It’s easy to hate on Spelunker at first glance, but it stuck in the Japanese mindset pretty firmly. It got a rather strange sequel in 1987, which, despite being called Spelunker II, was completely different than the first Famicom game. There was an arcade sequel, also called Spelunker II that was a little more closely related to the original. We’d later get Spelunker HD which is technically a remake, but it also adds 100 new levels, so take that however you want. The Famicom mechanics would also be applied to Spelunker World, re-released as Spelunker Party, wh?ich is a bit friendlier, but ?still based on the same clunkiness. It's a whole series!

I’m not going to try and sell you on Spelunker because I understand that it’s a hard game to love. Even still, I&rsqu??o;d recommend trying it out just to see its bizarrely off-putting difficulty. It’s okay to just dip your toes in kusoge now and then and just leave?? swimming in it to broken people like me.

The post Meet Spelunker, one of Japan’s most treasured bad games appeared first on Destructoid.

Missing Link

If there is one thing that helped Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda franchise remain one of the most enduring and beloved series of all-time, it's consistency. There aren't many series that have put so few feet wrong in well over 30 years, which is a testament to the quality poured into each and ?every release.

Oh sure, there's been a few missteps along the way, including 1993's Link: The Faces of Evil and Zelda: The Sword of Gamelon, as well as the 2017 Switch entry Breath of the Wild (I kid, I kid...calm down), but nine times out of ten, you can always expect Nintendo to knock it outta the park, thanks to the protective nature and reverence with which it trea??ts its home-grown IPs.

But it wasn't always so. In the late '80s and early '90s, Nintendo of America was definitely more lenient with the sharing of its franchises, licensing out golden geese such as Super Mario Bros. with a far more carefree attitude. For the most part, this proved unwise, resulting in sub-standard entertainment that failed to capture the essence of the source material - Super Mario Bros. The Movie, anyone?

Of all of these ventures, none is more notorious than the short-lived Legend of Zelda animated series, which attempted to capitalize on the success of NES releases The Legend of Zelda and Zelda II: The Adventures of Link. Handed to DIC Enterprises ("DEEEK!"), The Legend of Zelda was an attempt to take Hyrule's inhabitants out of the video game realm?? and into the lucrative, backward-baseball-cap world of '80s kids' TV.

The resulting show would contribute to Nintendo re-e?va??luating its attitude toward licensing. Forever.

The Legend of Zelda, produced for Viacom Entertainment, originally aired in North America in September 1989, broadcast as part of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! - itself renown for WWF-star Captain Lou Albano's manic turn imploring viewers to "Do the Mario." While Monday through Thursday would feature a daily episode of the awful Super Mario Bros. cartoon, Fridays would substitute an episode of The Legend of Zelda??, ensuring your weekend got off to a sh?it sandwich of a start.

The Legend of Zelda sees young hero Link living in Hyrule Castle with Princess Zelda and her father, King Harkinian (your favorite Zelda character). Link has been hired by the king to guard the Triforce of Wisdom from evil sorcerer Ganon, who himself already owns the Triforce of Power. I don't know where he got it. Let's say eBay. At no point in the series is the Triforce of Courage seen or refere??nced whatsoever. This actually makes it a Biforce, which is what I call my temper tantrums.

Each episode sees Ganon attempt to capture both Triforce, an act which will immediately make him the Hyrule's ruler...or so we're told. With each episode only running 14 minutes, not including two title sequences, we shouldn't expect a deep backstory. Typically, Ganon attempts some kind of subterfuge, inevitably failing as ZeldInk save the day. Most of the show's 13 episodes follow a simple formula: Brief Fight > Ganon's Plan > Plan is Attempted > Nearly Works > Doesn't Work > Do The Mario. (Incidentally, said dance involves "swinging your arms from side to side" and? "taking a st?ep, and then again"... That's just walking. You're describing walking, Cpt. Lou.)

As a simple "Saturday Morning" type affair, this would be perfectly fine. But The Legend of Zelda is a breakable jar filled with problems. Firstly, the scant run-time doesn't allow for even the slightest depth, resulting in bland and repetitive storytelling. Secondly, when the action arrives, it has a cheap and stilted flow akin to someone failing a laserdisc game. But the main issue - the biggest issue - is simply that most everyone in The Legend of Zelda is a dick. Let's check out our cast.

Here's the man of the hour, Link himself. He doesn't look bad at all, although there's zero sign of the soft androgyny that would become a character design trait. Link's got the suit, he's got the hair, he's got a cute button nose. ??They just need to give him a plucky, underdog personality and we're good to go. Let's check out his first lines of dialogue:

"Yech! Another beautiful day in the 'magical kingdom of Hyrule'. Boring place!.. Look at me, living in a castle, sleeping in a bed... Aren't I sweet? Yuck!" Link opens his window and spies on Zelda in her nightgown. ?"(wolf whistle) Looking good, Princess..??.especially from this angle!"

Yep, unsure how to read our hero from his recent NEScapades, DIC decided he was a whiny, self-centered, lecherous teen. The Legend of Zelda's Link moans, whines and self-congratulates throughout each episode, his only goal being to score with the fair princess - putting the moves on her time and again. "Ha! Saved you again princess. Kiss me!" demands Hyrule's favorite incel in one instance. "Oh boy, it's smooching time!" he exclaims after Zelda simply sits on a bed. He also has this habit of spinning his ?sw??ord around before he sheathes it. You ain't T.J. Lazer, pal.

The Legend of Zelda's Link is weirdly unlikable 99% of the time. Rather than the steadfast hero we know and love, he's basically the "smug teen" from every other TV show of the day. He's Doyle from Galaxy High School, he's Kevin from Captain N, if he went to a Californian high school and mentally tortured women, he'd be Zack from Saved by the Bell. And you might even be able to forgive this, all of it, if it wasn't for "that" catchphrase, delivered an unbelievable 29 times in just 13 episodes... Lordy.

Princess Zelda fares a little better. The ruler of Hyrule is, for the most part, presented as Link's equal and occasionally his better. In fact, Zelda is portrayed so headstrong and capable in battle that you can't help but wonder ??why she even hired Link in the first place. Although she takes up her typical damsel role on multiple instances, this iteration of Zelda is charging into battle, kicking Octorok ass, and smothering eagles in dirty laund??ry years before she ever donned ninja garb and started ordering folk to awaken the Seven Sages.

The Legend of Zelda's...erm...Zelda fits in neatly with an early wave of stronger women characters appearing in animated shows of the era. These queens include Thundercats' Cheetara, G.I. Joe's Lady Jaye and Baroness, and She-Ra: Princess of Power - all of whom aren't nearly as badass as Pizazz from Jem and the Holograms, but nobody is.

Still, even with her slightly more self-sufficient, mildly progressive appearance, Zelda is unnecessarily stand-offish, snooty, even mean. While I appreciate that the show is going for a "They Fancy Each Other, Really" vibe, the animosity between the leads is hilariously weighted, and sometimes just comes across like they legitimately can't stand one another. Moonlighting, this was not.

Every show has an Orko, or a Slimer, or a Snarf, and The Legend of Zelda goes with dollar store Tinkerbell, Spryte. Spryte is a fairy princess who follows our leads around offering witticisms and exposition. Spryte's hair frequently changes between blonde and brunette - possibly because of fairy magic, possibly because the animators weren't paying attention. Still, being the princess of the fairies, Spryte will surely offer the show some much-needed softness.

"Hey, listen," Spryte tells Link in episode one. "Zelda's a snot. You should stick with me." (I might have imagined "Hey, listen"). Seems that even Spryte's just out for number one. The fairy fancies Link -- because he's just so dang lovable -- an??d dislikes Zelda because she's a match for his affections. I didn't have time to put the show through the Bechdel Test, sorry.

No kid's cartoon in the '80s was complete without a solid villain: a Cobra Commander, a Starscream, or a third character with the exact same voice and personality. In The Legend of Zelda, we have the notorious Ganon, who is given the flat personality of "sorcerer," lacking the sardonic nature and gay appeal that made Skeletor so cool. Ganon conjures up villains from his "Evil Jar" - a sort of purgatory where his defeated minions dwell, ensuring that Link doesn't actually kill anybody?? during his family-friendly adventu??res.

Ganon's plans mostly involve trickery, disguising himself or others to sneak into Hyrule Castle. His one goal is to capture to Triforce of Wisdom, which he does SEVEN FUCKING MINUTES INTO EPISODE ONE. I don't know how many rupees Zelda is paying Link, ????but it's definitely too many. Call Dirk the Daring.

Ganon has far too many teeth, which creeps me out like the scrapped Sonic the Hedgehog movie design. Rather than walk, Ganon ch??ooses to teleport everywhere -- even just three steps across the same room -- but the evil genius never thinks to simply teleport to the Triforce, pick it up, and then just tele??port home. Also, in the final episode, his minions -- the Moblins -- get sick of his shit management and take over. I'd like to point out that this never once happened to The Shredder.

Let's be positive and look at what DIC's The Legend of Zelda did right. To be fair, provided none of the characters are talking or existing, the show is pretty authentic. A charming score is composed of spirited renditions of themes from the NES titles, while actions are accompanied by actual in-game sound effects -- a technique also utilized in Super Mario Bros. and Captain N: The Game Master. Very unlike the Super Mario Bros. show, we don't get a cameo from Milli Vanilli, nor 1960s song covers performed by the Koopa Kids. A fun mechanic devised for The Legend of Zelda sees items shrink down as they are pocketed, explaining how Link can carry so much in his meager clothing. This is just like Sport Billy, and you're too young to know who ?in the blue hell I'm even talking ??about.

By far, The Legend of Zelda's best element is its use of numerous trademark villains. Despite the show's short run, we get to see a huge selection of baddies from the video games. Octoroks, Moblins, Dodongos, Aches, and Gibdos are all on the call sheet, as well as boss characters such as Aquamentus and a surprisingly charismatic Gleeok. Popular weapons and items such as Link's sword, Zelda's bow, and boomerangs are also present, though both the sword and the bow simply fire "light zaps" to keep the violence down. Anyone expecting a Lucio Fulci-style decapitation in children's afternoon programming will be sadly disappointed. While the characterization leaves something to be desired, it's fun to see the show's adherence to Zelda's rogues' gallery of gods and monsters.

Now, we're just having a bit of gentle fun here, but I can already hear some of you. "This is all very well and good and too long, Moyse, but it is just a kids' show, y'know?" And I get it, it is just a kids' show -- but there were plenty of shows on the market that were just better. Shows that similarly dealt with fantasy action and magical worlds and with a much wider cast of characters that not only looked slicker, but were better written, had coole?r central arcs, and better-layered heroes and villains.

Shows such as Transformers, Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors, Thundercats, M.A.S.K., Dungeons and Dragons, and Jem and the Holograms all existed around the same time and were more smarter, more engaging, less condescending. These shows presented better action, funnier comedy, and stronger moral lessons. So it doesn't really wash to say "It wasn't made for middle-aged Brits on a dump truck of Sertraline" when there were other TV shows occupying the exact same "Kids' TV" slot that blew it out of the wate??r.

Does it really matter that The Legend of Zelda was a poor quality show? Well, yes and no. No, because DIC's short-lived series was merely one more harmless entity in a thousand mediocre cartoons, but yes, in that it was the failure of sub-licenses such as The Legend of Zelda that led to Nintendo being so completely tight-fisted on the future use of its IPs. If some of these shows and movies had treated the material with more care and reverence, then we would likely have seen better efforts made down the line. We most certainly would have had a new Legend of Zelda anime, movie, or live-action series by now. In a minor way, DIC's The Legend of Zelda did contribute negatively to the franchise's? po??tential.

Regardless of the cartoon's failure, The Legend of Zelda as a multimedia brand has more than endured, a direct result of 35 years of excellent video games, which have entertained players across the globe for generation after generation. Ultimately, Nintendo's franchise has proven itself untouchable time and again, unfettered by its few missteps. Ironically, for all its flaws, DIC's The Legend of Zelda has its own quaint role to play in the franchise's history, as one of the very few times all wasn't quite right in the land of Hyrule.

Will we ever see a truly authentic Legend of Zelda cinematic universe? Who knows? and frankly, who cares? As we've already had the best interpretation possible. ?Take it aw??ay...

The post I won’t excuUUUuse Nintendo for The Legend of Zelda’s animated antics appeared first on Destructoid.

The Legend of Zelda: Mystery of Read/Write

I find it difficult to travel back and play early 8-bit consoles like the Atari 2600 or Colecovision. It’s not that their primitive graphics and sound fail to capture my attention, but rather, they’re so dedicated to replicating the arcade experience. That's not entirely a bad thing, but it was a transient way to play games, as you would slot your quarter, played until you lost, and moved on hoping your high score would mean something. To make matters worse, early home consoles generally replicated the experience very poorly. I’m sure it was nice to be able to play Burgertime at home in 1983, but the Atari 2600 versi??on looks and?? plays like a trash barge run aground.

The idea of having the arcade experience at home continued to be a carrot dangling in the face of developers throughout the ‘90s. Indeed, the Genesis liked touting its Altered Beast, while the Super Nintendo beckoned you with its port of Final Fight. But throughout this, the true console experience began to formulate, and while games like Super Mario Bros. started us towards that goal, it would be The Legend of Zelda, with its ability to save your prog??ress, that would truly mark the beginning of the transition.

Sort of. Like most things in vid?eo gaming’s?? history, it’s a bit more complicated than simply saying, “Praise this game!”

Part of the reason we were stuck with arcade ports on consoles for so long was that developers had to be mindful of their audience's endurance. You were glued to a game until your game was over, making only short experiences practical. Even the longest games with clearly defined ends, such as Super Mario Bros. (released a mere few months before The Legend of Zelda in Japan), could be finished in one sitting.

That would change with The Legend of Zelda’s 1986 release on the Famicom Disk System, one of the add-on’s launch titles. The Famicom Disk System was an attachment for the Japanese equivalent to the Nintendo Entertainment System that allowed games to be played off of floppy disks; read/writable media. The ability to save was one of the attachment’s selling points and was used in games like Metroid, Kid Icarus, and Castlevania.

Of course, this was something possible on home computers since their inception. They were already using read/write media like floppy disks and cassettes, and saving was already possible in games like Ultima and Zork nearly half a decade earlier than The Legend of Zelda. In a way, the ??Famicom Disk System was just all??owing that advantage on home consoles.

The Famicom Disk System never made it outside of Japan, but Nintendo was still keen on getting The Legend of Zelda into western hands. The problem they encountered was that it’s impossible to save data into the ROM chips that wer??e central to the cartridges. The solution Nintendo had was to install a small battery within the cartridge that kept the save data alive in the RAM.

Again, Zelda wasn’t the first to do this. A couple games on the Epoch Supe?r Cassette Vision allowed you to save your high score and created levels to the RAM, but they were powered by AA batteries you slotted in yourself. It was the same idea, but not necessarily the same execution. Also, I wouldn’t be surprised if this is the first time you’ve heard of the Epoch Super Cassette Vision.

Meanwhile, the CR2032 in my Zelda cartridge still functions to this day, and I haven’t?? had to solder in a new one. I suppose its 15-yea??r lifespan is just a suggestion.

There were ways around needing a battery to allow continuing from a certain point. In North America, both Metroid and Kid Icarus replaced their save system with ludicrously long passwords. Likewise, Castlevania omitted saving altogether in its English release. The number of games t??hat had a battery back-up on the NES was rather small, but the number of games that were more progression-based rather than high score focused cont?inued to grow.

What Zelda presented was an adventure with an end goal rather than just being challenge after challenge. It was far less level-based than something like Super Mario Bros., tasking you with discovering the next dungeon for yourself in an (at the time) gigantic overworld. Plumb the dungeons, grab your gear, save the princess. On a good day, it can take about 6-8 hours ?to complete, and it’s easy to become stuck and want to put the game down.

Most notably, however, i??t omitted a scoring system, which was still practically sacrilege at the time. It would take a long time to flush the need for one out of the minds of developers and publishers, with it hanging on as a vestigial feature for years to come. It was a necessary sacrifice, however, as we moved on from cyclical game models with no end to games with set goals.

It’s perhaps safe to assume that, even without Zelda’s influence, video games would have shifted to a progression-based model eventually, especially when this was already budding in the home computer world. However, The Legend of Zelda’s influence and popularity ?primed audiences and pushed developers towards this model, and its effects were f??elt almost immediately.

But the industry is often one to take baby steps. Even games with an end goal would be somehow cyclical, as both Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda would? start back over in a harder difficulty after you completed them. However, with the influence of the growing RPG genre -- a genre wholly birthed for homes and not fit for arcades -- we’d eventually find freedom from en?dlessly chasing high scores and learn to shoot for the gentle head pat of the credits roll.

I don’t miss the days of chasing high scores. While I sometimes like to try and top my best efforts in Space Invaders and Ms. Pac-Man, personal growth for the sake of it is boring to me. I happily prefer the reward of getting kissed by the princess after my friends and I defeat the unknowable evi?l. I’m simple that way.

Indeed, it was much more fun to sit around and watch my father finish Ganon off in his lair within Spectacle Rock than it would have been to watch him, I don’t know, drive down an endless road mowing down traffic in Spy Hunter. It helps capture the imagination and give you something to emotionally invest in, knowing that whether or not the hero reach?es the end -- and there is a?n end -- relies on you. I’m not sure I would have stuck it out with video games if I was just endlessly chasing higher numbers.

The post How The Legend of Zelda? helped free us from arcade ports appeared first on Destructoid.

Chalk Dusty

Publisher Hamster is heading back to the dawning days of the Nintendo Entertainment System for this week's Arcade Archives release, as the Vs. System edition of Tennis is now available to download on Nintendo Switch.

Originally released as a launch title for the North American and European edition of the NES in 1985, Tennis features incredibly (and understandably) simplistic over-the-net action, as one or two players rally back and forth in singles or doubles action. Tennis was added to Nintendo's "Vs." arcade ra??nge, appearing mostly unchanged in its c?oin-op form.

Vs. Tennis is available to download now on Nintendo Switch, priced at around $8. Here's FORTY-FIVE MINUTES of action, courtesy of YouTuber Old Classic Retro Gaming.

The post NES launch title Tennis is this week’s Arcade Archives release appeared first on Destructoid.

TWAT! That was liquid football!

Sometimes, it can be tough to recommend the weekly Arcade Archive release. For every re-run on Sunset Riders, or Garou: Mark of the Wolves, Hamster gives us a truly antiquated title such as Front Line or, in this week's case, Vs. Soccer, now available to download on Nintendo Switch.

Originally released for the NES in 1985, Soccer is one of the earliest, and thus most rudimentary digital examples of "The Beautiful Game." One or two players face off on the field in very basic soccer action, choosing from a selection of seven world squads and playing in 15-45 minute halfs (in-game time, of course). Not only was Soccer the first football title to be played from a horizontal view, but it even ??features cheerlea?ders!

You can check out the action in the video below, courtesy of YouTuber Retro MGV.

Now don't get me wrong, I love all of these old-school games, they're titles I grew up with and shaped my formative years. It remains a hard ask to encourage customers to spend $8 on a download of Vs. Soccer for their Nintendo Switch. There are obviously far better titles, for the same price tag, within Hamster's own Arcade Archive range, let alone on the eShop. Thus titles such as Vs. Soccer are recommended for old-school completionis??ts only.

The post Vs. Soccer is this week’s Arcade Archives release appeared first on Destructoid.

Konami Klassics en route

That masterful spoiler of video game announcements, the Taiwan Dig?ital Game Rating Committee, is in full effect once again, offering up listings for a host of classic Konami titles, all of which have received fresh ratings for release on the PC platform?.

Among this slew of new ratings are a trio of classic Metal Gear titles. 1998's Metal Gear Solid has been re-rated, as has its enhanced 2002 sequel Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance. Also recipient of a new rating is the original Metal Gear, which first launched on the MSX2?????????????????????????? way back in 1987.

Another listing suggests that a re-release of Konami Collector's Series is in the works. Originally available on PC back in 2002, this CD-ROM compiled the NES editions of Castlevania, Castlevania II: Simon's Quest, and Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse, as well as arcade ports of run 'n' gun classics Contra and Super Contra.

This latter rating is particularly bizarre, given that all of the above games are already available on PC via the far superior Contra and Castlevania Anniversary Collections. We will keep you updated once official word of any of th??e above titles is forthcoming.

Metal Gear and Konami?? Coll?ector's Series rated for PC in Taiwan [Gematsu]

The post Cla??ssic Metal Gear and Castlevania PC ports appear on Taiwanese ratings board appeared first on Destructoid.

Now you're building with power

When Nintendo and LEGO announced they were collaborating on a new product line featuring the Super Mario franchise, I wasn't exactly stoked for what they were going for. It's certainly innovative and reeks of Nintendo's desire ??to differentiate itself from the pack, but as a collector in my mid-30s, it didn't mesh with how LEGO sets fit into my life as something I build over the course of the day and the?n admire from time to time afterward.

The LEGO Nintendo Entertainment System is much more up my alley. Designed for collectors like me, this set?? is a behemoth with lots of tiny pieces and plenty of moving parts. It's a lot of work building it one sitting, and to give you an idea of how labor-intensive it can be, I recorded the en??tire process and condensed it down into a five-minute video for your viewing pleasure.

A lot of work, but so well worth it. If you're?? wondering, here are a few details a?bout all the work that went into making this video:

• Total time it took to complete: 7 hours, 30 minutes
• Total amount of gigabytes recorded for this video: 135
• Number of pieces listed on the box: 2,646
• Number of pieces left over: 50
• Number of pieces that stuck to my arm and fell to the floor during filming: 14
• Number of times I had to take the set apart to fix it: 1
• Number of times I had to stop filming to unload my memory card: 5
• Number of blisters on my thumbs: 2

This is eas??ily the most complicated and time-consuming LEGO set I've ever assembled, and it's cooled my interest in picking up anything larger, like the 4000+ piece LEGO Death Star or that LEGO Grand Piano. Though if we ever get that LEGO Hyrule Castle people keep pitching ?in the Ideas program, I'm sure my passion for massive sets will burn once more.

The post Got five minut??es? Watch us put together the LEGO NES set appeared first on Destructoid.

Namakubi NES Nostalgia

Retro game enthusiast City Connection has opened a mysterious website teasing the publisher's next project. While absolutely no information has been offered on the creepy webpage, eagle-eyed viewers have spotted that the background image has been pulled from the intro sequence of obscure 1990 NES title Zombie Nation.

Originally released in Japan as Abarenbou Tengu, Zombie Nation is a very odd horizontally scrolling shmup in which players guide a samurai's disembodied head, (or a floating Tengu mask in the original Japanese release), as it attempts to rid the United States of invading alien forces, which have come to Earth to enslave the populace through mind control - hence "Zombie Nation."

You can check out the weirdness below, courtesy of YouTuber Nintendo Complete.

Given City Connection's love of all things shmup, this new teaser site would seem to suggest a remaster or remake of this underplayed title. But until the publisher is ready to reveal its hand, we're just going to h?ave to wait and see. Still, an odd choice of title to make a comeback.

City Connection launches "Next Project" teaser? w??ebsite [Gematsu]

The post City Connection?? seems to be teasing a Zombie Nation?? comeback appeared first on Destructoid.

Super Mario Cart

A new record has been set for the most expensive video game of all-time... And it's one of the classics. A mint condition copy of the 1985 NES release Super Mario Bros. sold at? auction? last week, changing hands for a cool $114,000 USD.

During the sale, ??which was held on July 10 by Heritag??e Auctions in Texas, a total of 29 bids culminated in the lofty six-figure sum. Unsurprisingly, the copy of Super Mario Bros. in question was in absolutely pristine condition, having been graded 9.4 out of 10, the highest grading an SMB example has ever received at auction.

Still sealed after 35 years, this particular edition even included its original cardboard hang-tab, denoting it as one of a small production run made after Nintendo transitioned to shrink-wrapping its products. This new sale beats out a previous Super Mario Bros. auction held in February 2019, where another copy of the legendar??y platformer sold for $??100,150.

The auction was won by an anonymous buyer, who has no doubt since added the most expensive video game of a??ll-time to what I'm assuming i??s probably quite a collection. I'm willing to bet they immediately tore open the packaging and dived straight into World 1-1.

Sealed copy of Super Mario Bros. sells for $114k [Eurogamer]

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Build bricks instead of breaking them

[Update: The NES LEGO set has been confirmed, with the final price set at $229.99 and the kit clocking in at 2646 pieces. It is indeed coming on August 1: you can find the official lan?ding page for it here and the trailer below.]

If LEGO is ?making a nostalgia grab, you best believe it's doing it right. LEGO's elaborate scenarios always have those extra touches to make them feel compl?ete. And a Nintendo Entertainment System all by its lonesome is kind of useless.

As the next set in the partnership between Nintendo and LEGO, the two companies are looking toward iconic hardware rather than more gaming franchises.?? A LEGO NES?? set is on the horizon, which will have builders assembling both the NES and a CRT television.

Are you ready to play like never before? pic.twitter.com/XuNFD7rP0B

— LEGO (@LEGO_Group) July 13, 2020

For those who want a LEGO set you can actually play with, the NES offers that to some small extent. A recreation of Super Mario Bros. 1-1 is on the TV screen, and Mario has a lever on his back for jumping around. However, the other Mario LEGO set is probably the better bet for livi??ng out your Goomba-stompin??g fantasies.

The reveal of the NES set is a little staggered, as LEGO has technically only teased it with the tweet that's embedded above. However, Hong Kong gaming site VJGamer grabbe??d a bunch of images that give us more idea of what to expect. (Th??ey're all in the gallery below.)

The LEGO NE??????????????????????????S set is number 71374. It comes with 2,646 pieces and is expected to cost about $260. It's rumored to release on August 1.

ã€LEGO快訊】核彈級產å“殺到 LEGO任天堂ç°æ©Ÿ å³å°‡ç™¼å”® [VJGamer via GamesBeat]

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8-bit ballgame

This week's Arcade Archives release is unfortunately a little ho-hum, but then following last week's launch of Konami's Sunset Riders, there was always the possibility of its being a bit of a step down. Regardless, Vs. Baseball is now available to download on Nintendo Switch.

Vs. Baseball is the arcade edition of 1983 NES release, Baseball. Originally a launch game with for the Famicom, Baseball does its best to capture the spirit and excitement of America's Favourite Pastime (or so soundbites tell me). While obviously very dated by today's standards, it's important to note that Baseball was a very significant releas??e for Nintendo, and is considered one of the games that helped sell NES? units in the west at launch.

The "Vs." edition of Baseball included slightly improved visuals and some rudimentary speech. You can check out a video of the game in action below, courtesy of YouTuber Old Classic Retro Gaming.

Vs. Baseball is available to download now on Nintendo Switch, priced at around $??8.

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Show Me Heaven

A team of dedicated video game historians has uncovered and reconstructed an unreleased NES game based on 1990 indycar movie Days of Thunder, some 30 years after it was ab??andoned ?by publisher Mindscape

Days of Thunder was discovered by The Video Game History Foundation among a huge catalogue of materials that belonged to game designer Chris Oberth, who sadly passed in 2012. As the foundation picked their way through Oberth's discs, hard-drives and notes, the team came across a 21-floppy disc backup of a single HDD, which contained the code for what would have been the NES edition of Days of Thunder - entirely different from the Beam Softw?are-developed release edition.

In a lengthy and meticulous undertaking, The VGHF then picked their way through each of the 21 discs, utilising a '90s era PC in order to accurately piece the scattered code back together. VGHF's Richard Whitehouse steadfastly combed through piles and piles of old data to find small-but-integral files, aided by the tools and software of the period. After recovering a particularly concealed tile file, Days of Thunder was ready to take to the raceway once again, t??hree decades years after it was put in th??e pits for good.

The VGHF intends to upload the tools used to reconstruct Days of Thunder to Github, in hopes that other archivists may be able to reconstruct the lost and abandoned code of their own discoveries. In a wonderful coda, a run of working Days of Thunder NES cartridges are being produced, with the proceeds of all sales going to Chris Oberth's family. (As of this writing the store link appears ?to be blank??, suggesting that the run has already sold out)

The rediscovery of lost games (and films) are some of my favourite stories within the industry. The idea that something that people put days and even months of their lives into, seemingly vanished into?? the ether, but rescued and immortalised in the annals of gaming history. Kudos to The Video Game History Foundation for their hard work in firing up the engines on this humble, forgott??en release.

For the full story, in all of its fascinating detail, visit the official VGHF blog right here.

30?? years later, a lost Days of Thunder NES game has been recovered [Ars Technica]

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Break the wall dowwwwwwn

For this week's Arcade Archives release, publisher Hamster are sneakily putting out another "Vs." title, (essentially slightly modified NES games made available in coin-op form).  This time it's the turn of block-busting platformer Wrecking Crew.

Released for the NES back in 1985, Wrecking Crew sees players in the roles of two construction workers, (invariably Mario and Luigi in some territories), as they smash their way through 100 levels of demolition action. Players must? use forward-thinking to plan their route through each stage, being care??ful not to paint themselves into a corner. Our heroes must also watch out for various hazards, such as fireballs and an angry site foreman who chases the mallet-wielding duo throughout the stage. Never send a plumber to do a builder's job.

You can check out a video of the game in action below, courtesy of YouTuber Old Classic Retro Gaming. Vs.Wrecking Crew is available to download ??now on Nintendo Switch, priced at around $8.

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This Bingo card is out of control

Nintendo sure has its own way ??of running the Nintendo Switch Online classic game library. A new batch with four games – two on NES, two on SNES &ndash?; is joining the service on February 19, 2020.

On the Super Nintendo front, subscribers are getting Pop'n TwinBee, a cutesy vertical shoot-'em-up, and Smash Tennis, neither of which were originally released in the United States. For NES fans, there's the action-platformer Shadow of the Ninja and the powerboat racing game Eliminator Boat Duel.

"These titles bro??aden the diversity of fu??n games available with a Nintendo Switch Online membership," Nintendo said in a press release today. The statement is as true as it is frustrating.

I'm legitimately excited about Pop'n TwinBee, but that's it. Thi?s release schedule is something else.

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Some Like it Pop

It's a return to the world of Vs. games for this week's offering from retro publisher Hamster Corp. As Balloon Fight - coded by Satoru Iwata n??o less - returns on Nintendo Switch.

The platformer first arrived in the arcades as part of the "Vs." system in 1982, before eventually transitioning to the NES platform in 1986. In essence Nintendo's answer to Williams' Joust, Balloon Fight sees one or two player??s take to the air to clear several screens of balloon-laden enemies. Ot??her hazards such as lighting strikes and vicious piranha must also be avoided to keep your heroes riding high. Every few stages, a bonus round sees players attempt to grab as many balloons as possible as they eject from a chimney system.

Here's a video of the game in action, courtesy of YouTuber nenriki86:

Obviously, it's really tough to recommend Balloon Fight today at its eight bucks asking price. But for Iwata devotees and Nintendo historians, its definitely one of the "forgotten titles" of the company's fledgling years, which might be enough of a sell for completionists, but there's not a lot of e??ntertainment to be had here.

Balloon Fight is available to download now on Nintendo Switch.

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We're using the GOOD potatoes

SuperMash looked like one of the standouts during Nintendo's recent Indie World Showcase, ?a genre-defying retro throwback to early Nintendo titles which seemed perfect ??for the Switch.

Surprisingly, the game had already launched one day before the presentation on the PC, where it's an Epi?c Games Store exclusive. While it won't be ready for home consoles for a few months, the PC version should give us a prett??y good idea of what to expect when it arrives.

So how does SuperMash play?

SuperMash (PC [reviewed], PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch)
Developer: Digital Continue
Publisher: Digital Continue
Released: December 9, 2019 (PC), May 2020 (Consoles)
MSRP: $24.99

SuperMash is a love letter to Nintendo games of the late '80s and early '90s, a period when developers were still experimenting with what could be accomplished on the Nintendo Entertainment System. The game's premise is that you work in a modern game store which sells retro titles, and find an unusual console at a garage sale, one with slots for two cartridges. This heavily modified "Playtype" console came with a stack of homebrew games, as we??ll as a journal left behind by the person who was working on them. 

Six genres are represented (with more on the way as DLC, according to the developer), and players are encouraged to mix and match them to create different blends of games, which the characters in the store call "Mashes." It's a good th??ing you found this machine, because your store has lost its lease and you'll need to sell a lot of these custom games to keep it running. This story is told in a visual novel style, but it's pretty much just a wraparound for the real meat of the game: the mashups.

Each of the genres borrows heavily from a classic NES title, though the visuals are usually more rep??resentative of what the Super Nintendo could handle.

The "Action-Adventure" cartridge is basically a Legend of Zelda clone, the "Platformer" cart resembles the Super Mario series, "Stealth" copies Metal Gear, "JRPG" takes inspiration from Final Fantasy, "Metrovania" unsurprisingly borrows from Metroid and latter-day Castlevania titles, and "Shoot-em-up" seems to be inspired by Galaga and Capcom's 1942. Each genre can be crossed with one other??, or you can slot two of the same cartridges in to get a pur??er game experience.

Each of the genres has its own story and characters, which can be explored through the journal. Collecting certain key items from one or another of the genres will unlock entries i?n the journal, which is how you progress the plot in the visual novel "real world" scenes. Unfortunately, there's no way to guarantee your goal for a level will include one of these key items, so it's a bit random how many mashes you'll hav?e to play before you can get to the next plot hook. Completing a journal page will let you take on the boss fight for a given genre, using a specific character and skill set tailored to the boss.

One other detail worth mentioning is the idea of "Dev cards," which are earned for every successfu??l mash completion. They can also be earned using in-game currency or by completing sidequests in the visual novel portion of the game.

Dev cards give you a degree of agency by letting you control "glitches" in the mashes. These are beneficial or detrimental modifiers which can make a given m??ash easier or harder, and ther??e's usually at least one of each active based on the difficulty settings you've chosen for your mash. There's no way to turn these glitches off, so being able to control which ones you see helps quite a bit. Dev cards also allow you to select a specific protagonist, weapon, background, and/or music for your next mash.

A lot of SuperMash's charm and how well it works on you is going to depend on how much nostalgia you have for the time period it's trying to represent. Each mash you create has its own title screen and introductory cutscene, and these can be pretty entertaining in and of themselves. Who wouldn't want to play through Dude-Bro Odyssey or High Roller Ninja? 

The interactions between various genres can be pretty interesting. Blending a JRPG with a shoot-em-up gave me a game where I could only fire at the alien bugs coming from the top of the screen once my Active Time Battle gauge had filled up, which was far more tactical than I'd have expected. It's not the same every time, either; trying the same combination later on gave me a role-playing game where a military fighter plane served as the protagonist, or a dungeon crawler where random encounters took place as sky battles over a nameless desert. When I tried making a Stealth RPG, I found it amusing as hell to see SuperMash's Solid Snake stand-in giving a snappy salute to a knockoff of the Final Fantasy fanfare after a battle. 

Unfortunately, moments like this are few and far between. Everything in SuperMash is procedurally generated, and this can lead to some impossible scenarios if an enemy ends up in exactly the wrong position, or if a glitch cuts off access to a key item. The platforming physics cause you to fall straight down if you take a hit midair, so some mashes become incredibly frustrating fo??r no good reason. You can also end up in a scenario where enemies g??ain health every time you input an action, so shoot-em-up enemies end up gaining health faster than you can blast it away.

The main problem is very few of the games you'll end up creating using the mash system are worth playing more than once. None of the mashes end up being anywhere near as good as the titles they take inspiration from. It's an impressive technical achievement, to be sure. But I'd much rather play a handcrafted level from a game like Shovel Knight than a hundred algorithmically generated levels in SuperMash. I'd be much more interested if this engine were used to create a Mario Maker-style tool which allo?ws for precise platform and enemy placement, instead of the computer-generated levels you end up playing through.

I di??dn't find the visual novel's story especia??lly compelling, and the ephemeral nature of the mashes means there's not really any in-game progression to work toward. You may pick up a few power-ups on your way through a mash, but they'll be gone when you start the next one.

I also ran into a few situations where the game I mashed up crashed on me, though these were explained away in-game by the rickety nature of the modded console. It only seemed to happen when I blended the Stealth and Shoot-em-up genres, which don't go together especia??lly well anyway. 

Unfortunately, SuperMash is a game whe??re the concept is better than the execution. While the spritework and chiptunes are nice, the gameplay holds the whole thing back; a big problem when the gameplay is supposed to be the main feature. Ironically, the mashed-up games usually end up being less than the sum of their parts.

_{[This revie?w is based on a r??etail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

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Famicom club-swinging classic returns

Hamster are returning once again to Nintendo's "Vs." series for this week's Arcade Archives release, which sees NES classic Vs. Golf available to download now on Nintendo Switch.

Released back in 1984, Golf was released within the first year of the Famicom's existence, making it one of the NES platform's earliest titles. Players - controlling a golfer who is "kind of Mario but also not" - can play shots over 18 holes, taking into account surprisingly deep-for-the-time mechanics such as club, swing power, wind and direction. Golf also includes two-??player mode, so you and a pal can compete for the best score?.

Today, Golf is probably best known for being the work of beloved former Nintendo President Satoru Iwata, who programmed the game as one of his first projects for the developer/publisher. You may remember that when the Nintendo Switch console was launched, a version of Golf was tucked away in its firmware, as tribute to Iwata's work and memory.

Vs. Golf?? is available to download now on Nintendo Switch, priced?? at around $8.

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Boom Tetris for Anthony

[Upd??ate: The finals have begun and will run through the rest of the day -Anthony]

Outside of professional Rocket League and the occasional Smash tourney, I find it hard to get into watching many competitive video game tournaments. Nothing against them, I just struggle to keep my attention focused on them for one reason or another. Now, if you were to take a puzzle game that's barely younger than me, find the best players from around the world and fly them into a convention to determine who is the best, then you'd have my attention. For freaks and geeks like me, thank gawd for the Classic Tetris World Championships.

Taking place at the Portland Retro Gaming Expo in Oregon, the Classic Tetris World Championships was established in 2010 in the aftermath of Harry Hong publicly being acknowledged for maxing out the counter in NES Tetris with a total score exceeding 999,999 points. After Hong came forward, more people ma??de claims of maxing out the classic game, which led to the establishment of the CTWC.

In the competition, players go head-to-head trying to get a higher score than their opponent. There are no garbage lines sent, or any direct interaction between the players. It's all a test to see who can get the highest score given the same tetromino sequence. Over the years the competition has evolved, with new techn?iques being utilized and the scores getting higher and higher with each tournament.

If you live in the Portland area you can watch the tournament just by attending the expo. But for those of us who live on the other side of the country, the CTWC - as well as related competiti?ve games - are streamed all weekend through Twitch. The full stream schedule can be seen below, all times are in Pacific.

Friday, Oct. 18th:

Main Stage:
3:00 PM: Speedrun
4:00 PM: Dr. Mario

Side Stage (on ClassicTetris2):
3:00 PM: Mindmeld
5:00 PM: Invisible Tetris

Saturday, Oct. 19th:

10:00 AM to 4:00 PM - NES Qualifying
4:30 PM to 6:30 PM - NES “Round Zero"

Sunday, Oct. 20th:

10:30 AM - Round 1
12:15 PM - Round 2
1:15 PM to 1:45 PM - Break
2:00 PM - Round 3
3:30 PM - Round 4
5:00 PM - Round 5

Who will lift the Golden T-Block after the final top-out? Will Jonas Neubauer reclaim his throne, or will the reigning champion Joseph Saelee prove that Tetris is not just a g?ame for old farts like myself? With the Eagles and Devils both falling flat in their respective leagues, this might as well be my Super Bowl and Stanley Cup all rolled into one.

Wat??ch live video from ClassicTetris on www.twitch.??tv

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From Soho down to Brighton...

Retro game publisher Hamster continue to reach out for titles from the NES VS. range for its weekly Arcade Archive releases, as this week's offering sees the return of NES launch title Pinball, now available to download on Nintendo Switch.

Pinball released for the NES and the arcade VS. system in 1983 and is one of the earliest and most rudimentary examples of digital pinball. The playfield is represented by two screens, and players must score points and rack up bonuses whilst keeping the ball in play. Occasionally, the action transitions to a Breakout-style bonus stage, which also features cameos from ?Nintendo stars Mario and Pauline??.

While I'm obviously not going to rail on Pinball for its simplicity - it was '83, after all - I'm not sure about including the Nintendo VS. library as filler for the Arcade Archive range, not to mention charging the same eight bucks as it does for Neo Geo releases such as Samurai Shodown II or Metal Slug 3, or arcade titles such as Double Dragon and The Ninja Warriors.

It's been a bit of a lean month for Hamster fans, with only Water Ski, Pinball and VS. Gradius hitting the store, though we did also get the pretty rad XMULTIPLY. Hopefully September will bring with it ??some mo?re exciting titles.

Pinball is available to download now on Nintendo Switch.

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NES edition of the timeless classic

Hamster have pulled out an instantly recognisable name for this week's retro release - even if it isn't quite the arcade original - as VS. Gradius joins thei?r Arcade Archive lineup on PS4 and Nintendo Switch.

VS. Gradius is the Nintendo licensed home edition of Konami's iconic sci-fi shmup. This NES edition was part of Nintendo's "VS." arcade range, which essentially situated NES games in the arcade environment, often appearing in multi-game cabinets. VS. Gradius features the intense space shooter action of the 1?985 original, along with literally endless gameplay, as the player will s??imply cycle the seven stages until their final vessel is destroyed.

VS. Gradius is available now on PS4 in Japan and? Nintendo Switch worldwide, priced at around $8.

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Git gud, gaijin

In the primordial days before your mom was on the internet, we?? grew up in fear of the other. In the '80s and '90s, we frequently spoke of the mist-shrouded land across the ocean that controlled most of the games we played. Whether we discussed the games that they so selfishly hoarded to themselves, permanently encrypted with their exotic language, or coveted the cutting-edge consoles they got months before we did, they were a mystery to us. Yet, if there's one thing we feared most about the other, it was their mad skills.

I remember a period in my life when I was convinced that I lived in the softest region in the world. Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest, for example, was said to be created by Square in the belief that Americans were too stupid to fully understand a true RPG, and the Euro Extreme difficulty was inserted into Metal Gear Solid 2 because vanilla Extreme just wasn't extreme enough for Europeans with their muscular thumbs. Neither statement is accurate, but I've heard them repeated more than once. It's a rather bizarre mindset ??to have; that video game ?skill has anything to do with heritage, but this opinion seems so pervasive.

In the '80s and '90s, the belief was in some way perpetuated by what has become a rare practice: publishers and developers would often ratchet up or tone down a game's difficulty when releasing in a new market. However, regardless of the self-deprecating belief that games had to be dumbed down for our under-developed thumbs, there was actually no consistency to which way the changes?? went. Japanese games that have been localized to North America have varied between being more difficult or much easier, and the same has happen??ed in reverse.

I'm not saying publishers have had difficulty committing to a particular brand of prejudice. After all, our corporate overlords prefer to avoid viewing people as individuals and find it more e??fficient to just boil down entire countries of people into numbers and statistics. So that's... better?

T?he actual?? reasons for why these changes were made probably doesn't have anything to do with demographics, but rather a different approach to maximizing sales. I'll get to that, but first, to demonstrate my point, let’s take a look at some of the more notable instances:

Super Mario Bros. 2 (NES)

It isn’t the same obscure piece of trivia that it used to be, so I wouldn’t be surprised if you knew this already, but the Super Mario Bros. 2 we got here in North America on the NES wasn’t the same Super Mario Bros. 2 people in Japan were playing on their Famicom Disk Systems. What the Japanese got was essentially a straight seque??l to the original game, featuring much of the same art style, sound design, and mechanics, but with the difficulty dialed u??p and then dialed up again. Like, a lot, and not in a good way. Just try getting past World-2 and see how you feel about it.

So when Nintendo had the opportunity to localize it for the western market, they decided to pass. The story reported everywhere is that they were afraid the real Super Mario Bros 2. would be too difficult for the North American audience. Instead, they asked to be provided a friendlier sequel that people might actually, you know, have fun playing. The result was a version of Yume Koujou: Doki! Doki! Panic that had its' four playable protagonists redrawn as Mario charac??ters. We definitely got the better end of the d??eal.

To be fair, this is more an example of the concept of difficulty tuning between regions, rather than the practice, since Super Mario Bros. 2 (Japan) and Super Mario Bros. 2 (everywhere else) are two distinct games. We'd eventually get the real SMB2 in the form of The Lost Levels -- if you feel like you deserve some punishment -- while Japan would see our version of the sequel in the form of Super Mario USA.

Mega Man 2 (NES)

Among the NES Mega Man titles, Mega Man 2 has the distinction of being the only one with a difficulty option. There’s normal if you have weak and feeble thumbs, and difficult if you have hairy palms. Except, not really, because the Japanese version, Rock Man 2, has no difficulty select.

So that would make “normal” analogous with the Japanese version, with "Difficult" being a tuned up challenge for muscular Americans, correct? I mean, that’s why they call it “Normal.” Nope. “Difficult” is the challenge the developers intended, and it’s the one that has parity with Rock Man 2. On normal mode, the damage you dish out is pretty extreme and it makes just about every enemy encounter a cakewalk. The only leftover challenge is keeping yourself out of bottomless pits and other instant death hazards, which I'm s?ure you can handle. I believe in you.

I kind of felt cheated when I first discovered this deception. I'm not against an easier difficulty for people who don't have the chops or the time to topple a Mega Man title on the default, but labeling what is plainly a tweaked down the challenge as "Normal" is misleading. It's like leaving the low-calorie version of ranch dressing unlabeled, while the regular recipe is referred to? as "Fat Ranch."

Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse (NES)

A metric tonne of changes was made to Akumajou Densetsu when it was localized as Castlevania III. A lot of them were small, barely noticeable changes to the art, but the most well-known alteration was with Akumajou Densetsu’s soundtrack. The Famicom allowed ?access to additional sound channels??, which were stripped from the NES. Therefore, the Japanese original had greater depth to its music.

A lesser known, but no less significant, change has to do with the difficulty. In Akumajou Densetsu, different enemies deal different damage; so, for example, a bat might do a small amount of damage but a knight will do much more. In Castlevania III, every enemy and projectile does the exact same amount of damage, and this gets increased as the game progresses. That makes things easier in the beginning and much, much more difficult towards the end. If we're being charitable, this m?ay have been done to ??create a steadier difficult curve, but that’s got to be the laziest way to address the issue.

Whether or not you appreciate the greater challenge in Castlevania III or think that Akumajou Densetsu is the difficulty that nature intended, the result is that Castlevania III was made a lot more difficult in translation.

Battletoads (NES)

One of Rare’s most famous creations, Battletoads, is somethi??ng of a divisive topic today. Some laud it as one of the most challenging games on the NES while others think it was a hate-filled slog through a variety of situations that gave you no time to adapt before it murdered ??you. Personally, I think it could be better if there wasn’t a limit on continues, but, whatever.

If you’re on the fence about it, maybe the Japanese version will be more your speed, ?since it tones down the difficulty substantially and makes it a more playable experience for people who don’t have hours to spend cementing the Turbo Tunnel into their muscle memory.

For starters, the Japanese version ups your chances with five lives and five co??????????????????????????ntinues as opposed to North America’s three lives and three continues. That would have been a pretty token effort at softening the game's malice, but they went further. Significant changes were made to so?me of the game’s more challenging levels; slowing down the turbo tunnel, removing various pitfalls and traps, and even reducing the health points of bosses.

None of this makes Battletoads an easy game by any means, but ?it does make the whole experience less B.S. If you think this is essentially playing the game with god mode on, ??consider that the changes made to the Japanese version were viewed as enough of an improvement that the Genesis port of the game carried over all the changes.

Dynamite Headdy (Genesis)

Dynamite Headdy was created by the folks at the mythical studio Treasure Co., developers of Gunstar Heroes, Ikaruga, and many other classic games. It was something of a staple on the Sega Gene??????????????????????????sis but is rarely spoken about these days. I feel this is likely the result of us getting s?crewed by difficulty changes in localization.

This time around, the title was made more difficult in North America. The change in difficulty centers around the continue sy??stem. The Japanese version starte?d you off with two continues while the regional version gives you none. To make matters worse, gaining a new continue in the Japanese versions requires you to pick up 10 continue tokens after defeating a boss. In the NA version, you needed 13; which may sound like a small increase but it was just enough to make it immensely more difficult to gain an additional continue.

The presence of continues in a game that is, effectively, a situation rush style platformer, is a cruel burden to place on the player. You're often not given enough time to adjust to a new challenge befo??re you're battered, broken, and left to stare with defeated eyes at the game over screen. The Japanese version at least has the decency to allow you more time to practice.

THE RENTAL REPELLENT

So what does that say about the difficulty in these games? Not all that much really, because no publisher is going to just make changes to a game du?ring localization simply to try and frustrate the player, it's all done for a reason, and there are many reasons for it.

For a game like Battletoads and Dynamite Headdy with limited continues, the reason likely comes down to the rental market. Masato Maegawa from Treasure even said as much when talking about Dynamite Headdy's difficulty. If your game could be completed comfortably in a weekend, you ran the risk of people renting it, completing it, then never making a purchase. In order to prevent sales from being affected by this, cheap tactics, like the limiting of continues, were used to ratchet up the difficulty and prevent players from actually finishing the game. Video game rentals were basically outlawed in Japan thanks to the 1984 Japanese Copyright Act, which means that Dynamite Headdy and Battletoads coul?d ease up on the artificial challenge without the fear of it costing them sales.

That could also explain why Castlevania III was made to be more challenging in North America, but what about Mega Man 2 and Super Mario 2? After the video game market crashed in 1983 under the weight of a jillion unsold Atari 2600 cartridges, Nintendo was left with the task of rebuilding the goodwill of the North American consumer. Having otherwise marketable characters push them into the dirt and call them names wouldn't win any fans, so something had to be done about the cruel difficulty of Super Mario Bros. 2. Likewise, the original Mega Man only sold sli??ghtly better than a box of fingernail clippings in North America, so to invite new players in, the difficulty was tweaked down for the sequel to provide a more welcoming experience.

So the n??e??xt time you're playing a game with regionally tailored difficulty, you have to think, "Am I playing the game as the designer intended, or the version that was made with the explicit intent to make children miserable?"

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