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Oooh thank you! I actually considered a few of those for this video, but it was getting rather long so I had to trim it down considerably. I might include these in a sequel video though ^^
@@st1ka Have you ever heard of Time Avenger: Diver? It was a canned Taito game that they turned over to an unlicensed company to have it get published even after being canceled
@@ankosgbx I don't think they turned it over to an unlicensed developer, rather they just happened to get their hands on it. It's virtually unchanged from that canned game, Time Diver Eon Man, aside from the title. As far as I'm aware, Taito never made any money off it.
@@zanegandini5350 The thing is, the unofficial release came many years before the prototype was found. It has not been 100% confirmed that it was officially licensed out by Taito, but the theory exists for a reason. I want to say Frank Cifaldi is a believer in it
I was wondering why that Power Blade music sounded so familiar. Apparently the composer, Kinuyo Yamashita, also contributed to the soundtracks for the original Castlevania as well other Natsume games like Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and Ghost Sweeper Mikami. She's pretty talented!
I'm an Indie game developer and this video helped me decide on what type of graphics I want for the game I'm working on. I now decided on 8 bit NES styled graphic.
Getsu Fuuma Den is awesome for 1987, there's also a fairly new sequel/reimagining up on Steam; Psychic World is great too, especially the Master System/MSX versions; Shatterhand - and most other Natsume action games - are great too! Honestly, lots of little gems here...
I used to play Shatter hand to death on the NES. Very fun game. Also nice recommendations of games I missed out playing back then. Also, you reminded me I did play Kabuki quantum fighter a few times. That was a good one as well.
Freaking fantastic video! One of my favorites that you've ever done thus far! Exhaustive, & based on more obscure retro games that we all need to pay more attention to! Great work!
Yep, lots of underrated gems here. Of note: In _Kick Master_ 's ending credits, Ken Loeb is mentioned. He has quite a few great games under his belt, giving us the _Killer Instinct_ series, for instance. The man is a gaming legend!
Hells yeah Power Blade! That game was awesome! Believe it or not i found it in the trash when i was a kid, still have the cartridge to this day. Its such a fun and criminally underrated game! Im glad to see more people talking about it!
@@st1ka They threw out much more then Power Blade. I found a whole bunch of Nintendo games, Ninja Gaiden, Super Mario Bros, Time Lord, Blades of Steel, etc. Its insane what people just throw away sometimes.
Fantastic list! Nice to see the Power Blades and Shatterhand get some love and attention. Not sure if they count as "forgotten 8-bit gems", but the only games I would add are Vice Project Doom and Faxanadu on the NES, and Rastan on the Sega Master System.
Faxanudu was a less famous but still pretty well known one for older nes players. That said i knew it as the one with the shield and weird name all the way till last year. It's my more difficult zelda 2 now
one game that still plays very well to this day that i see no one talking about is CJ's Elephant Antics, it's one of the 4 games that came in the cartridge/rom called Quattro Arcade (all 4 games are good but this one is special) it's for the NES
I love that the Game Gear was given so much care and love in Japan, with serious developers making interesting, exclusive games for it, like the Shining Force handheld series, Sylvan Tale, this game and many others. It felt like American developers thought of handhelds as an afterthought to consoles or mere toys. In reality, the Game Gear was its own thing, and could also be thought of as a way for developers to keep making 8-bit gems in a 16-bit age.
Oh my word, Survival Kids. I owned this game as a kid and was absolutely obsessed but I never hear anything about it. It was a really ambitious and charming little game.
Joguei bastante o Phantis na minha juventude, mas na altura conhecia-o como Game Over 2. De qualquer forma, um grande jogo! Parabéns pelo canal, abraço
Another great video! About missing games, if you like the Aleste series, check the three games for the MSX2, since they're the originals, have the story cutscenes and sadly were missing from that PS4 collection. (Not to mention Zanac Ex, specially with the FM/turbo enhancement patch) The MSX standard has many other hidden gems.
Question about your comment. And I will say if you don't mind because I maybe try Google also .But Question goes What language are those MSX games done in please and ty
@fr_schmidlin oh thank you kindly for the speedy reply and that is incredible that you know about this fr_schmidlin but I was wondering about English or Japanese dialect languages?
yeah, admittedly, finding hidden gems for the NES is usually harder (unless I post bootlegs or modern games), but I still want to show the NES some love. haha
Ok. I just put this comment right here. I want to propose to talk about Sylvan Tale. This is a very high quality Action RPG from 1995 on Game Gear from Sega CS with very beautiful graphics, wonderful music and good gameplay.
I actually considered including Sylvan tale, but had to reduce the number of games because the video was getting rather long. Perhaps when I do a sequel video I'll include it.
I've got Rod-land demo for the ZX in a british magazine in the 90s, played that demo THOUSANDS of times, loved that game so much that 30 years later I finally managed to find a copy and bought it, AMAZING game. PD: now there is an upgraded version with colors available for the speccy,
Wurm, Journey to the Center of the Earth, for me, is a hidden or forgotten gem. A lot of gameplay styles and the story was so cool! One of the first NES games I cleared.
Really good video, I’ve been at this a long time so I usually don’t get much new from this sort of video but I found several I’m going to try out from this. Thanks!
It's mostly because I feel it's not fair to compare the neogeo pocket color with 16 bit systems. The visuals and sound are closer to a master system than a sega mega drive
Nice video! Loved seeing Psycho World here. I grew up playing the GG version, and only found about the MSX original, which is now my favourite, years later. Sadly, Hertz wasn't a prolific developer: I only know about one other game to their name, a "submarine shooter" for the MSX named Hydefos. Amazing soundtrack also. If you ever do a follow up to this video, you must include two gems for the Spectrum: Mighty Final Fight and Castlevania: Spectral Interlude. Mighty Final Fight is specially amazing, with a soundtrack as good as the NES one, and even better graphics (like more detailed and animated backgrounds) in some areas.
I find it rather funny how Kick Master and Shatter Hand are polar opposites of each other. One is a game set in a fantasy setting with many different kicking moves, the other is in a SciFi setting where you punch things and have a complex powerup system. Also, bringing up the GBC Daikatana game reminded me that there was a official GBC demake of Quest 64 that's also better then it's 3D counterpart. It's called Quest RPG: Brain's Journey (or something like that anyways) which has scripted story sequences and characters interacting together. It still doesn't have everything that was cut from the N64 game, but it's a closer look at what they may have intended for the final game to be like if they hadn't been forced by THQ to push it out the door before it was ready. Not sure if it's good enough for this list, but it is a curiosity non the less.
I remember playing Kickmaster (my friend's cartridge) many times and actually finishing it several times. Same with Solbrain (the game that was adapted into "Shatterhand"). I remember playing Kabuki Quantum Fighter, but never got to finish it.
Nice! I have played Shatterhand's japanese version called Solbrain, wich is a Tokusatsu serie that was relased here in Brazil back in the day. That was AWESOME! :-D
Nice video!! ^ ^.. The Kick Master wasn't made by Taito at all, it was by 'KID' japanese developer, theyr famicom/NES games has a very distinct,unique graphics, same engine, music/sound design.. Banana Prince, Low G Man, G.I. Joe, Recca, Burai Fighter, Trolls in CrazyLand,etc.. all of them made by same people... Some didn't had famicom version and only NES release yet was made by japanese developers of that company which is weird.. You can easily tell a game made by them if ur familiar with any of them.. Some games even have same reused tiles, graphics used in other of their games..
Heh, either you made a background soundtrack to it, or that first game uses the soundtrack from 'Legend of Kage'! Great video, and also glad you mentioned the Amiga version of Rodland which is nearly arcade perfect, and one of my favourite arcade and Amiga platformers of all time.
Survival Kids Fun Facts: this game had not one or two but _several_ possible endings, an expansive map full of branching cave systems and intricate puzzles, and a great story to carry it along It’s fair to say that the game was a work of art, especially given the limitations of the hardware at the time, GBC had only just released less than a year prior, so this game was made to run on both the classic and color systems
Some games I loved on the NES that I almost never see mentioned anywhere: A Boy and His Blob Crystalis Golgo 13: Top Secret Episode The 3-D Battles of Worldrunner Willow
I love your videos. Thanks for all you do. I get a lot of entertainment from the longer videos you create. I can't get enough of the way you say shmup!!😅
And now I understand the DLC character and level from Castlevania Harmony of Darkness so much more! I was so confused for the longest time because I thought it was the character from the Namco games, and I just couldn't comprehend Konami teaming up with Namco to bring an outside property to a Castlevania game based mostly on legacy and nostalgia
Power Blade is great. I got it for a few bucks at a swap meet when I was little. Usually the games I would get would be complete crap, I couldn't believe I got a cheap game that was actually fun.
'Survival Kids' is a really good game, very atmospheric (for a GBC game). It also has more than half a dozen different endings. A sequel also came out in Japan: Survival Kids 2: Dasshutsu! Futago Shima. Pretty good, too. A fan translation for that is available, too. After that the series continued on the Nintendo DS as 'Lost in Blue' 1-3, and then there was one more entry on the Wii: Lost in Blue: Shipwrecked.
Unfortunately, as well done as some of the home ports of Rodland are, they're all missing the second set of levels from the arcade. Some people will argue that since the arcade version only tells you about the option of playing those levels once you finish the main set of levels (although you can access them right from the start if you know how), they aren't truly part of the game and should be considered a sequel. In my opinion, they're built into the Arcade version, therefore they count as part of that game.
One of the first times I ever heard anyone talk about dark arms and man is that an under appreciated game but only ever been released on the neo geo pocket it was never going to spread far and wide!
Kick master was my first medieval fantasy game. Sadly I didn't recognize it as such because I couldn't recognize it as such because I couldn't recognize most of the sprites such as the lizardmen which is a medieval rpg staple, or the small hopping enemies.
God I love the Game Gear! & they play GREAT on the Master System, aka for the ones that have been ported at least. I hope one day that ALL Game Gear games get ported eventually, and that they find a way to better stretch the visible area of the screen. For games like Lunar Walking School they could make it so you can see the character's stats at all times instead of the weird scrolling thing it does!
@@jengelenm I mean I don't really agree with that specific reference as I've never had any issues with the GG Sonic games but yeah I get what ya mean. I've always been great at the GG Sonic games so maybe I'm not the best person to ask about that.
I was almost certain the ZX Spectrum Rodland had music, but I guess I was mistaken! Also, thank you so much for an Ultionus shoutout! To this day Phantis is one of my favorite 8-bit games, and I just had to remake it in some capacity: )
oh wow! I know you! I remember seeing your account when the first Phantis trailer came out, haha. I wonder if a 128k version of Rodland came out? Maybe I was playing the 48k version and didn't realize there was a 128k version with music? but yeah, thank you for Ultionis, I hope my video brings you some extra sales!
@@st1ka The 128k ver of Rodland has a lot of music in the intro and title screen, but seemingly none in the game itself?! Weird! Also, isn't it weird how pretty much all 8 and 16-bit incarnations of Phantis (and Game Over II) have identical gameplay and variations on the same art and music, except for the C64 version, which is very much its own thing! It even has its own music track during platformer section, though it weirdly doesn't loop.
@@darkfalzx ah yep! When I played Rodland for the Zx spectrum It only had music during the intro and title screen. And yeah, the C64 version of Phantis for some reason that music in that one level. It's almost like they started and then gave up lol
All console ports made in the 90s of Rod Land only have the first half of the game included. In the Arcade original it gives you a code to input in title screen to play second half of the game if you beat the final boss. This mode has all new music,bosses,story,enemies and stage layouts and uses none of the ones from the other mode and is only way to see staff credits so it's weird it was left out of every console port in the 90s. Bubble Bobble had a code for a harder version of the game too which is missing,does not work in all versions.
@@st1kadude I always walk away from Your videos with lots of ideas for stuff to play , you have a unique perspective on the retro scene and that allows you to come up with content ideas that are actually interesting and avoid rehashing the same tired old topics that get covered over and over again . And for that I salute thee ! And consider you my favorite TH-camr homie
@@st1ka I wish we could get something similar but in the modern day, preferably by Studio Platinum. A mix between Metal Gear Rising and Anarchy Reigns! One can only hope. haha Keep posting awesome vids. Glad I found your channel :)
For master system really impressed with power strike II music.Not bad for game gear either.Theyre both not known for the best sound and music but these 2 are really good especially S.M.S.
I thoroughly enjoyed this video, as a kid in South Africa it's good to see some of the games on this list, we had the Famicom here so we just got Japanese games, I loved Getsu Fuma Den although as a kid I didn't get far because of the language barrier, it was nice to finish it years later with the patch, I loved playing Kabuki Quantum Fighter aswell and man did I love Power Blade, the soundtrack is a part of me and I will never forget it, I remember being at school and just wanting to get home so I could play Power Blade lol.
@@st1ka I remember a very cool Chinese man at a local flea market always had tons of cartridges on sale, I was lucky, strangely enough we never got Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse, so I only grew up with the first 2 Castlevania games, I was shocked in adulthood to find out Castlevania III exists lol. You should make a video of your gaming journey, games you loved, games you hated etc. Would be interesting 👍
I've just found your channel and it absolutely rocks. Just out of curiosity, is one of your parents from the U.S? Because your English does sound native-like but it has a slight European Portuguese accent in it. Greetings from a new Brazilian follower!
I played Psychic/Psycho War many years ago on a Master System emulator... it was nice. I knew of Rod Land and Shatterhand (haven't played yet) but not the rest. Really cool picks... usually people seem to neglect the difference between a "cult classic" and a "hidden gem". You didn't in this list which made me happy. Would you consider Splatterhouse: Wanpaku Graffiti, Bio Miracle Bokutte Upa and Otocky hidden gems? I've heard other people talking about them and they are somewhat well known... Otocky especially's a weird one; it's like a musical composition shoot em up. When you shoot an enemy it produces a sound that fits with the music according to the different directions you hit them.
oooh I've never heard of Bio Miracle Bokutte Upa and Otocky. I'll have to play them. I've played Splatterhouse Wanpaku Grafitti, but sadly, I can't say I enjoyed it. I feel it's the weakest game in the series tbh.
Wish I'd made this comment a bit sooner but this video was really good and I enjoyed the hell out of it. Personally, I'd love to see a sequel for 16 and maybe 32-bit games in the future if ever get the chance to do so.
All computer and console versions of Rod Land were made by the fine folks at Sales Curve/Storm in the UK. CPC versions aside, their ports were all more reactive and less prone to slowdowns than the original arcade which I think is why Jaleco themselves tasked them even with the NES and GB ports (and it was unusual for a Japanese publisher to commission a port to a Japanese machine to an European developer). But yeah the C64 and ZX are so devoid of colour and music that I like to think of them as alternate darker versions. Especially the C64 with all those browns and muted pinks and reds almost had a tone of melancholy and sadness to it.
The Lone Ranger for the NES. The last silver-box Konami game for the NES, the spiritual successor to Bayou Billy and improved in every way, will never be rereleased because of the long-lost license. Find it, play it.
My number one recommendation is Cosmic Spacehead (the 8-bit version obviously, on GG amd MS). Point and click and platformer mixed together! Amazing 8 bit 1950s sci fi populuxe art style.
I really wonder why there weren't more story driven linear top-down action adventures like Daikatana. It works so well. I could easily imagine playing Half-Life this way.
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you should check out:
Faselei (neo geo pocket color)
Evolution eternal dungeons (GBC)
Azure dreams (GBC)
Dive alert Becky's version/Matt's version (neo geo pocket color)
Biomotor unitron (neo geo pocket color)
Dicing knight (wonder swan color)
Head buster (Game Gear)
Demon child zenki (game gear)
Sylvan tale (game gear)
Bashi bazook morphoid masher (nes)
Cocoron (nes)
Faria a world of mystery and danger (nes)
The guardian legend (nes)
Holy diver (nes)
Jesus (nes)
Last armageddon (nes)
Matendouji (nes)
Moon crystal (nes)
Ninja jajamaru (nes)
Rippe island (nes)
Valkyrie no bouken (nes)
love your stuff btw.
Weird comment but I've grown to love your accent. 😅
Tokkyuu Shirei Solbrain
Oooh thank you! I actually considered a few of those for this video, but it was getting rather long so I had to trim it down considerably. I might include these in a sequel video though ^^
haha thank you!
Those Taito games look more like something Inti Creates would put out today than actual NES games. Super impressive stuff
Right? Taito made some really impressive NES games that went under the radar.
@@st1ka Have you ever heard of Time Avenger: Diver? It was a canned Taito game that they turned over to an unlicensed company to have it get published even after being canceled
whoa, I have not. Adding it to the list
@@ankosgbx I don't think they turned it over to an unlicensed developer, rather they just happened to get their hands on it. It's virtually unchanged from that canned game, Time Diver Eon Man, aside from the title. As far as I'm aware, Taito never made any money off it.
@@zanegandini5350 The thing is, the unofficial release came many years before the prototype was found. It has not been 100% confirmed that it was officially licensed out by Taito, but the theory exists for a reason. I want to say Frank Cifaldi is a believer in it
I have to mention that the original Getsu Fuuma Den was translated and included in the new Fumma Den game that has a global release
damn, I didn't know the sequel included the original. I'll have to look into that.
I was wondering why that Power Blade music sounded so familiar. Apparently the composer, Kinuyo Yamashita, also contributed to the soundtracks for the original Castlevania as well other Natsume games like Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and Ghost Sweeper Mikami. She's pretty talented!
aaah that makes sense.
I sure miss being a kid playing these kinds of games with my friends. 😢
Aye, I know what you mean :(
i dont because if emulation
The great thing is that you can still play these games 😊
I know that feeling 😓
I'm an Indie game developer and this video helped me decide on what type of graphics I want for the game I'm working on. I now decided on 8 bit NES styled graphic.
oooh glad I could help
kick master was such an underrated gem , would be awesome to see a modern remake
agreed, so underrated
Getsu Fuuma Den is awesome for 1987, there's also a fairly new sequel/reimagining up on Steam; Psychic World is great too, especially the Master System/MSX versions; Shatterhand - and most other Natsume action games - are great too! Honestly, lots of little gems here...
indeed! Glad you liked the video! :D
It's pretty tough to stand out from the retro crowd on TH-cam, but I think you do a great job with your selection of games. You keep it interesting.
Thank you! I try! :D
I used to play Shatter hand to death on the NES. Very fun game. Also nice recommendations of games I missed out playing back then. Also, you reminded me I did play Kabuki quantum fighter a few times. That was a good one as well.
thank you! Glad you liked the video! ^^
wow, unlike the usual hidden gems list I actually haven't even heard of the majority of these, yet they look like something I want to play. Well done
Thank you! :D
Freaking fantastic video! One of my favorites that you've ever done thus far! Exhaustive, & based on more obscure retro games that we all need to pay more attention to! Great work!
haha thank you! I hope to do a sequel video soon-ish. Maybe focusing on the 16-bit era.
Yep, lots of underrated gems here. Of note: In _Kick Master_ 's ending credits, Ken Loeb is mentioned. He has quite a few great games under his belt, giving us the _Killer Instinct_ series, for instance. The man is a gaming legend!
oh wow, that's awesome
Indeed. And you you beat the third loop of the game, the ending comes with a message of Ken telling you what an awsome player you are. Fantastic game.
Man, I love Dark Arms SO MUCH! Its a really amazing game that deserves more love (and a remake).
Agreed completely!
Shatterhand, Quantum Fighter, Metal Mech, and Phantom Fighter are the games I rarely see mentioned that were formative for me. ;P
Hells yeah Power Blade! That game was awesome! Believe it or not i found it in the trash when i was a kid, still have the cartridge to this day. Its such a fun and criminally underrated game! Im glad to see more people talking about it!
wow! I can't believe someone would just throw it in the trash
@@st1ka They threw out much more then Power Blade. I found a whole bunch of Nintendo games, Ninja Gaiden, Super Mario Bros, Time Lord, Blades of Steel, etc. Its insane what people just throw away sometimes.
@@squidzarecool720 damn that's insane! I'm jealous haha
@@st1ka Yeah if you have any socials I can DM you some photos.
Oh I have twitter and a discord server discord.gg/Asm5wxHq
Fantastic list! Nice to see the Power Blades and Shatterhand get some love and attention. Not sure if they count as "forgotten 8-bit gems", but the only games I would add are Vice Project Doom and Faxanadu on the NES, and Rastan on the Sega Master System.
Oh I think Vice Project Doom definitely fits the "forgotten" bill. ^_^
Faxanudu was a less famous but still pretty well known one for older nes players. That said i knew it as the one with the shield and weird name all the way till last year. It's my more difficult zelda 2 now
one game that still plays very well to this day that i see no one talking about is CJ's Elephant Antics, it's one of the 4 games that came in the cartridge/rom called Quattro Arcade (all 4 games are good but this one is special) it's for the NES
interesting. I'll add it to my list and check it out
Great list. I'm loving the NES on my MiSTer right now, mainly because of new homebrew games like Full Quiet. Incredible game.
indeed, I need to explore more NES modern games :D
@@st1ka Definitely. There are some real gems in homebrew. Apart from Full Quiet, I'd also recommend Micro Mages, Alwa's Awakening, and Project Blue.
@@miltonbates6425 yep exactly!
Every time I think I've seen them all... Great video!!!
glad I could help xD
I loved Shatterhand as I kid! Both me and my brothers played as much as we played Super Mario Bros 3 and Ninja Gaiden 2
All great games!
Rod Land’s great!!! Played it a couple of times.
Oh I bet youve been to Rod Land a few times
Ummm Phrasing!
it's such a fun game
Missed the premiere due to travel but enjoyed very much what I saw after arriving home, great way to close down the day. Thank you very much! :)
glad you enjoyed it! ^^
I love that the Game Gear was given so much care and love in Japan, with serious developers making interesting, exclusive games for it, like the Shining Force handheld series, Sylvan Tale, this game and many others. It felt like American developers thought of handhelds as an afterthought to consoles or mere toys.
In reality, the Game Gear was its own thing, and could also be thought of as a way for developers to keep making 8-bit gems in a 16-bit age.
Oh my word, Survival Kids. I owned this game as a kid and was absolutely obsessed but I never hear anything about it. It was a really ambitious and charming little game.
Joguei bastante o Phantis na minha juventude, mas na altura conhecia-o como Game Over 2. De qualquer forma, um grande jogo! Parabéns pelo canal, abraço
Muito obrigado! :D
If I recall, John Romero released the rom of the NTSC-U version onto his website at some point
hah, that's awesome
I appreciate that this video actually contained a lot of games I've never heard of.
Glad I could help!
Another great video!
About missing games, if you like the Aleste series, check the three games for the MSX2, since they're the originals, have the story cutscenes and sadly were missing from that PS4 collection. (Not to mention Zanac Ex, specially with the FM/turbo enhancement patch)
The MSX standard has many other hidden gems.
Yeah, it honestly bothers me that the Aleste collection doesn't have the MSX games. Such a missed opportunity.
Question about your comment. And I will say if you don't mind because I maybe try Google also .But Question goes
What language are those MSX games done in please and ty
@@quinnreiswig-vc3cy They're made in Z80 assembly.
@fr_schmidlin oh thank you kindly for the speedy reply and that is incredible that you know about this fr_schmidlin but I was wondering about English or Japanese dialect languages?
What a great compilation man! I'll give a try to every game in this list for sure, thank you! ♥
Glad you liked it^^
ive played all the nes and famicom games
but ive never heard of most of the others
i need to check out several of them
thanks for the video St1ka
yeah, admittedly, finding hidden gems for the NES is usually harder (unless I post bootlegs or modern games), but I still want to show the NES some love. haha
i mean those are pretty deep cuts for nes/fc
i imagine they will be new to some people
unfortunately the nes pond is a bit overfished these days
@@tylerd4884 Yeah, the NES and SNES are too over-explored topics, so I try to talk about other systems :)
Really loving your videos. You cover some really good topics.
Nothing better than a good hidden gems video!
thanks man! ^_^
Ok. I just put this comment right here.
I want to propose to talk about Sylvan Tale.
This is a very high quality Action RPG from 1995 on Game Gear from Sega CS with very beautiful graphics, wonderful music and good gameplay.
I actually considered including Sylvan tale, but had to reduce the number of games because the video was getting rather long. Perhaps when I do a sequel video I'll include it.
@@st1ka ok. Thanks for answer.
anytime!
I think Getsu Fuma Den is available on the Switch now. It’ll be great to play this famicom game.
hope you have fun!
I've got Rod-land demo for the ZX in a british magazine in the 90s, played that demo THOUSANDS of times, loved that game so much that 30 years later I finally managed to find a copy and bought it, AMAZING game. PD: now there is an upgraded version with colors available for the speccy,
I thought shatter hand and cave noire weren't that obscure? That being said, both are fantastic, yes.
I have to admit, I don't think I've ever seen Cave Noire being mentioned.
Wurm, Journey to the Center of the Earth, for me, is a hidden or forgotten gem. A lot of gameplay styles and the story was so cool! One of the first NES games I cleared.
thank you for the recommendation. I'll check it out ^^
These games look fun and I like that they're underrated
they're super fun :D
Love this video. I’ve been a huge fan of many of these games for decades and I’m glad someone’s getting the word out.
glad you liked it! ^^
Really good video, I’ve been at this a long time so I usually don’t get much new from this sort of video but I found several I’m going to try out from this. Thanks!
Glad I could help :D
Dark Arms so good that it found its way into a video about 8-bit games! Quite the feat for a 16-bit game 👀 (I loved the video! Thanks)
It's mostly because I feel it's not fair to compare the neogeo pocket color with 16 bit systems. The visuals and sound are closer to a master system than a sega mega drive
Some great soundtracks in these games. Excellent selection.
hehe thank you ^^
Genuinely hadn't heard of a bunch of these. Great video.
thank you! Glad I could help! :D
Nice video! Loved seeing Psycho World here. I grew up playing the GG version, and only found about the MSX original, which is now my favourite, years later. Sadly, Hertz wasn't a prolific developer: I only know about one other game to their name, a "submarine shooter" for the MSX named Hydefos. Amazing soundtrack also.
If you ever do a follow up to this video, you must include two gems for the Spectrum: Mighty Final Fight and Castlevania: Spectral Interlude. Mighty Final Fight is specially amazing, with a soundtrack as good as the NES one, and even better graphics (like more detailed and animated backgrounds) in some areas.
Funny you mention that, I actually included Castlevania: Spectral Interlude in my Castlevania video.
I find it rather funny how Kick Master and Shatter Hand are polar opposites of each other. One is a game set in a fantasy setting with many different kicking moves, the other is in a SciFi setting where you punch things and have a complex powerup system.
Also, bringing up the GBC Daikatana game reminded me that there was a official GBC demake of Quest 64 that's also better then it's 3D counterpart. It's called Quest RPG: Brain's Journey (or something like that anyways) which has scripted story sequences and characters interacting together. It still doesn't have everything that was cut from the N64 game, but it's a closer look at what they may have intended for the final game to be like if they hadn't been forced by THQ to push it out the door before it was ready. Not sure if it's good enough for this list, but it is a curiosity non the less.
I remember playing Kickmaster (my friend's cartridge) many times and actually finishing it several times. Same with Solbrain (the game that was adapted into "Shatterhand"). I remember playing Kabuki Quantum Fighter, but never got to finish it.
All great games!
Some of these games I've heard about but never actually played. Great video as always!
thank you! ^^
Ótimo vídeo como sempre st1ka!
Muito obrigado! :D
Nice!
I have played Shatterhand's japanese version called Solbrain, wich is a Tokusatsu serie that was relased here in Brazil back in the day.
That was AWESOME! :-D
That version was also sold as a Bootleg called Robocop 4, which I imagine they thought was more popular to westerners 😅
Solbrain's theme song is so, so good!
I've never managed to sit through more than a couple of episodes, but I listen to the OP regularly.
damn that's so cool!
to be fair, a robocop tokatsu does sound like an improvement lol
I am most impressed with Getsu Fuuma Den. Designing levels that are meant to be played forward and backwards is a great way to conserve resources.
yeah it's pretty darn cool! :D
Nice video!! ^ ^.. The Kick Master wasn't made by Taito at all, it was by 'KID' japanese developer, theyr famicom/NES games has a very distinct,unique graphics, same engine, music/sound design.. Banana Prince, Low G Man, G.I. Joe, Recca, Burai Fighter, Trolls in CrazyLand,etc.. all of them made by same people...
Some didn't had famicom version and only NES release yet was made by japanese developers of that company which is weird..
You can easily tell a game made by them if ur familiar with any of them..
Some games even have same reused tiles, graphics used in other of their games..
aaah thank you for clarifying that ^^
Hi man. Were you recording the NeoGeo pocket footages using emulator?
Yep I was! :)
Heh, either you made a background soundtrack to it, or that first game uses the soundtrack from 'Legend of Kage'! Great video, and also glad you mentioned the Amiga version of Rodland which is nearly arcade perfect, and one of my favourite arcade and Amiga platformers of all time.
Oh that was actually a remix I found. And yeah, Amiga Rodland is excellent :D
Survival Kids Fun Facts: this game had not one or two but _several_ possible endings, an expansive map full of branching cave systems and intricate puzzles, and a great story to carry it along
It’s fair to say that the game was a work of art, especially given the limitations of the hardware at the time, GBC had only just released less than a year prior, so this game was made to run on both the classic and color systems
It's such a good game and I need to try the sequel
The games on this list are going to fuel my next plane ride this week! Thank you!
haha, glad I could help
Some games I loved on the NES that I almost never see mentioned anywhere:
A Boy and His Blob
Crystalis
Golgo 13: Top Secret Episode
The 3-D Battles of Worldrunner
Willow
Ah classics! ^^
I love your videos. Thanks for all you do. I get a lot of entertainment from the longer videos you create. I can't get enough of the way you say shmup!!😅
Haha thank you
I'm a new fan of yours and must say that this video rocks. Keep it up. you're an inspiration to us all.
aww thank you! I try! :D
I first played kickmaster when i got a 500 in 1 cart and was really impressed.
damn, a pirate cart with 500 games and one of them is kickmaster? That's a steal!
Truth be told, Rodland was my favorite Amiga's game.
I used to play it with my friend Raphael as a kid all the time!
It's such a cool game! :D
Really cool list of games! Finally a list that I actually don't know most of the games
haha, glad I could help
And now I understand the DLC character and level from Castlevania Harmony of Darkness so much more!
I was so confused for the longest time because I thought it was the character from the Namco games, and I just couldn't comprehend Konami teaming up with Namco to bring an outside property to a Castlevania game based mostly on legacy and nostalgia
Yeah the two series are so similar
Power Blade is great. I got it for a few bucks at a swap meet when I was little. Usually the games I would get would be complete crap, I couldn't believe I got a cheap game that was actually fun.
I'd love to own it some day
Daikatana having a gameboy spinoff that's actually good is insane.
Haha right?
'Survival Kids' is a really good game, very atmospheric (for a GBC game). It also has more than half a dozen different endings.
A sequel also came out in Japan: Survival Kids 2: Dasshutsu! Futago Shima. Pretty good, too. A fan translation for that is available, too. After that the series continued on the Nintendo DS as 'Lost in Blue' 1-3, and then there was one more entry on the Wii: Lost in Blue: Shipwrecked.
Yep, I own the wii game too! :D
Does it remind you of "Don't Starve"?
@@gorilladisco9108 I know of 'Don't Starve' but have never played it, so I can't tell you.
Unfortunately, as well done as some of the home ports of Rodland are, they're all missing the second set of levels from the arcade. Some people will argue that since the arcade version only tells you about the option of playing those levels once you finish the main set of levels (although you can access them right from the start if you know how), they aren't truly part of the game and should be considered a sequel. In my opinion, they're built into the Arcade version, therefore they count as part of that game.
ah interesting, I didn't know that.
One of the first times I ever heard anyone talk about dark arms and man is that an under appreciated game but only ever been released on the neo geo pocket it was never going to spread far and wide!
Dark arms is SO good
Kick master was my first medieval fantasy game. Sadly I didn't recognize it as such because I couldn't recognize it as such because I couldn't recognize most of the sprites such as the lizardmen which is a medieval rpg staple, or the small hopping enemies.
God I love the Game Gear! & they play GREAT on the Master System, aka for the ones that have been ported at least. I hope one day that ALL Game Gear games get ported eventually, and that they find a way to better stretch the visible area of the screen. For games like Lunar Walking School they could make it so you can see the character's stats at all times instead of the weird scrolling thing it does!
Yeah, those cropped GG games like Sonic should be modded. Enemies pop up too fast on the screen!
@@jengelenm I mean I don't really agree with that specific reference as I've never had any issues with the GG Sonic games but yeah I get what ya mean. I've always been great at the GG Sonic games so maybe I'm not the best person to ask about that.
yeah. I like the game gear to master system ports, but they often feel like they're not optimized for the bigger screen :\
Wow! Amazing new-old games. Need to check these games.
hope you'll enjoy them ^^
@@st1ka Thanks! :3
@@AlexMakovsky ^-^
Daikatana GBC and Dark Arms NGPC are so good.
agreed 100%
I was almost certain the ZX Spectrum Rodland had music, but I guess I was mistaken!
Also, thank you so much for an Ultionus shoutout! To this day Phantis is one of my favorite 8-bit games, and I just had to remake it in some capacity: )
oh wow! I know you! I remember seeing your account when the first Phantis trailer came out, haha. I wonder if a 128k version of Rodland came out? Maybe I was playing the 48k version and didn't realize there was a 128k version with music?
but yeah, thank you for Ultionis, I hope my video brings you some extra sales!
@@st1ka The 128k ver of Rodland has a lot of music in the intro and title screen, but seemingly none in the game itself?! Weird!
Also, isn't it weird how pretty much all 8 and 16-bit incarnations of Phantis (and Game Over II) have identical gameplay and variations on the same art and music, except for the C64 version, which is very much its own thing! It even has its own music track during platformer section, though it weirdly doesn't loop.
@@darkfalzx ah yep! When I played Rodland for the Zx spectrum It only had music during the intro and title screen.
And yeah, the C64 version of Phantis for some reason that music in that one level. It's almost like they started and then gave up lol
All console ports made in the 90s of Rod Land only have the first half of the game included. In the Arcade original it gives you a code to input in title screen to play second half of the game if you beat the final boss. This mode has all new music,bosses,story,enemies and stage layouts and uses none of the ones from the other mode and is only way to see staff credits so it's weird it was left out of every console port in the 90s.
Bubble Bobble had a code for a harder version of the game too which is missing,does not work in all versions.
oh how interesting, I did not know that.
Shatterhand is one of the best games on the NES. I'm always surprised by just how few people know about that game.
right?! It's so suprising
Hell yeah ! The only TH-camr worth watching!!
The "Only" one ? I mean St1ka is great but there's other great TH-camrs too.
oh there's a lot of great youtubers out there, many of which I consider better than me ^_^
@@st1kadude I always walk away from Your videos with lots of ideas for stuff to play , you have a unique perspective on the retro scene and that allows you to come up with content ideas that are actually interesting and avoid rehashing the same tired old topics that get covered over and over again . And for that I salute thee ! And consider you my favorite TH-camr homie
@@adventuretaco7140 aww thanks man! I really appreciate it! :D
Just discovered you channel with this video. Consider me a new fan. Great work!
thank you! ^^
Fun fact, the Aleste/Powerstrike collection is also available for Switch in Japan. Affordable!
yep
Thank you for mentioning Shatter Hand! That's a personal favorite of mine, while it's a localization of a Tokusatsu / Metal Heroes game for Solbrain.
It's SUCH a good game.
@@st1ka I wish we could get something similar but in the modern day, preferably by Studio Platinum. A mix between Metal Gear Rising and Anarchy Reigns! One can only hope. haha Keep posting awesome vids. Glad I found your channel :)
@@gowgearhead That'd be so cool! That reminds me, check out a modern game called Wanted: Dead. It looks super cool
For master system really impressed with power strike II music.Not bad for game gear either.Theyre both not known for the best sound and music but these 2 are really good especially S.M.S.
I thoroughly enjoyed this video, as a kid in South Africa it's good to see some of the games on this list, we had the Famicom here so we just got Japanese games, I loved Getsu Fuma Den although as a kid I didn't get far because of the language barrier, it was nice to finish it years later with the patch, I loved playing Kabuki Quantum Fighter aswell and man did I love Power Blade, the soundtrack is a part of me and I will never forget it, I remember being at school and just wanting to get home so I could play Power Blade lol.
you played some great games! I had a famiclone growing up, but I didn't discover those games until much later.
@@st1ka I remember a very cool Chinese man at a local flea market always had tons of cartridges on sale, I was lucky, strangely enough we never got Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse, so I only grew up with the first 2 Castlevania games, I was shocked in adulthood to find out Castlevania III exists lol. You should make a video of your gaming journey, games you loved, games you hated etc. Would be interesting 👍
@@gianpyres3 that's so cool! For me, there was a stationary shop where you could buy or rent bootleg carts, but the best games you could only rent
Getsu Fūma Den also got a remake/sequel for the Nintendo Switch: Getsu Fūma Den: Undying Moon
But everyone should give the original game a try first!
I need to play the remake some day.
I've just found your channel and it absolutely rocks. Just out of curiosity, is one of your parents from the U.S? Because your English does sound native-like but it has a slight European Portuguese accent in it. Greetings from a new Brazilian follower!
Ah muito obrigado! Eu sou Português, e aprendi todo o meu inglês através de filmes, séries e jogos xD
I played Psychic/Psycho War many years ago on a Master System emulator... it was nice. I knew of Rod Land and Shatterhand (haven't played yet) but not the rest. Really cool picks... usually people seem to neglect the difference between a "cult classic" and a "hidden gem". You didn't in this list which made me happy. Would you consider Splatterhouse: Wanpaku Graffiti, Bio Miracle Bokutte Upa and Otocky hidden gems? I've heard other people talking about them and they are somewhat well known... Otocky especially's a weird one; it's like a musical composition shoot em up. When you shoot an enemy it produces a sound that fits with the music according to the different directions you hit them.
oooh I've never heard of Bio Miracle Bokutte Upa and Otocky. I'll have to play them. I've played Splatterhouse Wanpaku Grafitti, but sadly, I can't say I enjoyed it. I feel it's the weakest game in the series tbh.
Wish I'd made this comment a bit sooner but this video was really good and I enjoyed the hell out of it. Personally, I'd love to see a sequel for 16 and maybe 32-bit games in the future if ever get the chance to do so.
oh that's the plan actually! :P
You have such a fun voice. It cheers me up. 😊
haha thank you!
That bootleg GBC Fighting game looks incredible, it's always impressive to see a game that matches or exceeds the best official games on a system.
right?! :D
Lunar : Magic School had a hilarious 10-minute OVA.
In fact, you can find it on TH-cam. I just checked :D
oh wow, now THAT I did not know
A few of my personal NES favorites in this list (Power Blade and Kick Master, notably). :)
hope you enjoyed the video ^^
@@st1ka Did indeed. Thank you. :)
@@tallikx glad to hear it ^^
Well, it's good to know that Psychic World actually exists and I didn't just dream it up one day while on cold medicine.
Oh it's real :P
Rod Land was published during the peak of the cute'em-up genre and was one of the best.
Yep very true
Loads of interesting games there I had not seen. Rodland was an ace game and still enjoyable to play today on C64. (PS great video, I've subbed)
thank you! ^^
Nice, more games to add to my backlog that I may or may not ever get to.
Joking aside, these look great.
glad I could help xD
Rod-Land on the Amiga was fantastic, it was up there with the arcade version for sure.
indeed, it looks like a surprisingly faithful port too.
Out of all these, I only played Power Blade and Shatter Hand. The rest I either heard of or never did.
hope you enjoyed the recomendations! ^^
All computer and console versions of Rod Land were made by the fine folks at Sales Curve/Storm in the UK. CPC versions aside, their ports were all more reactive and less prone to slowdowns than the original arcade which I think is why Jaleco themselves tasked them even with the NES and GB ports (and it was unusual for a Japanese publisher to commission a port to a Japanese machine to an European developer). But yeah the C64 and ZX are so devoid of colour and music that I like to think of them as alternate darker versions. Especially the C64 with all those browns and muted pinks and reds almost had a tone of melancholy and sadness to it.
yep that''s a good take
Psichic world was awesome. I played this so much back then
Indeed, I love that game!
The Lone Ranger for the NES. The last silver-box Konami game for the NES, the spiritual successor to Bayou Billy and improved in every way, will never be rereleased because of the long-lost license. Find it, play it.
ooh thank you for the sugestion! I will!
My number one recommendation is Cosmic Spacehead (the 8-bit version obviously, on GG amd MS). Point and click and platformer mixed together! Amazing 8 bit 1950s sci fi populuxe art style.
ooh good one. I have the 16-bit version
@@st1ka The 8 bit version looks so much better!
@@rooty i actually never played the 8 bit version
What a pretty sweet list😃I know some 8 Bit Games, but not the one, which aren't well known🤔
Glad I could help then ^^
I really wonder why there weren't more story driven linear top-down action adventures like Daikatana. It works so well. I could easily imagine playing Half-Life this way.