Do you have any Buying Guide for the Famicom Disk System? I'm looking for one, and i wonder what i need to worry about, tips about games, unless Mario, Zelda and Castlevania.
Awesome review! I live in Japan and just bought my Famicom2 (AV version) about a month ago, so this was perfect timing. One thing I've noticed is that Japanese really take care of their games. It's pretty easy to find completes and systems in their boxes. With the exception of some fading (and cigarette smoke staining), they look almost new. The big name popular games can be a bit expensive though, but sometimes you can find good deals (I found Adventure Island for ¥100, which is about a dollar). I've never noticed any of these games out in the wild though. I'll have to look closer. A few months ago I bought Super Metroid for about $20.00. When I played the game, I was surprised that it was entirely in English. You have to actually choose the Japanese subtitles if you don't understand English.
Great video! Some more to add: Crisis Force Hebereke Moon Crystal Recca Summer Carnival '92 Getsu Fuuma Den Adventure Island IV Gradius II Quarth Dig Dug (the first one) ...and I'll say the Famicom version of Contra is worth getting for the added animations and map screen in between levels.
Man I love when you have John Riggs on because he shows all these great new NES, super NES, famicom and super famicom games that I missed in my youth!!
I live in Japan at the moment and Famicon systems and games are DIRT cheap, like I haven't seen any for more than 800 yen (like $7). And the systems routinely go for under $20 US. And they're EVERYwhere.
The famicom was my introduction in the videogames world when i was a kid back in Cuba, bootlegs of course. So, i have a special feeling for it and it's games. And yes, i played the pitzza cats game which i loves as kid too! I still own my very first game cartridge (bootleg) which i discovered 5 Years ago when arrived to USA, TMNT 3.
Heres a fun fact, the honey bee FC converter is the genuine Nintendo FC to NES converter with a plastic shell around it, I got one recently that was broken/taken apart, and the converter inside is the actual Nintendo one that you would find inside Gyromite carts, its literally the exact same thing John showed with the ends sanded off, only the cartridge connector is hot glued to the adapter so it stays together.
Games Shown: Akumajo Special: Boku Dracula-kun Splatterhouse: Wanpaku Graffiti New Ghostbusters II Parodius Da! Star Wars Joy Mech Fight Kid Niki 2 Samurai Pizza Cats -- HOLY DIVER!! -- Wai Wai World 2: SOS!!
MetalJesusRocks you know what, famicom games are HORRIBLE, so HORRIBLE, in fact that no one should EVER buy them. $10 is too much for these HORRIBLE HORRIBLE games. Never ever buy them, ever. ;)
In Star Wars you can skip levels by sticking a coin and switching it up and down in the middle of port of the family computer. A level select screen will appear. By switching the coin up you go up a level by switching down you go down a level. Try it!
Oh my god. Thank you for reminding me about Samurai Pizza Cats. The last time I saw that show I was visiting my grandparents in Florida when I was like 5 or 6 and it came on the tv and I just remember while we were down there visiting sitting and watching the show every morning while I was there but I could never remember the name until now. So thank you for bringing back some good memories.
thanks for the vid as it helped me find the title of a gem I have been searching for over 20 years and that is Joy Mech Fighter. I remembered back then where my cousin rented it from a friend and has its special case to make it look special. and it was fun we wasted summer afternoons with it, but me and my cousin were so young, and we can't read a single Japanese word we didn't knew whats the title.
Riggs is the man! Just found his channel not too long ago and love it! Glad to see you two join forces. Really enjoyed this one. I didn't know about many of these. We got jipped here in NA!!! A lot of these look fantastic, and would have sold and done well over here. It was cool to see some HAL Laboratory stuff especially considering Mr. Iwata's recent passing.
SAMURAI PIZZA CATS! This series was tremendously popular in Mexico where I grew up. I want to say that I got to play the game, it must have been a repro or a hacked version because we played it on our NES. Great vid!
This is the kind of stuff that makes me cry... and you guys are from USA! In Europe we got even fewer games... Ghostbusters 2, Holy Castlevania, all the goemons, Genfu, and the one that I really cried when I saw it... Motocross Maniacs... I loved Excitebike so much... but hey, we didnt even get Gunsmoke in EU... Tnx Legends!!!
These are cool (except for the Star Wars one, that one kinda sucks) but the best Famicom exclusive game has got to be Crisis Force, this is the best shmup on the system, it really pushes the limits of the NES, its graphics are amazing, they're on an almost Turbografx 16 level! Another cool one is Moon Crystal, that's another game that pushes the limits of the famicom, the graphics aren't particularly impressive, but the animations are, they're silky smooth and this game controls kinda like one of those cinematic platformers like oddworld abe's odyssey and Prince of Persia, except it controls GOOD! It's not clunky or anything...
Ruko Michiharu I subbed to you last night, and already I have come across your comments twice now (here and lgr msx2 review) You have some really cool content yourself.
Bliced Pretty well ^^ The game just recently got a complete graphical overhaul to use actual palettes of 16 colours, just like on a real 16 bit system! Not only that but we're also animating the water tiles and added new tiles for the backgrounds! And there's a lot more that I'll show off in a future video, so look forward to it ;3
Samurai Pizza Cats is awesome. It was released by Tecmo between Ninja Gaiden 2 & 3. so you know the controls are tight and the gameplay and graphics are amazing. I loved the show. Thank you Bandai for taking a chance on it!
I lived in Japan for 5 years, and collected many famicon games; Star Wars was my favorite, but "dragon unit" was a great castlevania clone I played in Okinawa; good memories
-Mitsume Ga Toru -Nekketsu Gumbare Dunk Heroes -Nekketsu Super Soccer League Amazing titles and must have for Famicom collectors... MJR..That Metallica shirt..😎👌👌
I have about 20 Famicom games in my collection right now, some games released in the US were tweaked and the Japanese versions were a bit different (Akumajou Dracula Densetsu AKA Castlevania III is a little easier and has different music, and Super Mario Bros. 3 is a little harder than the US version.) As for good games we didn't get in the US, there were some smups like Exed Exes and Baltron which were pretty decent. Let's not forget Devil World, which was only released in Japan and PAL regions.
Pretty solid selection, I've got most of these and for the most part they're all affordable. I actually have the PAL version of New Ghostbusters 2. It works fine in a US system because it was never optimized for PAL. Another pretty cheap Famicom exclusive I'd recommend is Gradius 2, though it's hard as titanium. I also like getting Famicom games that were heavily censored in the US like Bionic Commando or games with better sound hardware like Rolling Thunder and Castlevania IV. Also Ninja Gaiden 3 is a much better, more balanced game on the Famicom. Something else to consider is some of the Sunsoft arcade ports like Fantasy Zone which are superior to their Tengen counterparts. The differing shells of Famicom carts are because in Japan, Nintendo gave many early developers the rights to manufacture their own cartridges in exchange for software exclusivity. Though even the Nintendo manufactured cartridges come in a rainbow of colors.
It doesn't seem to be dirt, but roll-on deodorant that gets in the shirt when you put it before putting the shirt. I've been there. As a Famicom collector myself, great video!
The size of the NES cartridge had less to do with Famicom boards than it did with Nintendo's strategy of kind of disguising the fact that the NES was a game system, since the industry was still recovering from the crash in 1983. They literally told the guy who designed the case to "make it look like a VCR". The larger cartridge, loaded in the front, was most likely meant to resemble a tape. It just worked out that the cases could fit the converters, they didn't plan for it. Nintendo didn't have the time to produce the games they needed to meet demand for Christmas 1985, so they used existing Famicom boards with converters instead.
Some great looking games there! Splatterhouse is one I managed to get converted by TimeWalk Games before they closed up luckily. Kid Dracula looks very good! Thanks for sharing Riggs!
Not to be too geeky about this, but I also studied japanese for an amount or years in college and gotten used to using the katakana. For the games shown in this video I used the method to read the kana and it would translate to the English language. It's a pretty useful tool :)
Yume Penguin Monogatari. It's an awesome game, you don't really need any Japanese knowledge to play it, and it's even made by Konami. It's not too long, though. Moai-kun and Hi no Tori are two pretty good, relatively unknown Konami games for the Famicom.
As a big snes import gamer I loved watching this. Some of these games i was aware of but most i was not. Gimme those games! Really enjoyed john riggs too.
LuciousShowcase haha, of course I replied! I've tried a few like Sweet Home and others. Mostly via repros as they're translated. I know simple Japanese, but not enough to play through any RPG. They always have the best music, though!
Agreed. Treasure of the rudras has some of my favorite music ive ever heard. Sweet home is def gonna be one of my first nes repros to get. I just have the real ff 2 and spy vs spy two atm lol long story
Came here because I needed reference for buying famicom games. Probably gonna get Dracula-kun. But for this list, I'm surprised you didn't put in Mr. Gimmick (or just Gimmick). It's a whimsical game with phenomenal soundtrack and design. Despite it's only downside being it's deceptive difficulty spike, this game it actually really fun. But then again, the game itself is really expensive and reproduction cartridges even go for about $70.
Its amazing the things I learn here, they actually made sd versions of games like Splatter house on nintendo Woa! that castlevania game looks awesome too. I am looking forward to another retrospective like the Ultima video. Maybe on Wizardary series or elder scrolls or even the old school final fantasy/suikedon/ Broken sword series.
I can't thank you guys enough for mentioning the honeybee converter. While these vary in price and quality, it did lead me to finding out that hyperkin makes a similar product. I'll get the original hardware eventually but there's a lot of considerations and stuff to look for which make it a pain to shop for.
Worth pointing out for anyone looking to pick up Famicom games to use on a front loader -- some have graphical issues - Wai Wai World 2 is one of these ( the first one plays fine ) not sure about others listed here in this vid but I haven't had any problems with other Famicom games, just that so far.
I liked Parodius and Wai Wai World 2 and asumiría Pizza Cats. 5 good famicom games I got worth mentioning and worth importing are: Nuts N Milk, Moai Kun, Dream Penguin Story, Time Diver, Crisis Force
"Chojin Sentai Jetman" is a must if you're a fan of Super Sentai or PR, but I think it's worth playing regardless. It's a lot like "Shatterhand", even the stage select screen and a lot of the music and sound effects are similar. In fact, seeing how "Shatterhand" is also connected to a tokusatsu show and it was developed by the same company (Natsume), it's probably based on the same engine.
Many of these games look wonderful and I love hearing about the Famicom. The Famicom has a cool design and I'm happy that Famicom isn't so expensive compared to other retro gaming consoles. Cool video. ^_^
Battle City. If you haven't tried it, you really should. You don't have to know Japanese at all, it has 2 player coop, it's challenging, it's addictive, and last but not least, it even has a level editor! P.S.: There was also a bootleg version called Tank 1990, which was one of the most popular games (if not THE most) on the Russian NES/Famicom clone called Dendy. Pretty much everyone who knows what Dendy is knows this game. Heck, it might even be the only one they know! (It could also be Contra or Duck Hunt, though).
It's interesting to learn that many Famicom games are cheaper/easier to come across (online at least) than their NES counterparts. I imagine language barriers wouldn't be much of an issue for many titles as well, RPGs being a major exception. Thanks for the video.
We need more of these videos in this series for the NES, SNES, N64, PC Engine, Master system, and Genesis... I love trying to get imported games that were good that we never got here. Plus knowing the ones you suggest are English friendly (mostly). :)
I'm going to be picking up a Retron 5 soon and I can't wait to get into the world of the famicom/super famicom. I already have a bunch of games ready to play. Kid Dracula looks really fun. I might pop that in first.
Excellent list!! I don't understand why Konami can't just change some of the sprites for the controversial parts of Kid Dracula and release it in the U.S. I remember the Samurai Pizza Cats...It was short lived in the U.S...Had a very catchy theme song.
4 หลายเดือนก่อน +1
i wonder if theres a hacked famicom that fixes the glitches of the lack of memory, i mean the times that the sprites vanish for half a second... or maybe you cant cause it was programmed that way in the games already still..
I recommend Armadillo (Mario clone), Bio Miracle Bokutte (quirky platformer), Circus Charlie (Konami arcade classic), and for games not released in NA but released in Europe: Banana Prince, Hammerin' Harry, Devil World, and Ufouria. I would love to see a Part 2 to this video! :)
Some other good games are Getsu fu den , Ufouria (pal), Mr. Gimmick (pal), Moon Crystal, Earthbound (Mother), Final fantasy II & III, Dream Penguin Adventure, Destiny of an Emperor II, Sweet Home, Cosmic Police Galvan, Adventure Island 4, Mitsumi Ga Tooru Toru (The Three Eyed One), Cocoron.
Need Gun*Nac, Gun-Dec, Alien Syndrome, After Burner, Altered Beast, Space Harrier, Puyo Puyo, Splatterhouse Wanpaku Graffiti, Akamajou Densetsu, Battle Formula, Binary Land, Chuka Taisen, for my Famicom collection, as well as the Disk System unit and FDS games.
It's not a Famicom exclusive, but I got "Ice Climber". It's a great conversation piece. You can tell just from the label artwork why Nintendo censored it for the export versions: you can club seals in it!
A little trivia about Akumajo Special: Boku Dracula-kun - The swastika in japan is a religious symbol. It is called "manji" (written 卍) and also became a modern slang there.
LOVED this video MJR!!! John Riggs is the man!!! Great suggestions!!! Hoping we'll get to see more IMPORT GEMS videos!!! Keep up the stellar work dude!!!
I said over 1,500 Famicom games. I meant to say over 1,050 Famicom games. Not that I'll ever find them all, anyways.
Do you have any Buying Guide for the Famicom Disk System? I'm looking for one, and i wonder what i need to worry about, tips about games, unless Mario, Zelda and Castlevania.
@@alexno24 MetalJesusRocks Made it already but with another person (John Hancock)
Some of the 1050 games are mahjong style games, so it's ok not to find them all. :)
The original Wai Wai World, Cosmic Epsilon, Hammering Harry, Getsu Fu Maden, Gradius 2, Insector X, Gryzor (aka Contra), Formation Z, The first Goonies game, Chojin Sentai Jetman, SolBrain (aka Shatterhand), Gavan, Layla, Gundam Z/Zeta, Thexder.
Awesome review! I live in Japan and just bought my Famicom2 (AV version) about a month ago, so this was perfect timing. One thing I've noticed is that Japanese really take care of their games. It's pretty easy to find completes and systems in their boxes. With the exception of some fading (and cigarette smoke staining), they look almost new. The big name popular games can be a bit expensive though, but sometimes you can find good deals (I found Adventure Island for ¥100, which is about a dollar). I've never noticed any of these games out in the wild though. I'll have to look closer. A few months ago I bought Super Metroid for about $20.00. When I played the game, I was surprised that it was entirely in English. You have to actually choose the Japanese subtitles if you don't understand English.
AV but stll NTSC 60Hz right? Got any problem connecting to an old CRT? Or you did use some retro gimmick??
NO WAY!!! There is a Samurai Pizza Cats game!?!? I used to love that show as a child!
***** Definitely worth checking out!
***** is a fantastic game, you can use the other cats from the support scuadron in special parts in some levels
Thats so dope!!!!! I really need to find a copy for a decent price. As always Ebay prices are too much for me.
***** i loved it as a kid too :)
Awesome!!! Hopefully I can find a copy!!!
Great video!
Some more to add:
Crisis Force
Hebereke
Moon Crystal
Recca Summer Carnival '92
Getsu Fuuma Den
Adventure Island IV
Gradius II
Quarth
Dig Dug (the first one)
...and I'll say the Famicom version of Contra is worth getting for the added animations and map screen in between levels.
For PAL Regioners: If you have the UMC Famiclone, you're good to go, those are able to play NTSC games in PAL mode.
Man I love when you have John Riggs on because he shows all these great new NES, super NES, famicom and super famicom games that I missed in my youth!!
The enthusiasm and passion that these two have is teuly inspiring! I need people like this on my life.
Had a Famicom growing up in Taiwan, so many memories! Awesome information, you two are so natural at this.
I live in Japan at the moment and Famicon systems and games are DIRT cheap, like I haven't seen any for more than 800 yen (like $7). And the systems routinely go for under $20 US. And they're EVERYwhere.
True
The famicom was my introduction in the videogames world when i was a kid back in Cuba, bootlegs of course. So, i have a special feeling for it and it's games. And yes, i played the pitzza cats game which i loves as kid too! I still own my very first game cartridge (bootleg) which i discovered 5 Years ago when arrived to USA, TMNT 3.
Heres a fun fact, the honey bee FC converter is the genuine Nintendo FC to NES converter with a plastic shell around it, I got one recently that was broken/taken apart, and the converter inside is the actual Nintendo one that you would find inside Gyromite carts, its literally the exact same thing John showed with the ends sanded off, only the cartridge connector is hot glued to the adapter so it stays together.
Riggs!!!!
Radical Reggie Yeah, buddy!
Great stuff
John Riggs: RIGG'd Games Nice work! Now let's go get a beer sometime.
Indeed!
You should appear in every metal jesus rocks videos.
Even if you are just standing around
"You like a game called Magical John"
"It might be RIGG'd, I don't know..."
I get it! Dude that’s so funny!
Games Shown:
Akumajo Special: Boku Dracula-kun
Splatterhouse: Wanpaku Graffiti
New Ghostbusters II
Parodius Da!
Star Wars
Joy Mech Fight
Kid Niki 2
Samurai Pizza Cats
-- HOLY DIVER!! --
Wai Wai World 2: SOS!!
I love you
Riggs!!!!!!
Benoît Etienne Funny... I was just thinking about picking this series up soon. It looks really fun!
MetalJesusRocks Nice!
MetalJesusRocks you know what, famicom games are HORRIBLE, so HORRIBLE, in fact that no one should EVER buy them. $10 is too much for these HORRIBLE HORRIBLE games. Never ever buy them, ever. ;)
In Star Wars you can skip levels by sticking a coin and switching it up and down in the middle of port of the family computer. A level select screen will appear. By switching the coin up you go up a level by switching down you go down a level. Try it!
Oh my god. Thank you for reminding me about Samurai Pizza Cats. The last time I saw that show I was visiting my grandparents in Florida when I was like 5 or 6 and it came on the tv and I just remember while we were down there visiting sitting and watching the show every morning while I was there but I could never remember the name until now. So thank you for bringing back some good memories.
I know it's a minor point, but Parodius and New Ghostbusters II did come out for the NES but only in PAL regions (Europe and Australia).
thanks for the vid as it helped me find the title of a gem I have been searching for over 20 years and that is Joy Mech Fighter. I remembered back then where my cousin rented it from a friend and has its special case to make it look special. and it was fun we wasted summer afternoons with it, but me and my cousin were so young, and we can't read a single Japanese word we didn't knew whats the title.
Erwin Bulacan Awesome!
Wanpaku Graffiti always cracks me up! It's like the perfect example that Japan can make anything cute lol.
Dane Tucker Damn straight! I'd love to see them do an SD Silent Hill.
Dane Tucker It's a super fun game too. I have a boxed copy. Love it.
John Riggs: RIGG'd Games
I'd buy that in a heartbeat!
Dane Tucker indeed, it's great, i like the RPG aspect to it where you can get more max health.
Wanpaku means Naughty.
Riggs is the man! Just found his channel not too long ago and love it! Glad to see you two join forces. Really enjoyed this one. I didn't know about many of these. We got jipped here in NA!!! A lot of these look fantastic, and would have sold and done well over here. It was cool to see some HAL Laboratory stuff especially considering Mr. Iwata's recent passing.
Bucky O'Hare Thanks man! You're always awesome.
SAMURAI PIZZA CATS! This series was tremendously popular in Mexico where I grew up. I want to say that I got to play the game, it must have been a repro or a hacked version because we played it on our NES. Great vid!
Great list. Lots of fun games in this video.
TV and Lust And there's a LOT more out there, too! I'm still finding new games all the time.
You've been doing some awesome videos lately Metal Jesus. Lots of interesting stuff and variety.
Legendary Chop Chop Thanks very much for noticing! I've been having a lot of fun lately with the guests and Q&A questions :)
i loved samurai pizza cats had no idea it had a game. that show and biker mouse from outer space go down as the craziest concepts that actually worked
Great list and awesome to see Mr. Riggs on the show :D
Shauntendo64 Thanks buddy! You have one of my favorite channels on TH-cam!
Thanks man that really means a lot!
Wai Wai World 2 looked awesome! Also, I didn't notice the dirt on your shirt until you mentioned it 😂
These are the kinds of MJR videos I love. Thanks for sharing this!
I still remember the song for Samurai Pizza Cats! Was in Australia for a while. Enough for me to remember them!
Top Super Famicom games to get; next please.
metalmouth13 I agree, Super Famicom next please :)
metalmouth13 Agreed!
John Riggs: RIGG'd Games hell yeah, Super Famicom, we really got shafted on those games here in the states. XD
Samurai Pizza Cats- one of my all time favourite, that game kick ass.
This is the kind of stuff that makes me cry... and you guys are from USA! In Europe we got even fewer games... Ghostbusters 2, Holy Castlevania, all the goemons, Genfu, and the one that I really cried when I saw it... Motocross Maniacs... I loved Excitebike so much... but hey, we didnt even get Gunsmoke in EU... Tnx Legends!!!
These are cool (except for the Star Wars one, that one kinda sucks) but the best Famicom exclusive game has got to be Crisis Force, this is the best shmup on the system, it really pushes the limits of the NES, its graphics are amazing, they're on an almost Turbografx 16 level!
Another cool one is Moon Crystal, that's another game that pushes the limits of the famicom, the graphics aren't particularly impressive, but the animations are, they're silky smooth and this game controls kinda like one of those cinematic platformers like oddworld abe's odyssey and Prince of Persia, except it controls GOOD! It's not clunky or anything...
Ruko Michiharu I subbed to you last night, and already I have come across your comments twice now (here and lgr msx2 review)
You have some really cool content yourself.
Bliced Thank you very much ^^
I'm glad you like my content!
Ruko Michiharu How is your game project doing?
Bliced Pretty well ^^
The game just recently got a complete graphical overhaul to use actual palettes of 16 colours, just like on a real 16 bit system!
Not only that but we're also animating the water tiles and added new tiles for the backgrounds!
And there's a lot more that I'll show off in a future video, so look forward to it ;3
Ruko Michiharu I will and I wish you the best on your work towards it!
1)Ike Ike! Nekketsu Hockey Bu:
Subette Koronde Dairantō
2)Nekketsu Kakutō Densetsu
3)Kunio-kun no Nekketsu Soccer League
Must have games
Wow! So cool! Thanks guys!
oh wow i need a samurai pizza cats game! great vid
My most wanted famicom game... Downtown Special
Samurai Pizza Cats is awesome. It was released by Tecmo between Ninja Gaiden 2 & 3. so you know the controls are tight and the gameplay and graphics are amazing.
I loved the show. Thank you Bandai for taking a chance on it!
glad someone else knows about the Famicom Splatterhouse. That game is bad ass.
I lived in Japan for 5 years, and collected many famicon games; Star Wars was my favorite, but "dragon unit" was a great castlevania clone I played in Okinawa; good memories
Ironically Samurai Pizza Cats is called Cat Ninja Teyandei~ in japan, so they switched their profession from Ninja to Samurai
-Mitsume Ga Toru
-Nekketsu Gumbare Dunk Heroes
-Nekketsu Super Soccer League
Amazing titles and must have for Famicom collectors... MJR..That Metallica shirt..😎👌👌
The people who love Opeth and have its posters on their walls are respectable.❤️❤️❤️❤️
I have a Retron 5 plus 5 famiclones and 2 of them are portable! :) Had an original Famicom when I was a kid
Samurai Pizza Cats is the jam! I randomly found it recently and was surprised by how good it is
I have about 20 Famicom games in my collection right now, some games released in the US were tweaked and the Japanese versions were a bit different (Akumajou Dracula Densetsu AKA Castlevania III is a little easier and has different music, and Super Mario Bros. 3 is a little harder than the US version.) As for good games we didn't get in the US, there were some smups like Exed Exes and Baltron which were pretty decent. Let's not forget Devil World, which was only released in Japan and PAL regions.
Pretty solid selection, I've got most of these and for the most part they're all affordable.
I actually have the PAL version of New Ghostbusters 2. It works fine in a US system because it was never optimized for PAL.
Another pretty cheap Famicom exclusive I'd recommend is Gradius 2, though it's hard as titanium. I also like getting Famicom games that were heavily censored in the US like Bionic Commando or games with better sound hardware like Rolling Thunder and Castlevania IV. Also Ninja Gaiden 3 is a much better, more balanced game on the Famicom.
Something else to consider is some of the Sunsoft arcade ports like Fantasy Zone which are superior to their Tengen counterparts.
The differing shells of Famicom carts are because in Japan, Nintendo gave many early developers the rights to manufacture their own cartridges in exchange for software exclusivity. Though even the Nintendo manufactured cartridges come in a rainbow of colors.
It doesn't seem to be dirt, but roll-on deodorant that gets in the shirt when you put it before putting the shirt. I've been there. As a Famicom collector myself, great video!
The size of the NES cartridge had less to do with Famicom boards than it did with Nintendo's strategy of kind of disguising the fact that the NES was a game system, since the industry was still recovering from the crash in 1983. They literally told the guy who designed the case to "make it look like a VCR". The larger cartridge, loaded in the front, was most likely meant to resemble a tape.
It just worked out that the cases could fit the converters, they didn't plan for it. Nintendo didn't have the time to produce the games they needed to meet demand for Christmas 1985, so they used existing Famicom boards with converters instead.
Some great looking games there! Splatterhouse is one I managed to get converted by TimeWalk Games before they closed up luckily. Kid Dracula looks very good! Thanks for sharing Riggs!
The Castlevania .clone later in the video looked pretty sweet.
I just ordered a Sharp Twin Famicom so now I know what games to start looking for!
Great video - thanks John, would like to see more of your collection. Great game footage MJ thanks.
Peter Hull I have a lot more! It's just finding ones with mass appeal that don't require too much Japanese. :)
Not to be too geeky about this, but I also studied japanese for an amount or years in college and gotten used to using the katakana. For the games shown in this video I used the method to read the kana and it would translate to the English language. It's a pretty useful tool :)
Goardic Gaiden (Guardic) (Guardian Legend in US) The Japanese version has the best box art out of any NES or Famicom game ever made. Check it out!
Yume Penguin Monogatari. It's an awesome game, you don't really need any Japanese knowledge to play it, and it's even made by Konami. It's not too long, though.
Moai-kun and Hi no Tori are two pretty good, relatively unknown Konami games for the Famicom.
Kristóf Muzsik Yume Penguin Monogatari is such an awesome game. It'd do great today with the whole 'obesity crisis' they keep talking about.
John Riggs: RIGG'd Games yeah cutesy, but the message behind the game can be a little controversial, especially after seeing the good ending.
would definitely want a few more of these always wanted to get some import games
Metal Jesus you must watch Samurai Pizza Cats cartoon.
As a big snes import gamer I loved watching this. Some of these games i was aware of but most i was not. Gimme those games! Really enjoyed john riggs too.
LuciousShowcase Thanks man!
Zomg he replied! Have you tried any of famicom rpgs like nes wars, fire emblem gaiden etc?
LuciousShowcase haha, of course I replied! I've tried a few like Sweet Home and others. Mostly via repros as they're translated. I know simple Japanese, but not enough to play through any RPG. They always have the best music, though!
Agreed. Treasure of the rudras has some of my favorite music ive ever heard. Sweet home is def gonna be one of my first nes repros to get. I just have the real ff 2 and spy vs spy two atm lol long story
Came here because I needed reference for buying famicom games. Probably gonna get Dracula-kun. But for this list, I'm surprised you didn't put in Mr. Gimmick (or just Gimmick). It's a whimsical game with phenomenal soundtrack and design. Despite it's only downside being it's deceptive difficulty spike, this game it actually really fun. But then again, the game itself is really expensive and reproduction cartridges even go for about $70.
Its amazing the things I learn here, they actually made sd versions of games like Splatter house on nintendo Woa! that castlevania game looks awesome too. I am looking forward to another retrospective like the Ultima video. Maybe on Wizardary series or elder scrolls or even the old school final fantasy/suikedon/ Broken sword series.
I can't thank you guys enough for mentioning the honeybee converter. While these vary in price and quality, it did lead me to finding out that hyperkin makes a similar product. I'll get the original hardware eventually but there's a lot of considerations and stuff to look for which make it a pain to shop for.
Worth pointing out for anyone looking to pick up Famicom games to use on a front loader -- some have graphical issues - Wai Wai World 2 is one of these ( the first one plays fine ) not sure about others listed here in this vid but I haven't had any problems with other Famicom games, just that so far.
wrena79 Also the NES doesn't use some of the sound channels that the Famicom does so games with special chips like Akumajo Dracula 3 won't work right.
Hell yeah, Kid Dracula and Samurai Pizza Cats 4 LIFE! Nice video.
I liked Parodius and Wai Wai World 2 and asumiría Pizza Cats. 5 good famicom games I got worth mentioning and worth importing are: Nuts N Milk, Moai Kun, Dream Penguin Story, Time Diver, Crisis Force
"Chojin Sentai Jetman" is a must if you're a fan of Super Sentai or PR, but I think it's worth playing regardless.
It's a lot like "Shatterhand", even the stage select screen and a lot of the music and sound effects are similar. In fact, seeing how "Shatterhand" is also connected to a tokusatsu show and it was developed by the same company (Natsume), it's probably based on the same engine.
Many of these games look wonderful and I love hearing about the Famicom. The Famicom has a cool design and I'm happy that Famicom isn't so expensive compared to other retro gaming consoles. Cool video. ^_^
Battle City. If you haven't tried it, you really should. You don't have to know Japanese at all, it has 2 player coop, it's challenging, it's addictive, and last but not least, it even has a level editor!
P.S.: There was also a bootleg version called Tank 1990, which was one of the most popular games (if not THE most) on the Russian NES/Famicom clone called Dendy. Pretty much everyone who knows what Dendy is knows this game. Heck, it might even be the only one they know! (It could also be Contra or Duck Hunt, though).
Love the videos, its really awsome when you have guests, shows me a lot of games i didnt even know they existed :).
Good old times. I remember having a Holy Diver and Star Wars cartridge way back then.
Splaterhouse wampku graffiti is my favorite famicom games 😅
When you talk about changed names, the craziest to remember is “HITLER’S RESURRECTION” also known here as “Bionic Commando”
I recommend you guys play Choujin Dental Jetman. You won't regret it.
It's interesting to learn that many Famicom games are cheaper/easier to come across (online at least) than their NES counterparts. I imagine language barriers wouldn't be much of an issue for many titles as well, RPGs being a major exception. Thanks for the video.
We need more of these videos in this series for the NES, SNES, N64, PC Engine, Master system, and Genesis... I love trying to get imported games that were good that we never got here. Plus knowing the ones you suggest are English friendly (mostly). :)
I didn't notice the dirt at all until you said it, haha! Guess that's what I get for watching your credits roll, too, lol!
I'm going to be picking up a Retron 5 soon and I can't wait to get into the world of the famicom/super famicom. I already have a bunch of games ready to play.
Kid Dracula looks really fun. I might pop that in first.
Excellent list!! I don't understand why Konami can't just change some of the sprites for the controversial parts of Kid Dracula and release it in the U.S.
I remember the Samurai Pizza Cats...It was short lived in the U.S...Had a very catchy theme song.
i wonder if theres a hacked famicom that fixes the glitches of the lack of memory, i mean the times that the sprites vanish for half a second... or maybe you cant cause it was programmed that way in the games already still..
Good Stuff! Holly Diver is rewarding, and HARD!!!!! Wai Wai world 2 sounds super interesting, Thanks!
And now after many years, Kid Dracula in the new-ish collection.
That Ghostbusters 2 game is also on the Gameboy. I remember playing it when I was a kid.
From personal experience the Retron 5 has spotty compatibility with Famicom games. Your better off with the adapter or just getting a Famicom.
Thanks for mentioning samurai pizza cats. I remember watching that anime when I was like 4, but I could not remember the name.
I hope that kid Dracula is mentioned. Well dang #1!!!
the fighting game with paralax scrolling effect looks amezing for the nes.
I don't have an official famicom, but I have a handheld one that hooks up to the tv. Works great!
Gotta check out Choujin Sentai Jetman. It's pretty cheap and its Power Rangers!
Sweat Pants Joe cheap and power rangers: two of my favorite things
Sweat Pants Joe its not power ranger but super sentai
I recommend Armadillo (Mario clone), Bio Miracle Bokutte (quirky platformer), Circus Charlie (Konami arcade classic), and for games not released in NA but released in Europe: Banana Prince, Hammerin' Harry, Devil World, and Ufouria.
I would love to see a Part 2 to this video! :)
HOW??? Famicon in Europe????
If you have a FC to NES without a ribbon you can probably use a game genie as extension
Some other good games are Getsu fu den , Ufouria (pal), Mr. Gimmick (pal), Moon Crystal, Earthbound (Mother), Final fantasy II & III, Dream Penguin Adventure, Destiny of an Emperor II, Sweet Home, Cosmic Police Galvan, Adventure Island 4, Mitsumi Ga Tooru Toru (The Three Eyed One), Cocoron.
Samurai Pizza Cat is like Ninja Baseball Batman (when you go for the catchy name) which sadly was only on the Arcade .... but it was AWESOME!
Guys i want to buy a bunch of beer for both of you. freakin' love your videos.
The New Ghostbusters 2 game was also released in the PAL format for all you Europeans out there like myself :)
they is a pal version of new ghostbusters 2. you should look into it
Parodius also got a Euro NES release too.
Need Gun*Nac, Gun-Dec, Alien Syndrome, After Burner, Altered Beast, Space Harrier, Puyo Puyo, Splatterhouse Wanpaku Graffiti, Akamajou Densetsu, Battle Formula, Binary Land, Chuka Taisen, for my Famicom collection, as well as the Disk System unit and FDS games.
It's not a Famicom exclusive, but I got "Ice Climber".
It's a great conversation piece. You can tell just from the label artwork why Nintendo censored it for the export versions: you can club seals in it!
A little trivia about Akumajo Special: Boku Dracula-kun - The swastika in japan is a religious symbol. It is called "manji" (written 卍) and also became a modern slang there.
LOVED this video MJR!!! John Riggs is the man!!! Great suggestions!!! Hoping we'll get to see more IMPORT GEMS videos!!! Keep up the stellar work dude!!!
Splatterhouse was so good. just about every horror movie from that time is in it complete with cutscenes/intros before bossfights