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I love how the ZX Spectrum has such a unique look to their games and it's interesting seeing how creative the developers and artists were with such limitations.
indeed, i've only played Moon Crystal (last stage is infuriating), but knew about Kenseiden (i think anyone back then knew about it, was in EVERY magazine at the time), and had cosmic soldier on MSX. didn't played that one much, can't read moon runes.
14:55 UFouria has been recently re-released on PC and Switch, along with its sequel. It's a very fun metroidvania game, if a bit grating at times. The first game is only in japanese, the workaround they offered was to drop a "translated" pic in the game menu. -Apparently, also, I learned it the hard way, but you can defend yourself at the beginning of the game. They incorporated a mechanic where you can jump on your enemies head by pressing the down arrow while in mid-air. It's easy to mess up. I played the entire first portion of the game not knowing I could do that.
As much as I love video games you're one of the few channels I subscribe to. You really put the work into this. I learn a lot about retro Media from you. Good job. Don't stop man!
Kenseiden is amazing. And yes one dojo is incredibly stupid difficult, but the best hour of training you can get for platforming and memorization. It was so satisfying to finish, even with no fanfare afterwards.
I also once took the challenge of passing all the training grounds, and it was a frustration/awesomeness loop for more than one or two hours, for every new pixel I could advance in the stage. I could beat it, but I don’t even remember what was the prize, as it was already useless to me for beating the game. It is The best SMS game, for me.
Kenseiden mentioned!! Def one of my favorite SMS games. Love it so much I even ripped the FM VGM pack that’s on SMS Power as well as the title and stage 1 music being the first tracks I played on my vgm podcast! 11:21
@@st1ka it really is! I remember when I first noticed that his sword always stayed on his left hip and slashed with his right hand i kinda blew my kid mind.
I got a copy of Shadow of the Ninja as a kid and it's one of my favorite NES games. Couple things that weren't mentioned: Hold the attack button until the life bar flashes, then release for a lightning attack that clears the screen at the cost of health, does good damage to bosses too. There is a power up system for the weapons, if you keep picking up the sword or the grapple hook powerups (not switching between them) when you get the second one you will get a level 2 weapon with a bit longer range for the sword and faster attack for the hook. Taking too much damage knocks you back down to the base version though. There's also a third power level but it's hard to maintain because almost any damage will take you back to level 2. This system also affects the shuriken and bomb powerups, turning the shuriken to kunai at level 2 and homing stars at level 3, and the bombs will be thrown out in front of you at level 2 and 3 instead of dropped straight down. Bomb powerups are usually hidden near bosses if you know where to look too! Great game.
From that description Black Widow really does sound like a much newer game with all of that mechanical complexity, it reminds me of Geometry Wars with its many types of enemies and that one came out in the 2000's.
So crazy that Ronnie James Dio had an entire Famicom game based off him and it was never originally released in the USA ! The country he's from! RIP Dio! 🤘🤘 Holy Diver!! (Update) Holy Diver was officially released world wide a few years ago by Retrobit
Praise the algorithm, what an awesome video to stumble onto! Thanks for sharing these gems, I'm getting back into NES/SNES/Genesis era of gaming and now I have even more games to add to my collection!
I just love 8-bit games so much. It inspired me to make my own pixel art. It just has that fun charm to it, whenever I play an indie game with that style.
11:29 kenseiden looks insane. i would have sworn some of the background assets and sounds came from the revenge of shinobi if this game was not made before it. the dojos have a double dragon vibe to me as well haha.
Dude! Holy Diver! Fun fact, what spells you have determine what level you're on. When I was hacking the game, I artificially upped the number of spells you have. And that would jump me to a specific level.
Ah, Holy Diver. There was a cool-yet-shady-in-retrospect video store back when I was a kid that stocked lots of imports. the famous weird cartridges with the ribbon on them. but they went the extra mile and printed out fake "manual" leaflets and front/back slips, often with fake names invoking popular franchises like Bio Miracle Bokutte Upa being labelled as Baby Mario, and of course this being Castlevania: Holy Diver. I remember the back slip saying you're a belmont who beat Dracula but then followed his soul down to hell to finish him for good. It was suitably metal as fuck considering the game they'd put that fake storyline to.
Hearing you describe the dojos in Kenseiden as stupidly difficult absolute terrifies me, considering how casually you glossed over Holy Diver's difficulty level.
Really happy to see Ufouria getting mentioned. It probably my favorite lesser-known NES game out there. Loved the music,the characters, the art style, the versatile gameplay and the pacing. I actually love it so much that I did a translation hack of it back in the day so I'm rather familiar with many of the smaller details in the game. Heck, when the original released on Switch recently (Under it's original name "Hebereke") I even set a world record speedrun at the time xD If you know what you're doing and know the route then you can definitely beat the game in an hour's time, no sweat. One important gameplay mechanic you sadly missed is that you can indeed jump on enemies, but you need to press and hold down to initiate the state where you'll actually hurt enemies. It's probably my biggest problem with the game cause it's not communicated well to the player at all an it's complicating something that should have been a simple mechanic. But I guess think of it as a lesser pogo-jump from Ducktales. When killed, the enemies can also drop health but it's random and most of the time they will instead drop that useless ball thing you use during showdows. which adds to the tedium. Had that stuff been addressed and fixed, then this game would be much more enjoyable for newcomers to play through. Something I would often find fascinating is that there are certain enemies that you might never see on even a normal playthrough as they only appear once in specific areas, which is kinda baffling that the developers would set the memory aside for something like that. Uforuia is a games that oozes with charm and personality and I would recommend everyone here to try it out if you want a different kind of Metroidvania. It's available to download from the Switch e-shop under the name "Hebereke" though it's sadly the Japanese version.
It has the Western version with the added bonus of translated slideshows for both versions, showing how different both versions are. City Connection made a stream about it a few weeks ago.
The Japanese original mentions the down jump in the Title Screen cutscene, which is never mentioned in the European version. Going on Ufouria 2 logic, this is called a "Butt Attack".
Wow, I don't think I've ever heard of any of these. I think the parallax on seraphima surprised me the most from a technical standpoint. Great video as usual
@@st1ka It's a weird case of showing just how far good game design can push the limits of hardware. but also... how good game design doesn't NEED 5k graphics.
Moon Crystal is great, I've been playing it on my AVS and I love it. Also for Ufouria, you just need to press "down" while jumping on an enemy, then you can kill them.
I always recommend Princess Tomato in the Salad Kingdom. Crazy old Hudson adventure for the NES that goes into some weird places. You start out in a sort of fantasy setting as Sir Cucumber and go through Japanese nightclubs, fighting eight headed banana monsters, and have mech battles. It's not only a crazy, wacky, cartoony adventure, but one of the better games of that genre on the console. Also thanks for letting me know about the Ufouria sequel. That plus the upcoming Shadow of the Ninja remake seem like a good time!
Loved the bit with the banana - start to finish - it's things like that, that keep me subbed to your channel mate, and separate you from 1000s of others doing exactly same thing. Excellent content brother.
The Heroes of Might and Magic game for Game boy actually shows some graphics from HoMM3. The goblin portrait and wolf rider portrait and probably even some of the hero portraits. Orcs using axes instead of crossbows is also HOMM3.
@@Esirre Looking at the timeline, the song is from '83, the game from '89 and tbh the player character has long hair and a cape, similar to what Dio is wearing in the video so... my headcannon is that yes, definitely, this game was inspired by the awesome Dio song! 😁
Fun fact: the Intellivision isn't actually an 8-bit system. It has a 16-bit CPU. ... It also has a d-pad, but mentioning that starts flame wars because everyone "knows" Nintendo invented that.
Games you might not played before . Literally Moon Crystal was my childhood. That and Doki Doki Yuenchi. Took me about 15-20 years to find out the names of those games,since i didn't know them as a child. Had them on my Zhiliton (NES Clone). That thing had a power supply that got hot in hours and actually melted a few times.
Hey Sitka, My Dad bought an Intellivision before I was born, I started messing with it a long time after everyone else lost interest. Tower of Doom really impressed me, there’s definitely a few hidden gems on Intellivision. I think the system has more complex games when compared to its contemporaries. Also, Seraphima title screen FTW.
INTV was a 16 bit console. The first one probably. Which allowed developers to do some unusually complex things with the games. Many of it's games were very advanced for the time and several outright invented their genres or mechanics that are used today. It even had limited ONLINE connectivity through your cable company I believe.
@@st1ka it reminds me a lot of the Taz escape from Mars game. similar ideas about level design and objectives. The story is completely different obviously though. which does kinda make the difference in level progression structure needed. Taz is mostly just "kill all the Martian stuff". Except you're breaking walls, and hunting down items you need to progress.
I mean, I'd say Renegade is the 2nd best beat'em up on the Master System, as there's also a port of Streets of Rage for it, which's kind of... as good as the Mega Drive version? Altho it received a little downgrade on the graphics and sound
Damn! these really are hidden gems. Kenseiden is the only title I played. Kind of impressed how it's still possible to find games of this caliber that flew udner my radar for over 30 years. Well, except for Seraphima, which flew under my radar for not that long.
(Arcade) Renegade is also the first game in the Kunio-kun series, which at this point I'd say is more influential than it's connection to Double Dragon. Also Cosmic Soldier 2 and the first Megami Tensei game actually came out the same year. Not sure which came out first. Or did the first Cosmic Soldier have the dialog conversation system too?
Cosmic soldier predates megami tensei by a month or two. But from what I understand, the first megami tensei game didn't have the monster mechanic gameplay element
@@Cyril86 oh interesting. I never played the first game in the series. I was told it didn't have the monster collecting mechanic. I guess that's what the person meant
Moon crystal is an awesome game, I spent a few hours with it when I first got back into gaming, the music was good, graphics were awesome, I got about halfway through it but I found it quite difficult and put it down, I needed this reminder to pick it back up, thanks.
Moon Crystal looks great. I've never heard of it before, but I'll definitely check it out. If the NES could display a few more colors it would almost look 16 bit. Fun video 👍
Okay, your videos is much more fun to watch than to listening to some Nes remixes but man, i really need to ask you about that Shadow of The Ninja version at the beginning! Please! 🙏
I played Shadow of the Ninja back in the day as a kid, renting it from Blockbuster. It was such an awesome experience and you're right. That games music was a huge hit with me. Every single track on it is amazingly good. They are even working on a modern remake of the game, Shadow of the Ninja - Reborn, like they did with Ninja Warriors for the SNES! I'm so excited to try it out!
i played kenseiden back in the day. but i didnt get very far. and then as an adult i beat the game..... it's an awesome game.... i'll have to try the others.
Kenseiden is one of my favorite. Once in a while I play it till the end. Graphics are neat, balance is great, and it can be challenging depending on the road you choose to take. It's the embodiment of what a good video 8bit game should be :)
Holy Diver never left Japan because it would have gotten sued into oblivion most likely. "Holy Diver" is a famous Dio song, and the main characters are all named after famous early metal musicians. The game is a blast, and you're right the first part of the game is the hardest.
Im sure that someone has mentioned this, but Holy Diver DID get an official western release for the NES. Just not back in the day. Just a couple of years ago they did an official release on a bone white cartridge with lots of bonus goodies!
Oh man, I've gone from "I've never heard of this" to "This NEEDS a remaster" for Moon Crystal. It looks incredible, and I genuinely cannot believe THAT was running on the NES. Just imagine what it would look like with a new coat of paint and maybe fully animated and voiced cutscenes. Also, there's gotta be an English patch for the MSX1 version of Cosmic Soldier 2, right? Gotta have that original experience when possible.
@@st1kaMoon Crystal was ready to be released in the US in 1992 but got cancelled. I haven’t looked, but it’s likely there’s a fully translated official version of it out there.
CAPTAIN TSUBASA VOL. II for the Famicom it’s an 8-bit gem that doesn’t get mentioned enough in North American and European channels. Regardless of one’s personal stance on soccer, the game is top quality in terms of music, graphics, storytelling and length; throughout 33 matches you build a sort of relationship with your players, which makes its conclusion tremendously satisfying. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to mention it in one of your videos or even make an entire video about it.
Been watching your videos and listing some of the games (especially the modern gb games list)... On this vid, I was able to fortunately have played Sylvan Tale and Shadow of the Ninja (which I knew as Kage) but was not able to finish them back then. Great vid andlooking forward to play some of the games I did not knoe. Keep it up!
isn't neogeo pocket a 16bit system. I understand i would place it under 8bit als since it doesn't look a bit better them gamegear or such. But theres 16 bit on the box even.
@@st1ka i understand. i don't see anything on the neogeo pocket colour looking somewhat like a sega genesis. but the power within the system isn't within it's graphics. the extra processing power is used to animate those small fighter sprites on the system really well, better then any other 8bit system. But the graphics really don't move beyond anything gamegear mastersystem or gameboy colour. They have a certain charm tough.
Oh I tottally get what you mean. It's just when people say "8-bit" or "16-bit" they tend to think about the graphics and kind of forget the processing power. I have the same issue with the PC engine, 3DO and even the N64. It's like an intermediate system that doesn't fit cleanly into one generation, but I have nowhere else to put it
@@st1ka exactley. like you said. thye intellevision also had a 16bit processor. but the graphics weren't even on nes level. mostly the bit wars where a good indication. but also not. pc engine 8bit....it put snes and genesis to shame graphic wise at times.
Came here to say this. I love a Neo Geo Pocket being mentioned, but that's definitely not an 8-bit game, so the video title is not too helpful. And I'm not sure Battlantis is 8-bit either. I wasn't able to find any info on that.
That bonus level in Delta's Shadow looks crazy. I have no experience with the ZX Spectrum, but I know that spec wise, the game is pushing it hard. As I don't have any nostalgia for the Spectrum, I would love to see the PC version in the near future *hint, hint, wink, wink. I may not have grown up with the Spectrum, but I started gaming on the Nes and Master System in 1986. Having said that, I have played three of these games. Specifically Power Blade, Kenseiden, and Renegade. Very, very good choices.
It’s worth noting that Black Widow has had a modern rerelease that stays true to the original while introducing mission modes and leaderboards. Check out Black Widow Recharged, it’s pretty darn nice.
Psychic War was one of my favorite PC games ever. I haven’t been able to get it to work right on my computer now, which is a shame. And we know it won’t be remade anytime soon. But great list overall!!
Kenseiden is a classic here in Brazil. Hardly forgotten, is a game fondly remembered by a lot of people. It's always mentioned when people remembers the Master System, and I guess that's why there's a Brazilian guy making a sort of sequel to it for the Mega-Drive. :D Shadow of the Ninja is in my top 10 NES games, it's very good indeed. Also needs more MSX Games. :P
@@st1ka Oh you make my day asking me for MSX Suggestions. I dunno what could be considered, but here it goes some randomg suggestions in no particular order: Pay-Load, Undeadline, Super Laydock (Also Laydock 2), JAGUR 5, Feedback, Nyancle Racing, Quinpl, Aleste Gaiden, Gorby's Pipeline, The Stone of Wisdom, Youkai Yashiki, Dr. Archie, Godzila-Kun, Skooter, Eggerland's Mystery (and it's sequel), Hype, . Those are some that comes to mind, staying away from the obvious Konami classics :) Though there are some MSX exclusives by Konami that are worth a mention anyway, like Penguin Adeventure, King's Valley or Hinotori :)
Interesting, that nes games - Moon Crystal, Holy Diver, Shadow of the Ninja and Banana Prince was known in late 90 in Russia. They was not very common, but all of them i play in school and can be bouch in stores or exchanges from friends and markets. God bless pirates, who give us games for Dendy.
Holy diver wasnt brought over because it was originally designed as a tie in game for the band Dio, but that fell through. Just like Krion Conquest (Magical Doropie) was originally supposed to be a wizard of Oz game but that deal fell through real early
Great video as always! I don't know if you accept requests but if you're interested in PC-88 games published in the West, take a look at JB Harold Murder Club, which had a huge success in Japan due to its ports for MSX and NES (and an MS-DOS port in the West) and 2 remakes: one 16-bit remake for the Turbografx CD in the West and a Nintendo DS remake in Japan. It also had 4 sequels but only in Japan.
22:37 Oh, we played that game a lot back in the early 90’s, actually, but it was called Blue Shadow then. Always hated the first boss, but otherwise it was pretty good. But the real selling point over something like Shadow Warrior (Ninja Gaiden) was the 2 player mode! Not many games in that genre had simultaneous multiplayer, so when you found one you stuck with it!
I actually got to play Holy Diver recently on a bootleg Super Nintendo mini that came pre loaded with over 2000 Nintendo and Super Nintendo games, many of which were never released in my country and some that were never officially released at all like the fighting game based on the DC comics character Lobo. Anyway, Holy Diver was definitely an interesting experience. I only played it a little bit before i died and moved on to another game, but im definitely going back to give it another go.
Some fantastic games here mate. I've been following the Kenseiden 16 bit remake which looks amazing. I'll have to look into UFOuria as it looks very much like WonderBoy Dragons Trap in some ways!
Fun fact the black onyx actually had the monster capturing first which was 1984 via adventures you talked to which you can rob talk and make them join your party and this game was a best seller so it takes the crown of being the first game to have monster catching so take that ultima 4
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I think that the original version of Ufouria is also going to be hidden unlocked content in Ufoouria 2.
I also think that Shadow of the Ninja got a Game Boy port, and that it also may have had a remaster for more modern consoles as well.
Good video
Thank you! :D
Oh that's awesome :D
I love how the ZX Spectrum has such a unique look to their games and it's interesting seeing how creative the developers and artists were with such limitations.
I've watched a lot of hidden gems videos but these ones look more like actual hidden gems (to me) than most, thanks for the video!
Thank you ^^
indeed, i've only played Moon Crystal (last stage is infuriating), but knew about Kenseiden (i think anyone back then knew about it, was in EVERY magazine at the time), and had cosmic soldier on MSX. didn't played that one much, can't read moon runes.
Oh, I see you missed that you can hold the down button whilst jumping in Ufouria to perform a stomp attack on enemies 😅
OH MY GOD! i'VE BEEN PLAYING IT WRONG FOR YEARS?!
@@st1kaHaha. You've been doing challenge runs. Probably the world's top Ufouria player by now!
Yeah, came here to say "did I just imagine the stomp attack in Ufouria?"
Loooved that game when I was a kid!
Is Ufouria 60hz? Just wondering why not play Hebereke with a fan translation or something?
I love that he was unintentionally doing a pacifist run.
Shadow of the Ninja is being remade for modern systems at the moment and it looks gorgeous
Yep :D
One of my favorite co-op games based purely on fun factor.
14:55 UFouria has been recently re-released on PC and Switch, along with its sequel. It's a very fun metroidvania game, if a bit grating at times. The first game is only in japanese, the workaround they offered was to drop a "translated" pic in the game menu. -Apparently, also, I learned it the hard way, but you can defend yourself at the beginning of the game. They incorporated a mechanic where you can jump on your enemies head by pressing the down arrow while in mid-air. It's easy to mess up. I played the entire first portion of the game not knowing I could do that.
Wow! Thanks for mentioning Sylvan Tale! And other awesome 8-bit games.
I do what I can! :D
As much as I love video games you're one of the few channels I subscribe to. You really put the work into this. I learn a lot about retro Media from you. Good job. Don't stop man!
aww thank you :D
Kenseiden is amazing. And yes one dojo is incredibly stupid difficult, but the best hour of training you can get for platforming and memorization. It was so satisfying to finish, even with no fanfare afterwards.
Haha understandable
I also once took the challenge of passing all the training grounds, and it was a frustration/awesomeness loop for more than one or two hours, for every new pixel I could advance in the stage. I could beat it, but I don’t even remember what was the prize, as it was already useless to me for beating the game. It is The best SMS game, for me.
On Double Dragon for NES, you can punch enemies on the ground if you level up high enough. The enemies can even throw you off sometimes too.
Ah makes sense.
Kenseiden mentioned!! Def one of my favorite SMS games. Love it so much I even ripped the FM VGM pack that’s on SMS Power as well as the title and stage 1 music being the first tracks I played on my vgm podcast! 11:21
Such a cool game :D
@@st1ka it really is! I remember when I first noticed that his sword always stayed on his left hip and slashed with his right hand i kinda blew my kid mind.
I got a copy of Shadow of the Ninja as a kid and it's one of my favorite NES games. Couple things that weren't mentioned: Hold the attack button until the life bar flashes, then release for a lightning attack that clears the screen at the cost of health, does good damage to bosses too. There is a power up system for the weapons, if you keep picking up the sword or the grapple hook powerups (not switching between them) when you get the second one you will get a level 2 weapon with a bit longer range for the sword and faster attack for the hook. Taking too much damage knocks you back down to the base version though. There's also a third power level but it's hard to maintain because almost any damage will take you back to level 2. This system also affects the shuriken and bomb powerups, turning the shuriken to kunai at level 2 and homing stars at level 3, and the bombs will be thrown out in front of you at level 2 and 3 instead of dropped straight down. Bomb powerups are usually hidden near bosses if you know where to look too! Great game.
From that description Black Widow really does sound like a much newer game with all of that mechanical complexity, it reminds me of Geometry Wars with its many types of enemies and that one came out in the 2000's.
Yeah the game was clearly Atari when it was stilll at its creative peak
So crazy that Ronnie James Dio had an entire Famicom game based off him and it was never originally released in the USA ! The country he's from! RIP Dio! 🤘🤘 Holy Diver!!
(Update) Holy Diver was officially released world wide a few years ago by Retrobit
haha
Praise the algorithm, what an awesome video to stumble onto! Thanks for sharing these gems, I'm getting back into NES/SNES/Genesis era of gaming and now I have even more games to add to my collection!
Glad you liked it! :D
I just love 8-bit games so much. It inspired me to make my own pixel art. It just has that fun charm to it, whenever I play an indie game with that style.
I once tried to make a master system game so I get the feeling 😅
I can't believe that a god stealing your sacred banana is a laughing matter to you.
Hehe
It is a laughing matter. However if that god stole your sacred sausage that would be scary.
11:29 kenseiden looks insane. i would have sworn some of the background assets and sounds came from the revenge of shinobi if this game was not made before it. the dojos have a double dragon vibe to me as well haha.
Right?!
Dude! Holy Diver! Fun fact, what spells you have determine what level you're on. When I was hacking the game, I artificially upped the number of spells you have. And that would jump me to a specific level.
whoa I did not know that
Ah, Holy Diver. There was a cool-yet-shady-in-retrospect video store back when I was a kid that stocked lots of imports. the famous weird cartridges with the ribbon on them. but they went the extra mile and printed out fake "manual" leaflets and front/back slips, often with fake names invoking popular franchises like Bio Miracle Bokutte Upa being labelled as Baby Mario, and of course this being Castlevania: Holy Diver. I remember the back slip saying you're a belmont who beat Dracula but then followed his soul down to hell to finish him for good. It was suitably metal as fuck considering the game they'd put that fake storyline to.
Yep very true. A shame we didn't get it back in the day
Hearing you describe the dojos in Kenseiden as stupidly difficult absolute terrifies me, considering how casually you glossed over Holy Diver's difficulty level.
Luckily they're optional :P
Really happy to see Ufouria getting mentioned.
It probably my favorite lesser-known NES game out there. Loved the music,the characters, the art style, the versatile gameplay and the pacing.
I actually love it so much that I did a translation hack of it back in the day so I'm rather familiar with many of the smaller details in the game.
Heck, when the original released on Switch recently (Under it's original name "Hebereke") I even set a world record speedrun at the time xD
If you know what you're doing and know the route then you can definitely beat the game in an hour's time, no sweat.
One important gameplay mechanic you sadly missed is that you can indeed jump on enemies, but you need to press and hold down to initiate the state where you'll actually hurt enemies. It's probably my biggest problem with the game cause it's not communicated well to the player at all an it's complicating something that should have been a simple mechanic. But I guess think of it as a lesser pogo-jump from Ducktales.
When killed, the enemies can also drop health but it's random and most of the time they will instead drop that useless ball thing you use during showdows. which adds to the tedium.
Had that stuff been addressed and fixed, then this game would be much more enjoyable for newcomers to play through.
Something I would often find fascinating is that there are certain enemies that you might never see on even a normal playthrough as they only appear once in specific areas, which is kinda baffling that the developers would set the memory aside for something like that.
Uforuia is a games that oozes with charm and personality and I would recommend everyone here to try it out if you want a different kind of Metroidvania.
It's available to download from the Switch e-shop under the name "Hebereke" though it's sadly the Japanese version.
Ufouria is such a cool game!
It has the Western version with the added bonus of translated slideshows for both versions, showing how different both versions are. City Connection made a stream about it a few weeks ago.
The Japanese original mentions the down jump in the Title Screen cutscene, which is never mentioned in the European version.
Going on Ufouria 2 logic, this is called a "Butt Attack".
Wow, I don't think I've ever heard of any of these. I think the parallax on seraphima surprised me the most from a technical standpoint. Great video as usual
Right?!
@@st1ka It's a weird case of showing just how far good game design can push the limits of hardware. but also... how good game design doesn't NEED 5k graphics.
Moon Crystal is great, I've been playing it on my AVS and I love it.
Also for Ufouria, you just need to press "down" while jumping on an enemy, then you can kill them.
Yeah that was a blunder on my part
@@st1ka I still love all the in depth content!
thank you! ^^
Thanks for your works !! ♥
Thank you! I try! ^^
thank you so much!!! I love hidden gems of 8-bit or 16 bit era. your video introduces so many great game.
thank you x1000!!!
Glad you liked it :D
I always recommend Princess Tomato in the Salad Kingdom. Crazy old Hudson adventure for the NES that goes into some weird places. You start out in a sort of fantasy setting as Sir Cucumber and go through Japanese nightclubs, fighting eight headed banana monsters, and have mech battles. It's not only a crazy, wacky, cartoony adventure, but one of the better games of that genre on the console.
Also thanks for letting me know about the Ufouria sequel. That plus the upcoming Shadow of the Ninja remake seem like a good time!
I'll check it out :D
Bananas were kinda sacred in East Germany before the fall of the Berlin Wall, sooo... makes sense.
Haha
Loved the bit with the banana - start to finish - it's things like that, that keep me subbed to your channel mate, and separate you from 1000s of others doing exactly same thing. Excellent content brother.
Haha thank you! :D
The Heroes of Might and Magic game for Game boy actually shows some graphics from HoMM3. The goblin portrait and wolf rider portrait and probably even some of the hero portraits. Orcs using axes instead of crossbows is also HOMM3.
oh that's a nice catch! Thank you
I'm proud of the restraint you showed not saying "Holy DIVAHHH!" like song by Dio
Haha
always wondered if they based that song off of Beowulf and now wondering if this game is based off of the video of said song?
@@Esirre Looking at the timeline, the song is from '83, the game from '89 and tbh the player character has long hair and a cape, similar to what Dio is wearing in the video so... my headcannon is that yes, definitely, this game was inspired by the awesome Dio song! 😁
@@Esirre I just checked and the game is indeed inspired by the Holy Diver album 😆 And the game has a bunch of other rock references so defo.
@@StefaNonsense lol wow that is something, yeah i only saw the video on vh1 once, (back in 2004 or so) and still have a memory of it to this day
HoMM on Gameboy Color is awesome! I had the first one. Amazing to get such a complex game working on a handheld
right?! :D
"Mom, can I have an 8-bit system?"
"You have an 8-bit system at home."
8-bit system at home: 24:38
Haha
@@st1ka Love your videos bro! Please do one about WonderSwan.
Oh I plan on covering it my next 16-bit hidden gems video
@@st1ka Cool, I can't wait, thanks
Fun fact: the Intellivision isn't actually an 8-bit system. It has a 16-bit CPU.
...
It also has a d-pad, but mentioning that starts flame wars because everyone "knows" Nintendo invented that.
I did play shadow of the Ninja. Seraphima looks cool! I'ma try that!😮
Shadow of the Ninja is so good. The full video will be out on Friday ^^
@@st1ka will be looking for it. Never heard of any of these other games, other than ogre battle or renegade for nintendo systems
Games you might not played before . Literally Moon Crystal was my childhood. That and Doki Doki Yuenchi. Took me about 15-20 years to find out the names of those games,since i didn't know them as a child. Had them on my Zhiliton (NES Clone). That thing had a power supply that got hot in hours and actually melted a few times.
you talking portuguese outta nowhere was priceless sometimes i forget you're also Tuga
Haha
@@st1ka boas irmão tuga 🤣
Banana sagrada. O Portugues é uma lingua muito traiçoeira 🤭.
@@caalsigo muito 😬🤣
Hey Sitka,
My Dad bought an Intellivision before I was born, I started messing with it a long time after everyone else lost interest. Tower of Doom really impressed me, there’s definitely a few hidden gems on Intellivision. I think the system has more complex games when compared to its contemporaries.
Also, Seraphima title screen FTW.
The intellivision has some cool games that I reccomend checking out. I still need to try out the D&D games some day
INTV was a 16 bit console. The first one probably. Which allowed developers to do some unusually complex things with the games. Many of it's games were very advanced for the time and several outright invented their genres or mechanics that are used today. It even had limited ONLINE connectivity through your cable company I believe.
Lightspeed Rescue is my favorite season and I got the gbc game when I was younger. Still have it.
It's such a cool game
@@st1ka it reminds me a lot of the Taz escape from Mars game. similar ideas about level design and objectives. The story is completely different obviously though. which does kinda make the difference in level progression structure needed. Taz is mostly just "kill all the Martian stuff". Except you're breaking walls, and hunting down items you need to progress.
Shadow of the ninja looked nice and played nice. I rented it several times. Great co-op play, too.
it's so cool! :D
Seraphima would sell well if they modernized the game. Since you brought up Shadow of the ninja. I should playthru it again.
I'd love to see a mega drive port of Seraphima
Shadow of the ninja was one of those games I found at the rental store by accident! Great game!
Cheers from Brazil man, love your videos!
I mean, I'd say Renegade is the 2nd best beat'em up on the Master System, as there's also a port of Streets of Rage for it, which's kind of... as good as the Mega Drive version? Altho it received a little downgrade on the graphics and sound
I like SOR for the Master system, but I have to admit I prefer Renegade ^^
Man... The pixel art in Power Blade and Delta's Shadow is fantastic. The attention to detail is top notch.
right?! :D
OMG I never heard of The Scheme for PC88 but your showcase made me look up the OST and I LOVE IT! Thank you for that!
Right? It's so good! :D
I got a steam deck this week and your videos are giving me so many ideas for fun games to emulate. Thanks!
Glad I could help :D
I had no idea that Heroes of Might and Magic 2 was on the GBC! mNice!
Right?! :D
Now on the nes too(thanks to the hackers!).
This is a great list. Not sure if you know this but on uforia you have to hold down to butt bounce on enemies , it can be done right in the start
Damn! these really are hidden gems. Kenseiden is the only title I played. Kind of impressed how it's still possible to find games of this caliber that flew udner my radar for over 30 years. Well, except for Seraphima, which flew under my radar for not that long.
I try to dig deep to find these games
8:35 - "Straight Outta Contra" -- the 8-bit NWA covers album
Haha
(Arcade) Renegade is also the first game in the Kunio-kun series, which at this point I'd say is more influential than it's connection to Double Dragon.
Also Cosmic Soldier 2 and the first Megami Tensei game actually came out the same year.
Not sure which came out first. Or did the first Cosmic Soldier have the dialog conversation system too?
Cosmic soldier predates megami tensei by a month or two.
But from what I understand, the first megami tensei game didn't have the monster mechanic gameplay element
@@st1ka It did.
Was a central mechanic, though you could only recruit demons of specific races.
I was actually looking to see if anyone else mentioned Renegade wvs Kunio 1.
@@Cyril86 oh interesting. I never played the first game in the series. I was told it didn't have the monster collecting mechanic.
I guess that's what the person meant
Greetings:
Holy Diver saw a localized version a few years ago thanks to Retro Bit. Sold at places like Limited Run Games. First time in English.
Seems I missed it :\
THANKS FOR SHARING! Will some of these a try. Keep up the great work.
@@algertman thank you! I try! ^^
Loved Kenseiden back in the day!
it's such a cool game
Moon crystal is an awesome game, I spent a few hours with it when I first got back into gaming, the music was good, graphics were awesome, I got about halfway through it but I found it quite difficult and put it down, I needed this reminder to pick it back up, thanks.
Enjoy:D
Moon Crystal looks great. I've never heard of it before, but I'll definitely check it out. If the NES could display a few more colors it would almost look 16 bit. Fun video 👍
Hope you'll enjoy it :D
Okay, your videos is much more fun to watch than to listening to some Nes remixes but man, i really need to ask you about that Shadow of The Ninja version at the beginning! Please! 🙏
Oh it's an MSX remix. Search youtube for "Shadow of the Ninja MSX" and it should be on the first page :)
@@st1ka thank you very much!! 😎
I played Shadow of the Ninja back in the day as a kid, renting it from Blockbuster. It was such an awesome experience and you're right. That games music was a huge hit with me. Every single track on it is amazingly good. They are even working on a modern remake of the game, Shadow of the Ninja - Reborn, like they did with Ninja Warriors for the SNES! I'm so excited to try it out!
The game is SO good
Shadow of the Ninja is actually getting a remake.
Yep. I'm curious about it :D
i played kenseiden back in the day.
but i didnt get very far.
and then as an adult i beat the game.....
it's an awesome game....
i'll have to try the others.
Such a cool game
Kenseiden is one of my favorite. Once in a while I play it till the end. Graphics are neat, balance is great, and it can be challenging depending on the road you choose to take. It's the embodiment of what a good video 8bit game should be :)
It's such an awesome game. More people need to play it
Thank you, I would never have otherwise been aware of a Space Invaders Clone with Jager Froid's body double in it otherwise.
Hehe
Thanks
Whoa! Thank you so much!! :D
Holy Diver never left Japan because it would have gotten sued into oblivion most likely. "Holy Diver" is a famous Dio song, and the main characters are all named after famous early metal musicians. The game is a blast, and you're right the first part of the game is the hardest.
aaah makes sense
Im sure that someone has mentioned this, but Holy Diver DID get an official western release for the NES. Just not back in the day. Just a couple of years ago they did an official release on a bone white cartridge with lots of bonus goodies!
Yeah, I had no idea lol
Brother, you got a gift for sniffing out games I’ve never heard of. Another great video.
It's my God given talent :P
Oh man, I've gone from "I've never heard of this" to "This NEEDS a remaster" for Moon Crystal. It looks incredible, and I genuinely cannot believe THAT was running on the NES. Just imagine what it would look like with a new coat of paint and maybe fully animated and voiced cutscenes.
Also, there's gotta be an English patch for the MSX1 version of Cosmic Soldier 2, right? Gotta have that original experience when possible.
right?! It's so cool! sadly, there's no translation of Cosmic Soldier 2 that I'm aware of, save for the Ms-dos port
@@st1kaMoon Crystal was ready to be released in the US in 1992 but got cancelled. I haven’t looked, but it’s likely there’s a fully translated official version of it out there.
You sir have really good taste. A lot of those look quite interesting.
Incredible list, great work
Thank you:D
CAPTAIN TSUBASA VOL. II for the Famicom it’s an 8-bit gem that doesn’t get mentioned enough in North American and European channels.
Regardless of one’s personal stance on soccer, the game is top quality in terms of music, graphics, storytelling and length;
throughout 33 matches you build a sort of relationship with your players, which makes its conclusion tremendously satisfying.
It wouldn’t be a bad idea to mention it in one of your videos or even make an entire video about it.
Oh I've played those games, yeah I really should mention them
Been watching your videos and listing some of the games (especially the modern gb games list)... On this vid, I was able to fortunately have played Sylvan Tale and Shadow of the Ninja (which I knew as Kage) but was not able to finish them back then. Great vid andlooking forward to play some of the games I did not knoe. Keep it up!
Thank you! I try! :D
FYI - Tower of Doom was released on the Intellivision 2 cartridge for the Evercade!
Oh damn I didn't even think of checking the evercade
11:44 Kenseiden was one of my favourite Master System games growing up. Hoping someone will make an HD/Modern remake
Such a good game :D
Moon Crystal and Banana Prince are some of my favorite nes games I even did a few hacks for them, thanks for playing them.
Oh wow, thank you for your service! :D
isn't neogeo pocket a 16bit system. I understand i would place it under 8bit als since it doesn't look a bit better them gamegear or such. But theres 16 bit on the box even.
Yep both the neogeo pocket color and the intellivision are 16-bit, but the games are pretty much what we associate with 8-bit ^^
@@st1ka i understand. i don't see anything on the neogeo pocket colour looking somewhat like a sega genesis. but the power within the system isn't within it's graphics. the extra processing power is used to animate those small fighter sprites on the system really well, better then any other 8bit system. But the graphics really don't move beyond anything gamegear mastersystem or gameboy colour. They have a certain charm tough.
Oh I tottally get what you mean. It's just when people say "8-bit" or "16-bit" they tend to think about the graphics and kind of forget the processing power.
I have the same issue with the PC engine, 3DO and even the N64. It's like an intermediate system that doesn't fit cleanly into one generation, but I have nowhere else to put it
@@st1ka exactley. like you said. thye intellevision also had a 16bit processor. but the graphics weren't even on nes level. mostly the bit wars where a good indication. but also not. pc engine 8bit....it put snes and genesis to shame graphic wise at times.
Came here to say this. I love a Neo Geo Pocket being mentioned, but that's definitely not an 8-bit game, so the video title is not too helpful. And I'm not sure Battlantis is 8-bit either. I wasn't able to find any info on that.
That bonus level in Delta's Shadow looks crazy. I have no experience with the ZX Spectrum, but I know that spec wise, the game is pushing it hard. As I don't have any nostalgia for the Spectrum, I would love to see the PC version in the near future *hint, hint, wink, wink.
I may not have grown up with the Spectrum, but I started gaming on the Nes and Master System in 1986. Having said that, I have played three of these games. Specifically Power Blade, Kenseiden, and Renegade. Very, very good choices.
For Moon Crystal, I think the anime you're looking for is Vampire Hunter D (1985), the story and art style look directly inspired
oooh interesting! Thank you for that
It’s worth noting that Black Widow has had a modern rerelease that stays true to the original while introducing mission modes and leaderboards. Check out Black Widow Recharged, it’s pretty darn nice.
Oh damn that's cool
Sylvan Tale was incredible. like an 8-bit Secret of Mana. Similar to Crystalis, my favorite 8bit RPG/adventure
It's such a cool game
Very nice list, of these I only played Lightspeed Rescue and Banana Prince, I'll put everything else in my backlog!
Hope you'll enjoy them! :D
Psychic War was one of my favorite PC games ever. I haven’t been able to get it to work right on my computer now, which is a shame. And we know it won’t be remade anytime soon. But great list overall!!
Thank you :D
Kenseiden is a classic here in Brazil. Hardly forgotten, is a game fondly remembered by a lot of people. It's always mentioned when people remembers the Master System, and I guess that's why there's a Brazilian guy making a sort of sequel to it for the Mega-Drive. :D
Shadow of the Ninja is in my top 10 NES games, it's very good indeed.
Also needs more MSX Games. :P
Yeah i want to cover more MSX games. Any suggestions? :)
@@st1ka Oh you make my day asking me for MSX Suggestions.
I dunno what could be considered, but here it goes some randomg suggestions in no particular order:
Pay-Load, Undeadline, Super Laydock (Also Laydock 2), JAGUR 5, Feedback, Nyancle Racing, Quinpl, Aleste Gaiden, Gorby's Pipeline, The Stone of Wisdom, Youkai Yashiki, Dr. Archie, Godzila-Kun, Skooter, Eggerland's Mystery (and it's sequel), Hype, .
Those are some that comes to mind, staying away from the obvious Konami classics :) Though there are some MSX exclusives by Konami that are worth a mention anyway, like Penguin Adeventure, King's Valley or Hinotori :)
Thank you:D
heck yes, this is great! thanks for mentioning Cosmic Soldier 2
It's such a cool game with an interesting history
Interesting, that nes games - Moon Crystal, Holy Diver, Shadow of the Ninja and Banana Prince was known in late 90 in Russia. They was not very common, but all of them i play in school and can be bouch in stores or exchanges from friends and markets. God bless pirates, who give us games for Dendy.
False advertising! I have in fact played Shadow of the Ninja. In fact, I played it when it was new.
Mad respect dude. That game is awesome
I thought the Neo Geo Pocket Color was 16 bit?
It is.
It is. So is the intellivision, but the games are much closer to what we associate with 8-bit
I understand what you mean. Kinda like how the GBA and the Virtua Boy were 32 bit but both looked not much different than a 16 bit system. @@st1ka
Yep exactly. ^^
Holy diver wasnt brought over because it was originally designed as a tie in game for the band Dio, but that fell through. Just like Krion Conquest (Magical Doropie) was originally supposed to be a wizard of Oz game but that deal fell through real early
oh I need to cover the Krion Conquest too ^^
@@st1ka Make sure you talk about the differences in the japanese Magical doropie and american Krion Conquest. a lot was censored/changed
@@OmegaMaxterthat's a good idea
Oh man! I played Shadow of the Ninja back in the day but it was buried in my mind until now, thanks for the video!
Glad I could help :D
Great video as always! I don't know if you accept requests but if you're interested in PC-88 games published in the West, take a look at JB Harold Murder Club, which had a huge success in Japan due to its ports for MSX and NES (and an MS-DOS port in the West) and 2 remakes: one 16-bit remake for the Turbografx CD in the West and a Nintendo DS remake in Japan. It also had 4 sequels but only in Japan.
Oh damn that sounds cool. I'll check it out
You've made a new follower, very good narration and display, I had a very entertaining time. Thank you
haha thank you! :D
I always get excited at any mention of Sega Game Gear! I have over 200 games and Sylvan Tale is not among them! Looks like a good one!
Ooh mad respect
Always nice to get some reccomendations from Stika!
Thank you! ^^
22:37 Oh, we played that game a lot back in the early 90’s, actually, but it was called Blue Shadow then. Always hated the first boss, but otherwise it was pretty good.
But the real selling point over something like Shadow Warrior (Ninja Gaiden) was the 2 player mode! Not many games in that genre had simultaneous multiplayer, so when you found one you stuck with it!
Yep, in Europe the game is known as Blue Shadow and yes the multiplayer was awesome! :D
Shadow of the Ninja is also a great 2 player co-op game too!
Yep! Sadly I'd need someone to play it with xD
A solid assortment.
thank you! ^^
I actually got to play Holy Diver recently on a bootleg Super Nintendo mini that came pre loaded with over 2000 Nintendo and Super Nintendo games, many of which were never released in my country and some that were never officially released at all like the fighting game based on the DC comics character Lobo. Anyway, Holy Diver was definitely an interesting experience. I only played it a little bit before i died and moved on to another game, but im definitely going back to give it another go.
Oh Holy Diver is pretty difficult, but a very fun game once you start getting into it ^^
Sylvan Tale is one of my favourites on the Game Gear!
Such a cool game
*THAT THUMBNAIL BETTER NOT BE CLICKBAIT OR I SWEAR TO GOD!!!* lol
Haha
Some fantastic games here mate. I've been following the Kenseiden 16 bit remake which looks amazing. I'll have to look into UFOuria as it looks very much like WonderBoy Dragons Trap in some ways!
right?! :D
Fun fact the black onyx actually had the monster capturing first which was 1984 via adventures you talked to which you can rob talk and make them join your party and this game was a best seller so it takes the crown of being the first game to have monster catching so take that ultima 4
This is actually giving me an idea of making a game where we take Pokemon and Megami Tensei and try to trace back its lineage
I always find new games to play through my old trusty retro pie emulation station after watching these vids🎮