"The WonderSwan was never released outside Japan." That's a common misconception. The truth is that the WonderSwan was released in other parts of Asia such as Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, etc. Many of the territories covered by Bandai Asia, had the WonderSwan. If you were to buy one in Hong Kong or Taiwan, you would actually get a translated instruction manual (English & Chinese) in addition to the original Japanese one. Some games did receive English translated versions.
@@markputnam4902 I have Digimon Anode/Cathode Tamer and it has packaging in English and Chinese and plays in English. I know of another Digimon game with English packaging but there was no need for the game being translated because it just had English words from the beginning. I got my Digimon Anode/Cathode Tamer a long time ago in like the mid 2000's from an eBay seller in Hong Kong. Hong Kong, Taiwan, and I believe Singapore might've had some of these games with some localization or just English packaging and translated manuals. I also have the Korean market version of this Digimon game and while it has a Korean label, it also plays in English.
@@imbibe9891 ah yes, putting english in a game for someone to buy it from a reseller 20 years later is sure smart of them. what benefit do they recieve? why is it smart?
+epic liampaul Sadly, his last work before passing away. At least, he had occasion to design something way better than this piece of shit known as the virtual boy before meeting his fate. Too bad the system never took off as already established Nintendo crushed it definitely upon GBA's release.
it's also sold in other asian countries like mine, not just Japan. back in the day they were sold alongside the Digimons in Toys R Us. A pretty good console, but too late to overtake the gameboy. GBA was out during the time it released in Viet
The Wonderswan was developed by Gunpei Yokoi, who before doing this worked for Nintendo. He created the Game Boy and Game & Watch there. He also created the Virtual Boy and thats the reason he left.
You can actually turn it on without a game i believe, by pressing start and select (don't quote me on that)- it asks for your name, gender, and also blood type. Seems a bit weird to ask for that but I believe your blood type is seen as a very important characteristic in Japan, perhaps a bit like our horoscopes
Death Adder disemboweled my dog, ate my grandparents, beat my father to death with my mother, and whipped me hundreds of times with my sister's intestines.
I'd say the most interesting thing about this thing is that a few GBA games were based on this, like MMBN Battle Chip Challenge and the GBA versions of FF1, 2, and I want to say 4.
It's interesting that, despite not ever being released in the US, all of the words on the front are in English. I've noticed that with a lot of Japan-only hardware.
Too damn bad they didn't release it outside of Japan they had some notable titles on it that looked quite good and had some nice exclusive titles. When it first came out and hearing about all the Squaresoft love it was getting made me mega sad face inside
Anchor Field is actually pretty fun and easy game to play, so long as you can read the text on the screen. Basically, It's like Qix's. You have to shoot the anchors out and connect them back to your original base. Ashens was playing the tutorial, which was explaining what to do... if he could read it. For that stage, you have to get over 40% of the area filled in to win. 簡単だよなぁ
+Konhat Lee Sakurai Same, I just ordered my Wonderswan today with 3 games and I couldn't wait to get it so looked up reviews and BAM! I ran into Ashens xD
Akhamesh OH MY GOD! DUDE! I was like 8 when me and my brother used to play this and we ALWAYS were like "Die you son of a bitch! Why are you using grapes anyway?" SEGA Genesis + 6 Pak. Good times.
Whats funny is old handhelds without back lighting can easily be seen outside (in fact easier outside then inside) but newer ones are half impossible to play outside, ironically. Been recently playing Pokémon Yellow on my GBC from 15 years ago :D
*Golden Axe* was best enjoyed in the arcade with 4 players. The tedium was not so obvious when you were all working as a team, plus the screen was fucking _huge_ and the speakers were always cranked up so loud you couldn't hear any of the other games. When translated to home consoles, or worse, handhelds, it lost much of its charm. It was meant to be a quarter-eater.
+Xeokym Idonthinkso Are you sure you are not thinking a different game? After all the original Golden Axe only had 3 characters and only supported 2 player co op. Plus the game was so short that you could reach the final boss in about 15-20 minutes.
Damn, I always wanted one of these to go along with Final Fantasy VIII. If you played the PC game you can get some really great items early by playing the Chocobo minigame and porting the items over to the main game(which was supposed to be done with the Wonderswan when the game was made)
***** I've heard two reports about the way he left Nintendo, with that being the first. The other was, he was planning already to leave, and designed the VB as a sort of "parting gift" project, which ended up being poor timing due to its flop (partly because during development, before costs cut it down to red and black, VB used full color).
Golden Axe is on my bootleg Genesis, made by AtGames. Bright side to the console, it doesn't give a shit about national cartridge differences, meaning its internstionally compatible. Bad news, its simple as shit and cant save files.
I went to Chinatown in nyc as a kid with a friend and we went into a game store that was selling the WonderSwan. I remember wanting one so bad, never got one though. Guess this review will do.
I think its some kind of meme, this appears in several other of his videos, I still dont get it, Im guessing there is a video we missed where that is explained.
Honestly, systems like this are infinitely more enjoyable on an emulator, because you can actually see the screen. Of course, not everyone wants to use emulators, but the option is there.
I have the non-color version (apartheid?), and a Swancrystal. The Swancrystal seems to be on par with GBA, graphically. Give it a nice windowsil lightsource, atleast. But the sound! It's a GBA SP graphics-wise, with Game&Watch audio. Dreadfull. And the games are in Japanese. I have Final Fantasy and FFII. Not really feasible.... I hear Front Mission is quite playable, and, uhm, Gun-Pei?
The sound hardware is actually pretty good, but they used a piezo speaker to output the final product of it. From what I read, if you can find the headphone module for it, the sound is pretty amazing.
ZeroZerock I think GBA goes to about SNES levels, but there's that buzz in the PCM stuff that's really annoying. I also wonder, how you happened upon my comment, it's been awhile, and I just rewatched this. Spooky.
Holy shit Ashens you mind reader! I was planning WonderSwan Wednesdays on my LP channel, and was thinking about what games I should do. Thanks for the ideas!!!
+The KaBlammer I kinda got sad I couldn't really live that era. The oldest technology I have and use eventually is a Nikon Coolpix L1 (which is better than a CyberShot even only having 6 megapixels). "WHAT A TWIST!"
I could just see him in the beginning balancing the box on his head, slowly tilting it forward to make it fall. I'd say that someone else did it, but what I imagined is more fun.
Couple points: The option selected in the wrestling game was "title match" (in English written with katakana). Option selected in the anchort game is "ha zhi mu ka ra", which Google says (my vocab=bad) means "From Introduction", which I assume means "new game". The objective of the anchor game seems to be trying to reach zone marked "2" in the upper left (avoiding the walls), with the choice of arrow and plunger determining how far you move. I don't even need to read anything to tell that.
Why would you vote this down?? This is just like all his other videos where he reviews crappy handhelds. I love these videos. I used to be obsessed with the crappy Tiger Electronics handheld games back in the early 90s. I hope people keep sending him more of them so he can keep reviewing them. Thumbs Up from me Ashens
The Wonderswan's design is so reminiscent of that of the original Game Boy Advance to me (the Arctic one), I can't help but think Nintendo used it as inspiration.
It's not just in Japan. You go to any country around the world and you'll see the English language everywhere. Every time I’ve gone abroad to none english speaking countries I still always see English writing everywhere, especially on products and advertisement-- which I’ve always found rather weird. I think it’s safe to say that English is almost like an international language.
Wrong way round, Gillius Thunderhead was the human and Ax Battler was the dwarf. They actually released a spin-off Sega Game Gear game based around the latter
Golden Axe is a classic, and the third game has a good amount of variety with branching paths, many different moves and a few other mechanics. Also, it has great music and quite nice graphics for its time.
The goal of Anchor Field Z is to capture as much land as possible. Each turn you may fire 3 harpoons. The third must land in your territory. The encompassed land is yours. Then the enemy will take their turn trying the same thing in the opposite box.
"The WonderSwan was never released outside Japan."
That's a common misconception. The truth is that the WonderSwan was released in other parts of Asia such as Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, etc. Many of the territories covered by Bandai Asia, had the WonderSwan. If you were to buy one in Hong Kong or Taiwan, you would actually get a translated instruction manual (English & Chinese) in addition to the original Japanese one. Some games did receive English translated versions.
KoushiroIzumi85 Do you have any idea which games were translated I would like to buy them?
@@markputnam4902 I have Digimon Anode/Cathode Tamer and it has packaging in English and Chinese and plays in English. I know of another Digimon game with English packaging but there was no need for the game being translated because it just had English words from the beginning.
I got my Digimon Anode/Cathode Tamer a long time ago in like the mid 2000's from an eBay seller in Hong Kong. Hong Kong, Taiwan, and I believe Singapore might've had some of these games with some localization or just English packaging and translated manuals.
I also have the Korean market version of this Digimon game and while it has a Korean label, it also plays in English.
The Digimon V-Pet game also has an English version. There's a rom of it floating around
Seeing the icon, They have Digimon games.
Source?
I'm always astonished at the amount of English text on Japanese products that aren't otherwise bilingual.
Yeah I've always been curious as to why products that are to be released only in Japan still contain bits of English here and there.
They're smart enough to know people who don't speak or read Japanese will be using them
@@imbibe9891 ah yes, putting english in a game for someone to buy it from a reseller 20 years later is sure smart of them.
what benefit do they recieve? why is it smart?
@@psychwardsandSCENE weebs
English is taught in school there and is often used decoratively. That's why so much of it doesn't make sense.
You're gonna love this, Ashens. It was designed by Gunpei Yokoi, same guy who designed the Gameboy.
+epic liampaul
Sadly, his last work before passing away. At least, he had occasion to design something way better than this piece of shit known as the virtual boy before meeting his fate. Too bad the system never took off as already established Nintendo crushed it definitely upon GBA's release.
The Virtual Boy was shit.
Explains why it also still had no back light. Seems that guy didn't believe in them.
@@ultrascarlet5275 ur muff is shit
@@nozotohey now the virtual boy was way too ahead of its time.
Pretty impressive that the whole thing runs off a single AA battery to be honest.
Benisteinzimmer considering it was made in 2000..... i think not so much
Benisteinzimmer AND considering the size. its still cool af
Just think if it had two, one could have run a backlight
Gay
Hey look. A homophobic prickly tit in the wild. I hear they're quite common but very very stupid. 🤣
it's also sold in other asian countries like mine, not just Japan. back in the day they were sold alongside the Digimons in Toys R Us. A pretty good console, but too late to overtake the gameboy. GBA was out during the time it released in Viet
The Wonderswan was developed by Gunpei Yokoi, who before doing this worked for Nintendo. He created the Game Boy and Game & Watch there. He also created the Virtual Boy and thats the reason he left.
Liam Austin I heard the WS game Gun Pey is made on his honor
Sheena Clingan hgfrfff!
Liam Austin Yeah..im pretty sure this was a mere side project that he had been working on but Nintendo didn't wanna know.
@@HoChiMints2007 Nice picture of Elli Tran Ha 😎
You can actually turn it on without a game i believe, by pressing start and select (don't quote me on that)- it asks for your name, gender, and also blood type. Seems a bit weird to ask for that but I believe your blood type is seen as a very important characteristic in Japan, perhaps a bit like our horoscopes
The Wonderswan is an amazing handheld, I'd love to collect for it.
Jrezky I would like to collect for it to
Death Adder disemboweled my dog, ate my grandparents, beat my father to death with my mother, and whipped me hundreds of times with my sister's intestines.
ChickenPika you know nothing about pain!!!
ChickenPika Sounds like it was a pretty good time, compared to going to an American Wal-Mart. Trust me.
***** any. fucking any.
***** just saying, i once was forced to go to walmart, and in the line, a woman was checking her kid's hair for lice .3. so ya. most are horrible.
***** Try Florida, Georgia, Alabama, and Maine.
I'd say the most interesting thing about this thing is that a few GBA games were based on this, like MMBN Battle Chip Challenge and the GBA versions of FF1, 2, and I want to say 4.
It's interesting that, despite not ever being released in the US, all of the words on the front are in English. I've noticed that with a lot of Japan-only hardware.
thinking about golden axe gives me copious amounts of nostalgia
ikr
ikl
inl
Idk
Too damn bad they didn't release it outside of Japan they had some notable titles on it that looked quite good and had some nice exclusive titles. When it first came out and hearing about all the Squaresoft love it was getting made me mega sad face inside
"Too damn bad they didn't release it outside of Japan they had"
wat
Lots of things we love when we're young turn out to be terrible when we grow up. Reality, for example.
Woah that's dark but so true
Not lego
My Girlfriend (actually, she's lovely...... she's just walked in)!!!
@@jf1376 Definitely not Lego!
Mostly lcds tho
Nice Engrish in the booklet : Axe Battler the Barbalian.
KiddoPlays Official You may want to google "Engrish"...otherwise you could make a fool of yourself.
It can still be Engrish if it's an "l" being swapped for an "r".
Anchor Field is actually pretty fun and easy game to play, so long as you can read the text on the screen. Basically, It's like Qix's. You have to shoot the anchors out and connect them back to your original base. Ashens was playing the tutorial, which was explaining what to do... if he could read it. For that stage, you have to get over 40% of the area filled in to win.
簡単だよなぁ
The fact that Ashens’ only color game is one of the most expensive WonderSwan titles and he seemingly doesn’t notice is pretty funny TBH
shin nihon pro wrestling actually means "New Japan Pro Wrestling".
possibly one of the best wrestling promotions in the world right now.
This was made by Gunpei Yokoi..the creator of the game boy
R.I.P.
"It's like a gameboy only more advanced"
So what about the gameboy advance then?
MegaDrain Nintendo has officially declared this handheld as "non-canon"
how does one consider a console as "non-cannon"? It's a handheld, not the Philips-CDi Zelda games.
OrangesmikyPro CD-i Zelda game.... I NE'd
Daniel Perez
Non Canon wtf kiddo
Yeah, I remember when I read it in the news.. 'Nintendo non-canonizes the Wonderswan.'
A sad day for us all.
Still better than Sword Of Sodan... Now if you don't know what that is... count yourself a winner!
Sword Of Xolan, on the other hand, is actually pretty decent
Ashens should review the Neo Geo Pocket Color!
golden axe is a game from my childhood, but i agree, it always seemed like they were beating you with a lump of grapes
those games have some really nice music.
I think this is the first ashens video I ever saw, looking for gameplays of this console.
+Konhat Lee Sakurai Same, I just ordered my Wonderswan today with 3 games and I couldn't wait to get it so looked up reviews and BAM! I ran into Ashens xD
Lost my shit when he talked about the guys who attack you with grapes in Golden Axe.
Akhamesh OH MY GOD! DUDE! I was like 8 when me and my brother used to play this and we ALWAYS were like "Die you son of a bitch! Why are you using grapes anyway?"
SEGA Genesis + 6 Pak. Good times.
Darkwiz666 "You son of a bitch! You stole my dragon!"
love you ashens. you never fail to make me smile! xx
translucent casing? we are truly in the 21st century
Thanks for uploading this Ashens! This video helped me remember one of the games I spent my childhood playing! x)
I can't help but think of Zero Punctuation.
At 16:58, Ashens slips in to his native alien tongue, which translates as 'still more fun than a Popstation'
I never thought about Axe Battler only fighting with a sword. I guess that's why I'm so intelligent.
I do love it when Stuart uploads a nice long video :)
"You know, just like buying drugs in Ipswich"
Whats funny is old handhelds without back lighting can easily be seen outside (in fact easier outside then inside) but newer ones are half impossible to play outside, ironically.
Been recently playing Pokémon Yellow on my GBC from 15 years ago :D
*Golden Axe* was best enjoyed in the arcade with 4 players. The tedium was not so obvious when you were all working as a team, plus the screen was fucking _huge_ and the speakers were always cranked up so loud you couldn't hear any of the other games. When translated to home consoles, or worse, handhelds, it lost much of its charm. It was meant to be a quarter-eater.
***** Played it religiously with my friend on his sega ....
+Xeokym Idonthinkso Are you sure you are not thinking a different game? After all the original Golden Axe only had 3 characters and only supported 2 player co op.
Plus the game was so short that you could reach the final boss in about 15-20 minutes.
+txcforever that's what I was gonna say lol
+BGfootballfan Same except it was on my 6pak cart.
Damn, I always wanted one of these to go along with Final Fantasy VIII. If you played the PC game you can get some really great items early by playing the Chocobo minigame and porting the items over to the main game(which was supposed to be done with the Wonderswan when the game was made)
I just called them "Derpy Dwarf Guy, Porn Star, and Normal Person"
I'm a silly twat.
"A moustachioed man who attacks you with a bunch of grapes..." Chef excellence by any chance?
Do I sense a Neo Geo Pocket Color review coming soon?
No
I am slowly working my way through your back catalogue
Didn't Gunpei Yokoi design this? Before he died in the car crash?
+Chatbox 3000 yes
+Chatbox 3000 yes
+Chatbox 3000 And the fun puzzle game "Gunpei" is named in his honor. He sadly passed before the system launched, if memory serves.
***** I've heard two reports about the way he left Nintendo, with that being the first. The other was, he was planning already to leave, and designed the VB as a sort of "parting gift" project, which ended up being poor timing due to its flop (partly because during development, before costs cut it down to red and black, VB used full color).
+Chatbox 3000 The sad thing was that he died before the Swan hit the market.
Being a huge Dark Souls fan, and Golden Axe being Bandai, I swear some of those weapons made some extremely unknown cameos in the Souls series.
Golden Axe is on my bootleg Genesis, made by AtGames. Bright side to the console, it doesn't give a shit about national cartridge differences, meaning its internstionally compatible. Bad news, its simple as shit and cant save files.
I went to Chinatown in nyc as a kid with a friend and we went into a game store that was selling the WonderSwan. I remember wanting one so bad, never got one though. Guess this review will do.
Nice! Jushin Thunder Liger is in that game!
I was impressed, I sometimes forget just how long Jushin Thunder Liger has been around and has been the best guy ever.
Watching the video just really makes me want a modern NJPW game for current gen.
It's great to see a review of one of these. It's certainly clearer in black and white.
Did anyone see a bearded man's face appear in front of the WonderSwan Color's screen at 9:36? 0_0
Yep.. I'm still wondering what it is
I think its some kind of meme, this appears in several other of his videos, I still dont get it, Im guessing there is a video we missed where that is explained.
It flashes by too fast for me to catch but I think it's a character from a 90s fps game.
You guys are new to ashens.
Voshchronos I know right
Honestly, systems like this are infinitely more enjoyable on an emulator, because you can actually see the screen. Of course, not everyone wants to use emulators, but the option is there.
was the wrestler he selected justin thunder liger ?
I remember a character in Gundam Seed had a Wonder Swan though I had no idea it was a real thing.
It also made an appearance in the Rebuild of Evangelion movies. Asuka played on one.
Isn't there a version of final fantasy III on the wonderswan?
+Hash Crab Yes
1,2,3,4,5 and 6 are I think. At least 1-3 are for sure. Not 100% sure on 4-6.
+Tael the Mask Salesman no
+Tael the Mask Salesman 1, 2 and 4
+rossy105 Oh okay. I thought all those PS ports were from the Wonderswan. My mistake.
You are what I look forward to at the end of my day, Ashens. Take that how you will.
I have the non-color version (apartheid?), and a Swancrystal. The Swancrystal seems to be on par with GBA, graphically. Give it a nice windowsil lightsource, atleast. But the sound! It's a GBA SP graphics-wise, with Game&Watch audio. Dreadfull. And the games are in Japanese. I have Final Fantasy and FFII. Not really feasible.... I hear Front Mission is quite playable, and, uhm, Gun-Pei?
The sound hardware is actually pretty good, but they used a piezo speaker to output the final product of it. From what I read, if you can find the headphone module for it, the sound is pretty amazing.
I really can't imagine that would be the case, as the audio itself seems to be sub-NES in style. Also, I see this is from a year ago.
I hate the sound chip from the GBA. The WonderSwan's audio quality isn't amazing, but its way better than the GBA.
ZeroZerock I think GBA goes to about SNES levels, but there's that buzz in the PCM stuff that's really annoying. I also wonder, how you happened upon my comment, it's been awhile, and I just rewatched this. Spooky.
As someone who lives in Queensland, Australia, the phrase "Just like buying drugs in Ipswich" applies here as well.
I found out about your channel today. I love you already.
This handheld console had a lot of anime games including Digimon
It even had an Evangelion game called Evangelion: Angel Ikusei which incidentally recently got a English fan translation patch.
@@Astolfo2001 ooh nice!.
Holy shit Ashens you mind reader! I was planning WonderSwan Wednesdays on my LP channel, and was thinking about what games I should do. Thanks for the ideas!!!
R.I.P Gunpei Yokoi
I need more Ashens. Like daily. Please.
Holy crap, Golden Axe. I played this so many ages ago on an old Windows 98 PC we used to have, I think. Wow, that takes me back.
one of the best avatars on youtube
Golden Axe....bringing back some great memories there.
I have to say, I love how the Wonderswan looks. A very marvelous looking console, shame they never released in America with a better screen.
Oh man, the Wonderswan. I'll tell you right now, I have a definite soft-spot for this thing.
...It was on this system that my favourite ever RPG was born. Riviera: The Promised Land~
Your love of the Neo Geo Pocket pleases me no end good sir!
u da best Ashens i fall asleep to your videos every night, perfect.
That has already happened further below. It's a delightfully delightful delight.
Oh shit I remember that game! So glad you chose it as I completely forgot the name of it
Oh, the Wonderswan Beatmania was fantastic. The best handheld music game, without a doubt.
RIP gulpin yokoi
Damn it Ashens, I'm meant to be revising for my exam tomorrow! Now I have to watch the bloody video.
the colour amazes me .
I KNEW IT! I knew it had to be the Wonderswan that you'll be reviewing. :D
Just wanted to say thank you for the laughs... Dont know if you'll read this but thank you
Looks pretty good. Funny to think the Gameboy took 4 batteries and this only takes one, yet has better graphics. Technology sure is interesting.
Really has nothing to do with batteries, but with the actual capabilities of the system.
"WHAT A TWIST!"
+The KaBlammer I kinda got sad I couldn't really live that era. The oldest technology I have and use eventually is a Nikon Coolpix L1 (which is better than a CyberShot even only having 6 megapixels).
"WHAT A TWIST!"
Ah, Ashens. You just had to upload this during midnight in my country.
Shots fired with Ipswitch reference lol
As soon as I heard the hint in your previous video, I was like:
"Yep. Wonderswan.~"
ANOTHER VIDEO MADE IN THE DAY OF MY BIRTHDAY!!!!!
Oh and this was made 1 year before Sonic.
Golden Axe..Oh the memories.
Why was it so good back then?!
Totally called it. I knew he was going to review this. Gumpei Yokoi was the man behind it, he originally worked for Nintendo.
Coulda' swore I saw a advert for this in a North American gaming magazine in the early 2000s..
Verb: "I'm going to ashens you in the ass" Noun: "Ashens, did you know every 60 seconds in Africa a minute passes.
I could just see him in the beginning balancing the box on his head, slowly tilting it forward to make it fall.
I'd say that someone else did it, but what I imagined is more fun.
no, this seriously erks me.. this console really deserved more from you ashens..
Couple points: The option selected in the wrestling game was "title match" (in English written with katakana). Option selected in the anchort game is "ha zhi mu ka ra", which Google says (my vocab=bad) means "From Introduction", which I assume means "new game".
The objective of the anchor game seems to be trying to reach zone marked "2" in the upper left (avoiding the walls), with the choice of arrow and plunger determining how far you move. I don't even need to read anything to tell that.
Thank you Ashens!
Him having to use the camera light reminded me of those Nyko worm lights for GB and GBC. Casted that same bright dot.
Why would you vote this down?? This is just like all his other videos where he reviews crappy handhelds. I love these videos. I used to be obsessed with the crappy Tiger Electronics handheld games back in the early 90s. I hope people keep sending him more of them so he can keep reviewing them. Thumbs Up from me Ashens
The Wonderswan's design is so reminiscent of that of the original Game Boy Advance to me (the Arctic one), I can't help but think Nintendo used it as inspiration.
It's going to appear more often and in longer sessions, till ashens reveals his special guest on his 300th video!
I never noticed that Ashens spun the box into a different facing with just one hand before now
Ashens mentioned beatmania. My life is complete
It's not just in Japan. You go to any country around the world and you'll see the English language everywhere. Every time I’ve gone abroad to none english speaking countries I still always see English writing everywhere, especially on products and advertisement-- which I’ve always found rather weird. I think it’s safe to say that English is almost like an international language.
Wrong way round, Gillius Thunderhead was the human and Ax Battler was the dwarf. They actually released a spin-off Sega Game Gear game based around the latter
So glad the gba sp had a backlight so you can see the game
It's Mentski! A TH-cam search will find his channel. "Games from the Chippy" is my favourite.
Golden Axe is a classic, and the third game has a good amount of variety with branching paths, many different moves and a few other mechanics. Also, it has great music and quite nice graphics for its time.
The goal of Anchor Field Z is to capture as much land as possible. Each turn you may fire 3 harpoons. The third must land in your territory. The encompassed land is yours. Then the enemy will take their turn trying the same thing in the opposite box.