A few months ago we talked about using Japan Yahoo Auctions & some of the bargains you can find in that mystical eastern land. Check that story out here first:
http://retrospekt.com.au/post/357773503/in-retrospekt-a-guide-to-yahoo-japan-auctions
I’ve been ordering a bit of stuff & it all came in today thanks to the good people at Celga. Let’s have a look:
There was a lot of stuff so it came in 3 boxes. I wasn’t aware they’d be doing this until I got 3 tracking numbers sent to me. I can guess that the Super Famicom Box is in the middle box, as it’s about the right size. For now let’s open the top box.
There’s the Super Famicom Jr with 2 controllers & 2 Capcom Soldier controllers. After having a go with them I have to say the Soldier controllers are awkward to use. Maybe you have to get used them, but then again why would you bother when you’re happy with the current controllers? I’ll save that topic for another day as it looks like there’s more in the box. Let’s dig a bit deeper:
Wow, & I haven’t even looked at the other 2 boxes. There’s Chrono Trigger, Puyo Puyo, Kirby’s Dream Course, Dragon’s Quest 5, Crayon Shin Chan & Shining Scorpion towards the top with come boxed games on the side. There’s a bit of Super Robot Wars, some Final Fantasy & Bomberman is in the pink box down the bottom. That “Total Amusement Shop” box looks like a generic box that this particular store would package its unboxed games in.
Let’s see if I was right about the middle box:
I thought so. Here’s the Super Famicom box. There are no keys for it, so I might have to look at seeing if it’s possible to get replacements. Without keys you can’t turn it on by the look of it. Sadly the SF box got a bit damaged in transit.
Not much I can do about that I’m afraid. Anyway, onto the big box!!
Right on top is the Superscope. I also ordered Yoshi’s Safari with this lot, so at least I have the only semi decent Superscope game to go along with it. Let’s take off the top layer & see what’s under the scope.
There’s a couple of Dragonball Z games, 2 Street Fighter 2 variants & the 2 big boxes on either side have Mario & Wario with mouse & Mario Paint with mouse. There’s more underneath though, let’s dig a bit deeper.
There’s Yoshi’s Safari on the right, with Hammerin’ Harry (the same one from the previous article) & Yoshi’s Island also here. Bomberman 5 is also visible in the shot wrapped in bubble wrap.
So all in all I ended up with 88 games, a Super Famicom Jr, a Super Famicom Box, 2 controllers, 2 Capcom Soldier controllers, a Superscope & a Twin Tap. I still don’t know what games that thing is used for, but it was less than $5.
Right, well I’ve got to go & lock myself up for a week so I can play all these games. Later!!!
Released 1993
System: Super Famicom / Nintendo
By Banpresto
If you’ve never heard of the “SD The Great Battle” series, it’s basically a collection of games featuring SD (Super Deformed) versions of Ultraman, Kamen Rider, Gundam & Roa. Different versions of these characters appear throughout the series, but I believe Roa was specifically created just for the SD The Great Battle series.
The games are very tongue-in-cheek affairs & no two are the same. Number 3 in the series is a bit of a hybrid Golden Axe, Knights of the Round, King of Dragons parody. In medieval times the 4 warriors must do battle… why I don’t really know. The manual & game are all in Japanese. There is an animated intro which I will attempt to interpret. Firstly the gang are happily flying through space:
When their ship is hit by an asteroid which sends our heroes flying through space:
They land on what appears to be a medieval planet only to be captured by soldiers:
They are then bought before the king:
Who kits them up with weapons & armour which leads into the first battle:
You start off as the Gundam, but using Select you can switch between the other 3 characters. Each has their own strengths & weaknesses, though not being able to read the manual I couldn’t tell you what they are as they all feel pretty much the same to be honest. Ultraman is a little slower than the rest, Kamen Rider’s spear throws enemies overhead. They’re the differences I’ve managed to identify.
As I mentioned earlier, the story starts off in a village where you must fight a boss battle straight away in what looks like an arena. After proving yourself you go on your quest. A map will appear to show you here you are in the world & then you’ll jump into the level.
If you like a good side scrolling beat em up then you’ll enjoy this. The genre did develop a bit of a bad name with the main problem being the repetitive nature of play. Well this game isn’t any different, so if you’re not a fan steer clear. If you like these types of games well this is one of the better ones.
The controls are solid with attack, jump, block & use item buttons on the face of the controller with L & R cycling through items. Your character can double jump which proves quite handy though you need to time your aerial attacks well or you’ll just get knocked out of the air. You can also dash by pushing to the side twice in quick succession. I do wonder about the block button… how many people actually use block buttons in fighting games? I’d be interested to know, because I know I rarely do.
Each character has their own special move. Hold down the fire button until they start flashing & release to perform the special move. It’s a little tricky as an enemy may already be on you before you get a chance to pull off the move, but that’s the risk you have to take.
The graphics are bright & colourful & a lot of detail has gone into the characters. The medieval look really suits them & everything just seems to work in this strange little game. Little in jokes are presented such as the coins having the Banpresto logo on them.
& if you leave the characters standing around doing nothing they don’t just stand there. For example leave Ultraman standing in one spot & his helmet drops over his eyes, then he flips it back up. It’s only a small thing, but it’s a nice touch which shows a bit of care was taken with the game.
You use the coins in the shops that are placed throughout the game. Various items are available, though I don’t know what most of them do as their descriptions are in Japanese.
After each stage a password is given to allow you to continue play. The passwords are quite long… infact I would go as far as to say they are unnecessarily long. At least the option exists to continue play, which can only be a good thing.
The music has that medieval side scrolling fighter music. If you’ve played Knights of the round, King of Dragons, or the Capcom Dungeons & Dragon you’ll know what I’m talking about. It’s nothing special really. The sound effects are your typical beat em up hit effects with the jumps being accompanied by bleeps. Typical platformer/beat em up affair really.
At the end the day, it’s not the greatest game in the world & if you’re not a beat em up fan this isn’t going to convert you. If you are a beat em up fan you’re not going to be blown away by anything new & revolutionary. That being said it’s a fun little romp that’s worth spending a few hours with. I give it 75%
Music is a powerful thing. It can bring out different feelings & emotions in people, whether they be happy, sad or nostalgic. I felt it would be interesting to focus on the latter, as in which music makes you feel that childhood gamer who was plugging away at the latest game on their Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, or Commodore 64, or maybe you had a NES or SMS. Maybe you’re from the 16-bit generation & the Amiga, ST, SNES or MD were where it was at. Each generation of gamers experiences a different generation of music from the one before it. I can’t speak for each & every retro gamer out there, but I can share my experiences with you & what music brings those memories flooding back for me. Let’s have a look:
Lately I have been filling my trusty iPod Classic with 80s/early 90s music. This is the era I can honestly say I have the fondest memories of & it was that transitional 8-16 bit era changeover. The Amstrad, Commodore & Spectrum machines were struggling to keep a hold on the video game marketplace but were being replaced by the Amiga, ST & PC machines. As for consoles, the Sega Master System & Nintendo Entertainment System were also seeing out their final days to eventually be replaced by the Super Nintendo & Megadrive/Genesis. Portable gaming was also starting to make a dent in the video game world, with the Gameboy, Gamegear & Lynx starting a new type of console war, which didn’t last long & had a very clear winner.
As for me I lived that transitional period through my Amstrad CPC, Gameboy & Super Nintendo. I got my Amstrad CPC a week or 2 before Christmas in 1988, my Gameboy in 1991 or 2 & my SNES either a bit later that year or early 1993. Childhood memories fail me at times.
Let’s take a look at the Amstrad CPC part of my life & check out the tunes I was listening to during that era. First thing’s first though: why does music remind me so much of gaming from that era? Well I suppose the obvious answer is that I listened to a lot of it. Why you ask? Well during the 8-bit era a lot of video game music was very hit & miss, & that’s if the game had any music in it at all. Don’t get me wrong, the Amstrad CPC was able to play some great tunes & infact it shares the same audio chip as the Atari ST. With a lot of games though, it seemed that music was tacked on as an afterthought. Consequently if a game had either no music or bad/repetitive music the radio would be put on to provide a bit of background noise. Later on it just became habit in some cases, the radio would go on & so would the video game.
Artists that bring me back to that era are:
Crowded House
Split Enz
Madonna
Michael Jackson
Duran Duran
R.E.M
U2
The Police
I don’t necessarily like every song from that period, but they all bring back the memories of playing games like:
Jack the Nipper
Double Dragon
Rampage
Head Over Heels
The list goes on. The games listed above were favourites of mine & listening to a bit of “Hungry Like the Wolf” by Duran Duran or “History Never Repeats” by Split Enz makes me think of those times where I would be sat infront of the Amstrad CPC6128 which was on my blue desk, a box of 3” discs sitting on one side & some Amstrad magazines on the other. Later on I would have a tape drive & of course everyone had their favourite joystick or controller. I was always a keyboard player as I wasn’t a fan of using joysticks (though I had one) or controllers until I got a Gameboy, so I’d traditionally use the following configuration of keys:
UP - Q
DOWN - A
LEFT - O
RIGHT - P
FIRE - SPACE
But I’m getting side tracked. Let’s move onto the Gameboy:
At this stage I still had my Amstrad but every Sunday I would go travelling with my Father. Normally we would go to my grandparents down at Port Adelaide & visit relatives who lived in between (my father has 8 siblings). Coming from my former home in Para Hills for those who don’t live in Adelaide, that’s about a 1/2 hour drive & a decent amount of time to get some gaming out of the way. When I got my Gameboy it went everywhere with me. I got very good at playing on the go in a shaky car, but while the radio was on, I didn’t listen to it. My Father’s taste in music was very different to my own & even today when he goes driving he has to have the radio tuned in to some AM station that plays the oldest music known to man.
Before we would leave on these early morning trips I would listen to “Take 40 Australia” on SA FM. If we left early enough I would take my walkman with me & continue listening to the show rather than endure the horrors of AM radio. So imagine if you will, I had my walkman clipped to my side with headphones around my neck when I wasn’t listening to anything & my Gameboy in a black Gameboy carrier slung over my shoulder. I must have been a sight, but hey, it was the early 90s!!
Music that featured on the radio during that era included:
Crowded House
B52s
Michael Jackson
Madonna
R.E.M.
Vanilla Ice
MC Hammer
Right Said Fred (Remember them? “I am too sexy”)
These songs bring back memories of:
Super Mario Land
Simpsons: Escape from Camp Deadly
Terminator 2
I was still playing my Amstrad a lot during this time as well while I was at home. The problem was that due to the availability of Amstrad games in Australia a lot of the games I played were on Amstrad Action covertapes, but there were exceptions. Some of those games from that early 90s period include:
Space Crusade (A demo on an Amstrad Action covertape)
Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles
Target Renegade
Just a bit of “Love Shack” by the B52s, or “Weather With You” by Crowded House brings back memories of taking Mario through his first Gameboy adventure. A little “Ice Ice Baby” by Vanilla Ice or “Can’t Touch This” by MC Hammer makes me remember playing the Space Crusade demo that came with on an Amstrad Action covertape over & over again. It was only 1 level of Space Crusade but it was so much fun & took over an hour to complete that I played it over & over again. I always thought that Target Renegade was a bit of a poor man’s Double Dragon, but I still played it. From memory my friend James liked it more than I ever did.
Let’s jump forward to the Super Nintendo era. I started this era as I left the last by listening to “Take 40 Australia” on Sunday mornings (though I think it changed timeslots sometime around here), but by 1994 I had my first job & by 1996 I was buying myself CDs. It was during this time I became a massive Crowded House fan, which is rather ironic as they were in the process of breaking up at the time. They have since reformed thankfully & are still as good as ever, even without the deceased “Paul Hester”. Now, you can’t be a Crowded House fan without being a fan of the original Finn Brothers band Split Enz & I was a huge fan of them too eventhough they broke up in 1984. The Finns weren’t the only musicians I was listening to during this time, though “Recurring Dream: The Very Best of Crowded House” got a lot of spins in my CD player. I also started to get into Blur with their “Great Escape” album. My friend James started to get into Green Day so I was exposed to a bit of that as well. I believe the Offspring also featured a bit during this period & the Presidents of the United States of America. They were the first “fun” band I remember listening to.
This was the era of Megadrive vs SNES, of Street Fighter 2 vs Mortal Kombat & Of course Mario vs Sonic. It was also the era of an ARIA award winning comedy duo who were on the radio every weekday: Tony Martin & Mick Molloy. The Martin/Molloy albums were 3 of the finest comedy albums ever released. I bought them as they were released & remember sitting there playing either one of those, or one of my music CDs while plugging away at:
Brawl Bros
Turtles in Time
Super Mario World
Street Fighter 2
Bomberman
James had a Super Wildcard, which was a SNES backup system. This meant that the world of SNES games was open for us. All we had to do was hire a game we wanted, James would copy it & every time we got together we could play it. When I got access to the Internet that world expanded to include downloadable ROMs. Yes I used to partake in a bit of illegal activity with ROMs, but I’ll save that discussion for another day & another article. Some of the music from that later era reminds me of those days of playing all those SNES games with the Super Wildcard.
(Above: Tony Martin & Mick Molloy)
It was also during this time I started to get into PC gaming. A nightly ritual for me would be to get home from school, listen to Martin/Molloy on the radio while I played Warcraft 2. Warcraft 2 was an addiction for me, the same way that World of Warcraft is for a lot of gamers today. When you had played all the missions you could create your own levels which really made the game stand out from other real time strategy games of the time.
On a down note, Warcraft 2 was also the game that taught me about video game addiction. It is the reason I don’t play World of Warcraft or any other game people become addicted to quite easily.
I’ll leave the reminiscing there. As I mentioned at the start of this feature. I’m getting a lot of this music on my iPod. I have since bought another Amstrad CPC (my parents sold the first one), but I never got rid of my SNES or Gameboy. I also kept all the albums from that day, except Blur’s “The Great Escape”. My little sister swiped that one… Well that happens.
That’s my musical history & the video games I was playing when I first heard some of these tunes. Let us know which songs or artists remind you of playing old video games on the forum. It would be interesting to compare notes with some of you.
I’ve said it once & I’ll say it again: The Japanese are electronic geniuses. That’s it, that’s my opening statement & I stand by it. Why do I have this opinion? Well, not only do some of the finest TVs in the world come from Japan, but so does the Super Famicom / Nintendo. Not only that (this is where it gets good!!), but the television with a built in Super Famicom also came from Japan. The name of that piece of electronic genius is the Sharp SF-1.
The Sharp SF-1 came out in 1990, before some countries even had the SNES console. It was a successor to the earlier TV model Sharp released that had a Famicom built in. That particular TV made it to North America under the title of “Sharp Nintendo Television”, but sadly the Sharp SF-1 never reached English speaking countries.
The first thing to note is that for a TV this thing is HEAVY, particularly around the front. I have a standard Sharp TV that’s the same size sitting next to it & it’s nowhere near as heavy as that sharp SF-1. As for that other Sharp TV, we’ll make use of that a little bit later on. For now, let’s check out what the Sharp SF-1 has to offer.
Everything you would find on a Super Famicom is present. You have 2 controller ports in the lower left corner of the set, the cartridge slot up top with your standard power, reset & eject buttons, & a hidden compartment in the back. Move the slider along & you see a standard AV out connection & the expansion port. I can’t imagine plugging a Satellaview into that, but who knows? Maybe you can. It wouldn’t be a pretty sight though…
As for as being a TV is concerned it’s NTSC so no watching standard TV for me (being that I live in Australia which is a PAL country), which sadly means I miss out on those wacky Japanese gameshows. Man those shows are messed up… anyway, the Sharp SF-1 does have AV input which means other devices can be plugged in (NTSC only of course) so it’s not completely useless. Unfortunately one of the AV ports on the back of my particular unit needs replacing, but that’s an easy enough fix.
The SF-1 also came with specific SNES controllers that had the Sharp logo on them. For the record this one isn’t mine, I got the image from an Ebay auction. Mine didn’t come with any Sharp controllers.
The Sharp SF-1 came in 14” & 21” models. This particular model is the 21” set & while some sources online state that picture quality is better on an SF-1 than a standard TV set I can’t say that I noticed any real difference. Still, let’s plug in a game & check it out. I have Final Fight Guy sitting next to me so we’ll put that in & see how it goes.
When you turn on the Super Famicom switch all TV activity ceases & it goes into Super Famicom mode, which is handy as the TV controls are all in Japanese. If I had change it manually you wouldn’t be reading this article right now as my Japanese is pathetic. As for the game, well it’s Final Fight & it’s playing on a TV with a built in SNES… not much more I can say about that. Let’s check out the AV out.
Taking a standard SNES/N64/GC AV cable let’s connect this SF-1 to the other Sharp TV sitting next to it.
Excellent, the picture is now on both TVs. Now THAT’S now you play 2 player games, with one picture each!! Except… the SNES versions of Final Fight were one player only… Dammit… I’ll bitch about that another time. For now let’s plug in something else. As anyone who has read my review knows, Super Bomberman 4 is (in my opinion) the best of the 5 Bomberman games released on the Super Famicom / Nintendo. Enough of that, go read the review if you haven’t yet cos all I’m gonna do right now is play it.
Nice… Imagine having these 2 TVs back to back & having a few people playing off one set & a few using the other. Now, I give you the ultimate Super Bomberman setup. This effect can also be achieved with any standard TV with AV out.
You can’t really improve on an article that has Bomberman playing across multiple TVs with a multitap, so I’m going to end this right now…
A few months ago we had a look at the SNES Classic Controller, which was a Japanese exclusive for Club Nintendo members.
Now they’re fairly common though they do fetch upwards of $70AU in most cases. For most people that’s a bit out of reach for a controller, & what if you don’t like using the original SNES controller? What if you prefer to use a Honeybee or SN controller? The SNES Classic Controller can’t really help you there. That’s where this device comes in:
This is simply called the NES/SNES to Wii Adapter. It’s a simple name but I like it. It gets to the point of what this device actually is & what it does. Let’s have a look at it & see how it works. First thing’s first, you have a look at the packaging & see a diagram showing how a NES & SNES controller plug into it, then into the Wiimote:
Pretty simple, just plug one or the other into the adapter, then straight into the Wiimote & the gaming can begin. It also tells you how to enable turbo fire on the controller. You can assign turbo to individual buttons on the controller. But hold on… what’s this?
Well I see a SNES port, but that other port is a standard 9PIN controller port used by Sega, Amstrad & Atari consoles. That’s not going to fit in a NES controller.
It’s not easy to see in the picture, but anyone with a NES controller can just take a quick look now & see that it won’t fit into this device. Note it doesn’t say “Famicom” either, the packaging clearly says NES. The NES controller port has been standard across both NES models & the Famicom AV, so where they got the idea that this 9PIN port will work with the NES is just beyond me. So anyway, that’s not going to work. Let’s plug in a SNES controller & see how it goes:
Excellent, & unlike the SNES Classic Controller I can use my American controller that has a nice long cable. Let’s see what happens when we play Super Mario World:
Great, it operates just like the SNES Classic Controller. You could easily forget that this is the Virtual Console on a Wii. How about 3rd party controllers? I’ve always been rather partial to the SN Propad myself. Let’s see that in action:
Again it works very well. Obviously the images on the screen are paused, but I got them to where they were with the controller in the image. The turbo & autofire options on the SN Propad also work, so if you have a controller with a specific feature you want to use then you should be well catered for here.
Now I did get curious about that alleged “NES port” though. Would it work with other controllers that actually fit into it? I got a Sega Master System, Sega Genesis & Amstrad GX4000 controller to see what would happen. First the Sega Genesis:
What’s this? Nothing works, but if I push down on the controller & the Wii menu comes up. So Mario doesn’t want to play with Sega. Let’s try a Sega emulator on the Wii. First we’ll put in the SN Propad again:
The game of choice is Rolo to the Rescue. The Propad works just as it should, so no problems there. Let’s try that Genesis controller again:
Again, none of the controls work except pressing Down which acts as the “Home” button on the Wiimote which takes you back to the emulator menu. Let’s try Amstrad’s controller & see what happens.
Please excuse Dale my Cavalier King Charles Spaniel in the bottom of the shot. He wouldn’t move when he was told to. As you can see the Amstrad controller works exactly the same as the Genesis: Down is “Home” & nothing else works. Maybe we should try a different emulator & a different controller. Let’s try a Gameboy Advance emulator with a Master System controller:
Dale decided to move which was nice, but as you can see the Master System controller behaves the same as the other 2 I tried. I don’t honestly know what this other port is supposed to be used for. A NES controller won’t fit, Genesis, Master System & GX4000 controllers won’t work other than pushing down for the “Home” menu. If someone works it out feel free to email us.
For those disappointed at the lack of other controllers working, look at it this way: Nintendo achieved perfection when they made the SNES controller. Yes I know that’s a controversial statement, but it’s my opinion. With postage this cost me just under $20, so if you have a SNES controller lying around & don’t feel like forking out the big biccies for a SNES Classic Controller then this is the device for you. Just don’t expect it to work on anything else.
OK, it’s time to go on a rant. This time I’ll be looking at the Megaman/Rockman series, but we’ll stick to calling it Megaman as it’s the name the majority of us use in the English speaking world. Now I’m not talking about Megaman X, Megaman Zero, Megaman NT, or any of the other variations out there. I’m talking about the original Blue Bomber himself.
For those who are unfamiliar with the series, Megaman was a robot designed by Doctor Light. He battles the evil robots created or adapted (depends on the storyline) by Doctor Wily. He has a mysterious brother called Protoman, a dog called Rush, & a “sister” (I suppose you could call her) called Roll to name but a few of the game’s supporting cast. The original platform series spanned 9 main games with some spin off titles. Most notably there was a poor soccer game & 2 decent arcade games. The games are extremely difficult platformers but they can all be beaten with a bit of perseverance.
The original Megaman series debuted on the Famicom / NES & eventually transitioned to the SNES, the Playstation & back to the SNES again before going on a long break. The first 6 games were NES releases, number 7 was on the SNES/SFC, 8 on the Playstation & the final game Rockman & Forte or “Megaman & Bass” (which is not called Megaman 9) was released on the Super Famicom (it was later localised for the Gameboy Advance). The first 3 games were updated & released on the Megadrive / Genesis under the title “The Wily Wars”. All the Famicom games were updated & rereleased on the Playstation in Japan in limited quantities, & they fetch a fairly high price on Ebay these days. The most notable rerelease was on the Gamecube/Xbox/PS2 which received the Megaman Collection. This contained the first 8 games in their original form & was followed by the Megaman X collection.
Throughout the series Megaman has always evolved & developed new ideas. Though the gameplay has always remained the same, the graphics & sound have gotten better with the newer machines. This is where I fail to understand Capcom’s decision to use the old 8-bit Megaman graphics in Megaman 9 & 10.
Firstly let’s have a look at Megaman & Bass which was released in 1998:
It looks like a good game, nice graphics, excellent playability. It added some new things like Bass being able to shoot in multiple directions. It’s a nice solid game. This is where Megaman was left in limbo for 10 years.
Now let’s look at Megaman 9 released in 2008:
It’s hardly a step up & seems to try too hard to be retro. There’s nothing wrong with Retrogaming, as that’s what we’re all about here.
To me the game feels like a way to cash in on:
a) The retro craze that seems to be popular these days
b) The fact that Megaman fans have been craving a new game since Megaman & Bass
I appreciate the fact that they have created new bosses & new levels, but I can’t play the game without feeling like it was one step forward & two steps back. There’s a very “cheap” feeling to the game, & with Megaman 10 coming out shortly (at the time of writing) I think I can see why.
The game feels like it was made with a Megaman level editor, & thinking about it, it probably was. They say Megaman 9 was made from the ground up, but I’m sure they would have made a level designer of some description that could have been used should a sequel need to be made.
Many games over the years have had level designers made for them & if ROM hacking sites have taught us anything it’s that with the right tools you can modify a game very easily with enough time. Check out www.smwcentral.net & see some of the amazing designs that were made using Super Mario World hacking tools. Fans can knock this sort of stuff out easily, & with a 16-bit platform game no less. Capcom didn’t even give us that much.
Megaman 10 is advertised as “keeping with the 8-bit theme”. I’m sure it is, as the engine is built & all they need to do is to design some bosses, maybe a couple of new enemies & add in Protoman & Bass as playable characters which wouldn’t be very difficult at all. Sure I couldn’t do it, I admit, but for a good programmer working in a big studio with decent resources it would be very easy.
Had Megaman never left the Famicom / NES platform I wouldn’t have a problem with this. It would have been how we left Megaman & the gang, & more of the same so long after the last release would have been very welcome. That’s not what happened though, & the world got a healthy dose of 16-bit & 32-bit Megaman. I like to see any series of games I play evolve, not be made to look old because it’s cheap & gimmicky. Essentially that’s what the issue here is, using a cheap gimmick. Maybe if they made the game look like Megaman & Bass, but incorporated an “8-bit mode” that would have been a novel idea. I would have played it through on 8-bit mode just for interests sake.
What about Megaman & Bass you may ask? Megaman 8 was an the Playstation, a 32-bit system. Wouldn’t putting the sequel on a 16-bit system be considered a step back? Well Megaman 8 didn’t exactly push the Playstation to its limits & the graphical style was easily carried over to the SNES.
Now I did download Megaman 9 & it’s sitting on my Wii right now, so I can honestly say I’ve played it. I’m not one of those whingers who complains about a game that they’re never played because of how it looks or what they’ve heard. That’s not me & it never will be. I always try things out before forming an opinion. I admit I was reserved about Megaman 9, but I gave it a shot & was disappointed.
I’ll probably get back to Megaman 9 eventually & finish it, but I don’t think Megaman 10 will be on my “must download” list anytime soon. They’re not bad games, don’t get me wrong, & I don’t have a problem with them because they’re not “pretty”. I just think Capcom did them on the cheap & didn’t put in the effort that a Megaman game deserves after a 10 year hiatus.
Released 1994
System: Super Nintendo
By: Rumic Soft
NOTE: This review contains images from both the game & the anime.
The history of Ranma fighting games is a bit of a tale. The first game which is known in some fan circles as “Neighbourhood Combat” was released in the US under the rebadged title of “Street Combat”. The game was already decidedly average & the fact that the US version removed all the characters we were familiar with & replaced them with generic fighters didn’t help matters. Sometimes these games are a little more enjoyable if you’re familiar with the characters you’re controlling.
The second game Ranma 1/2 Hard Battle was released in the US & Europe as a Ranma game & with all the Ranma characters present & correct. The problem is that the game was, once again, pretty ordinary. Did they get the formula right with the 3rd & final fighting game on the SNES? Let’s find out…
If you’re a fan of the series all your favourites are here including:
- Ranma, boy type - A confident martial artist who has a fear of cats
- Ranma, girl type - The form Ranma takes when splashed with cold water
- Akane Tendo - Ranma’s first promised fiancee from birth
- Tatewaki Kuno - Has a thing for both Akane & Ranma’s female form
- Ryoga Hibiki - Becomes Akane’s pet pig P-Chan when wet. Loves Akane
- Ukyo Kuonji - Ranma’s second promised fiancee
- Shampoo - Ranma’s accidental third fiancee. Turns into a cat when wet.
- Kodachi Kuno - Kuno’s sister & Ranma’s self appointed fourth fiancee
- Genma Saotome - Ranma’s father. Turns into a panda when wet
- Mousse - Loves Shampoo & sees Ranma as a rival. Turns into a duck when wet
Those are your staple Ranma characters. Added to the mix we have:
- Miss Hinako Ninomiya - Ranma, Akane & Ukyo’s teacher. Appears in 2 OVAs, one of which being the 2008 Ranma special. She has the appearance of a little girl due to an illness she had as a child. Thanks to a modified metabolism she can use the “Happo 5 yen-setsu” technique which can absorb an opponent’s Ki. She uses the stolen Ki to turn into an adult but it’s only temporary. She can also quickly blast the energy she steals back with her “Happo no yen coin return” technique. In the game she appears wearing her manga outfit rather than her more revealing anime outfit.
- Mariko Konjo - The martial arts cheerleader from rival school Seishyun High, who appeared in the 2 part episode: “Bring It On: Love as a Cheerleader” towards the end of the series. Whenever she cheers for her team they always win. It could have something to do with her using her cheering equipment as weapons to take out the opposing team… In the anime she appears as a brunette, but in this game she has been made blonde for some reason. However she is shown with her normal brown hair in the manual & rear box art. 
- Herb - A character who never appeared in the anime, but had a large storyline in the manga. Herb is the leader of the Musk Dynasty. Like Ranma he turns into a female when splashed. The story in the manga gives him 2 henchmen called Lime & Mint. Unlike most of Ranma’s rivals Herb does not hesitate to attempt to kill Ranma when he gets the chance.
Enough of that. If you want to know about the show & the characters I recommend checking out Harley’s site: http://www.furinkan.com
Upon hitting Start you see 4 options:
- Story - Allows you to pay through the story mode with your selected character
- VS Mode - 2 Player one on one fighting
- Tag Match - 2 Player tag match where you choose 2 characters each
- Options - Yeah… options… enough said…
All characters are available except Herb, but he can be accessed with a cheat. Hold down L & R before the character selection screen comes up according to GameFAQs. Let’s try it:
What do you know it works!! Thanks GameFAQs!!
The story is a simple one. A cat statue that can makes wishes come true is on offer & all the characters must battle each other to see who can win it. Everyone wants it for their own reasons so it’s a no holds barred battle between friends & rivals to see who can win the coveted prize. The story has a sting in the tail (of course) but I’ll leave that for you to find out for yourselves. When you use the above code for Herb you will go straight to a battle with no storyline.
Right from the word go you can feel the difference between this & the previous 2 games in the series. The character sprites are larger & more solid than the first game & unlike Hard Battle you can press Up to jump. One of my biggest complaints with Hard Battle is that you had to push a button to jump. The controls in this game consist of 2 punch & 2 kick buttons with L being used as a taunt. If you pull off a taunt successfully the character will gain a temporary strength boost. In Miss Hinako’s case it turns her into her older self.
The characters have their special moves from the series available. Ryoga has the Bakusai-Tenketsu “breaking point” attack & the Shi Shi Hokodan “lion roar shot”. Ranma has the Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken “chestnuts roasting on an open fire” & the Hiryu Shoten Ha “heaven blast of the dragon” techniques. Other characters who don’t normally have special moves in the series are given some for the benefit of the game. The only problem I found was that some of the projectile moves don’t travel very far across the screen.
The game has that wacky Ranma feel with characters facial expressions being readable on the screen. It feels like a bit of a hybrid between the manga & the anime, like they were trying to keep both parties happy & it works very well. In jokes from the series are present, such as Genma being in his more comfortable panda form & Kuno calling himself the “Blue Thunder of Furinkan High”. As you can see, he really is the Blue Thunder with this special attack:
One thing I do have to mention is the speed of the game. Don’t be expecting Street Fighter 2 Turbo here. The game is quite slow which might put some people off, but I had such a blast playing as various Ranma characters in a decent fighting game I was able to forgive this fairly minor flaw.
The music is nice though it’s not from the series which is a shame. I found it to be pretty unobjectionable anyway, but it might not be to everyone’s taste. The game does feature in play speech, but it sounds very muffled which doesn’t contrast well with the music which is bright & clear.
The graphics are really nice, but there is an issue. A lot of the characters have undergone colour changes. I’ve already mentioned Mariko, but the others are:
- Ukyo - She wears a blue top in the series, not purple.
- Kodachi - She normally wears a plain green leotard. Here she is wearing one with a design on it, so I’d probably say this is acceptable
- Miss Hinako - Is wearing an off white jumper when it should be yellow
- Tatewaki Kuno - Is wearing a white top with a blue hakama, when it should be a blue top with black hakama
- Shampoo - Only a small complaint about how dark her hair is. It should be lighter than it is
- Mariko - Again with Mariko. She doesn’t actually wear blue, but beige
- Mousse - His clothes should be white, not a pale grey/blue
Again these are only small complaints & don’t stop the game being enjoyable. Boy type Ranma is in his traditional red outfit, but has been shown in green, white & blue versions of that top, so any of those would have been acceptable.
After 2 below par Ranma fighting games it’s good to see that we finally get something playable. The gang, as they say, is all here with signature moves included & it’s a joy to pull off a move you recognise from a particular episode/chapter. Put simply this game feels like a Ranma game should & for that I’m going to rate this 88%.
I’ve been told that’s probably a bit generous, but it’s a good game & I’m a fan. What can I say?!
This game was slated for release in the US as “Ranma 1/2: Anything Goes Martial Arts” & apparently it was ready for release before it was cancelled. It was even rumoured that the English voice cast had dubbed their characters. Why was it cancelled? Well there are a few rumours:
- Rumiko Takahashi (the creator of Ranma) didn’t like the voice acting. I have to ask why this would be an issue? She let the whole anime be dubbed with those voices, why would a video game be any different?
- Hard Battle didn’t fare very well. This is believable I suppose, but why put all that effort into translating this game in the first place? I guess it wouldn’t be the first time something like that has happened
- The company that were arranging the release went out of business. This one is true, & it’s sad no one else picked up the release. I’m hoping the prototype will be released one day as I’d like to play it in English. Box art was created & I found this image from Ign.com
Sorry it’s not any bigger, but this is the best I could find…
Here’s the rundown on the Sufami Turbo. It was released in 1996 by Bandai in a rare agreement with Nintendo. In an effort to cut the costs of cartridge manufacturing, Bandai created this little system to go on top of the Super Famicom & use smaller cartridges that Bandai themselves could make in house without using Nintendo’s own expensive process. This saved Bandai money which in turn ensured they could sell their games for a cheaper price. The Sufami Turbo is often compared to the Aladdin Desk Enhancer, which was a similar device created by Codemasters to be used on the NES. The difference is that the Sufami Turbo was an official device, while the Aladdin was unofficial.
Over the very short lifespan of the device only 13 games were released:
In order:
• SD Ultra Battle: Ultraman Legend
• SD Ultra Battle: Seven Legend
• Poi Poi Ninja
• SD Gundam Generations: part 1
• SD Gundam Generations: part 2
• Gegege No Kitarou
• SD Gundam Generations: part 3
• SD Gundam Generations: part 4
• Gekisou Sentai Car Ranger
• SD Gundam Generations: part 5
• SD Gundam Generations: part 6
• Sailor Moon Stars Panic 2
• Crayon Shin Chan
These are displayed in the order of the numbers on the side of the boxes. According to the Japan Wikipedia this is not exactly the order the games were released in, but it’s close. This may the order they were manufactured in. The actual release dates are as follows:
June 28th 1996
• Sufami Turbo hardware
• SD Ultra Battle: Ultraman Legend
• SD Ultra Battle: Seven Legend
• Poi Poi Ninja
July 19th 1996
• Gegege No Kitarou
July 26th 1996
• SD Gundam Generations: part 1
• SD Gundam Generations: part 2
August 23rd 1996
• SD Gundam Generations: part 3
• SD Gundam Generations: part 4
• Gekisou Sentai Car Ranger
September 27th 1996
• SD Gundam Generations: part 5
• SD Gundam Generations: part 6
• Sailor Moon Stars Panic 2
• Crayon Shin Chan
Other games were planned for release. This pamphlet which came with the Sufami Turbo itself shows that Tetris 2 + Bombliss was planned for release, but it never saw the light of day: This is strange choice due to the fact that Tetris 2 + Bombliss was released for the Super Famicom in 1994, 2 years before the Sufami Turbo came out.
What makes this stranger is that Bandai didn’t make Tetris 1 + Bombliss. Was this supposed to be the start of 3rd party support for the Sufami Turbo? Were companies going to start releasing their back catalogues onto the Sufami Turbo? Who knows??
The Sufami Turbo could be purchased on its own or with a game. I’ve only seen 5 pack in games & own 2. The pack in games I’ve seen show up on Ebay & Japan Yahoo Auctions are:
• Poi Poi Ninja
• SD Gundam: Generations part 1
• SD Ultra Battle: Ultraman Legend
• Sailor Moon Stars Panic 2
• Gegege No Kitarou
Here are the Poi Poi Ninja pack in & the SD Gundam Generations part 1 pack in:
Notice the number codes on the side of the packaging are the same as the games themselves with an “S” next to it.
So, 13 games & the ability to link them up. Sounds great right? Sailor Moon can take on Ultraman, an SD Gundam can be ported into Poi Poi Ninja right? Well, this was believed to be the case for a long time & the WIkipedia entry even stated this was the case. Ahh Wikipedia… it kinda proves that having an online encyclopaedia that anyone can modify really is a bad idea. I rewrote the Wikipedia article when I started collecting the system & games & at the time of writing this it’s correct.
The only games that could be linked are:
Poi Poi Ninja – Poi Poi Ninja
This link up only allowed the linking of save data. So you & a friend could play with your individual cartridges in the same game.
SD Gundam – any of the other 5 SD Gundam games:
& the 2 SD Ultraman/Ultraseven games:
With the Gundam & Ultraman games the cartridge in slot A would be the main game cartridge you play on while the cartridge in slot B would contain the additional data used by the game in slot A.
Sufami Turbo games came with a very clear image in the lower left corner of the box which shows whether or not a game is linkable:
Have a look in the lower left corner of SD Ultraman. 2 cartridges are displayed meaning it has the ability to link up with another game. That other game of course being SD Ultraseven.
Ge Ge Ge No Kitarou on the other hand has only one cartridge displayed in the lower left corner meaning that a linkup with another game is not possible.
A lot of sites have covered box art & the problems with international interpretations, specifically Japanese - American ones. I don’t like to point the finger specifically at the US, but some horrible box art has come from that part of the world. That being said all territories are guilty of it. So what’s the problem with the artwork on a box? Well for those who haven’t delved into the disaster that can be box art, let’s have a look.
The first game we’ll have a look at is Ranma 1/2 Hard Battle for the SNES/SFC. There are in fact 3 different versions of the box art, US SNES, PAL SNES & SFC. We’ll be looking at the US SNES & SFC versions, but I will briefly mention the PAL version later. I don’t actually own the PAL box hence the lack of coverage for it.
For those who aren’t familiar with Ranma 1/2, it’s a martial arts comedy about a Japanese boy (Ranma) & his father (Genma) who trained in the cursed training grounds of Jusenkyo in China. Neither of them understand Chinese & are too arrogant to listen to the warnings by their guide when they have a training match around the training ground’s springs. If you fall in a spring you become whatever drowned in that spring when you get doused with cold water. Hot water will put things right, but only till they get splashed with cold again.
Ranma becomes a busty red headed female & his father becomes a panda. Add in other characters who happened across the springs & fell in them (mostly due to Ranma’s actions) & Ranma’s seemingly endless supply of fiances (both for his male & female side) & you have one of the funniest anime/manga series of all time. There’s a lot more to it than that, but if you want to check out more about the anime I suggest you visit www.furinkan.com which covers it nicely.
Here’s some footage from the show:
Akane & Ryoga
Ukyo & Ranma
Ryoga, Mousse, Ranma & Shampoo
Pantyhose Taro, Shampoo, Mousse, Ranma & Ryoga
OK, so that’s a look at some of the characters that feature in the game & the anime so you get a rough idea of how the show looks. How does the Japanese box art look?
Not bad, all the characters look like they do in the series. Sure that shot of Ranma on the front bottom looks a bit out of place compared to the rest of the characters but it’s a good representation of how everyone is supposed to look. On the back of the box…
We have male & female Ranma & a few screens from the game itself. I can honestly say this is some decent cover art. Let’s look at the American box:
… This is one of those “what were they thinking??” moments. So you have what looks like Ranma & Ryoga fighting with Genma in panda form in the background. It looks like they’re fighting at the Jusenkyo springs which doesn’t happen in the manga or anime & of course there’s the mention of “12 Megs of Power”. Something people were obsessed with back in the 90s.
My question is, was there a problem using screens from the anime? Or even some pictures from the manga? There wasn’t in the manual which has a montage of panels from the manga as a background. This boggles the mind. Who actually drew this & did they have any familiarity with the show? I think the answer to that is obvious…
The game came out at a time where Viz were releasing both the Ranma manga & anime. It was the early/mid 90s when anime was taking off in a big way, & Ranma was getting to be quite well known. I’m sure Viz would have been up for some cross promotion. If people like the game they’ll buy the anime/manga & vice versa.
Let’s have a brief look at the PAL release, which as mentioned, I don’t own but found a picture of:
That’s pretty good. Boy type Ranma on the left with a scene from the anime on the right & some characters from the game slotted in. That to me is more than acceptable. If they can do it in Europe, why not in the US?
The ONLY problem I really have with the PAL version is the logo. That’s not the official Ranma 1/2 logo & it’s not very easy to read. Bit of a disaster really. Other than that it’s a more than acceptable box & a good representation of the anime it’s based on.
The PAL version has other issues which I’ll go into when I review it, though that’s more to do with the changes to the game itself…
How about the back of the US box?
Pretty basic, 4 screens, the US Ranma 1/2 logo, & it tells the story of the series. The problem is the caption makes it sound like this game is based off the start of the series which is incorrect. The story centres around Principal Kuno & each character has their own little story in the game. The fact that Principal Kuno was introduced in season 4 of the show proves that this is no introduction story. Also keep in mind this is the second game in the series in Japan.
So that’s the first of our looks at box art disasters. We’ll bring you more in the future so stay tuned.
Super Gameboy 1 & 2
The Super Gameboy (or SGB) was Nintendo’s first attempt at getting Gameboy games to home console players. Later attempts include a “rumoured but never released” N64 Gameboy player (of which a couple of 3rd party devices were released) & the Gamecube’s Gameboy Player. The Super Gameboy was released in 1994 & opened the market for more Gameboy sales & consequently more money for Nintendo. The big selling point for this device is you could play your Gameboy games in colour. Let’s have a look at the unit. In this article we’ll cover the PAL & US NTSC Super Gameboys as well as the Japanese only Super Gameboy 2.
First we have 3 Super Nintendo/Famicom systems:
From left to right there’s the Super Famicom, the ugly as hell US SNES & the PAL SNES. For the purposes of this article we have 3 Super Gameboys:
The top 2 are the US NTSC & PAL Super Gameboys while the bottom one is the Super Gameboy 2. Let’s have a closer look at these:
Ahh Choplifter 2, nice game. I bought that off a kid at school for $20 back in the early 90s from memory. Bargain. Anyway, to be blunt this SGB is just as ugly as the SNES it’s sitting in. How about the PAL system?
The Simpsons Escape from Camp Deadly. A Christmas present, & a game I am proud to say I clocked. How about the Super Gameboy 2 in the Super Famicom?
I used Pokemon TCG as I couldn’t find any of my other Pokemon games, & there’s a reason I chose a multiplayer game. Let’s have a look at the right side of the Super Gameboy 2 & find out why:
Yes it is a Gameboy expansion port. You know what that means right? You can hook up devices like this:
Well… why you’d want to hook up a worm light I don’t know. If you want to you can though… nice feature yes? Hey, some people get scared of the dark you know!! OK OK, let’s take this a little more seriously. REALLY the port was designed for something more along the lines of this:
Yes, you can hook up a Gameboy/Gameboy colour or another Super Gameboy 2 for multiplayer mayhem. Pokemon TCG all ‘round, though give me a Tetris tournament any day. Imagine it, 2 Super Famicoms, 2 Super Gameboy 2s, 2 TVs, 2 copies of Gameboy Tetris & 1 link cable. You can have multiplayer Tetris & not only that, you can have a multiplayer game of what is considered to be the best version of Tetris ever on TV screens.
Other SNES & Gameboy peripherals can be used as well including the SNES mouse. The Super Gameboy interface is controlled by the controller in port 2 of the SNES. Additionally to this you can actually use the SNES mouse for easier control over choosing your borders & colours.
You might also want to use the Gameboy camera. Maybe you want to take a dodgy looking picture of yourself. If so then you might be wanting to do something like this:
Or maybe you want to print something, the Gameboy has a printer as well:
This Gameboy printer is the Japanese Pikachu Yellow Gameboy printer incase anyone was wondering why it isn’t beige. Hey, I know. The Super Gameboy 2 can be used as a Super Nintendo Gameboy Camera Studio!!
If you decide to set yours up like this & use that name all credit goes to me. Thanks in advance. Finally in Japan the Super Gameboy had a special controller designed by Hori called the Super Gameboy Commander:
As I don’t actually have one of these I’ve used this image from ncsx.com who sell the controller. They are out of stock at the moment & I don’t know if that will change in the future, but here’s a plug for them if they do. It’s a bit of a pointless idea, have a controller that looks like a Gameboy controller… maybe you think it is a good idea? Let us know.
Now let’s look at a game in the system. I’ve chosen “The Great Battle”. This is a Japanese series that includes Ultraman, Kamen Rider, SD Gundam & Roar.
As mentioned before the Super Gameboy has an interface which can be managed by either the SNES controller in port 2 or a SNES mouse. The games wouldn’t play full screen but in a window in the centre of the screen. Why not full screen you might ask? Well even in the small screen the picture was blocky enough. Remember, the Gameboy was only designed to display a certain amount of pixels on the screen, & the bigger you make those pixels the blockier the end result will be.
What about the outside? Well the Super Gameboy had borders that could be displayed on the outside. The default border looked like the edge of the Gameboy screen, but other borders could be used. Several games including Donkey Kong & the Pokemon series had their own borders. The Super Gameboy 2 has 8 borders that are different to the first model.
As well as special borders, some Gameboy games were enhanced when played in a Super Gameboy, similar to how some games are enhanced when played in a Gameboy Colour. The Super Gameboy already has special colour palettes selected for games released before the device, but games such as Space Invaders actually became full blown SNES games when plugged into the unit. Tetris DX will display a different border when plugged into a Super Gameboy 2.
Get the point? No that wasn’t funny at all, was it?
If you’re a collector then the Super Gameboy is definitely a nice device to have. If you don’t care about portability but want to play some good Gameboy games, then get one of these & you can use the SNES to act as both systems. As for the Super Gameboy 2, well it’s not that expensive but make sure you’re going to use the extra features before you consider buying one, otherwise it may be a waste of money. Remember, if you want to use it with a camera & printer that setup is called the “Super Nintendo Gameboy Camera Studio”, trademark me!!
