Famicom Games

[90snostalga]

I want to update my Famicom wish list.  I know I want Lagrange Point, Mother.  Can I get a top 10 recommended Famicom games to play?  Doesnt matter if they are all in Japanese.  Thanks.

[zenimus]

It depends on what kind of games you like, and how much you understand Japanese. RPGs will be basically impossible to get through with no reading ability.

Here's some Famicom exclusive games I've played that I really like:

Quarth
It's a fun Tetris/Gradius hybrid puzzle game.

Majou Densetsu II: Daimashikyou Galious
A non-linear action platformer with great music. Minor reading ability needed to figure out which items you collect.

Astro Robo Sasa
A difficult physics platformer with really annoying music. Strange, yet satisfying!

[badATchaos]

Devil World is a classic non-NA Nintendo game. Gun Nac for the Famicom is affordable. Battle City. If you want a few laughs Namco's Star Wars is a nice one to pickup. It's not that bad either. If you get a Disk System there's a bunch on there too. Like Super Mario Bros. 2 (aka The Lost Levels), Nazo no Murasame Jo. If you have deep pockets Doki Doki Panic. The Disk System version of Metroid is cool because you can actually save it. -No password system.

[karyann]

Devil World is a classic non-NA Nintendo game. Gun Nac for the Famicom is affordable. Battle City. If you want a few laughs Namco's Star Wars is a nice one to pickup. It's not that bad either. If you get a Disk System there's a bunch on there too. Like Super Mario Bros. 2 (aka The Lost Levels), Nazo no Murasame Jo. If you have deep pockets Doki Doki Panic. The Disk System version of Metroid is cool because you can actually save it. -No password system.

I second on Devil World and Battle City!



Also got to add: Nuts & Milk,  Twin Bee, Circus Charlie, Flipull and Binary Land (if you like puzzle games)...basically, I'm naming you my wishlist haha. There are a lot more great famicom games, but I'm still in the process of finding out which were Japan-exclusive. I have a 90-in-1 cart with a few exclusive games from all regions, and I'm trying to sort them out, since I'd like to have the original games. I'll add them to my wishlist eventually!

[90snostalga]

Thanks guys for those suggestions.  If you get any more over time, please post them here and let me know...

[90snostalga]

Do you know off the top, if there are any great platformers other than the Mario games?

[badATchaos]

Binary Land is okay. The difficult curve really ramps up fast. It definitely has a lot of charm though.

Most of the good platformers that were in Japan also came to NA/EU. There's a lot of bad ones that didn't make it over.
I haven't played it myself but I guess Kid Dracula is suppose to be good. Although it might not be a "true" platformer.
Some people enjoy the Wagyan Land series. I wasn't too impressed personally. The one I played felt like a less fun Kirby.
I found a couple in my lot that were okay. Nothing close to Super Mario Bros quality but still enjoyable. Ninja Hattori-kun and Ninja JaJaMaru-kun. They both start off kind of slow but get better.

Another (non-platformer) game I just thought of was Bird Week. I heard other people mention it before on other forums. I ended up getting it in that lot of Famicom games I bought, and as it turns out its not that bad. Really cute game. You play as a mother bird collecting bugs to feed your chicks. When you feed them enough the grow up and fly away, and you proceed to the next level. The further you get the more enemy animals (like hawks) are out to kill you. Funny enough out of that 100 game lot it's probably the only one I'm gonna keep. Not that the other ones are bad per-say.... 

[badATchaos]

If you want a laughably bad game there's Sherlock Holmes: Hakushaku Reijou Yuukai Jiken. One of the games I picked up in that lot. The game is mostly top-down with platforming sections. I think the developer had a good premise for a game but just failed. Failed hard.

You play has Mr. Holmes trying to solve a kidnapping of this young girl. As you wonder around the cityscapes looking for clues everyone is trying to kill you. Your only imitate means of defense is to kick the living day lights out of people. You soon find yourself kicking henchmen and little old ladies alike! I mean, no one wants you to solve this mystery. It's like these towns folk don't want you to this girl or something. That doesn't deter good old Sherlock.

For clues you basically have to interrogate people. It order to initiate a conversation you have to kick the crap out of them first; then they tell you what you want. (Or at least I think they do. I can't tell because it's all in Japanese.) You also collect money the same way. Which you need in order to progress to the next town to find clues. So... maybe that's why the towns people hate you. Because you just go around kicking and robbing everyone. Makes sense.

In the platforming sections are weird too. For example the kick and jump button are one in the same. So somethings if your jumping across a gap you might kick something or someone on the other side you didn't mean to.

During the first platforming section I met up with a henchmen with a gun and once you meet one there isn't much you can do. They're projectiles are so fast that if they appear unexpectedly there's no way you can avoid it, you're dead. Not just dead: Game Over. You only have one life and no continues.

On top if it all the hit detection (if you want to call it that) is pretty bad. Some enemies might take one hit to kill but you'll probably attack 3 or 4 times before you'll hit anything because the animation is so awkward. As an enemy is touching you they do constant damage to your life bar. So if you get swarmed by 4 or 5 enemies at once you're dead in a few seconds if you don't get the heck out of there.

[foxhack]

Maybe I'm a little bit biased here, but I recommend Akumajou Special: Boku Dracula Kun!, Wai Wai World 2: SOS Paseri Jou!, Yume Penguin Monogatari, and Kyattou Ninden Teyandee.

 

Bonus: You don't need to know Japanese to enjoy these games, there's no language requirement to play and complete them.

[badATchaos]

Yeah, Yume Penguin Monogatari looks good. I'll have to pick it up at some point. Are the Penguins suppose to be from Binary Land? Their design is very similar.

[foxhack]

Yeah, Yume Penguin Monogatari looks good. I'll have to pick it up at some point. Are the Penguins suppose to be from Binary Land? Their design is very similar.

No, this is by Konami. The main character and his girlfriend are featured in Parodius. Kinda. Sorta.

[gartcat]

Do you know off the top, if there are any great platformers other than the Mario games?

I like The Goonies quite a bit.  Maybe I'm biased because I used to play it at Pizza Hut on the VS thing they had there, but I still play it fairly often at home these days.  It wasn't released outside of Japan as far as I know.  I would also recommend Gradius II and Crisis Force if nobody has already.

[90snostalga]

Maybe I'm a little bit biased here, but I recommend Akumajou Special: Boku Dracula Kun!, Wai Wai World 2: SOS Paseri Jou!, Yume Penguin Monogatari, and Kyattou Ninden Teyandee.

 

Bonus: You don't need to know Japanese to enjoy these games, there's no language requirement to play and complete them.

Thanks Fox    I actually added Wai Wai World 2 and 1 to my wish list.  I looked up 1 minute of gameplay and looks very appealing to me 

[razorbeamz]

If you're looking for hilariously bad games you can't go wrong with Atlantis no Nazo

http://vgcollect.com/item/32237

[badATchaos]

Mystery of Atlantis is pretty bad. Picked it up from that lot. What's hilarious is that Sunsoft wanted it to be a Mario killer. Sunsoft has made some great games, this isn't one of them.

If you like shoot'em ups they're Crisis Force. HOLY #*$@, this game is good. And not just the game; the visuals are insane considering the platform. A lot of parallaxing.