The NES Days

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6/7/2003

Yo! The quest is over. I now possess all the US-released Nintendo games. I am your God! BOW BEFORE MY MIGHT AND BRING YOUR CHILDREN  FORTH TO FEEL MY WRATH! ... or something like that. :D And it only took 9 years to get all the games. Of course, had I been serious about collecting them immediately I could have done it in 4. Oh well. Some accessories I still do not have. I don't own a game game replay, a UForce, a Miracle Piano, or the Stack Up bricks for R.O.B. (but I do own R.O.B. and the power glove: it's so bad. :D) You may (or may not) be wondering how it feels to own every Nintendo game. I think the novel The Great Gasby points it out best that the quest itself is more satifying than actually realizing your goal. On the other hand, I am very happy to finally own all the games, and I'm done as a video game collector. Sure, I may buy a few Genesis, SNES, PSX, and what-not games, but I don't have some crazy desire to buy every Playstation game or every Saturn game. I just want to have some fun with them. Speaking of which, I just played two games for PS2: Gungrave (rental) and Zone of the Enders ($15 used, complete). Gungrave is the most excessively violent game I've ever played. I loved it! If you love to shoot guns and blow up shit and look very, VERY cool doing it, it is the game you must play. It also had a good plot and some very well-done anime sequences in Japanese w/ English subtitles (it's based off a manga by Trigun author Nightow). The problem was the game had six stages and I beat it in 2 hours. As for Z.O.E., kinda disappointing, especially after all the hype I had heard (well, it IS a Konami game). You're in a giant fighting robot, yes, but the whole game can be beaten by DASH, ATTACK, ATTACK, ATTACK. Yawn. Took me 5 hours because of some problems with the bosses (it seems game bosses these days are all seemingly impossible and you die a LOT before realizing they have some Achilles' Heel, then you can beat them without taking a hit) and problems just figuring out WHAT I was supposing to be doing exactly.  Plus, the English dubbing was horrible. Boo.

If you're interested in picking up old videogame based cartoons, ADV has released all of Megaman, Street Fighter, and Darkstalkers on DVD. Note that the Darkstalkers cartoon is totally different from the Japanese anime or the same name (well, technically "Vampire Hunter" which is the Japanese name of the game) released in the USA by Viz. As much as I hate the Megaman cartoon, I'll be picking up the DVDs for the retro hit.

Updated areas: Remember When : Lots of New Nintendo Products. Working on the Captain N page.

9/12/2002

Hi! I hope everyone's summer went well. Mine was OK; I spent a lot of working (45 hours a week) but I'm back in college enjoying some relatively free time. I've been feeling rather unispired in terms of making new material for an update, although I was very happy with the way the 8 Eyes review turned out. I thought I really captured the spirit (and horribleness) of that game. I continue to collect NES games, although I only need 6 more, and those are F&^$*&^% expensive. Tip to any collector: ignore the Panesian carts; they were import games, not domestic releases for the United States. Panesian was based in Signapore and distributed them for Signapore, which uses the NTSC standard we in the USA use. A couple copies of the games managed to land in the USA (apparently, all in San Franciso), but should not be considered on a list of domestically released games, licensed or unlicensed.

My NES gaming has been pretty minimal these past months as I have usually been too dead tired from work too play it. checking my list, 1942 is the next game on my list... but I dislike that game (I disliked it in 1988 too) so I've been avoiding it and playing 3D World Runner, Square's Space Harrier ripoff. And it's not even 3D! Well, it does have this 3D mode (press select) but it's ridiculously badly done. I've been trying to play the game in 3D mode while wearing the 3D glasses and it just doesn't work; the "3D" is just creating an artifical shadow to the left of all the objects. What's worse is that some objects AREN'T shadowed, such as pillars and spring boards, making 3D mode HARDER than 2D mode because of limited visability. I'm sure back in 1987 Square thought 3D mode (along with the one they used in Rad Racer) was going to be neat, but now it's one of those things that you can tell kids today about and they just laugh at its lameness. Then again, I thought 3D mode was a loser back when World Runner first came out, so I don't feel ashamed by it now at all.

In terms of my other gaming, for the past two weeks I've become a Soul Calbier II whore. I've probably spent $30 (at 50 cents a play) on that one trying to master Raphael. Unfortunately, while it's a breeze to beat the computer with the Battle Arena Toshinden style 3D fighting games, HUMAN PLAYERS are a much different story. Escpecially since Raphael has no cheesy juggling combos unlike those bastards Ivy, Maxi, and Mitsugiri. (OK, Raphael probably DOES have them, but I can't figure them out). But I've pretty much stopped playing the game, since I don't care about "mastering" every fighter, so my wallet shall be much relaxed. :-)

NES-related release news: 1) It appears that the Super Mario Bros Greatest Adventures DVD is out of print, or at least has EXTREMELY limited availability. There goes my hopes for the rest of the series and Captain N on DVD... : ' (

2) Xevious was released as a Japanese animated film in August of this year. It's now on DVD in Japan (Region 2). Here's a site in English that sells it: http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/detailview.html?KEY=GSTN-29043 . I'll be buying a copy of in a few months (it's a required NES purchase : ' ) ). Just a warning, you'll need a R2 or multi-region/region-free player or DVD-ROM drive to play the DVD, and it's in Japanese AND IT DOES NOT HAVE ENGLISH SUBTITLES. Btw, there is a DVD of an animated movie called "Galaga" or "Garaga" but it is NOT based off the arcade/NES game.

3) Capcom has recently released an arcade game that has many of their classic arcade titles on it. Some of these were also on NES, like 1942, 1943, Trojan, Section Z, etc... I'll edit this once I confirm what the game is.  

5/26/2002

I've decided to start redoing the reviews on this site. First of all, the old NES Haven reviews will be eliminated, kind of. I when I get to reviewing a game title, my review will be the primary review, and the other review will be an "alternative take," or something like that. Second, the reviews will be rewritten from scratch and will try to delve deep into the soul of the game and share insight. I might a while to post new reviews since I now intend on beating games before reviewing them, if possible. Last, there will be new standards by which games are judged -Graphics, Sound/Music, Play Control , Challenge, Packaging, Replay Value, Theme and Fun ,Game Logic, and  Overall. Also, screenshots will be added to games. Reviews will also contain downloaded FAQs and/or codes and manuals. You can see what the new reviews will look like by going to my new review of 8 Eyes, a game I just played through and beat, but certainly didn't like.

4/14/2002

On March 6 on this year, the Super Mario Bros Super Show was released (one volume) on DVD. I have posted a review of it. You can find it in my SMBSS shrine area or here:

The Super Mario Brothers Super Show - Mario's Greatest Movie Moments

3/26/2002

NES in Movies Review: Salamander

Well, I replayed Salamander to get the screen shot of the female pilot, and when I beat the game I discovered... there was no female pilot ending. Did I dream the whole thing or did I stumble upon a top secret ending? If anyone can confirm my ending I'd appreciate it. EDIT: realized the female pilot is on the FAMICOM version by the not the NES or arcade versions.  

3/12/2002

Battle #29: Nintendo Tetris VS Tengen Tetris

Expect more throughout the week!

For those of you who remember that I bought the Japanese Laserdiscs of all 3 episodes of the Salamander (aka Life Force) anime, I gave them to my translator on Sunday. I should have them translated and subtitled in English within 2 months (I hope!) I may also but the Twinbee Paradise anime series based off the Konami arcade game (called Bells & Whistles in America.) I'll try to get my emulator to take screenshots to jog your memory.

BTW, I was playing Salamander and I realized that the ending of the Japanese version is different from the American one! The green planet still blows up, and it is the same music, but the Japanese version has credits (in English, as most Japanese games do) but more importantly, a picture of the pilot: who's a female!!! Look out Samus Aran, you've got competition. I'll also try to post screenshots under Weird Shit soon.

Yes, I have heard about the Square/Nintendo deal. Since this seems to be pretty important, I'll briefly share my views on it. To some who think that Sqaure is a backstabber, get real. Sqaure never had any exclusive contract with Nintendo and as a business can make games for whoever they want to. Sqaure told Nintendo that Final Fantasy VII would not run on N64 because its spec couldn't handle it. Nintendo's president, in a hissy fit and huge mistake, single-handly prevented Sqaure from making any games for N64. Look what happened. If you've been playing RPGs for the last 6 years, it's been on PlayStation, not N64. That's Nintendo's own fault, not to mention they were assholes to most of the third party companies where the N64 was concerned and the N64 was a pain to code for as well. Sony, on the other hand, was nice, easy to code for, and saved Enix from bankruptcy.

Anyway, I'm glad Nintendo finally removed its head from its ass. I wish Nintendo and Sqaure the best in their efforts to put FF games on Game Boy Advance. I hope they sell millions of copies. However, since I have parts 4-9 on PSX, I won't be be buying the new versions on a weaker platform. What I really would love is for Sqaure to release FF 1-3 on GBA or Gamecube and, of course, new FF games (XII and beyond) for the Gamecube that aren't crappy multiplayer Everquest Expansion packs. 

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This Site's Last Update was June 7, 2003