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Famicom Mini-Reviews
This page will be
used to provide mini-reviews for games that were released on the Famicom in Japan but never saw the light of day here in
the United States.
The Goonies – 1986, Konami
Grade: B+
Reviewer: Agent J
 The
Goonies II was the first NES
game I purchased with my own money.
Needless to say I spent many hours playing that sucker and mastered it
like I’ve never mastered another game.
Very quickly I began to wonder why there wasn’t a first Goonies
game. Little did I know there actually
was a Goonies I and that you could
actually play it in the arcades if you were lucky enough to have one that
carried Nintendo’s PlayChoice-10 (an arcade style Nintendo that carried 10
NES games in it). If you are a fan of The Goonies II then you will love this
game. It is a much smaller scope
version of its younger brother. Once
again, you star as Mikey and you must save your Goonie friends who are
trapped in buildings. This time,
though, instead of the game being a large adventure, it is broken down into
six levels. On each level you must
find one Goonie and three keys. Once
you have done that you have to find the exit before your time expires. Some of the levels are rather large and you
will probably find getting lost a couple times along the way. The gameplay is very reminiscent of The Goonies II in that you must dodge
certain animals along with members of the Fratelli gang. You can pick up hidden items along the way
such as a slingshot, helmet and raincoat, which protect you from various
dangers. Most importantly, Cyndi
Lauper’s exciting Goonies theme song is used as the propulsive tune
throughout the game, just like its sequel.
Once you defeat all six stages you are treated to a brief ending and
then the game repeats on a higher difficulty level. This game is very fun and is a no-brainer
for any fan of The Goonies II but
will probably be appreciated by anyone who enjoys old-school action/adventure
titles.
Nuts & Milk – 1984, Hudson Soft Grade:
B
Reviewer: Agent J
 Besides having one of the greatest titles ever
for a video game, Nuts & Milk also
holds the distinction of being the first game ever released on the Famicom by
a third-party company. One look at the
release date will tell you that this is one old-school game. It pre-dates the NES and Super Mario Bros. by a solid year and
is very reminiscent of the launch titles for the American Nintendo. It is too bad that the U.S. missed out on this little
gem because it is actually pretty fun.
In the game you star as a little blob that must collect all of the
fruits and vegetables on each screen before making your way to the house
where your girlfriend is calling for your help. Of course, there are various bad guys
trying to ruin your day and tricky jumps that you have to master. There are 50 rounds in all and if you are
awesome enough to beat all 50 then the game will wrap around and start over
on Level 1. There is also a cool
editing feature that is present on many early Famicom titles that allows you
to create your own levels. Of course,
the level is lost as soon as you turn of your system but it is still a cool
feature. The controls in the game are
a little clunky and the game gets tough
pretty fast but this
is one early Famicom title that you will find yourself returning to (if you
can get your hands on it).
Super Mario
Bros. 2 – 1987, Nintendo Grade: A Reviewer: Agent
J
 Super
Mario Bros. 2 is the Japanese
sequel to Super Mario Bros. that
was deemed to difficult and not original enough to warrant a release in the United States. It is essentially a hack of its
predessessor with some enhanced graphics and a couple of new features. The game still featues 32 levels divided
over eight worlds although the levels are definitely different than that of Super Mario Bros. Don’t be expected to see creatures that
were exclusively underwater the first time around to be floating in the air
as well as fire chains that are not kept only in dungeons. This is one tough cookie but it is still a
high quality release that the United
States missed out on. Click on the title to read a complete
review of this winner.
Tetris 2 + Bombliss – 1991, Bullet Proof
Software Grade: B Reviewer: Agent
J
 This is the one Tetris title that has really stayed under the radar. It is a neat little package because it
contains two exclusive versions of Tetris on one game pak. The first title offered on here is Tetris 2, a game much different than
the American game of the same title, which was released a Tetris Flash in Japan. This Tetris
2 is very similar to the original game, the only real differences are
that you can move the pieces around much quicker and that you are allowed an
extra moment to slide a piece around after it has made contact with the other
blocks. This makes the game a lot
easier and allows you to pull off moves that were impossible in the original
version. Tetris 2 features three modes: the classic one-player mode, a
more difficult one-player mode where rows randomly appear at the bottom of
your screen missing pieces and generally wreaking havoc on your game plan and
a head-to-head two-player mode that is way better than the version released
by Tengen in the United States. That’s
right folks, this game has the best available two-player Tetris that was
created for the Nintendo. This alone
makes it worth playing. The second
game is an entirely new version of Tetris
called Bombliss. In this version some of your tiles are
bombs, when you complete a line if you have any bombs in it they will
explode. If there are enough bombs in
the row they might explode to other rows and cause mass destruction. You move on to the next level when you are
able to clear the screen of all blocks.
This game also has three modes including one where you construct your
own puzzles. Bombliss is a very odd version of Tetris – one that I don’t enjoy all that much. That being said, it certainly is as good as
Hatris so I’m not really sure why
the United States
wasn’t given this Tetris two-fer.
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