1 Hour of NES Game Facts to Fall Asleep to

it's been almost 40 years since it was introduced but the NES has continued to be a relevant part of the gaming space people can't get enough of the fresh ideas that were born in the 8-Bit era thanks to Nintendo's incredibly well planned system with its at least for the time developer friendly approach to creating games their own titles during this era are some of the most iconic franchises to this day and for good reason with a deceptively simple appearance refined with a ridiculous volume of polish games like Kid Icarus Zelda mother Kirby Super Mario Brothers 3 these have all made an impact these are titles that many of us would happily pick up and play at any time of day just to get a short burst of simple and pristine fun and we'll be discussing these games in this episode as well as more revealing secrets in games that are older than most of our audience and us since we're all young and ever so handsome obviously but first off we're going to start with some good old-timey Super Mario Brothers 2. the second entry of Super Mario Brothers recognized one element of what made the original Super Mario so great its horizontal screen scrolling a revolutionary and truly fundamental mechanic for the second entry Nintendo didn't want to have just horizontal screen scrolling but also vertical scrolling introducing a whole new way and a whole new dimension in which the player must navigate the bizarre scenery of the game to make it clear that this was a new feature of the game the first screen in which the player takes control immediately drops them from a door into a falling state so the player can easily recognize the falling off the bottom of the screen may not result in immediate death but this does introduce a question one to which there'd be no answer but remained in the minds of many players if the player's character is falling out of the sky out of a door what is on the other side of that door this is a question that would have been impossible to answer around the game's release on the NES because there was no method of Landing in front of the door or opening it that is until the Modern Age of reverse engineering and modifying old game code if a solid platform is hacked into the game just below the door and the player attempts to enter it a shocking result occurs the player will respawn back to where they started though the hacked in platform will be removed forcing progress to take place this isn't just true for the original NES release of the game however but also true for the Game Boy Advance release from one Nintendo classic to another and this time rather than answering a question it's a hidden feature that was overlooked by many players of this cult franchise Kid Icarus the game had a hidden feature that enabled Pitt to actually haggle with shopkeepers to lower the prices of the store's items this is done through the use of the second controller attached to the NES system by simultaneously pressing both the A and B buttons for the Japanese famicom release the secret is even more obscure the microphone built into the system's second controller is used instead of pressing A and B with players having to speak into the the mic to haggle the main catch to haggling in the game is that the price of items will only be successfully lowered if Pit's offensive strength is one point higher than the first number of the stage that he is currently on when attempting to haggle so having two points of strength when haggling on stage one for example would lead to a good result if this condition isn't met the shopkeeper will of course raise the price of the items instead however these prices will not change until the shopkeeper's text has finished scrolling across the screen so there will be a small window of opportunity to still get the item at the right price before he tries to gouge you this feature was even introduced into the 3DS Classics Port where instead of using a non-existent second controller the player can haggle using the a button and pressing either start or select some NES Secrets Don't just appear within the game themselves but within the instruction manuals Zelda 2 The Adventure of Link had a curious situation when it was published in France without actually receiving a translation into French at least not fully instead the game was published entirely in English but with a translated manual and an additional secondary booklet which translated most of the game's text pretty rough for kids back in the day who would spend half their time looking at the screen and half the time staring at the book just to know what the villagers were saying even if what they say is massively confusing like the classic I am error situation and this wasn't the only time a game was published in France without an in-game localization in fact many NES games were released in Europe only in English and sometimes they didn't even have a translation manual another interesting game on the NES is star Tropics both this game and its sequel were exclusive to the West never having a release in Japan and the second game only made it to Europe thanks to the Wii U Virtual Console the NES release of the first game actually included a letter inside the game's packaging from the in-game character Dr Jones this is the basis of one of the biggest hurdles of kids back in the day June during the events of the game Dr Jones will tell you to dip the letter into water though many assumed that this was a reference to an in-game item you can imagine the confusion this caused as a result the player actually needed to physically dip the letter included in the Box into water in order to reveal a secret code written in invisible ink something which many players would be reluctant to do and we're pretty sure we would all be too this led to Nintendo Power getting involved where they published the code that the player was supposed to take from this letter 747 in their counselor's Corner section which was created to help players who got stuck in games for the game's digital release on the Wii Virtual Console this of course became impossible so the code was instead added to the game's manual which displays a short animation of the letter being dipped into a bucket before revealing the code on the Wii U the animation was removed and it was simply explained that the original release involved physically dipping a letter and the Nintendo switch release just doesn't include any digital alternative and as a result makes progressing impossible without having to look online another curiosity involves an item which features in the game the island yo-yo this name was met with some complications over the years as a result of the word yo-yo being copyrighted in Canada this meant that the item needed to be renamed when it came to a digital release so it was changed to the island star in order to avoid any infringement yet another interesting fact can be found in the game sequel zoda's Revenge star Tropics 2 when the player finds the pizza delivery person in the middle of the desert in the game's third chapter they'll be riding a turtle which strongly resembles a Koopa trooper from the Super Mario series quite a Sly homage if you ask us one game with an interesting International story is Mother the game that came before the massively popular Earthbound this title originally only saw a release in Japan but a US release was intended at one stage with localization work having been completed to remove content unsuitable for the west and translating the game's text into English 14 years after the Japanese release of the game on the famicom Nintendo re-released the game in Japan alongside Earthbound in the mother 1 and 2 compilation for the Gameboy Advance though this Japanese exclusive release is a curious one because the version of mother included on the cart was actually the then unreleased American NES localized version of the game which had then been translated back into Japanese we know this because of the censorship changes made to the game as well as the addition of a new ending at least two Japanese fans that was included in the then unreleased English version another change is that the movement on the game's Overworld is not tile based and instead allows for more fluid movements similar to Earthbound as well as the smash icon having its palette fixed stopping it from taking on the colors of whatever enemy the player is currently facing another change is that the sing command is only usable in the final battle of the game while in the original the player could use it in any battle so long as nintend's party had already sung the eight Melodies to Queen Mary one more NES title that had Regional differences is Little Nemo the dream master this revolutionary title let the main character ride a reptile months before Super Mario World even released and even gave players a choice on which creature they'd Mount one of the rideable creatures in the game is Gorilla which appears to be a perfectly normal gorilla in the North American and European versions of the game in the Japanese game however this gorilla quite likes to smoke the odd cigar the character flip would also smoke cigars in the Japanese game but the two characters had to give up their habit for their International debut despite this however the game's manual in Western regions still features artwork of the gorilla and a smoking cigar and the gorilla's Sprite still has curled lips as if it were holding the cigar in its mouth speaking of ultra operations to a game Kirby's Adventure has an absolute ton of content that was cut before the game received its release according to the Kirby's Dream Collection celebration booklet a number of ideas were removed from the game entirely which would have seen the player able to dig holes turn invisible multiply and even turn into a puddle of water most of these ideas never made it past the initial planning and sketching phase though an unused ability does appear to still be in the game's data the graphics for a mini Kirby can be found which would suggest that the game was set to allow the player to become tiny similar to an ability which would appear in a much later entry of the Kirby series Kirby and the Amazing Mirror because of where these Graphics are found in the NES games data it's speculated by many that this ability wound up being replaced by the UFO ability more unused Graphics can even be found showing an unused seventh Stage Door suggesting that there is an original plan to have seven stages in at least one of the game's main hubs though in the final release the most stages a hub area contains is six oddly one piece of unused data is technically still used in the final release there was originally a Canon icon that would appear whenever Kirby was on a cannon and while it was cut from the game for its original purpose the Canon icon can still be seen when using the mix ability during the roulette section of abilities the Canon icon can still be seen though it's unlikely any real human would have noticed this without the use of frame by frame advancement though as a slight curiosity for some reason this icon takes on its original purpose in only the French release of the game and nobody knows why and now it's time for some trivia from the NES game that we get asked about the most by far Super Mario Brothers 3. you may already know that the whistle sound effect in the game comes from the Legend of Zelda but this isn't the only audio reference in Mario 3. the Tanuki Mario transformation sound effect actually originates from the mysterious Murray Sonic Castle [Music] and only Nintendo game made with the same engine as the original Legend of Zelda and released two full years before Mario 3. there's a great Regional video on that it's the first one I ever did if you want to cringe an old voiceover another secret in the game is that for some reason the hammer suit item that pops out of a large question block appears to actually be a toad suit the other items the Frog and Tanuki suits actually match their inventory Sprites so several sleuths have posed the question why is one different and not matching though it was fixed in the Super NES and Game Boy Advance remakes it's worth noting that in the original game the hammer suit is something of a secret power up as it only shows up in Hidden areas and randomly from Toad Houses though in later versions it is made to consistently appear in certain Toad Houses this could be why the outfit appears to be a toad when small but even this seems a bit nonsensical since all the other small small suit Sprites match their larger suit Sprites so yeah it's a mystery the survival horror genre was popularized in the West after capcom's release of Resident Evil the first entry in the Resident Evil series was directed by tokoro fujiwara a developer who had been part of the games industry for a while before he developed the first entry in this recognized horror franchise fujiwara took a bulk of his inspiration from a famicom title that used many mechanics now considered to be core elements of the survival horror genre that game is Sweet Home released in 1989 sweet home was an RPG based on a Japanese horror film of the same name tokuro fujiwara took on the role of the game's director but was supervised by the director of the original movie kiyoshi Kurosawa the game's story is essentially the same as the original film following a film crew as they explore the abandoned home of the presumed dead painter Mamiya Ichiro Ichiro was known to have hid several paintings within the Mansion before he mysteriously disappeared 30 years ago the documentary team of five attempt to seek out and recover these lost works from the crumbling Mansion upon entering the Mansion the team are trapped inside by a ghost who threatens to kill them for trespassing now left with no other options the crew must split up and work out a means of Escape all the while facing monsters and navigating the building's crumbling structure the team discovered the ghost's identity to be lady marmia the late wife of painter Ichiro it's revealed that 30 years ago their two-year-old child had fallen into the House's incinerator and was burnt alive in order to provide her dead son with Playmates she kills other children so that they may be with him in the afterlife only a short time later she committed suicide and with her ghost unable to forgive her became trapped within the mansion movement and battles play out similar to most turn-based RPGs but there are some differences that give the game a more survival horror feel during fights the team is able to attack to deal physical damage with their equipped weapon they can also pray to power-up attacks and call teammates to join the fight and lend assistance items can also be utilized for various effects and each unit is able to run each party member is considered an individual and thus running during fights requires all members to escape the option of running is dangerous as it can result in the abandonment of a crew member leaving them to deal with an enemy solo each of the five characters have a role within the group cameraman taguchi is capable of revealing hidden images art restoration expert Asuka can use her vacuum to clear broken glass the kind-hearted Akiko is able to heal her companions kazuo can make use of his lighter to burn away obstacles while his daughter Emmy is the master of unlocking by talking with teammates the player is able to recruit and form stronger groups which makes both progression and dealing with enemy battles easier traveling alone is an incredibly dangerous option and will likely result in death by using their tools throughout the Mansion as a unit the team must solve puzzles defeat monsters and attempt to Get Out Alive they're assisted by items spread throughout the Mansion which can be picked up and swapped amongst the party these items don't just include objects that can be used to solve puzzles and overcome obstacles but also weapons and armor which can improve character stats these items can be swapped with other items anywhere in the mansion and they will remain there until picked up again later this is an important element to solving puzzles as limited inventory space and how the player manages it comes into play in order to solve some puzzles the team must backtrack assisted through the mansion's array of alternate doors that can be unlocked QuickTime events can occur too requiring the player to make snap decisions under the stress of Perma death party members may be killed at any moment as the result of traps and dangerous obstacles with no means of Revival the unique skills of each character can still be utilized however as items that pertain to their talents can be found near their corpses depending on the outcome of the team and which members of the crew survive it's possible to see one of five different endings [Music] sweet home was one of the first Home console games that tokuro fujiwara had worked on when speaking with kiyoshi kurosara about the video game adaptation of his movie he told not to worry if the game didn't follow the movie exactly fujiwara stated that he was able to use the film as a reference and that with both the film and Studio set at his disposal he was able to use whatever elements he felt would work within the game he was considerate of how to go about adapting the film into a game adding extra elements to the story through diary entries from 50 years prior to the events of the game sweet home successor Resident Evil was originally conceived as a remake of this 8-bit title fujiwara initially invited resident Evil's director Shinji mikami onto the team with this goal in mind fujiwara believed that mikami had a good understanding of what is frightening later recounting mikami hated it this is how our conversation went you hate being scared yep so I figured we should do it if he'd answered that he never got scared I couldn't have trusted him with the project people who aren't afraid of anything don't understand what's frightening in my view you can't make a horror game if you don't have any fear fujiwara was frustrated with his work on Sweet Home mainly with the original Nintendo's graphical Fidelity when talking about Resident Evil's Roots fujiwara stated once the PlayStation was released conversation turned towards the idea of launching an original franchise the basic premise was that I'd be able to do the things that I wasn't able to include in Sweet Home it was mainly on the graphics front that my frustration had been building up I was also confident that horror games could become a genre in themselves The Game's region locked status is often cited online as being due to the high levels of gruesome imagery and strong adult themes with Nintendo wanting to keep the family-friendly appearance of the NES however no official Source ever stated this it's quite likely that another reason for the game never leaving Japan was due to the game essentially being a movie tie-in not only due to the potential licensing issues but because the movie version of Sweet Home is possibly even more obscure than the game at the time of release it's unlikely that an international publication for sweet home was ever considered the game received a full English translation in the year 2000 by Gaijin Productions and suicidal translations this translation is of a high quality and makes the game fully playable in English foreign 1986 Nintendo created a hardware expansion for the famicom known as the famicom disk system or fds for short this attachment allowed developers to create games using a higher capacity floppy disk air the fds never saw release outside of Japan and as a result several of its titles were never taken overseas one of these titles was the mysterious murasame Castle the game was prominent enough for Nintendo to make a mini game based on it for the Wii U launch title Nintendo Land it was eventually released to the international market on the 3DS Virtual Console in 2014 but this was 28 years after the game's initial release and to little Fanfare so why did it take so long for muras Army Castle to reach the west and why is it still so obscure first let's take a look at the game The Game's plot takes place during the Edo period of Japan during a stormy night an alien falls from the sky and infiltrates a castle known as murasame Castle within the castle as a stone statue called murasame which the alien then brings to life from there the alien's power then extends to the four other neighboring castles and takes over their Lords each Lord gains a sphere that summons ninjas and monsters which are used to attack the villagers the player assumes the role of takamaru an apprentice Samurai who was sent to investigate the strange occurrences takama who must defeat the Lord of each Castle before taking on the alien that powers them work started on the game when the team behind Zelda experimented with their engine their experiments LED them to increasing the action elements of the game by adding more speed to the engine murasame was the end result of these experiments the gameplay is similar to that of the original Legend of Zelda featuring a top-down angle with no screen scrolling in contrast to Zelda however murasama Castle follows a linear path and has time limits for each level areas are made up of two sections the approach from outside the castle followed by the infiltration of said Castle the RPG elements from Zelda are also removed while the game features levels that lead on to one another the levels themselves have branching paths that can lead to dead ends and Loops through the stage takamaru has two weapons at his disposal his Katana and an infinite supply of throwing knives the katana used for close range attacks can also deflect various projectiles the throwing knives can be upgraded through various collectibles found throughout the game but these are lost whenever the player loses a life Collectibles include fireballs and a bladed wheel takamaru also has additional skills that can be used such as an invisibility cloak that makes him invulnerable for a short period of time and a lightning bolt that kills all enemies on screen the player is also able to obtain lives by rescuing damsels found within the game's castles sometimes however these can be demons in Disguise ready to Ambush the player the demon will follow them throughout the castle from screen to screen and will only stop if killed the game is considered to be incredibly difficult due to the high volume of enemies that appear on screen at any one time their speed of attack and the fact that the demons can appear when attempting to gain extra lives the enemies are primarily made up of figures from Japanese culture such as feudal ninjas Samurai Hanya and tengo while the game lets players attack enemies using the katana at close range once they reach the second level this becomes a relatively meaningless approach as several enemies will explode when they're hit additionally enemies will start to throw Fireballs at the player which the katana is unable to deflect the spiking difficulty between each level is considered to be Extreme as it only takes three hits before Life Is Lost several enemies that can only be hit with like timing of a ranged attack begin to appear within the castle this also has to be done while dodging a large number of projectiles being thrown at you enemies will often change patterns on each playthrough making memorization a tricky if not impossible task the reason for the game's lack of initial localization has never been officially stated many believe the game's intrinsic Japanese theming made Nintendo question if it would appeal to Western players it's also possible that Nintendo simply considered the game too difficult for non-japanese players the title was also delayed during development originally intending to be released alongside the famicom disk system and Zelda some reason that this impacted the game's sales murus Army Castle sold roughly 610 000 units in Japan but they only had about 150 000 downloads via disc writer kiosks these kiosks enabled users to overwrite their famicom discs with new games for a cheaper price Nintendo might have used the kiosks to gauge player interest as murasame Castle had some of the lowest rewrite figures on the system for comparison the Japanese Super Mario Brothers 2 known as the lost levels in the West had over 1 million rewrites from kiosks to get a better idea of what might have happened we asked an ex-localizer for their opinion on the game they told us the lack of localization was probably due to the game's Japanese theme in the late 1980s the US market didn't buy overly Japanese titles enough to justify localizing them however the market shifted over the years allowing for online distribution and digital publishing costs are much lower than they are for physical media and with eShop accessibility there's a greater chance of Niche titles being released digitally at reduced cost and risk for the publisher another example of this can be seen the Fatal Frame maiden of black water which was originally a Japan exclusive fan outcry showed Nintendo that there was a big enough audience to justify a digital release and the game was brought to America via Wii U eShop despite the game being absent in the West for decades murasame's Legacy can be seen in many titles published in America the game's first appearance outside of Japan was in Pikmin 2 for the Nintendo GameCube the cosmic archive treasure is in fact a copy of the murus army Castle disc the game also has a few connections with the Super Smash Bros series not only does takamaru make an appearance of the sticker but the murasami's Musical theme can be unlocked for the classic Mario Brothers stage in Brawl [Music] [Applause] you may also know that takamaru makes an appearance within Super Smash Brothers for Wii U and 3DS as an assist trophy but he was actually considered for the role of a playable fighter this idea dates back to the development of Super Smash Brothers Melee it's believed that takamaru's inclusion in the game was scrapped because of his relatively obscure status Sakurai stated that he was considered again for the fourth game in the series but was again put aside because of lack of popularity takamaru's appearance later inspired the design of the me sword fighters including his haircut and outfit Japan has also seen two more references that didn't make it to the West another Japan exclusive title which we'll explore in a later video is Captain rainbow takamaru takes on a very prominent role within the game appearing as an anxious young man who gets nervous around women WarioWare DIY also includes a micro game exclusive to Japan the player has to Simply avoid shurikens from several ninjas while assuming the role of takamaru this was replaced in the west with a micro game based on Pikmin that plays entirely differently the Wii exclusives Samurai Warriors 3 features a large reference to muras Army with the inclusion of an extra mode titled murasame Castle mode this gives the users the option of playing as takamaru by completing more of the main game it also becomes possible to play as takamaru within the game's other modes one of the more obscure pieces of media to come from the game was a TV drama produced in December of 1986. it was an adaptation of the game starring the cast of The all-girl pop group on Yanko club for the TV series Monday drama land the series was known for its adaptations of popular culture though clips of the episode have proven difficult to find the episode was released on a DVD box set in Japan foreign [Music] did you know the Contra Series has a wealth of interesting Inspirations across media and the real world and due to its dedicated fan following would ultimately become the inspiration for other forms of media the series's secrets start with the name itself contra's title in Japanese is presented in a slightly unusual way it's written using kanji but disregards the literal meaning of the symbols to spell out contora this is a kind of wordplay called ateji which disregards the meaning of the words and focuses on their phonetics however some fans have speculated that the meanings of the kanji act as a veiled reference the symbol Kon means Spirit or Soul the symbol tall can mean battle and ra means a kind of cloth such as silk combined this would be something along the lines of spirit battlecloth and could allude to the Rambo inspired sweat bands The Game's playable characters wear the Japanese version of the original game implies that Katra is a title or rank earned by a soldier and that a contra is a master of the fighting spirit and gorilla attack Optics this is almost certainly a nod to contras U.S backed Rebel groups that were active throughout the 1980s which aim to overthrow the Nicaraguan government these Rebels were known for their use of Guerrilla warfare and made use of jungles for cover and stealth not only does contra's first level have a jungle setting but the arcade version even had gorilla-style knife-wielding enemies in the jungle stage on its harder difficulties the game's ending music is also called Sandinista a reference to the Sandinista National Liberation Front the political party the Contra is aimed to overthrow the original Contra introduced two prominent recurring characters to the series Bill Riser and Lance Bean Bill's full name is a tribute to the actors Bill Paxton and Paul Reiser and Lance's full name is a tribute to the actors Lance Hendrickson and Michael Bain these four actors played the roles of private Hudson Burke bishop and Corporal Hicks in the hit 1986 sci-fi movie Aliens the alien franchise also inspired contra's enemy design with several xenomorph inspired creatures of appearing throughout the entire series but it's another alien-focused Sci-Fi series that impacted Bill and Lance's appearance the cover for contra's North American release uses Arnold Schwarzenegger as a reference model for both Bill and Lance and both reference shots are of major Allen Dutch Schaefer from 1987's Predator Bill's pose is from the home movie VHS cover while Lance's pose is taken from a scene about halfway into the movie itself this became a trend throughout the long-running series with various Schwarzenegger roles inspiring the covers and promotional materials for several Contra titles some examples are a poster for the game boys operation C and the Japanese cover of contra 3 the Alien Wars Super C on the other hand pays homage to another action star of the 1980s Sylvester Stallone funnily enough all these references to 80s action stars were ultimately paid back thanks to the release of 2010's The Expendables which featured both Stallone and Schwarzenegger a free to play retro inspired game was published to promote the film which was clearly inspired by Contra but this isn't the only impact Contra has had within media konami's third Castlevania title on the Nintendo DS order of Ecclesia references Contra with its first boss the player has to fight Kim KU a recurring boss from Contra which appeared in Super C and went on to appear in half a dozen other Contra titles another nod can be found in Silent Hill shattered Memories towards the end of the game players enter the cinereal movie theater in the Toluca Mall which also features several Konami arcade machines including Contra if the player looks at the Contra arcade for a while the player's character Harry Mason will say some real Classics Contra has also impacted TV in the season 5 episode of Robot Chicken catch me a few Kangaroo Jack there's a short sketch called Contra lives which you might have guessed parodies Contra the segment also references the Konami Code which Contra popularized thanks to it giving the player 30 lives in this fairly difficult game this isn't the only time Contra has been referenced on t TV the American TV show Supernatural has an episode called safe house where the characters Sam and Dean used the alias's Riser and bean A sly not to Bill Riser and Lance bean from Contra Contra has left quite a legacy but if you grew up outside of Japan and the Americas you might know Contra by another name probotector in Europe the first few games that appeared on home consoles were renamed probotector with Bill and lance being replaced by two robots called rd008 and rc011 all the humanoid enemies were also turned into robots and anything resembling Gore was removed this was because Germany's federal department for media harmful to Young persons had a law that prohibited the sale and or advertisement of media deemed too violent for children this would have limited the game's audience in Europe so the decision was made to rework the game instead this change in story and aesthetic lasted until Contra Legacy of War which was when Europe started using the Contra name but if you grew up in Europe and spent most of your days in the arcade you might know Contra as griser this was also the name given to the home computer ports of the game it's not certain why the name greiser was chosen for these ports but it's worth noting that not only were several story elements changed but the game's main character is called Lance griser this character shares elements of both Bill and Lance and one Theory as to why the name greiser was chosen is that there was some sort of error while translating Bill's surname Riser on a side note there's a common misconception that Contra was originally titled grieser in Japan this is a misconception that's still prevalent today and has gone so far as to be incorporated in Contra 4's Museum bonus content the exact origin of this misnomer is unknown it's used in the file names of many ROM images of the early Contra games especially the msx2 version some websites even label the Japanese version of super contra as super grizer just as the origin of the name greiser is unclear the reason for Contra being renamed in these arcade and home computer versions is also unclear after all they retain many elements of the original game as well as its aesthetic it's believed that the name was changed to avoid any conflation with the Iran Contra affair an American Scandal that took place in the late 80s essentially the U.S government at the time planned to sell arms to Iran and use the proceeds to fund the contras who were aiming to overthrow the Nicaraguan government it's also believed that this is why super contra was renamed Super C when localized in North America and white game boys Contra title was renamed operation C in the west either way these naming issues were short-lived and the name Contra would ultimately be used in all regions however there is one difference between the Japanese games and the Western releases that's been more or less consistent throughout the entire series the Japanese games are actually easier for example in Contra hardcore the Japanese version gives all characters a life bar and they can be hit three times this version also has unlimited continues unlike the American and European versions which don't even have a life bar with a single bullet being certain death but in the end this level of difficulty is part of what made Contra popular in the west and kept the series as die-hard fans coming back [Music] did you know the original arcade cabinet of punch out was created partially as a method of utilizing access televisions after a major success with Donkey Kong Nintendo ordered monitors and access of their sales leading to an Overstock when asked about the Surplus TVs Nintendo's General Hardware manager genyo Takeda stated the televisions weren't being used tons of them were in our uji plant so we were given this proposition create a new arcade game that uses two televisions two televisions could use up more stock than one originally Nintendo proposed the creation of a racing game that used both monitors but the chip could only handle one image being enlarged at a time realizing this Takeda suggested the effect could be used on a single person this led to the idea of a boxing game and ultimately punch out when talking about how they would handle the two television setup general manager Nintendo Shigeru Miyamoto stated we were stuck for a little bit by that but then we thought that a boxing arena has big lights and Banners hanging from the ceiling with things like world heavy wait title max written on them this would have a lot of meters as well so we thought maybe having two screens would be more fun we tried stacking two screens vertically it felt good so we decided to use that two screen setup punch out was a roaring success and demand for the game was so high that a sequel has pushed out the following year titled Super Punch Out a spin-off by the same development team named arm wrestling also appeared exclusively in the North American Market the same dual monitor setup was used and like punch out arm wrestling contained very eccentric opponents arm wrestling's third opponent mask X for example was revealed to be punch out's bald bull once defeated the NES version of punch out wasn't actually the first to appear on home consoles in 1985 an unlicensed version of Super Punch Out was poured to the ZX spectrum and the Commodore 64 called Frank Bruno's boxing rather than starring Little Mac the player assume control a popular English boxer Frank Bruno of the eight opponents you could face only three appear appeared from the arcade version of Super Punch Out however all their names were changed Dragon Sean was renamed fling long chop Bear Hugger was given the name Canadian Crusher and vodka truckinski was dubbed Andra pancharodov with development on the NES port a Punch-Out began Takeda realized they'd have to severely downsize the graphics seen in the arcade version to fit into the NES the NES wouldn't be able to handle the layered characters so they opted for a shorter playable character leaving plenty of room to see the opposing boxers another side effect of these limitations included the repeated use of graphical character assets a lot of opponents share similar but recolored body parts such as piston Honda and bald bull when reflecting on this Nintendo's Makoto wada stated the memory limit on the NES was severe so he had to break the pitchers into parts and rotate them or call up these parts partially but no matter how you looked at the drawn images the proportions were kind of strange but when you actually made the move the movement started looking right I thought that this is how you make video games the arcade version of punch out was notoriously short so while creating a home version Takeda wondered if the game's length would suffice Nintendo focused on making the NES version a bigger overall experience with gameplay that relied on memorization and learning the game's mechanics this led to the introduction of specific character tells and instant Knockouts also new to the port was background music a password system and animated cutscenes showing Little Mac training with Doc Lewis Makoto wada also drew the Sprite from Mario as the referee which he snuck into the game without permission from Mario's Creator Shigeru Miyamoto when wado revealed this information he also told of a secret way to attack bald bull that the player attacks when a light flashes to the right of the audience they'll land a body blow according to wada this went undiscovered for 22 years there are several different variations of punch out on the NES and the famicom in Japan punch out was originally a prize for the second family computer golf tournament a Nintendo sponsored tournament for the NES game golf this version of the game wasn't available to the general public had a gold cartridge and lacked the final encounter with Mike Tyson shortly after the Gold version was released Nintendo of America founder minori arakawa was attending a boxing match with soon to be heavyweight champion Mike Tyson enamored by his performance arakawa reached out to Tyson in hopes of using his name and likeness in the American release of punch out Tyson's inclusion led to increased sales as he coincidentally took the heavyweight championship from Trevor burbik around the same time Mike Tyson's Punch-Out was such a hit in America that was eventually given a full retail release in Japan although Tyson gave permission to use his likeness and obviously knew of the game's existence he had never played the game until a 2013 special on Fox Sports 26 years after punch out's initial release Mike Tyson will continue to Grace the game's box art until license seen agreements expired in 1990 however it was Nintendo that decided not to renew the license due to a massive upset in a match against James Buster Douglas who'd be the first to knock out previously undefeated Champion Tyson a final version of punch out was re-released in 1990 replacing the former Champion with an original character named Mr Dream after the initial success of Mike Tyson's Punch-Out a direct sequel made its way into production the game was originally entitled Mike Tyson's Intergalactic power punch and featured Tyson going through space for the purpose of fighting against the best boxers in the universe however due to being incarcerated for sexual assault in 1991 Tyson's likeness was taken out of the game completely instead Mike Tyson's Intergalactic Power Punch was renamed to Power Punch 2 and salt release in 1992 under a different publisher this confused consumers as a power punch one didn't exist the follow-up to the NES hit Super Punch Out came came out in 1994 North America and 95 in Europe however the game wouldn't see a Japanese release until 1998 well into the life cycle of Nintendo 64. like the Gold version of the original Super Punch Out would not receive a retail release but instead it was an early digital release via the Nintendo power flash Ram cartridge unrelated to the North American Magazine the Nintendo Power was a japan-only cart from the super famicom and Game Boy that would allow users to digitally download games at a cheaper price cartridges could be brought to a store that carried the Nintendo Power copier where select games are available for download these cards would typically hold two to three games at a time but games containing special chips for example the super FX chip cannot be copied this service was discontinued in 2007. the punch-out Universe has seen cameos from other Nintendo franchises such as Mario Luigi Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr all appearing in the audience of the original punch out one Cameo however never came to fruition Princess Peach was actually a planned opponent for Punch Out Wii that was dropped because of the possible negative reaction to violence against women other popular Nintendo characters were considered to be opponents as well but were dropped in favor of expanding The Punch Out World and its characters Mario didn't return as a referee as developers thought the tune shaded 3D atmosphere of the game wouldn't be a good fit for the plumber several games have also paid homage to punch out Little Mack appeared in the WarioWare series and the GameCube version of Fight Night round 2. Little Mack also appears in the Japanese exclusively titled Captain rainbow as a non-playable character here he is seen as fairly rotund and the player must undergo a series of missions to help get him back into shape this pudgy version of Little Mac also happens to make an appearance in the newest Super Smash Brothers as a trophy foreign policy against religious symbolism appearing on their consoles censorship of religious imagery occurred with many Nintendo games both localized and Western titles when religion was a game's Focus Publishers struggled to get Nintendo's seal of approval and resorted to selling their titles on unlicensed cartridges Wisdom Tree released two of these unlicensed games Bible Adventures on the NES and super Noah's Ark 3D on the Super Nintendo however one Bible game did get officially licensed by Nintendo yet it only saw release in Europe that game is konami's Noah's Ark Noah's Ark was created by Source research and development and published by Konami of Europe in 1992. the game follows Noah after being commanded by God to put two of each animal on board his ark to save them from the world-ending flood however other people have captured the animals he needs preventing Noah from fulfilling the will of God to complete his mission Noah must go around the world and free these animals from captivity the game plays like any platformer of its age with the player having to navigate past a number of different enemies however it has the added hindrance of a continually Rising water level Noah can hurt enemies with a small projectile attack or by jumping on their heads a number of different power-ups can make this task slightly easier that said power-ups are lost after a single hit the player can obtain transformative magic which allows Noah to take on different forms these include a feather form which assists him with aerial traversal of the stage a fish form which helps Noah swim through the rising Waters and a statue form which prevents projectile damage and increases his attack when landing on enemy heads Noah can also obtain new attacks by rescuing Ducks changing his random spread projectile into something stronger and easier to predict the game's stages are the seven different continents Europe North America South America Africa Antarctica Oceania and Asia a giant sentient plug must be destroyed at the end of each stage and many forms of these plugs are also found throughout the stages when these mini plugs are destroyed the water level rises at a slower Pace on stage three of each continent Noah finds the animal that needs to be rescued in order to save them Noah must travel through a magical doorway bringing him to the continent's boss Nintendo of America has a strong stance when it comes to religious imagery in their older titles along with their guidelines restricting adult themes the guidelines written in 1988 forbade symbols that are related to any type of racial religious nationalistic or ethnic group such as crosses pentagrams God Gods Satan hell and Buddha mythological deities such as the Roman gods were acceptable however this was an obvious attempt to prevent controversy with the company closely watching its family-friendly image in many cases this policy only resulted in minor changes such as changing the name of the Legend of Zelda the Triforce of the Gods to A Link to the Past in the west it's highly unlikely however the Nintendo of America would have allowed a game about a Bible story to officially appear on their console and it seems Nintendo of Europe were more lenient on this issue on top of this Nintendo know of America had already refused publication rights for a religious game a year prior with Bible Adventures had Noah's Ark received an official seal of quality it would have looked as though Konami received preferential treatment it's also possible Nintendo of America would have taken issue with stereotyping the various nations in the game several characters from various backgrounds also try to stop Noah which could be seen as stereotyping these groups as Blasphemous or anti-god as a result Noah's Ark remained exclusive to Europe and saw only a limited release though many commend the developers efforts to create high quality Sprites within the limited NES Hardware the game is also cited as being poorly programmed with unfair mechanics that show little consistency much like the Game's plot after all Noah murders a menagerie of creatures and people in every stage all to rescue a single animal on each continent when you think of the Giants in the gaming industry you think of Mario Sonic or Pac-Man perhaps your mind even goes to Mega Man however one thing setting the blue bomber apart from the plumber Hedgehog and pack person is board games Mario Party Sonic Shuffle and Pac-Man Fever all took these iconic video game Giants pulled them out of their comfortable gameplay settings and put them onto a virtual piece of cardboard well it turns out in Japan that certainly did happen with Rockman AKA Mega Man but the West was never given the chance to roll the dice with roll today we'll be looking at Wiley and light's Rock board that's Paradise Wiley and lights Rock board that's Paradise was released on the famicom in 1993 exclusively to Japanese audiences the game can easily be summarized as a board game in a similar vein to Monopoly requiring the player to spin a roulette Advance round the board buying properties and charging others rent for landing on their owned tiles the game can be played Solo or up to four player competitively the player is able to choose their character from the Mega Man series each with their own goal Dr Light the yellow player wishes to expand his facilities as a means of achieving World Peace Dr Wily the black player wants to build evil Laboratories to achieve world dominance roll the pink player wants to build hospitals to help all of the sick and injured people in the world Dr Cossack the blue player wants to build new labs to Simply continue his experiments and lastly Kalinka the red player wants to build castles in order to become a real princess Mega Man Who is not playable instead takes the role of the game's Master similar to toad in Mario party reggae Dr Wily's robot companion also makes his first retail appearance in Rockport later appearing in Mega Man 7 and 10. [Music] there are two sets of rules bankrupt if the player loses all of their money and has no property left they are out of the game as well as Battle Royale the only difference being that when the player becomes bankrupt they will continue to participate there are a total of four different boards that can be played within the game green continent Cold Island continent of sand and megalopolis all players begin a game on the ecan space after each lap of the board passing the ecan space rewards the player with Zenni the game's currency and landing on it will provide them with a random award such as a multiple of their typical Zenni reward each player moves around the board in turns when the player's turn begins they will spin a roulette and move according to their spin depending on where the player lands a variety of outcomes can occur when landing on a land Square the player will have a chance to buy the lot if the loss has already been purchased they can buy a building on that land even if they do not own it this will divide the rent between both players who own a stake in the property if the player building on the lot can afford to buy out the landowner they are offered to do so at a premium cost owning both the land and building and adjacent tiles increases the rent exponentially if the player lands on their own lab they are also able to upgrade similar to Monopoly and hotels if the player lands on a tile with an existing property the effect can differ depending on who owns the property they land on each character has a special building effect that has a slim chance of triggering Dr Light requires they draw a card Dr Wily must be paid 300 Zenni by the player rolls tiles cause the player to skip their next turn Dr Cossack has them spin the roulette again and Kalinka will transform the player for a single turn transformation tiles will turn the player into one of three different Robot Masters they will remain this way until they next reach or past the space again these Transformations mean that the player will be unable to perform any typical actions such as interacting with any squares on the board buying property or playing cards instead they will be able to do a special action specific to the robot Master they've become gut's man will downgrade an opponent's building when landing on it shadow man will take cards from other players and dust man will take zeny question mark tiles have the player draw a card which can cause any number of effects the game has a total of 32 cards seven positive Eddy cards six negative Rego cards four Rush cards that deal with movement 13 boss cards with a wide variety of effects as well as one Mega Man and one proto-man card which protect the player against other cards Rush tiles will cause rush to appear and use Rush coil launching the player to another Rush tile on the board tunnel tiles will randomly Supply either a positive or negative effect Lottery tiles will allow the player to purchase a lottery ticket when landing on the tile again with the purchase ticket a draw on the lottery takes place depending on whether the player spins the roulette to match the resulting numbers rewards are distributed if they do not match the player is still given more money than they initially invested construction tiles which feature a met with a pickaxe will cause the player to lose a turn entertainment tiles trigger a racing minigame in which all players accept the tile's owner will be able to bet in one of three different types of races between Mets in a similar fashion to a horse race any lost bets are repaid to the owner of the tile each repetition of this minigame will increase the betting fee if the player runs out of Zenni and cannot afford any costs they are forced to either sell a land or a building this starts an auction allowing the other players to bid for their assets a game ends when the board's objective is met which requires a specified number of properties developed and a certain amount of Zenni to have been accumulated by the player at the time of the game's release Mega Man was at the height of the series popularity having already released several popular NES platformer titles series artist kg inafune synonymous with Mega Man was barely involved in the game's creation merely designing the game's box art and Wiley's companion robot reggae the team had wanted to include as many Robot Masters from previous games in the series as they could though they decided to leave some room to create a character that fans would associate with the new title rockboard was released exclusively on the famicom but a Game Boy version was being worked on at some point around the same time being created by the Japanese company Jewel who had the game listed under their developed titles on their official website adding to this composer hitoshi sakimoto who has since worked on such titles as Final Fantasy Tactics also had the Game Boy title listed under his discography on his official website quick man was also planned to appear as another robot Master transformation for the player to take on but was cut from The Game's final release water he would have done remains unknown Sprite data for drill man also exists within the game's data though he doesn't appear anywhere in the game based on where his Graphics are stored he was likely planned to appear as a boss card attack a set of gold bars can be found alongside his Sprites suggesting that he would have been used to dick for zeny the game actually has an ending though it is hard to achieve the player must complete the game using Battle Royale rules on the megalopolis map and by the end of the game must have attained 75 total control of the board this results in a short credit sequence being shown featuring Mega Man himself in his only full appearance in the entire game The Game's boards were likely created to represent Real World locations such as the green continent looking like South America the continent of sand looking like Africa megalopolis being the United States and the Cold Island most likely being Antarctica Brockport didn't get a fair chance in the gaming World rumors have spread since the game's Japanese release muddying the waters to the true reason it was never sent Westward many people believed that Nintendo prevented the game's International release believing that the game promoted gambling to young children a theory that might hold some ground though it does become doubtful when considering the variety of other gambling titles and board games with console releases at that time such as Monopoly evidence of the game's attempted localization comes from a magazine snippet Lost Levels Community member Ray vgm found a tiny piece about the title in an article of an old Latin American official Nintendo magazine club Nintendo the article previewed a number of Capcom titles that were shown during the 1993 Consumer Electronics Show one of the featured titles was Mega board including a screenshot of The Game featuring English text not only this but shortly after the game appeared on a Techo HQ sales flyer though listed as Mega Man board game this first attempt was clearly never followed through for one reason or another but it wouldn't stop capcom's team from taking another stab at getting the game past the international border in an interview with us gamer capcom's Ray Jimenez and digital eclipses Frank zefaldi spoke on the release of Mega Man Legacy Collection in 2015. the media Outlet exchanged with the two on the game's inclusion it also makes sense from a tech perspective to just go at the NES games because they're on the same Hardware being reproduced I know it's not emulation technically but it's working to the same spec did you ever consider throwing in Rockport as some sort of bonus given that it's the odd one out on the same technology or platform the answer isn't no we definitely had thought about it but there wasn't really a way for that to fit in for us especially since it was in Japanese right so we even looked at translating it if I could speak to that for a second as close to the technological images you could theoretically do it but you're starting to go away from everything we're trying to do which is to keep everything authentic we couldn't release an old Japanese board game here in the US so is that just a case where you personally wouldn't feel good about it or the platform rights holders would be no go there is a requirement for all essential game information has to be localized to the support language and the game like a board game has a lot of essential text in it you can't play that if you don't understand Japanese so even just throwing it in as a curio was off the table because of the logistics from on high we're aware of all the curios right nothing is really impossible if you really want to do it and you have enough time and resources to do it but it would just lose the focus of what we're doing ultimately the game was never published officially for an international audience though a fan translation was created by fans of the Mega Man series a website Mega Man PC Dr Cossack servebot 20 Guillermo and Elaine this translation makes the game fully English though with some names altered and bizarre dialogue as a result of direct translations when it comes to Japanese games difficulty is often a subject of contention at times games fail to be localized outside of the East due to concerns that Western audiences wouldn't have much interest in brutally hard gameplay the NES has titles such as Castlevania which is still considered to be a challenge for many players one game which released in Japan that follows castlevania's style but with the addition of bizarre references to heavy metal music is titled Holy Diver Holy Diver was released in 1989 by irem a company best known for their arcade games such as r-type and possibly their Super Nintendo title Dino City The Game's visuals differ only slightly from that of Castlevania but rather than using the signature Belmont whip against adversaries the player must attack with projectile Fireballs whilst appearing similar the weight and control of the game's hero differs his attacks are quicker and easier to land and it's possible to move while in mid-air the game's narrative also takes a relatively dramatic turn from that of vampires instead taking place in a more Fantastical World of Magic with strong inspiration from rock and heavy metal it isn't at all rare for Japanese developers to name characters after western music as is most recognized in franchises such as Mega Man thanks to Dyer 51 we have a full translation of The Game's plot as seen in its instruction manual when translated The Game's plot is as follows resurrected the legend of the Holy magic King's Justice it is the 666th year of the World of Magic the black Slayer demon king of the underground dark Empire has extended the world of darkness and weakened the power of King Crimson whose kingdom has guided The World of Magic for Generations the 16th Crimson Emperor Ronnie IV entrusted his two infant Sons Randy and Zach to his faithful servant Ozzie the three escaped the forces From Another Dimension in the hope to bring light back into the world the next 17 years were difficult but Randy Zack and Aussie devoted themselves to the cause of holy magic Justice the black Slayer further extended his Empire over the countryside and the interdimensional forces were even more powerful Randy needed to find the Royal Coat of Arms Of The Crimson to battle the demons he set out alone to carry out the will of his surrogate father Ozzie who had passed away thus Begins the legend of the Holy magic King's Justice several names such as the black Slayer can be seen as references to the band's Black Sabbath and Slayer King Crimson is also named directly after the band of the same name Emperor Ronnie is of course named after the late Ronnie James Dio with the title of the game being the same as his band's debut album Randy and Zack are named after Randy Rhodes and Zack Wilde two members of Ozzy Osbourne's band and needless to say Aussie is of course named after Osborne himself the goal of Holy Diver is to reach the end of each stage and defeat a boss similar to most games of its generation the game contains a total of six stages with each stage introducing new enemies as progress is made items can be obtained within each level to help improve Randy's stats and abilities such as high jump boots or a block breaking bracelet items to increase your maximum health can also be found as well as expansions to your magic meter which will be necessary for the variety of spells obtained over the first four stages these spells affect how the player attacks or can be used to progress further in a stage for example in the second level lava will prevent the player from getting past a small Jump by using a newly obtained ice spell it's possible to freeze the lava and stand on it to proceed this ice can also be destroyed helping the player to get past any walls of lava that may be streaming down spells are selected from The Game's pause menu and activated with the select button when active the spell is cast with the normal attack by Button making sure to balance the use of magic is pivotal to completing the game although it can be used to assist in killing enemies some Mana may need to be held to progress further in the game to helping killing enemies for the later part of the game Randy is able to collect an item which will transform him into a dragon this changes the gameplay from an action platformer to something that plays more like a Shoot Em Up an international release was hinted at briefly but it was ultimately dropped the game was mentioned in the US through electronic gaming monthlies September 1989 issue there Holy Diver was shown alongside games that would release soon on the NES the game's mentioned was small and gave no more information on its release No official reason for canning the game's localization has ever been given but this is a situation that difficult NES games found themselves in it wouldn't be unusual if the game's difficulty was partly to blame for its lack of localization as Japanese companies often underestimated Western players iram's earlier NES releases mostly consist of Japanese exclusive games so a possible lack of international networking could also have been to blame adding to that the Game's name includes the word holy and Nintendo starts on religious material in their games on their consoles was never straightforward Graphics appear in some stages that show religious symbols such as crosses and as well as perhaps more controversial imagery like fetuses it's also possible that the game's liberal use of names from real songs bands and musicians caused legal issues [Music]

Channel: DYKG Clips

Views: 197,423

Keywords: nes, nes games, nes game, nintendo, super mario, mario, super mario 3, mario 3, super mario bros 3, kirby's adventure, kirby, the legend of zelda, legend of zzelda, zelda, mother, contra, punch-out!!, punch out, mega man, megaman, nes facts, mario facts, zelda facts, sleep to, fall asleep, asmr, sleep aid, sleep

Id: Qx23ecw-CuE

Length: 62min 7sec (3727 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 13 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/RetroGaming4]

Fell asleep at minute 2. Then I woke up.