(Game Sack theme) (shattering) JOE: Hello and welcome to Game Sack. We're talking about games that are not licensed
by the console manufacturers. DAVE: Yes, and there could be any reason
these games are not licensed. For example, Nintendo maybe thought that
some games were not good enough for the system, and they returned them or rejected them, or they're too bloody.
There could be any reason, you know? JOE: Or they just didn't want to pay for the license
because the company making them was too cheap. DAVE: Mm-hmm.
JOE: Anyway, let's just get right into it. (arranged music from Mega Man X5) DAVE: Camerica released three cartridges
in the early 1990s for the NES. The cartridges were titled "Quattro" because they had
four games included on one cartridge. These games were developed by Codemasters. Yeah, the same people that developed the Game Genie
and make current games, like the Dirt series. As you'd expect with four games on one cartridge,
they don't feel like they're gonna have a lot to 'em and they actually feel pretty shallow. There was only one game that
I actually found to be fairly entertaining and that was Super Robin Hood. In this game, you play as Robin Hood and
you're making your way through a trap-filled castle to steal treasure which I *assume*
you'll be giving away to poor people at the end. The castle is fairly tricky, and it's fun
because you need to collect keys to open up new areas so you can keep going. You have a bow and arrow as your weapon
and it works fine, but it's kind of sluggish to shoot. Controlling Robin Hood is easy and responsive. The music's decent, and I like how it changes
for every new area you make it to. (music and sound effects) The other games on these carts
are a different story, though. Most of them are just boring to play
and are riddled with problems from horrible control to cheap deaths
to really bad music. There's a game on each of these carts
starring Dizzy, who looks to be an egg. I'm wondering if Dizzy is a mascot for Codemasters because they are other games besides these
that he's the star of, as well. If *that's* the case, you'd think they'd put
more effort into these titles. Treasure Island Dizzy was hopeful,
but the cheap deaths were really a turn-off. There's even a shooter here, but your plane controls
so sluggish that it takes any fun out of the game. But at least it has a couple of play styles
from a top-down vertical shooter to something behind your plane, like After Burner. The cartridges themselves are interesting. They're golden color, and that's probably
so they'll stand out. Maybe Camerica hoped that when you have them
on your shelf, you'll think you're grabbing a Zelda game but you grab one of these by mistake
and just play it instead of Zelda. The back of the cartridge is also interesting. It has a DIP switch on it that states that if the game
doesn't work in position A, then try position B. From what I understand, this switch lets you
play the game on European consoles. Is it bad that I'm more interested in the cartridges
than the games? (music and sound effects a la Commodore 64) JOE: This is Brave Battle Saga: Legend of the
Mystic Warrior on the Genesis or Mega Drive. It's also known as Barver Battle Saga in some places. This is an RPG that was developed in Taiwan
and only ever saw release there. In fact, most games programmed
in places like Taiwan and China do not have the blessing of the console manufacturers. This version right here was translated
into English in 2010. The backstory is basically about humans and demons developing different civilizations
using technology and magic, but technology eventually won out
and destroyed the world. But that doesn't matter at all
because you're a boy named Tim and you're competing to be the village warrior today.
Yay! Your goal is to get a teardrop from a tree,
or some such nonsense, which of course you have to battle the tree to get. Then, of course, some of the village thugs steal the
teardrop thingy and one of 'em warps somewhere else. Your home village thinks that you killed that guy
thanks to a bunch of lies, and you're banished. So, now, you're a free spirit, wandering around
doing good deeds. You can see the monsters roaming around on the
overworld, and if you get near them, you fight in a battle. The battles are the kind where you need to wait for
the bar to fill up before you can do a single damn thing. And it's slooow! The game requires a lot of grinding to level up, so if you're the impatient type,
you might actually get annoyed fairly quickly. Fortunately, the game defaults to a brisk walking speed
and a fast text speed. Messing with your items and buying stuff in shops
is all plenty easy to figure out. The battles could be a little bit more fast-paced, but
they're not too bad, aside for waiting for that stupid bar. The graphics are surprisingly pretty good. There's plenty of detail and nice color all over the place, but there doesn't seem to be any consistency. Notice that your character is walking around
with a yellow coat and blue pants. Suddenly, he's wearing a gray coat and red pants
any time a battle starts. Also, the creatures roaming around on the overworld are not at all indicative of the creatures
that you actually fight. The music is pretty good, and I was surprised by the
amount of different tunes that are in here, mainly because these types of unlicensed games
don't usually have much in the way of variety. The story starts out being fairly good,
if a bit minimalistic, but then progresses very slowly as you play. Still, it's a nice game to play, should you ever
come across an English version somehow. (music and sound effects) DAVE: This is Chiller, a super-violent game for the NES. Released in 1990, it's a port of an arcade game
from the developer Exidy. Now, this is supposed to be a light gun game, but
the problem is that using the light gun rarely works. Every now and again, you'll be able
to get a shot to register, but eventually, the game will stop recognizing
the gun, and then it's game over. Luckily, there is an option to use a control pad,
and you use a crosshair to aim at your targets. This method actually works pretty well,
and is responsive enough that you'll be able to play the game in its entirety. So, there's a total of four levels here,
and they go pretty quickly. There's a timer bar at the bottom of the screen
that slowly drains. At the top of the screen is a number, and this is the amount of shots you must land
before the timer runs out. Each area has a lot of different things to shoot to make
the number at the top of the screen go down. For an NES game, it's very bloody and violent, so
it's really no wonder why this game is unlicensed. Like the first scene here, where you're in a graveyard. You shoot everything that moves, and of course,
one of the things is a nun pushing a baby stroller! What the hell?! Well, if *that's* not disturbing,
how about the rack room? You can stretch people in the rack,
and then dismember them to get past this level. Oh, and don't forget to shoot this little kid
popping in out of the doorway in the back. He's probably just looking for his parents
who you've just stretched on the rack! But if you wanna get past this scene,
you better pop a cap in his crown! Once you get past the fourth stage,
the game just starts over again. It does get a bit tougher, as you need to shoot
more things to get past each level. Even though this is a violent game, and had
some disturbing images, I had a lot of fun with it. I mean, how grossed out can you be
by 8-bit graphics? (inadequate music and sound effects) JOE: Here's V.R Fighter VS Taken 2
on the Mega Drive/Genesis. I think they might mean Virtua Fighter VS Tekken,
and certainly not Taken 2. The origins of this game are...currently unknown, but it's
safe to assume that it came from somewhere in Asia, and, oh, man, is it bad. You can choose from a few different
Virtua Fighter and Tekken characters, as well as Honey and Bahn from Fighting Vipers.
What are they doing in here? The control is every bit as stiff as the animation looks. VIRTUA FIGHTER ANNOUNCER:
K.O.! JOE: What you mean draw?! I K.O.'d that mofo! The background graphics are okay, and the music is
all bastardized versions of Virtua Fighter tunes. I didn't really enjoy this one,
and you probably won't, either. (Virtua Fighter-esque music and sounds) And here's The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
on the Genesis. Finally, a Lord of the Rings game that J.R.R. Tolkien
himself would be proud to play. This is a one-on-one fighter from Glorysun,
who was a Russian developer. This is a hack of another unlicensed game
called Chinese Fighter. Anyway, you pick from a few different characters and your mission is to kick everyone's ass
in Middle Earth, just like in the book. Of course, I'm playing as Aragorn. Screw everyone else.
They're gonna *fall* to my blade. And when I win, I do a sweet victory pose,
which *perfectly* fits the character. The music is even kinda good, though I don't think
it really fits as I battle this deadly orc. Do you? (peaceful music, battle cries) Overall, the controls are basic, but decent.
It's certainly better than V.R Fighter VS Taken 2. The animation is really choppy, but what do you expect? There's a bar at the bottom that builds as you attack, and it lets you pull off an easily blockable
special move when it's full. Frodo has all of the *sweet* special moves that he does
in the extended edition of the third movie so he can finally relive that epic battle
where he defeats Legolas once and for all! Anyway, the game's not half-bad,
but really only half-good. (appropriate music, battle cries) DAVE: Of course, I have to mention
Bubble Bath Babes on the NES. What kind of video about unlicensed games
would be complete without it? Well, here it is, and yes, it's super sexy,
and I've never seen anything so dirty in my entire life. This is a puzzle game, and it's kind of a cross
between Tetris and Puyo Puyo. So, there's a nude girl at the bottom of the screen-- mmm... --and a group of colored bubbles
will rise up from behind her. I wish *I* could rise up from behind her. You can shift these blocks
to arrange the colors in the group to try and make them match up
to the colors already on the screen. The problem is it's very hard to get groups to mesh
together seamlessly, like Puyo Puyo or Tetris. Like Puyo Puyo, once you get a certain number
of colors to match, then they'll pop. Every now and again, a bubble will come down
with a letter in it. If you can get this bubble to pop,
you can slowly spell out the word "magic." If you can hang on long enough
without jizzing up the screen-- oops, I mean without the screen filling up,
you'll be able to clear the level. It's not easy, but after two levels, you get a picture
of a hot girl, fully-clothed. She's talking sexy, but I'm not feeling anything yet. There's another game mode where
there are bubbles already on-screen, and you must try and pop them
and get to the bubble with the letter inside. Good luck, though, as this is damn near impossible. (bouncy music and sound effects) Since we're talking about unlicensed puzzle games here,
let's just add Tengen Tetris. I've talked about this one before, so I'll keep it short,
but it's worth mentioning again. While I do like the Nintendo version better,
this is still a great game. It's a port of the Atari arcade version, and
it supports two players, which is nice. The gameplay is awesome, and
the best part about it is the soundtrack. All of the music here is great, and will have you humming the melodies
long after you've turned off the power. It's worth it to have both versions of this game
in your collection if you can find it. ("Troika," sound effects) (level clear music) DAVE: All right, cool, man. Some really good games
that were unlicensed on the Nintendo. I mean, don't you just love Nintendo's business sense?
I mean, they're just-- JOE: Not really.
DAVE: Yeah, they're awesome. JOE: I mean, come on.
The reason the licensing was so bad is, you know, they had a monopoly, they determined how many units
any company could sell of any particular game. It's, you know, not hard to understand why some
companies did not want to license their games... DAVE: Yeah.
JOE: ...through Nintendo. DAVE: But what a business model. I mean, that's what
made Nintendo so awesome and successful. JOE: The last part is definitely true, so, anyway, we've got more unlicensed goodness
to show you, if you can call it good. I mean, some of them are good. DAVE: Yeah, some are good. (music from Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 3) JOE: Tengen has a lot of unlicensed games on the NES, so let's take a look at the ones from Sega
that they released, like Fantasy Zone. Sunsoft made a better version of this game
for the Japanese market. Everything about this one is slow and choppy. The gameplay is definitely Fantasy Zone, but man,
does this version struggle with it. The graphics look decent, but they're often very glitchy
to the point of distraction. I mean, sometimes it's impossible to see some of
the bullets until they actually touch and kill you. But at least the music is still good in this version. I still don't recommend this one, though. (music and sound effects) And then there's Shinobi. This one is actually a bad port of the
Sega Master System version, and not the arcade. Everything looks washed-out in comparison, and the stages can only scroll horizontally,
as opposed to every direction, like all the other versions. The stages are generally pretty easy, as well,
as every enemy only takes one hit. There's hostages to rescue,
but you don't have to rescue them unless you want upgraded weapons, extra points,
and a chance to play the bonus stage. Beating the bonus stage here will give you ninja magic. Once you have it, you can turn it on after a while,
and it can help you by making you invincible for the rest of the stage
or things like that. but really, this is a pretty crappy version of the game. (poor music and sound effects) And of course, they had to have
their own port of After Burner. Again, this is not to be confused with
the superior Sunsoft version in Japan. This is a port of the arcade game, obviously, and it appeared on the Master System and Genesis,
among other consoles. You start out by taking off from the Tengen Enterprise,
and your job is to shoot down the enemy planes. Well, actually, your job is simply to survive, 'cause it doesn't really matter much
if you shoot the planes down or not, and it's harder than it looks because in this version,
it's really tough to avoid the enemy missiles. The graphics are okay, if a little choppy,
and the music is also only okay. (okay music and sound effects) Finally, there's Alien Syndrome. This one is actually better than the
Sega Master System version, a lot better. For one, it's a lot more faithful to the arcade. Secondly, it's two-player simultaneous
if you have a friend, which I didn't when I captured this footage. And lastly, it's just a lot more fun. Basically, you've set a time bomb on different ships
to get rid of the alien infestation, but you need to rescue all of the hostages
before it goes off. There's a boss at the end of each level
and they all have multiple forms. The graphics are decent for the NES and the music isn't anything special, but the arcade
didn't have an amazing soundtrack, either. It's just one of those themes that
makes you try to feel some tension. Out of all of the Sega games from Tengen on the NES, this is the best one, and something
which I actually recommend. (tense music and sound effects) DAVE: Bee 52 is another game by Codemasters
and published by Camerica. Released in 1992 on a silver cartridge,
I've gotta say that I actually like this game. It's very simple in what you have to do, but
for some reason, it's actually very fun to play. So, you're a bee, and the object of the game is to
collect honey from flowers and return it to your hive. As you're flying along, you come across flowers
that you stick your nose into and collect the honey. Yep, flowers will produce honey, and all you have to do
is gather it and fill up a jar. You can collect honey from three flowers at a time,
and then you must return to the hive. After dropping off your honey load,
you can go collect more if the jar isn't full. Once you fill the jar, then you've completed the stage. Along the way, there'll be other insects and things
in the environment that'll just get in your way. A sprinkler head shoots water at you,
but it only stuns you. Spiders, ants, and butterflies are all here,
and this usually isn't a problem since being a bee, you have a stinger. Luckily, you're not like a normal bee because you can
use your stinger multiple times without dying. You can also kill enemies by shooting at them. What exactly you're shooting at them,
I don't know, but it works. Killing other insects with your stinger is pretty fun,
and I like the little splat of goo that they turn into, but you also turn into a splat of goo
when *you* die, so be careful. Your bee is pretty responsive,
but can be a bit hard to control. He moves pretty fast, but he can also stop fairly quickly. When you're done collecting honey,
your bee will pop out fairly far from the flower, so you gotta be careful that there's no enemies
behind you, or else it will be the death of you. Each level is colorful and well-drawn. I do like that there's bit of parallax scrolling in here,
which adds a touch of depth to the visuals, but for some reason, there's no music
while you're playing. What gives? Maybe I should be happy about that
because of the quality in the music from the other Codemasters games. Like I said, this is actually a really fun game to play,
despite it not having a lot of depth. If you're really interested, it looks like copies
aren't selling for bloated prices on eBay. (sound effects without music) JOE: Let's take a look at Sonic Jam 6 on the Genesis. If you missed out on Sonic Jam 1 through 5,
then this is the game for you. It features Sonic in his natural habitat
of Mushroom Kingdom. Like always, Sonic starts out red until he collects
a mushroom which turns him blue. If he takes a hit, he turns red again.
If you get hit while he's red, you die. But come on, this is all common knowledge
to Sonic fans. What's cool is that blue Sonic can collect a flower which lets him shoot things, which is accomplished
by pressing the A button. The B button stands for blast processing because
holding that button down makes Sonic run faster. And the C button jumps. Okay, all kidding aside, this is just Sonic pasted
into a bad port of Super Mario All-Stars. And yes, this was actually released in other countries. The control is slippery as hell. It took me a ton of tries just to get past level 1-2. This one originated in China, and is based on a
previous unlicensed game called Super Mario 2 1998, but it even got an official game rating by the ESRA,
which grades games for Iran. (Genesis music, SNES sounds) Or how about Lion King II on the Genesis? This one's a side-scrolling platformer. I've never seen The Lion King II movie, but did it
take place in china? Because this game sure does. I'm pretty sure that the developers ripped all of the lion
sprites and animations from the legit Lion King game. In this one, if you collect the star, you turn into an
adult lion, but if you get hit, you turn back into a cub. The control is fine and all, but the game
just doesn't fit well in the Lion King universe. Even the music is very Chinese-sounding. Still, some of the levels actually have
a somewhat decent design, surprisingly, so it'll keep you coming back
trying to make your way through them. (music and sound effects) So, how about Lion King 3, also on the Genesis? Is it better? Not really. You start out by choosing to play
as a cub or an adult lion. It makes no difference to the gameplay,
so it's just personal preference. This game relies more on the latching on and swinging
from an object aspect than the last one. And now, you have a power wave beam
that you can shoot. Oh, and these graphics were ripped straight from the
legitimate game that *did* have a license. I've played enough of the original to know *that*. But if I was just gonna choose one,
I'd choose Lion King II instead. (music and sound effects) DAVE: All right, I've mentioned one Tengen game.
Now, here's another. Toobin' was released for the NES in 1989. I remember kind of liking this game in the arcade. We actually had a friend who loved it. He'd go down to Circle K after school,
buy a 44-ounce soda, and then dump a few bucks into
the Toobin' arcade game. The NES port is fairly faithful, as far as gameplay goes. It tries to be like the arcade game in graphics
and sound, but understandably, it just can't match it. The object of this game is to hop on your tube
and ride down various rivers, all while collecting money, soda cans,
and letters to spell out the word "Toobin." Soda cans are necessary since this is what you throw
at enemies and branches in the water, 'cause, you know, branches are a tube's mortal enemy. Breaking a branch will usually give you
more soda cans, money, or letters. Throwing them at people or animals on the side of
the river will stop them from throwing things at *you*. Each river you race down has a theme
and some music to go with it, like the Rio Grande here has Mexicans shooting at you
and some nice Mexican music. (8-bit Mariachi music, sound effects) I actually thought the music in this stage fit well! The one thing this game is missing is the
two-player simultaneous play of the arcade. Toobin' is a fun game in short bursts, and you can
get this game for a decent price on eBay. (8-bit Arabian music, sound effects) JOE: Shui Hu Feng Yun Zhuan on the Genesis--
say that ten times fast--is actually kind of cool. This is a hack and slash beat 'em up, similar to
Golden Axe, and especially, Knights of the Round. You choose one of three characters,
or even two of 'em if you want to play with a friend. The action is pretty much what you'd expect:
hack enemies with your sword until they die. You also have a jump, as well as jumping attacks. Press the jump and attack button at the same time and you'll do a special move
which will drain a bit of your life bar, but it knocks down a lot of the enemies
that are surrounding you. Finally, you have a variety of magic spells
that you can use once you pick 'em up. These are really cool, and quite plentiful,
so don't be afraid to use them. My least favorite character to play as is the axe-wielding
dude, since he's pretty slow and kind of awkward. My favorite is the normal guy with the sword. The female character is almost as good;
she's pretty fun. One thing I think is really cool is when you bust barrels
open, you'll be presented with items for points, food to restore your health, or a magic item. That's not the cool part, though. If you slash the item, it divides up
so that you can share food and points with your friend if you're playing in two-player mode, you know, just like Knights of the Round. Overall, the control works out well, and
double-tapping the A button to use the magic was a little weird, but I got used to it. There's a little bit of slowdown here and there,
but it's not too bad. The graphics are pretty dang good: lots of vibrant colors and large enemy sprites. The animation is kinda choppy,
but I guess I can forgive that. I really like a lot of the backgrounds, as well. The music is surprisingly fantastic. I didn't hear any selections that I didn't enjoy,
and they really helped me get into the action. the sound effects are pretty good, as well, but
they stole the dying scream from Streets of Rage. (dying scream from Streets of Rage) Unfortunately, it's super easy to earn extra lives,
and they give you a ton of continues. So, it's kind of hard to *not* beat the game. Still, though, I recommend it as it's
a good time while it lasts. You can get a cartridge only version for around $40 or
so when it pops up on eBay, which really isn't that often. (music and sound effects) JOE: And there you go.
Those were a bunch of unlicensed games for ya. Some of 'em are probably plenty
good enough to be licensed if they didn't have, like, you know, material
that were ripped off, and stuff like that. DAVE: Yeah, or extreme violence
or some weird stuff, but on a side note, a cool thing that I liked was some
of the cartridges that these games came on. They were completely different than the Nintendo ones. They don't really stack nicely on your shelves,
they look a little out of place, but-- JOE: And that's what matters, you know? DAVE: Well, of course, you know,
to the vain game collector, it does. JOE: Yeah.
DAVE: But they're pretty cool, nonetheless. JOE: Yeah, and what are some of
your favorite unlicensed games? Do you have any that you think are good enough, or
even better than a lot of the licensed games out there? I bet you probably know of a few. And in the meantime,
thank you for watching Game Sack. (music from BlazBlue) DAVE: All right, Joe, you know, we just did that
unlicensed games episode, right? JOE: Dude, I totally remember that. DAVE: And I was looking at some of my games here,
like Mega Man and Castlevania, and they've got the Nintendo Seal of Quality on here,
which means they're quality games! And that's true: these are both quality! And I was thinking I can just walk into any store and if I see this quality seal on a game, I can buy it
and feel rest assured that I'm getting a quality game. JOE: Well, then, why does Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
have that same Nintendo Seal of Quality? Why, Dave, is this quality? DAVE: Uh, well, it's there bec--that's... JOE: And also, Totally Rad has that
same Seal of Quality. Is that quality, Dave? Is It? DAVE: You know what? All right, Joe,
let's talk about Sega for a second. I mean, they put their same
Seal of Quality on their games, and tell me, is Syd of Valis a quality game?
I don't think so. How about Heavy Nova?
I mean, look how big that thing is! JOE: You know what, Dave? I don't think those
quality seals mean a damn thing. DAVE: You're damn right.
