The Goonies. One of the lost NES games in North America.

[Nutsy Doodleheimer]

This year marks a milestone anniversary as Konami's The Goonies turned 30 a little over a month ago this past February. The Goonies was only originally released for the Famicom. But released in North America only on the arcade machine Vs. Goonies and The NES Playchoice 10 machines. It never had a scheduled NES release except for Goonies 2 which came out the following year in 1987 which is a platformer with RPG elements. This version was a platformer where you control the main character Mikey. He goes through six levels jumping and kicking his way through. Killing mice for bombs to blow safes up for keys, life potion, slingshots, his friends, and other treasures. You must collect three keys to pass a level and if you don't rescue one of your friends while completing the stage then you have to do the level over again in future progress. I find this to be a fun game with great replay value. A total shame it was only released in Japan but there are reproduction carts for it today especially you would think The Goonies is more popular in North America than Japan. I did a gameplay video of the entire game below this post. There are special items and hidden items for bonus points where you have to stand and input the correct code on the controller. Some of your items are.

 

Earphones- Collect these and the musical notes from one of the singing Fratelli Brothers won't harm you.

 

Flamesuit- This will prevent damage from the flame traps in later levels.

 

Raincoat- This will prevent damage from steam, dripping water, and waterfalls.

 

Helmet- This will prevent any falling projectiles to harm you.

 

Jumping Shoes- Only used in one section of the game which is in stage 3 where you leap over a large pit to warp to stage 5.

 

Armor- You will not take damage from bats, bones the skeletons throw, and bullets.

 

http://youtu.be/K0EqlD5PZco

[jhd]

Wasn't this title available in the PlayChoice 10 system? I have vague memories of playing it once or twice (I'm not a fan of platformers) at my local arcade back when I was in High School. (I did not own a NES, so that was my only real exposure to the system.)

[mbd30]

"Goonies II" really should have been titled "The Goonies" in North America since we didn't get the first one.

[CatPix]

I have this game on MSX. I believe the title first existed on the MSX since it's what happened with a lot of MSX titles. Great game, nice gameplay and graphisms (from what I know of the MSX version).

Edited March 30, 2016 by CatPix

[phattyboombatty]

I have this game on MSX. I believe the title first existed on the MSX since it's what happened with a lot of MSX titles. Great game, nice gameplay and graphisms (from what I know of the MSX version).

The MSX version of The Goonies is quite different. It was ported over to the ColecoVision and published by Team Pixelboy last year. Phenomenal game, and I always wonder why it's seldomly recognized. Kind of a "Goonies 0" as opposed to a "Goonies III".

[high voltage]

I love the Atari 8bit version of The Goonies, multi character play to solve the puzzles, great fun.

[DuggerVideoGames]

Goonies II was better because you could hit Konamiman in the nuts with a hammer.

[Great Hierophant]

I have this game on MSX. I believe the title first existed on the MSX since it's what happened with a lot of MSX titles. Great game, nice gameplay and graphisms (from what I know of the MSX version).

 

The game could have been developed alongside the Famicom version, since the gameplay is similar and some of the assets may have been reused. This situation is not unique, Akumajou Dracula/Castlevania/Vampire Killer was also developed in that manner.

 

Wasn't this title available in the PlayChoice 10 system? I have vague memories of playing it once or twice (I'm not a fan of platformers) at my local arcade back when I was in High School. (I did not own a NES, so that was my only real exposure to the system.)

 

Yes, it was. Konami intended to release both Goonies games, but by the time they seriously got around to it putting it out on cartridge format, the original Goonies was looking a bit dated. Apparently the Goonies II artwork could not be redone or no one cared. Plus the board/mapper for The Goonies, although simple, was not one in Nintendo's catalog, and Konami probably did not want to go to the expense of making a custom board for this game. Konami did produce NES cartridge PCBs, but they were always based on Nintendo's designs.

[Tempest]

 

The game could have been developed alongside the Famicom version, since the gameplay is similar and some of the assets may have been reused. This situation is not unique, Akumajou Dracula/Castlevania/Vampire Killer was also developed in that manner.

 

That's probably exactly what happened. They're similar, but also different enough to be separate games. Personally I like the NES version better than the MSX version.

[homerhomer]

The Famicom Goonies deserved to be a black box game. I played it back in the day at a bowing alley, fun game.

 

Sent from my XT1053 using Tapatalk

[Tempest]

The Famicom Goonies deserved to be a black box game. I played it back in the day at a bowing alley, fun game.

 

I thought so too so I had someone make me a custom black box label for it years and years ago. A quick search on the net shows that it has made the rounds on various repro sites, I sure hope the the person authorized them to do that.

[schuwalker]

I completely had forgotten about the backpack special item. Talk about semi-useless at that stage in the game:/

[Austin]

Hey Keith, turn the auto-focus off in future videos.

 

The game looks pretty fun. Wasn't a huge fan of Goonies 2 myself because of the first-person/adventure parts. This looks similar, minus the adventure portions.