Famicom recommendations?

[classicgamer74]

I'm kind of new to the Famicom. Can anyone recommend some great Famicom games that were not ported to the NES? I know all about Patton and Doki Doki Panic. Thanks!!

[Trinity]

Galaxian, Space Invaders.

[Tanooki]

There's a long list. Much of what Konami released for shooters never came here, or in the case of one was kind of a downgraded hack job (Salamander vs Life Force.) Kid Dracula, Gradius II, the true Castlevania III, Yume Penguin Monogatari, Crisis Force(must see), , the multiple Ganbare Goemon games, Parodius, Twinbee 1 and 3 (we got Stinger kind of as Twinbee 2, fits with Life Force as a hack job), and had those came out to make sense of my next to Wai Wai World 1 and 2 would work, and they had more like Metal Slader Glory, Lagrange Point, and even FDS game Miracle of Almana.

 

Namco comes to mind with some solid games like their cute version of Splatterhouse or Final Lap Twin which was kind of a RPG/F1 Racer among others, and many of their arcade games missed like Dig Dug, Druaga, Galaxian, Mappy, Pac-Land, probably a dozen others (wiki it) also well known to port quite a few titles to Famicom too.

[deepfb]

I always name Panic Space as my favourite game for Famicom, since a) it is a cracking game for anytime standards, and b) it is only available on Famicom. It takes elements from games like Deflektor, Gear Works and Sokoban.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pm4lMrGNL8

Edited May 14, 2019 by deepfb

[CatPix]

If you're talking emulation (either all dgital or Famicom+ Everdrive) you can try the FDS games. Or if you have a working FDS, then congrats!

Then you can try the Japanese version of Zelda - it's not very different, except for the music which use the extra chip of the FDS, which include an oscillator, making it sounds real special.

You can also try the Japanese Super Mario Bros 2; if you like breakout clones, you can try CrackOut (also released in Europe for some reason).

 

 

 

Edit : the music thing won't work on the Japanese cart release of Zelda (or any FDS to cart re-release), as they didn't included the FDS sound chip and simply used the NES sound chip.

Edited May 14, 2019 by CatPix

[NE146]

There are plenty. I like the shooters like Gradius 2, Recca Summer Carnival, Crisis Force, and Cosmic Epsilon are some of the often cited Famicom only shmups that never made it here:

e.g. Konami's Crisis Force had some M.U.S.H.A-ish nice effects.

[Tanooki]

Crisis Force is insane, glad to own that and oddly came with the manual when I got it too. The game is a true stand out for what the NES really could pull off getting creative with things. I love my HiDefNES kit in my top loader because you get all that yummy expanded audio from all sorts of chips (FDS too) as you pointed out without compromises.

[Newsdee]

A nice way to use FDS games is with an FDS RAM adapter plus an SD card dongle that replaces the magnetic drive. That will give expansion audio and load faster than a real FDS drive.

 

My personal favorite Famicom games need translations. Digital Devil Monogatari: Megami Tensei (without "Shin) is interesting to try. Final Fantasy III (JP version) has more depth than the first 2.

 

And if you feel masochist you can try the infamous kusoge (lit. "shit game") Takeshi's Challenge, created with Takeshi "Beat" Kitano, an early example of game built with/for celebrities. Thing is aside from the gameplay, the concept/story is pretty crazy as an 8bit game, it feels like a massive trolling from Beat Takeshi.

Edited May 15, 2019 by Newsdee

[GarrettCRW]

Devil World is simple and gets undue hype because it's the only Miyamoto title never to be released in the US, but it's worth checking out, for sure. Zelda 2 FDS is worth checking out because the leveling up system is entirely different, but otherwise, the NES version is a major upgrade. Astro Robo Sasa, Moai Kun, and Door Door are quality puzzles games that made it over here, and the Lolo games (some of which are named Eggerland) have different puzzles, and there are a lot more Lode Runner games, too. If you're into sports games, the original Tecmo Bowl had an updated roster for its Famicom release, the Famista series is RBI Baseball, just with rosters and teams from '80s-era NPB. Other Famicom/FDS titles I'd recommend are Ai Senshi Nicol, Bio Miracle Bokuette Upa, The Goonies, Esper Dream 1 and 2, Getsu Fuu Ma Den, Gimmick!, and Uforia.

Edited May 15, 2019 by GarrettCRW

[empsolo]

I also suggest Castlevania I and Metroid on the FDS as well. Instead of a convoluted password system, both games allow you to have save files instead.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[CatPix]

And the music is nice (for Castlevania, I have Metroid but the disk is kaputt and won't read after the first loading, so, I don't know the music ).

Castlevania II music is also good.. but you need to already know the game or have a guide to play it:D

 

(the ifrst music is the one you get on the name registration/selection, so that one is just unknow on NES versions).

 

Edited May 15, 2019 by CatPix

[Tanooki]

Nice selection there, I found those due to the other video yesterday. It's interesting as you can see those 2 Castlevania games and the audio is barely changed, it's subtle, same could be said well enough on Kid Icarus too. But then you fire up something like the original Zelda or Metroid and it's very very obvious and depending on your taste an improvement.

 

It's a shame those cheapskates at the least didn't go with more custom chips in the US as Castlevania 3 and some Namco and Sunsoft titles took a hard hit in the audio department. They sound great either way, but not truly great once you hear what was lost in translation.

[Hakogame 箱亀]

One of the Famicom exclusives I like is Layla, but it's a bit expensive. Usually around $40 or so loose.

[empsolo]

Nice selection there, I found those due to the other video yesterday. It's interesting as you can see those 2 Castlevania games and the audio is barely changed, it's subtle, same could be said well enough on Kid Icarus too. But then you fire up something like the original Zelda or Metroid and it's very very obvious and depending on your taste an improvement.

 

It's a shame those cheapskates at the least didn't go with more custom chips in the US as Castlevania 3 and some Namco and Sunsoft titles took a hard hit in the audio department. They sound great either way, but not truly great once you hear what was lost in translation.

Kind of hard to do expansion audio when the extra audio channels on the console are located in the unused expansion port, with the channels disconnected from the cartridge port.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[empsolo]

Also if you are picking up an original Famicom with the hard wired controllers instead of the pricier NES style AV Famicom, might I suggest this bad boy as an alternative controller?

 

 

It’s a Sansui Joycard SSS. It’s a third party Famicom controller made by Japanese TV giant Sansui. Its basically an NES controller that plugs into the expansion port of the Famicom and replaces the controller for player 1. As you can see it even has built in turbo modes as well. This thing was so popular that Hudsonsoft would get the distribution rights to release it in North America for the NES.

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Edited May 16, 2019 by empsolo

[CatPix]

There are several alternatives like that. Hori made their own :

Well, it's Hori. quality wise it's even better than the original Famicom pads (which isn't saying much, unlike the NES that was conceived as a quality item, the Famicom was built on the cheap - not crap, but cheap)

 

The turbo options are sliders rather than 2 or 3 position switches, but in effect in game, it feels like a 3 position switch, which is a good point, since in some games, likke megaman, you're limited to 3 bulelts on screen, so you can actually have it so that you have a constant but slower rate of fire.

Edited May 16, 2019 by CatPix

[Tanooki]

Kind of hard to do expansion audio when the extra audio channels on the console are located in the unused expansion port, with the channels disconnected from the cartridge port.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

There are ways around it but I know what you mean. Nintendo could have allowed a jumper for it off that port in the day. More recent years a simple jumper or using a hidefnes kit install gets you that audio as the system itself is capable.

[GarrettCRW]

There are ways around it but I know what you mean. Nintendo could have allowed a jumper for it off that port in the day. More recent years a simple jumper or using a hidefnes kit install gets you that audio as the system itself is capable.

 

Their solution involved the NES version of the FDS (which never came to pass due to chip advancements), and really, do you think that Nintendo would have recalled MILLIONS of NESes or rendered them partially obsolete with a change to the hardware? Besides, Nintendo controlled cart production in the West, which meant that they didn't even have access to the sound-enhanced chips anyways.

[Tanooki]

Nope never would they do that, but as shown with N64 at least stateside they're not opposed to having snap on upgrades to allow for more playability outside of Japan where they had the FDS and 64DD. I know all well what they controlled, it was total up until later in the game when some started to get a bit creative about things licensed or otherwise (acclaim carts, tengen carts, etc.)

[classicgamer74]

Wow. Thanks, everyone.

[GarrettCRW]

Nope never would they do that, but as shown with N64 at least stateside they're not opposed to having snap on upgrades to allow for more playability outside of Japan where they had the FDS and 64DD. I know all well what they controlled, it was total up until later in the game when some started to get a bit creative about things licensed or otherwise (acclaim carts, tengen carts, etc.)

 

The 32 bit era game market was a LOT different than the NES era market, and it's apples and oranges anyways since the N64 RAM upgrade applied to all regions.