 Hello, here's a bonus Friday video where I'm going over some of the weirdest, strangest, most bizarre Super Famicom games that never left Japan. Well, with one big exception I'll let you know about. Now, I'll be honest with you, the only reason this is a list is because, well, the internet loves lists, so I cobbled together a ranking just based on my initial reaction to each game. In other words, don't put a lot of stock in these rankings, I just wanted an excuse to talk about and show you guys some weird ass video games, and a list just makes it an easy structure. Also, no, I have not played every Super Famicom game, so there might be some bizarre stuff out there that I missed. In addition, I also wanted to make sure this list mostly included games that are English-friendly, so each one of these games you can play as is without any patching involved. 13. Ufo Kamen Yakisoban Ketler No Kuroi Inbo The title roughly translates to Ufo Mask Yakisoban Ketler's Dark Conspiracy, and the gameplay here seems normal enough, it's a pretty standard beat-em-up, walk to the right and beat the crap out of everything. The thing is, your character is powered by instant ramen noodles, particularly Ufo Yakisoban noodles, and you play through the whole game as the product's goofy superhero mascot. Apparently a princess was kidnapped, and you have to get her back from the evil Ketler? I don't know if Ketler's a competing brand or what, but you have a health meter, and one continue to get through five levels, and some of the enemy design here is just, what the hell are these things? It's a pretty short playthrough and it's easy enough, and hey, as far as mascot games go, it's not as good as Coolspot, but it's not terrible either. 12. Yuyu Hakusho Tokubetsuhen Here's a game that isn't weird because of the content necessarily, but because of the structure and the presentation. This is obviously a licensed game based on the Yuyu Hakusho manga and anime series, but Tokubetsuhen is a one-on-one fighting game developed by Namco that takes place from kind of a cinematic perspective, if that makes sense? The way it works is you press a direction on the D-pad to take action, forward delivers a punch, back defends, up will let you use a skill move, and down lets you use a spirit attack. While you're holding down a direction, you see the red bar charging, at which point you hit one of the four face buttons that will dictate the effectiveness of your attack or defense. Yeah, it's pretty dang weird, and it's hard to get used to, but it's pretty cool once you get the timing down. There's a whopping 18 characters you can play as, so if you're a fan of the show, you'll love this game, and even if you've never heard of Yuyu Hakusho, this game is well worth checking out just because it takes such a wildly different approach for a fighting game. 11. Battle Tycoon Flash Hiders SFX Here's another fighting game that's not just weird when it comes to content, I mean there's all sorts of strange settings and strange characters here, but it's also weird in terms of structure. You pretty much just wander around the city, fighting in arenas, on the streets, or just wherever, and you win money you can use to upgrade your equipment, or even bet on other fights. There's a day and night cycle you gotta deal with, it's really kind of presented like an open world one-on-one fighting RPG in some ways. It's just that the RPG stuff here is really limited, but still, this game stands out as something different, especially when there's like two dozen generic fighting games out there that play exactly the same, so it's nice to see a fighting game that tried to be unique. 12. Ghost Sweeper Mikami, Joraiishi Wa-nice Body I did a video on this one a few months back, and it's another licensed game, this one being based on a manga and anime series, about a team of exorcists for hire that go around fighting ghouls, spirits, and other things out of the supernatural. The subject matter of course lends itself really well to a video game format, and sure enough this game is pretty dang good, it's one of the best in this video. You have a health bar with three lives and unlimited continues to get through seven levels featuring a handy-dandy wand mechanic that allows you to flip around all over the place in order to defeat enemy design like this. Kind of unsettling. Ghost Sweeper Mikami is a great representation of that mid-90s anime vibe with a horror motif. You'll see all sorts of crazy enemy and boss design, like these weirdos or these disembodied hands, or this boss here, good god. So if you like what you see here, then definitely check this one out. 9. Kigege no Kitaro Fukatsu Tenma Dayo, another licensed platformer based on a manga and anime series, and even more weirdness here, you fight flying goobers by shooting needles out of your hair. I read a while back that it was lice, but I guess that's not right. But yeah, needles sure makes a lot more sense, right? This is another game where all you gotta do is just sit back and look at some of this enemy design, whether it's this first boss here, or these guys here, or this Cyclops boss. I mean, look at this, you're being carried by crows and shooting needles out of your hair at the giant face of a fire-breathing Cyclops. It's like a Miyazaki story on a bad acid trip. You have one life bar and unlimited continues to get through 15 levels, although most of the levels here are pretty dang short. This game plays more like a boss gauntlet than anything else. There aren't a lot of other Super Famicom games out there that look or sound like this one does. So again, if you like what you see here, check this one out. 8. Amelon no Violin Hickey, this is one of my personal favorite games that never left Japan. It's a bit of a puzzle-platforming side-scroller where you play as Hamel, a traveling violinist who's a bit of a jerk, as you can see, since the main gameplay mechanic here is how he treats his traveling companion named Flute, using her as a stepladder or a battering ram. It's obviously played up for humor, and the pixel art and sprite work here is so, so good. Flute also has the ability to change costumes, so to speak, and she can take the form of up to 15 animals that all have different abilities, a bit like a Kirby game, and the level design here complements these characters really well. The catch here is you can't directly control Flute, and that may frustrate some people, but it's really just a simple matter of pressing the X button to get her to stay still, and X again to get her to move along with you. This is a really fun game that's definitely something a bit different. 7. 8. Yes, it wouldn't be a proper list of weird games without at least one Shoneniki game. This one features the usual ridiculous character models that are the series trademark, and this game for Super Famicom is a one-on-one fighting game, featuring eight different fighters, everyone from this ship with three flexing dudes on its back, to Adam from the Sistine Chapel riding what appears to be a half moon, and this green guy? What even is this? I mean, I don't even have to say anything here, just look at the backgrounds in this game, it's just freaking ridiculous. How do people even come up with this stuff? Anyway, beyond all the humor and wackiness, this is actually a pretty decent fighting game, and it's good for a laugh with a second player. 6. Gourmet Sentai Baroyaro Here's another game that got its own video on this channel not too long ago, and it's kinda sorta related to the Shoneniki series, and you can definitely see its influence at the very least. It's a side-scrolling beat-em-up with a face button dedicated to just flexing, it serves no purpose at all, it's just a stand there and pose. Okay, sure. What really makes this game weird, though, is that you only get one life and no continues to get through this entire game, and your health doesn't automatically replenish when you finish a level. Wait, what? That's ridiculous! The catch here is, you collect food that's dropped by defeated enemies, and you use that food to create a meal in between levels, and that's how you replenish health. And each one of the three playable characters all have their own peculiar tastes and preferences. So yeah, not only are you kicking the crap out of everything in a typical beat-em-up fashion, you're cooking up recipes. Yeah, this game isn't for everyone. There's a lot of trial and error here, but this game is definitely weird as hell. Five! Zigzag Cat, Ostrich Club, Moosawagi Da. Okay, I'm cheating a bit here, since this game really does need an English patch to understand how to progress, but I needed to include it in this video because it's so freaking weird. It's like a combination of a top-down adventure game and breakout, with the ball doubling as the title character Zigzag Cat. First of all, what a weird idea for a game, and second, what is even happening here? I'm destroying ostriches and angry cartoon pigs, then I'm wandering around talking to randos. Apparently, this game is a twist on a game that was scheduled for release in the US, but was canceled and never finished, and it was titled Corn Buster. That one eventually got a release in 2015 from Pico Interactive, so if you've played that game, then you get the general idea here. I'm not sure if you're better off playing that one over Zigzag Cat, but I just wanted to make sure I pointed this one out, because the gameplay, combined with the art style, makes this one pretty dang strange. Majuo, now we're talking, this game is messed up. We've got some of the craziest enemy and boss design ever, and the color palette used here makes this game look like it was directed by Dario Argento. You play as a character who has to journey through the depths of hell in order to rescue his daughter, you use a gun and a powered up Hadoken attack to destroy these weird ass enemies, and you eventually earn the ability to change forms, like this laser shooting pterodactyl, or this blue dragon thing. Sure, okay. This is a game where you just sit back and say, what the hell is this thing? Or this thing? What even is this? How do you even begin to imagine something like this? So if that's what you're looking for in a 16-bit action platformer, then you've found it with Majuo. 3. Dae Tonosama Apare Ichiban No, this isn't quite a Cho and Iki game, despite the appearances, but it's in a similar spirit, what with the comically overly detailed muscular physiques of some of the sprites here, as well as some of the crazy enemies and off-the-wall settings. As you can see, this one's a top-down Paki and Rocky style run and gun with two playable characters, and their names translate to Lord Stupid and Prince Stupid. You gotta love that. The action here can get chaotic at times to the point where I don't even know what the hell is happening or what I'm even looking at. There's also bizarre game mechanics that I can kind of sort of make sense of, but not really, like this TGR gauge that can turn your character into a Hulk Hogan-sized brute, but only temporarily, I guess? That mechanic seems to have a mind of its own, but it's just as well, since this game is so frenetic that I wouldn't expect anything less. But yeah, the best way to describe this one is enjoyably confusing, and I really like it a lot. 2. We have a four-way tie. It's all four Goemon games that never left Japan. I'm talking about Ganburi Goemon 2, 3, 4, and the puzzle game, starring Goemon's pal Ebi Sumaru. No, I'm not even going to try and pronounce the Japanese titles of those games because it would take me about 20 minutes and I'd still be butchering them, and I've butchered enough Japanese in this video so far. So for the uninitiated, only one 16-bit Goemon game made it out of Japan, and that was Legend of the Mystical Ninja, and these games are the sequels. Again, I'm kind of cheating a bit with these because they definitely could benefit from English patches, so you know what you're buying from the stores and such, but you can still manage decently enough to make your way around, even if you do miss most of the story. You really can't go wrong with any of these games, they're all really crazy in the best possible way. My preference is Ganburi Goemon 4 because it's got the best graphics and sound of the four games, plus boss fights like this soccer ball robot thing, and you're driving a snowmobile, you're fighting a boxing match, and then there's bonus levels like whatever the hell this is, I don't even know. There's even a puzzle fighter style bonus game, it's awesome. So yeah, if you like Legend of the Mystical Ninja, the sequels are way more out there and way crazier and well worth playing. Once again we have another tie, hey I told you this list gimmick was ridiculous, this time it's three games, and of course it's gotta be the three Perotius games. Now the first Perotius did get released in PAL regions, so those folks are already familiar with this variety of insanity, but the two sequels stayed in Japan, and if you dig Perotius then prepare yourself for a lot more of it because that's exactly what those games are. Perotius on a cocktail of steroids and crack. Again for the uninitiated, Perotius is a parody of Gradius. Gradius, parody, Perotius, get it? Anyway, they're horizontal scrolling shoot-em-ups and they're all brutally difficult, but they're also incredibly entertaining, just tons upon tons of stuff happening on screen at once, just pure insanity from beginning to end. The third game is especially crazy since it introduces the much needed feature of having an old Japanese man shout at you. I wish more games had that, can you imagine playing Ken Griffey Jr. presents Major League Baseball and in the middle of a play some old guy shouts something unintelligible at you, man what a missed opportunity. Anyway, if you're into crazy stuff in video games you gotta check out all three Perotius games, there's nothing more I can say here that you can't see for yourself on the screen, it's like staring into a bowl of fruity pebbles while tripping on LSD. In fact, more accurately, these games make you feel like you're on drugs without taking any drugs, maybe they make you wonder if you accidentally took something without remembering, and that's really the best endorsement that I can give. Alright, that's my list, I want to thank you for watching and I hope you have a great rest of your day.