 Hello, long time viewers of this channel are likely familiar with the series I started all the way back in 2014, called English friendly Super Famicom games, it's got 5 parts covering all sorts of stuff you can play that never reach the US, and the games I cover do not need any sort of English translation patch, they're still playable as is. That series kind of reached a natural conclusion, and I'm starting to do individual videos on those games now, so I thought I'd mosey on over to other platforms like the NES, or in this case, the Family Computer, or the Famicom. And again, I'm going to be covering games that do not need an English translation patch to be playable, I know everyone's crazy about games like Sweet Home, or Famicom Wars, and rightfully so, but those games need a translation, so they won't be covered here. Let's start with platformers, and one in particular that you could argue is a top 10 8-bit game period, whether you're talking NES, Famicom, or whatever, and that's gimmick. It did make it to certain PAL regions, but it was never released in the US, and this game is one of the smoothest, most fluid, inventive platformers I've ever played. Is developed by Sunsoft, and you play as this little green dude who generates a star projectile that you use to knock out enemies, or as a platform to reach certain areas. The physics behind the star bouncing around is really something else. The level design is fantastic, and the music in this game is so, so good. So yeah, if you love 8-bit games, and you somehow haven't played this one, you owe it to yourself to check this one out any way you can. Moon Crystal is another really impressive title, especially when it comes to the visual and sound departments. The sprite animation here is uncommonly good. There's a bit of story you'll miss out on, but this one is still playable as is, and it's pretty standard stuff for an action platformer. You get 3 lives to get through 6 levels, although the last level is the same as the first except backwards. This one's a bit similar to Castlevania, although your character's range of motion is much larger. You can even do a double jump here, which is nice. This is a really fun playthrough that's tough, but not too tough. My only criticism is that the jump can be a little wonky, but let's face it, the visuals here are what steal the show. This game is just nice to look at. Next is Kiatou Nindenthe Yandee, which kinda sorta translates to Samurai Pizza Cats. Man, you gotta love the 90s back when you could just pick three things out of a hat and make it a cartoon somehow, whether it was Biker Mice from Mars or Swat Cat to the Radical Squadron or whatever. This one was developed by Tecmo back in their heyday, and it's a really solid game that has that same kind of polish you'd expect from top-tier action platformers like DuckTales or Bucky O'Hare. You have 3 lives to get through 11 levels, but what's awesome here is that there's 5 different characters you can switch between at any time during the game. Each of the characters has different abilities that you have to utilize to get past certain obstacles, like this cat who smashes boulders, or this cat who can fly. Plus all the different characters have different weapon ranges, jump ranges, and speeds. The controls are very similar to Ninja Gaiden, where you get a special weapon that you can use by pressing up and B, and you can upgrade that weapon as long as you don't take too much damage. I had a hard time putting this one down, it's a bit on the easy side, but it is a lot of fun. Next is a series I'm sure many of you are already familiar with, and it's Adventure Island 4. The US only got the first 3 games in the series before Hudson Soft moved on to the Super Nintendo with Super Adventure Island, so the 4th game stayed in Japan. And this is actually the last Famicom game ever made, and man it's a doozy. This is more of a Metroid style exploration game where there's 7 huge areas to explore, and it reminds me a bit of Super Adventure Island 2 in that regard. If you liked that game you'll love this one. All that good adventure style exploration stuff is here, from collecting items that help you unlock new areas, lots of different weapons and abilities, mini games, and for the most part the game is laid out as an open world. I should mention though, there's no timer based system here. Instead, every 8 fruits you collect replenishes 1 heart on your health meter. However when you die, you go all the way back to your house losing all your upgrades. Ugh. Still, this game is well worth checking out. There's also the Kid Nikki series, the first game got released in the US, but the 3 sequels did not. One appeared on Game Boy and the other 2 were on the Famicom, in particular the game I'm showing here, Kaiketsu Yanchimaru 2, Karakuri Land, or just Kid Nikki 2. This one's developed by Irem, and it's a perfectly good playthrough of an action platformer where you use your spinning blade to destroy enemies, with 3 lives to get through 8 levels, and the enemies here are pretty freaking weird. What am I fighting here, a side of fries? Evil strawberries? There's plenty of extra abilities you can collect as you go, the usual stuff like projectiles and speed upgrades. Nothing too fancy here, just a good solid game that'll help kill an hour for you. If you want something much, much more difficult, there's Holy Diver. Yes, that's right, Holy Diver is in the Dio Song and Album, and if you're a metal fan you'll really get a kick out of all the metal music references here. Your main villain is named Black Slayer, the Emperor's name is Ronnie the Fourth, there's characters named Randy and Zack as in Randy Rhodes and Zack Wild, and of course there's someone named Ozzy, why not? This is another action platformer made by Irem, and if you thought Kid Nikki 2 from them was too easy, this game is ridiculously tough. This one mostly resembles Castlevania both in theme and in gameplay, even in the enemy patterns, but yeah, this is classic NES difficulty complete with an absurd knockback when you get hit. This is a solid game, but play this one at your own risk. I should mention that the company Retrobit did re-release this one in cartridge form, so if you seek this one out, it's worth going that route. Next there's Bio Mirakuru Boku Teyupa, made by Konami. You might have seen this one before since it was briefly featured on the Wii Virtual Console back in the late 2000s, and this is the kind of game where when you see it you won't forget it. You play as a baby that uses a rattle to somehow inflate enemies and make them float away. What? What's cool here is that once inflated these enemies can be used as platforms if need be. You get 3 lives to get through 7 worlds that each have 3 stages, and the settings here are also goofy. You're digging around inside a giant cake, you're at a picnic, you're inside a computer. This is just a solid platformer with consistent physics and controls, I mean it's 90s Konami, so of course it's good. The music here is especially top notch. The Quest of Ki is the third game in what's referred to as the Babylonian Castle Saga, which started all the way back in 1984 with Tower of Druaga. Quest of Ki is actually a prequel to that game, and sure enough it's one maze after another, 100 to be exact, find the Ki and then find the exit while beating the time limit. This game is definitely goofy though, for one thing there's no weapons, the entire game is essentially just one big passive run, avoiding all the enemies you see. And even more interesting is the jumping, you'll float around in the air as long as you hold down the jump button, making this one remind me a bit of something like Solar Jetman. This is a challenging and unique puzzle platformer with a ton of content, but it's one of those games where either the controls work for you or they just don't. They did for me, but they might not for you. Here's one from Natsume titled Mitsume Gatturu, which roughly translates to Three-Eyed Boy. Yup, this game is based off of the manga and anime series, and for an 8-bit game it does a really nice job capturing the source material, and the sound design here is so satisfying. It's one of those games where it just feels nice to annihilate enemies because the sound is so good. But yeah, as you can see this is a pretty straightforward action platformer with three lives to get through five worlds split up into a couple different stages each, and your character's size, range of motion, and projectile weapon are very, very similar to Mega Man, although you do get a spear that you can use as an extra platform if you need it, but it's not used a whole lot. I will say the level design does a nice job keeping this one interesting throughout, so yeah, if you dig Mega Man you'll dig this game. It's that simple. Let's throw a shoot-em-up in here, and yes it's yet another game from Konami, this one titled Crisis Force, and when it comes to 8-bit shoot-em-ups this is pretty dang impressive. Yeah, there's a bit of slowdown and some fragmenting here and there, but this is still an awesome game with a ton of imagination and some great enemy design, and best of all it's two-player co-op. There's only five levels here, but there really doesn't need to be any more than that because, as you might expect, this game is really hard, so it really helps to have a second player. It's still well worth checking out. In the midst of the early 90s one-on-one fighting craze brought about by games like Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat, here we have Joy Mech Fight released only in Japan for the Famicom in May of 1993, and as you can see this game is freaking crazy looking. There's also a whopping 36 different fighters you can play as, each with four special moves, and yeah obviously this game is a bit limited in terms of modern fighters, but Joy Mech Fight is still such a trip to play. This game is available on the Switch Online Store in Japan, but the good news is if you have a paid Switch Online account in the U.S. you can create a free Japanese account and play this game that way. So go check it out if you can. Last, here's one of my favorites I've found recently and it comes straight out of the Kuniyokun universe, or for the uninitiated the River City Ransom or Renegade universe. This is Ike Ike Neketsu Haki Buu, and it's pretty much just Kuniyokun characters in a four-on-four hockey game, and that's pretty much it. And hey, that's pretty much all you need because this game is a lot of fun. All the classic Kuniyokun animations are here, you can beat the crap out of people with your stick, you can charge up your shot and unleash a laser shot that knocks people over, the controls are quick and responsive, and even better is that it's four-player compatible. How can you beat that? This game is just goofy, cartoony fun, even if you don't particularly care for hockey. Alright, that's all I got. I want to thank you for watching, and I hope you have a great rest of your day.