nesdev.org

Hey guys, been super busy lately and I know you've been waiting for this, so here's the long awaited

Top 100 NES Games Part 8, #29-20

Enjoy and feel free to leave your lovely feedback!

I couldn't say that Gradius II (a shooter) is better than DuckTales (platformer), but games that below to the same type. Well, DuckTales would stay together with DarkWing Duck and Rockman games.

Ninja Gaiden would be with Fist of the North Star; Contra is a shooter, but unlike Gradius.

Micro Machines! I'm too young to actualy remember toys, but I'v heard wbout them.One day I'll be a programmer good enough to hack this and make it play music

Earth Bound is still a product of its time, plagued by long hours of mandatory level grinding

Then, why don't mention about Easy patch for Eartbound zero?

Ah, and Super Spy Hunter..I always knew it's great game, but you helped me to realize why.Thanks.

Good news everyone!

I've finally got the next installment in my ongoing look at the best NES and Famicom games ever. Here's #19-11. Enjoy and feel free to leave your comments!

http://satoshimatrix.wordpress.com/2012 ... ist-19-11/

Although the North American version is noteworthy for its highly detailed graphics thanks to the capabilities of the MMC5

Actually the game doesn't utilize MMC5 all that well. Same graphics quality could be achieved with simpler mappers, so most of the MMC5's capabilities go to waste.

MMC5 may be impressive, but its nothing compared to VRC6.

This is just not true, as a whole technically MMC5 is way better than VRC6, and it's not even close. But I agree that when it comes to audio, VRC6 is better (the sawtooth is too cool).

[...] you can get a reproduction from NES Reproductions. You’ll need a special version of Super Mario Bros. 2 that has a full pinset.

I don't think it's very appropriate to make publicity for this in the review. Especially considering that a "special" version of SMB2 is non needed technically, there is many other ways to do it.
On and it's fun you put screenshots from the alternate translation (the one that expanded the ROM to 1024kB).

The Konmai VRC6 was a unique chip that allowed advanced visual effects similar to the MMC5
[...]
MMC5 may be impressive, but its nothing compared to VRC6.

No personal offense, but...

RAAAAAAAHHHHH NOT THIS AGAIN!!
I don't know who made this rumor but it's wrong !

Visually, the VRC6 can NOT do anything better than, say, the MMC3. The only difference comes down to the sound, and how banks are switched (which is the probably only reason Konami used the MMC5 for the US and PAL version).

Trust me, all that CV3 US/PAL does would have been possible with a MMC3 mapper, it's just they were lazy and didn't recode the engine to use MMC3's bank-switching scheme. The only place this game uses MMC5 mapper graphics is for the water in aquarius (they use a 3rd nametable for thw ater), and the VRC6 version does it with only two nametables, but there is glitches when scrolling.

The superior sound, added to the reduced difficulty compared to the North American build,

This is just not true. You obviously haven't compared both versions closely enough...

PS : It's fun how they used a remixed Needle Man music in the Rockman 3 commerical. It really does sound like SNES music.

They did actually add a few very minor MMC5 enhancements for the US version of Castlevania 3.
After you beat the game, you get some new monsters which did not appear in the Japanese version of the game, a highly erratic-moving skull monster, and an armored knight monster. It uses an MMC5 feature to get more possible graphics for sprites, where it switches in graphics into the right pattern table after it has drawn the background tiles, but before it has drawn the sprites, then switches it back after it has finished drawing the sprites. Effectively, you can get twice as many possible tiles for sprites than otherwise. But it's only used to get 1k of extra sprite graphics. (They took out the Japanese font, and had all this extra room left, so they threw in some extra monster graphics)
The Japanese version of the game also didn't have the rising water level, that got added for the US version. I'm not sure offhand which MMC5 feature it uses, but it does something to switch to a secondary (blue) tilemap below the water line.

It's very interesting to know that there's merit on having both versions of the game !

Bregalad wrote:

The superior sound, added to the reduced difficulty compared to the North American build,

This is just not true. You obviously haven't compared both versions closely enough...

Hmm, I played the North American version quite a bit and I remember the Japanese version being much easier. I only played a specific path through the game (I was doing a speed run using no spirit partners) and here are some examples of the North American version being more difficult:

- Enemies are more powerful. For example, get hit by anything in the last stage of the NA version and you lose 4 life bars. In the Japanese version, you lose 2-3 bars on enemies in the stage and certain attacks by the final boss.

- Speaking of the final boss, his third form is easier in the Japanese version because the lasers he shoots at you are half as long, making them a lot easier to avoid.

- The very last section of the final stage has you navigate a series of pendulums. In the North American version, there are bats that will attack you as you work your way from right to left, and they can actually be pretty tricky to avoid. No bats in the Japanese version. (Note: I once had a really good no-death run going up to this point and got clipped by a bat. 30 minutes down the drain )

Dwedit wrote:The Japanese version of the game also didn't have the rising water level, that got added for the US version.

It's in both versions. The US version is harder.

Also, in case people here aren't already aware, there are some MMC5-style homebrew NSFs out there that sound pretty nice.

@DWedit :
Thanks for the explaination about the enemies. I admit I never played much the game in hard mode, in either version, so I wasn't aware about that.

And yes the water rising level exists in all versions. It's just that in the japanase version, they switch to horizontal mirroring (vertical mirroring is used in the rest of the game), and have the top nametable for the status bar and level and the bottom nametable for the water. So they wrote a secondary scrolling routine for this sole leve and it has glitches when you scroll. The game also enable left-clipping only for this level, it even hides a part of the status bar ! Talk about rushed lazy work.

In the US/PAL version they made it with 3 nametables, and used the top two nametables for the status bar/level as usual, and have the 3rd nametable at the bottom, so they could scroll nomrally and not have glitches.
So this is the only place where the US/PAL version "looks better" because of the MMC5. All other levels are either the same or just palette swapped.

And for all those who claim the japanese version is easier, have you tried to fight death in the japanese version ? Because I can guarantee he's MUCH, MUCH, MUCH easier in the USA/PAL version. He's almost impossible in the jap version, in fact he's as hard as in CV1, but there's two forms !

There is other boss which are easier in the USA/PAL version too.
However I agree the last 2 levels and last boss is ridiculously hard in the US/PAL version and easier in the japanese verison, but that doesn't mean the japanese version is easier everywhere !!

Can't wait to see the top ten !

Alrighty guys, I've decided the best way to tackle the final top 10 is individual posts once a day for the next ten days. This way allows individual comments to be left for each entry, allows me time to write the next one without keeping you waiting for the whole thing, and avoids a monstrously large final post that would dwarf any I've done before. It will be a little bit better for everyone in my estimation.

Of course, you needn't agree with my choices, I'm just sounding my voice. I do hope for a discussion about these though, as they represent my absolutely favorites.

So here's #10.

http://satoshimatrix.wordpress.com/2012 ... s-list-10/

#9

http://satoshimatrix.wordpress.com/2012/03/03/3415/

#8.

http://satoshimatrix.wordpress.com/2012 ... es-list-8/

Okay, moving on to #7! This one was pretty exhausting. I rewatched several documentaries and did quite a bit of research and fact checking on my own for this, and even got some help by the great Frank Cifaldi of the lostlevels.org. I hope you guys enjoy!

http://satoshimatrix.wordpress.com/2012 ... es-list-7/