Famicom Mini Series 2 Reviewed Following Series 1 U.S. Debut

Thanks to 1UP for its reviews of the second batch of Famicom Mini (NES Classic) series for Game Boy Advance, since "Japanese gamers... are already enjoying their second batch of remakes", following this week's release of eight of the portable conversions from the NES in the States. Intriguing second-batch picks from the almost-complete review set include Ghosts 'N Goblins ("The return of the game that made masochism fun"), Balloon Fight ("Has a simple, universal appeal"), and Adventure Island ("...may well be the most fun you'll ever have running in a straight line from left to right"), and a stuttering IGN has also started coverage of Series 2.

Comments

games i miss/want

[thexdane]

it's cool they're releasing all these old games on the gba but i'd really like them to release dragon warrior, final fantasy and faxanadu

the gba has some great rpg's so why not include the best ones out there

Re:games i miss/want

[MC Negro]

i'd really like them to release dragon warrior, final fantasy and faxanadu

Dragon Warrior I & II were released a while back, as was Dragon Warrior III. Final Fantasy has already had some stints on the GB/GBC/GBA, but the first two are on their way to coming to the GBA as well (albeit, in Japan first)

I don't think we'll see vanilla versions released like the recent releases from Nintendo, due to licensing issues.

Why rip?

[Apreche]

Why is everyone ripping on Nintendo for these NES re-releases? Complaints I've heard:

It's an exact port of a game I paid for a long time ago, I don't want to pay for it again!

You can get Mario Bros. for free because it comes with Mario Advance ( this is justified ).

They didn't soup up the graphics and sound.

Listen. I think that Nintendo re-releasing its old NES games for the GBA is the best thing ever. And the fact that they are kind enough to sell them for cheap instead of full GBA price is even better. Not 5 years ago I was complaining that they were trying to shut down all the emu and rom sites because there was no other way to play those games if you couldn't find a working NES. Nintendo has made good and re-released their old games and in a portable fashion. Remember, the GBA goes places. Before now there was no way to play Zelda 1 in your car. Sure it might be the exact same game as back in the 80's. And sure I might be paying for the same game 3 times in my life. But there is nothing I wanted more than the ability to play Mario 3 and Zelda 1 in my car, and I have that ability now.

There is a demand by people like me for the nostalgia to be revived and the old games to be released again in true form. Nintendo is the only company willing to supply and I salute them. You might think its stupid or a waste of money, but that's because the nostalgia is lost on you. It amazes me every day that people not 3 years younger than I grew up with only Playstation. They don't know what gaming really is and their Zelda 1 was Final Fantasy 7. When square re-releases that feature film + leveling treadmill for the PSP you wont see anyone bitching.

Re:Why rip?

[Anonymous Coward]

Just wondering but isn't it kinda hazardous to play a GBA game while driving? :p

Re:Why rip?

[TechniMyoko]

we're 'ripping' on nintendo for not releasing all the games on one cart like other companies.

Re:Why rip?

[suyashs]

Remember, the GBA goes places. Before now there was no way to play Zelda 1 in your car. Actually if you have a GP32, you can play pretty much any NES game in your car, plane etc.

Re:Why rip?

[MilenCent]

(sigh)

I want to like these, I really do. The original Legend of Zelda is still one of the greatest video games ever made.

But I already have Zelda 1 on the Gamecube, as part of the four-game collectors' disk they made available to people who bought enough other Nintendo games. (For me, they were Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga and Mario Kart Double Dash.)

As noted on the linked-to sites, Mario Bros. is available as an eCard set, as an extra in Animal Crossing and, in a graphically-upgraded version, in *five* other GBA games. Super Mario Bros. has been remade several times.

Also consider that the original ROM sizes of these games were so miniscule that the entire game, plus an NES emulator, could be quickly sent over the pipe from Animal Crossing, and fit entirely in the GBA's built-in RAM.

In short, while some of the games are really cool, $20 is too much for only ONE ancient NES game. And few of the games are worth shelling out *any* money for. If all these games were available on *one* GBA card, which given their miniscule memory footprints could have easily been done, then maybe. As it is... no.

There is only one exception. A gamer who never got to play the original Zelda might be better served getting this than playing it on the Gamecube compilation (or the secret Animal Crossing item made available with a cheat device) for one reason: it'll probably come with a full manual. Zelda is a game that needs its manual. The booklet that came with the Zelda retrospective disk gave it two scant pages! Not a smart way to introduce gamers to one of the highlights of your company's history....

Re:Why rip?

[fr0dicus]

No-one's making you buy it! These are clearly designed to appeal to collectors and fanboys.

Re:Why rip?

[MilenCent]

Heh, has it ever occured to you that I might be both a collector *and* a fanboy?

Of course no one's making me buy it. But if they had put a little more effort into it, I might consider it.

Re:Why rip?

[fr0dicus]

Pah! A collector-fanboy wouldn't even have to look once!

:-)

Re:Why rip?

[Anonymous Coward]

The Japanese market bore the Famicom Mini releases quite well, particularly Super Mario Bros. It sold like crazy.

The fact is, nobody HAS to buy this stuff. Not all of it, and not any of it. But if anybody can market these things at $20, it's Nintendo. You think if Konami could have gotten away with selling a straight unenhanced GBA port of Yie Ar Kung Fu at $20 in 2004, separate of inclusion from a compilation cart, they wouldn't?

Anyhow, I'm grabbing the full set eventually, along with a NES GBA SP. Not because I'm a fanboy or give a damn if people see what my GBA looks like, but because I'm honestly interested in collecting and playing the set on the road, as well as looking at my old school pad design while I do it.

Re:Why rip?

[Anonymous Coward]

No doubt. I've been set to pick up the full collection, plus a NES-style GBA SP since I heard about their North American releases. The games could be $35 each and they could have put a 25% premium on the NES-style GBA for all I care, I'd still be planning to collect them. The lower price on the games is just a nice bonus for me.

Re:Why rip?

[Apreche]

You overlook one thing my friend. It's PORTABLE now. I have zelda 1 for the cube also. And for the NES. And in a ROM. But I can't take it in the car. That's worth 20 bucks alone.

Re:Why rip?

[MilenCent]

You may have a point there. Does anyone know if the emulation of the secret Zelda game in Animal Crossing is GBA portable? I'm imagine not, since one of the other games in that (Wario's Woods) isn't, and Zelda uses a battery save.

Another reason one might want to pick up one of the later emulated versions of Zelda (on whatever system) even if one already owns the cartridge: by this time, the batteries on the old games are probably all dead.

Re:Why rip?

[DeadScreenSky]

There is a demand by people like me for the nostalgia to be revived and the old games to be released again in true form. Nintendo is the only company willing to supply and I salute them.

Huh? The only company? How so? I personally have gotten quite a bit of enjoyment out of Midway Arcade Treasures Volume 1. Same price as one of these new Nintendo GBA ports. 25 or so games, many of them undisputed classics (Rampart, Defender, Super Sprint, Robotron 2040, Spyhunter, Joust and its sequel, Gauntlet, etc.). Nintendo charges 20 bucks just for its poor Joust 1 ripoff. And Midway's Volume 2 hits sometime in October. Midway is hardly the only company that has been doing this, and plenty of non-Nintendo game companies have been doing it on portables since the original Gameboy.

And even ignoring collections, what about the inclusion of the first two Prince of Persia games in Sands of Time? The original Ninja Gaiden console games included in the new Ninja Gaiden? Etc. etc. Not only do you get the classic games - you also get masterful, best-of-breed new versions.

Nintendo is hardly the only company that supports nostalgic gamers, but they do usually charge the most and give the least bonuses (Midway collection has online scoreboards and documentary materials - an internet password is the least Nintendo could have added to the GBA games!). That is what most people are complaining about, and for good reason.

Re:Why rip?

[roadies]

I agree. If the games are small enough to fit on an e-reader card, then you can fit the whole NES library (well at least all the best sellers or first-party made games) on one GBA cartridge. Portability and convenience would be worth the extra price tag then.

Did you miss E3?

[Inoshiro]

FF1 and 2 are being remade (again) for the GBA. To encourage you to buy a game you probably own 3 copies of, they're even throwing in a new dungeon that has bosses from newer games in FF1 (you can fight the Phantom Train from FF6!), and FF2 is getting a new story via the 'Soul of Rebirth'

This has been reported everywhere, both in Japanese and English! How'd you miss out?

Don't forget also River City Ransom EX, Virtua Fighter Quest, RE 4, the Mega Man collections for GBA and GCN, and Shinning Force coming to the GBA! It's not the horrible Shinning Soul dungeon crawler ;P

Re:Did you miss E3?

[Anonymous Coward]

Shinning Force

Willy: You've got the Shinning, lad!
Bart: Don't you mean "Shining"?
Willy: Ach, you want to get sued?

Re:Did you miss E3?

[dancingmad]

What if we don't own one copy of the games? I'm no young turk, but I never got around to buying the first two games (even the PSX rereleases were ridculously overpriced).

Dr. Mario

[88NoSoup4U88]

If someone plans on buying the (excellent) Dr. Mario, consider shelling out a little bit more for Wario Ware Inc. , and get Dr. Wario as a free mini game within this (also excellent) game.

Re:Dr. Mario

[Gothic_Walrus]

Just one warning: the Dr. Wario version of the game is single-player only.

If you want the multiplayer support, go for the Classic NES version, as it's the only one with it. If it doesn't matter to you, go with Wario Ware instead.

Re:Dr. Mario

[Anonymous Coward]

I wish I could mod this up, because it's the best reccomendation I've seen in ages.

Dr Wario is single player, but Wario Ware will be the gem of your GBA collection, hands down.

On a Wario Ware note, dont miss the Game Cube version. It's simply the most fun you'll ever have in a party game. Especially if a little real life interaction finds its way into it!

Re:Dr. Mario

[KDR_11k]

I'm not sure but from the bit I've played it seemed a bit different from the GB version (which I assume has identical gameplay to the NES version). Notably the scoring and the number of virii in each level seemed different. There are three virii as opposed to four per level and IIRC Dr. Wario gives no bonus points for chains.

Some people just can't see the bright side

[Syncdata]

I agree with your post, and I myself wonder why people complain about Nintendo's response to the ROM question. I don't think many of them really wanted the solution solved, because it would undermine the main argument for using ROMS (Commercial inavailability)

That said, I picked up zelda for my SP yesterday, and it's great finally being able to play it again legally, and with proper handles. But why, I ask, why did Nintendo include the slowdown when 7 or so enemies are on screen? The GBA is capable of handling that many sprites, and a "pure" emulation is already off the table, due to the screen format. It just seemed like an odd decision, that had to be actively made, to not clean up technical issues. Still, I'm glad they didn't spruce up the graphics, or make Link say "Ha!" Everytime he swings his sword.

And for those curious, Zelda 1, when played with proper handles, is still one of the best games ever. Easily in the top 5. I thank Nintendo profusely for re-releasing it.

Re:Some people just can't see the bright side

[Anonymous Coward]

People usually say "controls" instead of "handles". It's clearer.

Emulation is not "off the table". It's been done in the form of PocketNES, so there's definitely enough CPU power. Nintendo's solution to the resolution difference so far has been to squish the games vertically, causing some horizontal lines of pixels to simply disappear.

I don't have the collectors disk.

[Syncdata]

Also consider that the original ROM sizes of these games were so miniscule that the entire game, plus an NES emulator, could be quickly sent over the pipe from Animal Crossing, and fit entirely in the GBA's built-in RAM.

Your argument gets a little sympathy with me. Again, a perfect port is off the table given the screen size, so it would be nice to bump the product up a little, such as removing the slowdown. One area I think they could have really cleaned up on with this release was to include a third, fourth, fifth quest, etc. Given the relative simplicity of the maps, it wouldn't have killed them to add a few more quests.

But I've wanted a portable zelda1 since I bought an SP, and I couldn't find it in my heart to go the GP32 route.

Re:I don't have the collectors disk.

[MilenCent]

Actually, adding extra quests after the second would be rather harder than you might think.

The original Zelda, if I remember correctly, came on a one megabit cartridge. That's 128k in which to squeeze 128 overworld screens and 18 dungeons.

Because of the morbidly restricted ROM size they had to resort to a large number of tricks to squeeze the large game area into memory. That explains some of the weirdness with the overworld layout, instead of being an array of tile information, each screen is actually a set of tile columns which can be mixed and matched to make each screen. And each dungeon is composed of a small number of possible rooms mixed and matched to make each maze.

However, most of the tricks used in the game are already exploited almost to their maximum effect by the end of the second quest (which is already rather cheap in places).

Of course, this hasn't stopped people from hacking up the Zelda ROMs themselves and making their own, often funky, third-plus quests available for download on the Internet for play on emulators.

What do you mean by proper handles?

[Inoshiro]

I don't understand your use of the words from the context.

Re:What do you mean by proper handles?

[Anonymous Coward]

handles=controls

If you can't spend 40$ CDN on a game..

[Inoshiro]

Gaming isn't a hobby for you. It's obviously far too expensive. Take up sewing. That's cheap!

Seriously, though, then you have even less reason to not rebuy repackaged childhood memories. It beats the piss out of importing a Wondarswan and apropos cartridge!