Games Bought Thread 3

[A Black Falcon]

My last (for this year) big box of Japanese games just arrived. I may get a few more individual titles, but nothing like this, or the last two (which are in the big list above, and make up a lot of it), Shipping this time was $85, a bit more than the other ones, because the box is bigger (more multi-game lots). Games mentioned together were each together in a lot.

All games are Japanese of course.

One interesting thing is that Japanese game boxes have plastic trays inside, instead of paper ones like most US boxes did. This helps them hold shape better... and yes, the SNES, GG, and N64 boxed games I got here all are like this.

Game Gear
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Royal Stone (Game not listed on IGN) - $7.01, complete. This is the spiritual sequel to Crystal Warriors, which is a great game and one of the best games on the GG. Sadly it was only released in Japan. The game comes with a map/item list poster, as well as the manual, which is cool.

SNES
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Super Bomberman 4, Super Tetris 3, Dragon Quest III, and Gussun Oyoyo 2 (Game not listed on IGN) - $10.51, carts only. I got this for everything except DQIII. All four games are Japan-only releases, and Super Tetris III has four player multiplayer, too. Super Bomberman 4 sounds decent; maybe better than the first one? Also, Gussun Oyoyo 2 is in the same series as the Saturn game I got last month. This one gets better reviews than that game, though it was pretty decent too.
Pop'n Twinbee - $5.50, cart only. Vertical-scrolling shmup from Konami. Decent series; I like Gradius and Parodius more, but this is fun too, and it does have two player simultaneous. This game was released in Japan and Europe, but not the US, like several other SNES, PS1, GB, and Saturn Twinbee and Parodius games.
Dragon's Earth - $6, complete. Strategy game. The ingame menus are all in English, which is nice. This is a somewhat unique and rarely mentioned fantasy strategy game, so even though the ingame text is English, I'm sure it'll take a bit of effort to figure out how to play... the manual is in Japanese after all. You've got to defeat the dragons and protect your medieval kingdom.

NES
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Star Wars (Namco) - $2.80, cart only. Yes, it's the one with black-haired Luke, Darth Vader turning into a scorpion, etc. I know it's not great, but I wanted to have this... quite a unique thing, anyway. :)
Macross (with manual), Parodius, Salamander, Twin Bee, Makaimura (Ghosts n Goblins), and Transformers: Mystery of Comvoy (all cart only) - $28. A bit expensive, but these games add up to close to or over this much if you buy them all separately... and they are all definitely worth having. Parodius is a great Konami shmup (I got the Saturn collection version of this, but the NES port is not the same...), Transformers is infamously terrible but that's why I want it, Ghouls & Ghosts is a classic and yes I don't have the US NES release, Salamander is not the same as US Life Force (Salamander has some graphical enhancements not present in the US version, so this is the better game), and Twin Bee is an early but decent vertical shooter, first in the Twinbee series (the SNES game above is the fifth game). Oh, and the Macross game is an okay early NES shmup.

Nintendo 64
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Custom Robo - complete, $10.50. I've really wanted the N64 Custom Robo games ever since playing the two we did get, the GC and DS games, and really liking them... so yeah, I got this, the first one. It's not as good as the GC game (the GC game is the only Custom Robo game with those awesome 3-4 player battles...), but it's good.

Playstation
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Zeiram Zone (Game not listed on IGN) - $2.25, complete. Beat 'em up game using the Iria/Zeiram license. It's 3d, and my hopes aren't high, but hey, it was cheap, and the anime was decently good, the live-action movies not so much... we'll see about this. The game comes in an extra-thick plastic case, about two jewelcases thick. I've never seen one of these before, I wonder if they were common... oh, and the cover art's pretty nice. There's also a SNES Iria game. It looks fun -- that one's a platformer.

Dreamcast
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Puyo Puyo~n 4 (Puyo Puyo 4) - $6. The last major Puyo Puyo game from Compile, before they died and Sega took over the series. I really like Sega's first one, Puyo Puyo Fever (DC/GC/etc.), but classic Puyo is good too, and this one has four player while Fever doesn't (two player only there)... Also, emulated copies of this game strip out the soundtrack, so you really do need the real thing.

TurboGrafx-16 (games are all complete, I think -- or at least, they all have cases and manuals. I don't know if these originally came with spine cards or not.)
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Legend of the Valkyrie (Game not listed on IGN) - $15.50. This was the game that spurred me to get the rest of this stuff... I really, really wanted Valkyrie. It's a very good top down run & gun/platform action game with good graphics and lots of action. Great stuff. The game was released in the US, but only on the PS1 Namco Museum 5 collection, which is very rare. I'll get that sometime (to be able to read the text), but this version is great, and the language issue only comes up at a few points in the game -- this game is mostly about the action. Plus, password save!

Galaga '88 - $6. Released in the US as Galaga '90, I got this for a little cheaper than US copies go for, plus the game is exactly the same. Galaga is a great classic shmup, and this game was its first sequel. It's quite good.

F1 Circus '91, F-1 Dream (Game not listed on IGN), F1 Triple Battle, Fire Pro Wrestling 3 Legend Bout, and Ganbare! Golf Boys - $5. The shipping was the main cost here... but this was something I really wanted. F1 Dream is a good topdown racing game. F1 Triple Battle is an averagely bland behind-the-car racer with dated graphics, but it does have a nice 3-player splitscreen mode, and it plays okay. F1 Circus '91 is the second game in the F1 Circus series of super-fast topdown racing games. You're always moving up the screen in this one, and memorization is the name of the game! You've got to memorize everything to get anywhere. Hard. Still, I really wanted at least one of the games. The third one is best, but this one's nice too, and it supports saving, which the first game did not. F1 Dream and Firepro also save. As for those last two, I doubt I'll play them much; wrestling isn't my thing (I know the Firepro series is popular among genre fans though), and the last one is another bland topdown golf game. The racing games are why I got this lot.

Hardware (TG16)
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Tennokoe Bank - $4.25, complete. This is a HuCard with save backup memory on it, so you can get more save space than that tiny save memory in the CD base unit allows. The Memory Base 128, which I got last month, does that too, but I can't use that yet (need an Arcade Card), and I want one of these too -- the two are more complimentary than anything, and it's much easier to copy files out of this than it is to use the MB128 for that, which you have to do through specific games. However, this does have a battery in it which is likely dying or dead. I'll see if it's still good, or if it'll have to go into my "to fix" pile.

TurboGrafx CD (regular CD title, not Super or Arcade CD, unless noted (there is one Super CD game), complete but without spine cards unless noted)
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Gulclight TDF2 (Game not listed on IGN), Rom Rom Stadium (Game not listed on IGN), Record of Lodoss War, and Bikkuriman Daijikai (Game not listed on IGN) - $9.50. Rom Rom Stadium is an unspectacular baseball game, Gulclight TDF2 an okay giant-robot strategy game with some English in the menus that I definitely want to try (might be good?), and Lodoss War a decent but definitely language-is-an-issue RPG. There's a bit of help for it online, but not a full walkthrough. Lodoss War is a dual jewel case, but there's not much reason for it -- all that's in the back half is a poster/item list. It's quite nice (there's nice artwork of Deedlit on the poster), but this could have fit in a regular jewelcase I think. Bikkuriman Daijikai is a worthless nongame with no actual game content on the disc aside from some quiz questions -- it's mostly just a fan-disc with information and stuff on it. I did not get this for this.

Ultra Box vol. 6 (Game not listed on IGN), Jantei Monogatari II Shutsoudouhen (Game not listed on IGN), Super Albatross (Game not listed on IGN), and Mateki Densetsu Astralius (Game not listed on IGN) - $3.60. Cheap price for four mediocre games. Ultra Box is a digital magazine series; this is the last volume. Might be kind of amusing, but I'm not expecting much. Jantei Monogatari is an adventure game/mahjoing game hybrid series. I'll play it when I manage to learn mahjong, which I'll do sometime. Astralius is a badly dated and archaic RPG, but does have a good FAQ for it online. Super Albatross is a golf game with lots of cutscenes -- using that CD format! The golf is basic top-down stuff.

Legion (Game not listed on IGN) - $6.50. Widely disliked shmup, though a few people like this game. It's a very, very hard game, but decent if you can manage it. It does have two player co-op, which is cool. Not many TG16 shmups do.
Shanghai II (Game not listed on IGN) - $2. This is one of the solitaire games using Mahjong tiles. You know, match the tiles... fun stuff! I quite like Shanghai.
Puyo Puyo CD (Super CD game, with Spine Card) (Game not listed on IGN) - $5. The TG16 version of the first Puyo Puyo game, released in the US on SNES (as Kirby's Avalanche) and Genesis (as Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine). I don't have those versions, though, but now I have Japanese copies of all four main games in the series from Compile...