Games Bought Thread 3

[A Black Falcon]

My Christmas gift for myself (partially paid for with Christmas money) arrived, another big box of games from Japan.

All of these games are Japanese import games, of course. Shipping was $95, which is a lot, but averages to just a bit over $3 a game, which is much more reasonable (when you get so much).

Game Boy
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Yaiba! - Cart only. Decent looking licensed platformer. Game not listed on IGN.
Parodius Da - Cart only. GB version of this great Konami shmup. #1 reason I got this stuff.
Pocket Monsters Red - Cart and plastic case. I'll probably try to sell this one.
Fushigi no Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer GB - Not sure if I'll play it seriously, but it's interesting to have.

Game Gear
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Gunstar Heroes - $16, cart and plastic case. Yeah, this was expensive, but it's a pretty interesting late Game Gear game with impressive action for the system. Earlier GG action games often are full of slowdown, but this one manages to run faster... though at the cost of having a LOT of flicker. Still though, impressive work for the GG. Sega was pretty stupid to not bring this over to the US.

N64
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Super Mario 64: Rumble Pack Edition - Mario 64, but with rumble pack support. Japan exclusive. There's also Wave Race 64 with rumble support, I need to get that! Game not listed on IGN.
Doraemon 2: - $11.50, complete. This is the second of the three Doraemon 3d platformers on the N64. I'm always interested in playing another N64 3d platformer.

SNES
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Mickey to Donald Magical Adventure 3 - cart only. This is the third and lad Mickey's Magical Quest game, which wasn't released in the US on SNES, only much later on GBA. The GBA game is pricey and costs just as much as this import did, though, so why not get the better version...

Mario & Wario - complete. This game is one I've wanted for years! This is a game that was supposed to release in the US, but didn't for some stupid reason. It's a puzzle game which is designed for the SNES mouse. You play as this fairy girl (she's your mouse cursor) and have to guide helpless Mario, who got a bucket stuck on his head, through many side-scrolling levels by moving blocks and stuff to keep him from running into obstacles.

Dreamcast
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Cardcaptor Sakura: Tomoyo's Video Operation - complete and with spine card. I probably shouldn't have gotten this one, but too late... ah well. It's a short, weird game where you have to take photos of stuff... sort of like anime Pokemon Snap.

Saturn - all games are complete (though they only have the spine card if noted).
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Solo Crisis - With spine card. This is a strategy/sim game. It's got a Populous-like angled viewpoint, but the world is 3d. You can affect the world, as you try to defend your people and get them to the goal in each map. The twist is that there are two sides to the world, and when you raise the land on one side it lowers (and maybe goes underwater) on the other, for example. I've seen some videos of this on Youtube, and it looks like it might be interesting.

Nairugawa no Yoake (Birth of the Nile) - This is a city-building game set in ancient Egypt. I don't know why they didn't bother properly translating the tile for the end-label, but they didn't. I doubt I'll be able to play this one too well, but there's virtually nothing about it online in English and I sometimes like this genre and it was cheap, so I decided to give it a try. Game not listed on IGN.

Dead or Alive - The Saturn version of this game has better graphics than the PS1 version, but it has scores fewer costumes and no Ayane... but I got it anyway. Well, I DO like the game for sure (I got every costume in the PS1 version a few years ago, after all!), so I'm sure it'll be fun even without the best character. :p

TurboGrafx-16 (PC Engine) [HuCard games]
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Gradius - $26, complete. Yeah, this was an expensive one, but Gradius is my favorite shmup series and this is the best console version of the first Gradius game, so I had to get it. This game has an exclusive level, so it's the longest version of the game, and the graphics are just about the same as the arcade game. Very nice.
Bravoman - Card only. Fun 2d platform/action game. I'm happy to get this one. There is a US version of this game, but this is cheaper.
Jantei Necromancer - Card only. JRPG I'm sure I will never play much at all (part of a lot).
Vigilante - Card only. Side-scrolling beat 'em up. It's pretty mediocre, but hopefully this is at least better than the Master System version, which I have.
Genpei Toumaden - Card only. Okay, kind of weird platform/action game from Namco. This games' sequel released in the US as Samurai Ghost, but we didn't get this one. Game not listed on IGN.
Mahjong Haou: Kaiser's Quest - Complete, . Yes, it's another mahjong game. This one's a fantasy RPG themed mahjong game, though as usual it's got girl pictures in it I think, they always seem to do that. Game not listed on IGN.
F-1 Circus - Complete, . This is the first game in the F1 Circus series. It's much like the second game, but with simpler graphics and track designs. I like this one though, and definitely wanted to have it... sure F1 Circus is really hard, but it's fun to play anyway, at least some of the time... I mean, once you start to learn the tracks a bit it is. :)

Turbo CD (PCE CD) - All games are 'complete' (game+case+manual); only noted titles have spine cards though.
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CD
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Minesweeper - I really wanted to try this one... I like Minesweeper on the PC (it's true), and I'm interested to try this Japanese console version of the game. And yes, it IS Minesweeper. It's got the usual game, plus a little quest mode too. :) Game not listed on IGN.

CD / Super CD Dual-mode
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Ranma 1/2 Ganso Musabetsu Kakutohryu - This is the third and last Ranma game for the Turbo CD, and it's the only one with Super CD support. The first game, which I have, is a mediocre platform-beat 'em up. The second is a digital comic adventure game; it's supposed to be good, but I haven't convinced myself to try any of those yet (so much text!). This one is a fighting game. It's from Masaya, who also did the first two SNES Ranma games, and those are both very mediocre. Hopefully this one is better, but I'll probably like it somewhat anyway, since I really liked the Ranma series.

Macross 2036 - $26. Well-regarded horizontal shmup. Hopefully it's worth the money. It is at least good, for sure.


Super CD
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Browning - Mediocre at best side-scrolling mech action game from Telenet. Game not listed on IGN.
The Record of Lodoss War 2 - Second half of the story. The game is in a dual-jewel case again, and comes with a map/spell chart poster, and mini audio CD as well.
Xak 1 & 2 - With spine card. Pretty decent action-RPG in the Ys mold. Xak III is better, but these are good too. Game not listed on IGN.
Dragon Knight 2 - $5. First person dungeon-crawling RPG with lots of scantily clad anime girls in it. NEC allowed more of that stuff than the other console makers. I like dungeon crawlers though... or at least I like some of them, we'll see about this. Game not listed on IGN.
Hawk F-123 - $5. Pretty good, and cheap, horizontal shmup. Good game for the price. Game not listed on IGN.
Travel Epule - Topdown action game, somewhat Bomberman-ish, with two player co-op. Looks fun. Game not listed on IGN.
Human Sports Festival - This collection has a tennis game, based on the HuCard Final Match Tennis game but with female characters instead of male ones only as the HuCard had, a golf game, and a soccer game. The tennis game should be pretty good, but we'll see about the others. Game not listed on IGN.
Sorcerian - Japanese console port of a Western PC game. The main menu is full of Japanese text, but there is a translation for it, and once you get in the game it's fine. Ugly graphics, but they are better than the US PC version...
Alshark - JRPG with pretty ugly ingame graphics. It's a port of an X68000 game apparently. There is a basic English guide for the game, though, so it's playable. It's got some nice cinema scenes too, and the sci-fi theme is nice -- it's got spaceships, laser swords, and the like. Game not listed on IGN (though the not as good Sega CD version is).
Monster Maker - Another JRPG. This game is in one of those thicker-single-jewelcase cases that I've seen in a few Japanese games here and there (Daytona Circuit Edition for Saturn, Rune Jade for Dreamcast, maybe another...). The game looks mediocre and I'm sure I'll get stuck early on, but I was interested so I got it anyway. It does have decently good graphics and a female lead character (who, as the title suggests, can tame monsters and get them in your party I believe)
Super Real Mahjong Special - Average-looking mahjong game.

Super/Arcade and Arcade Card games - again 'complete'.
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Brandish - $2.25. Arcade CD-enhanced Super CD game. With the Arcade Card you get better animation in the cutscenes and less loading. As for the game, it's the same as the US SNES version of Brandish, just with slightly worse graphics but with anime cutscenes and voice acting and stuff (and a lower price too). It's a top-down action-RPG from Falcom with the very weird quirk that the perspective shifts as you turn, as if it was a first-person game from the era.

Fatal Fury 2 - Arcade Card required. I don't have an Arcade Card yet, but once I do it'll be nice to have a game for it. I can wait though, Fatal Fury isn't one of my favorite fighting game series... but this is a good port of the game, and I do like SNK fighters, so it was worth getting. (I didn't previously have any versions of FF2, either.)

TG16 Hardware
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Super System Card 3.0 - complete, $11.50. I was going to only get an Arcade Card, but those are a good $50-60, which just was too expensive, so I ended up finally getting this thing which will become useless once I finally get an Arcade Card. The price sure is a lot lower, and only a relative few games support or require the Arcade Card.