Today’s look at games on the Retro-Bit Generations console has a lot of favorites from Irem, including Hammerin’ Harry, Kid Niki: Radical Ninja and its sequel, and my personal favorite, and what sold me on this system: Kickle Cubicle!

Hammerin’ Harry

This 2-D platformer from Irem stars a Japanese construction worker wielding a big hammer.  It was in arcades, but this is the NES version.  Did you know there was a Hammerin’ Harry remake on PSP?

Hero Pinball Party

This is a Game Boy pinball table featuring lots of cute and weird creatures and also anime ladies.  It’s an all right game, but when it comes to Game Boy pinball, nothing beats HAL’s Revenge of the Gator and Kirby’s Pinball Land.

Higemaru

One of my favorite classic Capcom arcade games is Pirate Ship Higemaru. It never came out in the US, but you can play it on many Capcom collections.  It’s like Pengo but with a pirate theme.  But did you know there was also a version of it for the Famicom?  It played liked an open world Zelda style game, but it came out way before Zelda did, so it was a bit ahead of its time.  Unfortunately, as an early Famicom title, goals aren’t clear at all and it’s even harder since it’s all in Japanese.  And like many of the other NES Capcom games on here, the music cuts out everything but the bass.  Did you know that there are also many Ghosts N Goblins cameos in this game?  You even fight Firebrand and Lucifer!   Some bootlegs of this game even call it Ghosts N Goblins 2!

Holy Diver

This one is a bit of a legend among Famicom fans.  It plays like Castlevania, is super hard, and yes it does have to do with the heavy metal song from Dio.  But oddly enough, it never came to the US.  But you can play it on here if you want to.

Hoops

It’s a one-on-one basketball game featuring a bunch of kids (Do you think it was the inspiration for Humongous’ Backyard Sports?).  It’s also really hard, either that or I just suck at these kinds of games.

Image Fight

There are all kinds of 2-D vertically scrolling shooters on the NES.  Some are good, like Gun.Smoke, 1943, The Guardian Legend, etc.  And some are bad, like this one.

Jim Power

This is a 16-bit side scrolling platformer starring a guy with super powerful weapons, but he dissolves into a screeching skeleton if you get hit once.  Even worse, when you walk forward, the parallax scrolling in the background goes the opposite direction of what it’s supposed to go, so it can make you kind of seasick.

Juudou Warriors

It’s some kind of karate game featuring lots of grappling and pinning, but it’s all in Japanese so I don’t know how to play.

Kickle Cubicle

When I was a kid, one of my favorite arcade games was Pengo, and one of my favorite NES games was the block pushing Adventures of Lolo series.  When you mix the two together, you get Kickle Cubicle.  I only rented this game once back then, but I LOVED it!  Not sure why I didn’t buy it, but I probably didn’t have enough money or something.  But it still stuck out to me and I played it all the way through when I rented it.  I really wish Nintendo would put this on their Virtual Console, as I would totally buy it.  I’m not as patient as I used to be, so it’s hard for me to play the Lolo games again, but since Kickle Cubicle had more fast action in it, the game still remains fun to me today.  Kickle Cubicle is the main reason why I bought this Retro-Bit Generations console.

Kid Niki: Radical Ninja 1 & 2

I don’t know if it’s just me, but Kid Niki: Radical Ninja seemed to be a popular game back then.  I saw it in arcades, my friends rented the NES version all the time, and even Nintendo Power covered it and the secrets you could discover.  But I never really liked the game, as it was one of those ‘one hit and you die’ kind of platformers, and I’m not a big fan of that.  But did you know there was a Japan only sequel?  It’s on here, too, and it’s more of the same, except the graphics are a little more cartoony and you fight through themed worlds like an area where everything is tiny, a land made of food, or a haunted level with lots of Japanese Yokai monsters.  I’m kind of surprised they didn’t bring the sequel to the US, but I can think of many reasons why they wouldn’t (or couldn’t).  There was also a third game in the Kid Niki series in Japan, but it’s not on this console.

Knights of the Round

This is another Capcom arcade beat ‘em up, this time with a medieval setting.  Capcom’s answer to Golden Axe, I guess.  It doesn’t have the charm that their later Dungeons and Dragons beat ‘em ups had, but it’s still not a bad game at all.

Kung Fu Master 2

Many of you may know the classic Kung Fu Master arcade game (called simply Kung Fu on the NES).  But did you know that in Japan, it was called Spartan X and based on a Jackie Chan movie?  And did you know there was actually a sequel to this game in Japan?  It featured a story with cutscenes, better graphics, catchier music, but still retained the gameplay of the original.  I still stink at it, but it’s not really a bad game at all.

Lan Master

In this game you have to rotate pieces with lines to connect computers together.  I’m a big fan of Pipe Dream styled puzzle games, so I enjoyed this one, even if the graphics are nothing to write home about.

Lawn Mower

It’s a top down 2-D 8-bit game where you mow a lawn.  But you are using the worst lawn mower in the world because it runs out of fuel after a few seconds.  Fuel cans will randomly appear to fill up your tank, but they usually always appear on the opposite side of where you’re at, and you never have enough time to make it before you run out!

Legend

The console menu calls it Legend E, but the actual title in the game calls it Legend, so I don’t know.  It’s a 2-D side scrolling beat ‘em up with a medieval theme, but it’s made by Piko Interactive so it’s fairly new, not a classic arcade or console game.  It’s a bit amateurish (your main character’s walking animation is so goofy), but other than that, it’s not really THAT bad of a game.

Major Title Golf

And last for today is this 16-bit golf game from Irem.  What’s weird is that I enjoyed playing NES Golf with my dad, and I liked GameCube Mario Golf and golf mini games on Wii Sports and Super Monkey Ball.  But I never got into golf games on the SNES.

And that’s all for now!  Check back tomorrow for Part 4!  –Cary

Tags: Game Reviews