Nintendo Family Computer (Electronic Game Player - July/August 1988)

Earlier this month Nintendo opened a museum in Kyoto that, of course, features the history of the company that began life as a Hanafuda card maker. It has many interactive exhibits and displays the numerous video game hardware that Nintendo has released over the past 4+ decades. To sort of tie into that, I scanned an article from the third issue (July/August 1988) of Electronic Game Player that originally appeared in The Games Machine, a U.K. magazine. It's about Nintendo's Family Computer (Famicom) that was brought to North America as the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). It's  an interesting read, especially if you aren't familiar with the Famicom as it has some unique differences that set it apart from the NES, namely a microphone in controller two and a disk drive with a built-in modem. I acquired this magazine second-hand and edited the cover image quite a bit to clean it up due its condition so it might not look too good.

Its-a-Mario Day!

The proper line is "it's-a-me, Mario," but "Its-a-Mario Day" works well enough, and today is indeed Mario Day. Abbreviate March to "Mar" and view the number 10 as "IO" and March 10th or "Mar10" becomes "Mario" and thus, it is Nintendo's Mario Day. I don't believe I've ever actually posted anything for this day in the past so I flipped through some magazines to find coverage of Mario games. Below are reviews of Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario All-Stars, and Mario RPG from Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM), and a review of Super Mario Bros. 2 from Video Games & Computer Entertainment. As I often do with EGM reviews, I copied the review over to page one of the reviews section so that you can see who assigned each score. I'm also including a preview of Mario & Wario, a Super NES game planned for the West that ended up never releasing outside of Japan.

As I've stated numerous times, I grew up with Sega platforms so I'm not too much of a Mario fan, though I did get a Game Boy in 1989 and own a variety of games where Mario makes an appearance, like Alleyway, Golf, and Baseball. Super Mario Land is the only Mario game I own and the only one I've completed, though I have tried quite a few others. If you're a Mario fan you might want to check out the Shigeru Miyamoto interviews post as well.

Reviews

Mario & Wario Preview (EGM #50 - September 1993)

Jackie Chan: The Digitized Dragon

Happy birthday to martial arts movie star Jackie Chan who turns 66 today. I'm a fan of his movies and own more than 60 of them between VHS, DVD, Blu-ray, and digital platforms, but surprisingly I've only played one of of his games and at the time had no idea it was related to a Chan movie. That would be the Data East arcade classic Kung-Fu Master that is known as Spartan X in Japan, and that's also the Japanese title of the film known in North America as Wheels on Meals which stars Jackie (plus Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao). However, other than the Japanese title the only thing the game and movie have in common are character names. Jackie Chan's Action Kung Fu for the TurboGrafx-16 (TG16) and Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), and the PlayStation title Jackie Chan's Stuntmaster are probably his best known console games. Those are also the games I have reviews of below.

There are Game Boy Advance (GBA) and PlayStation 2 (PS2) games based on the animated series Jackie Chan Adventures as well, though the PS2 game did not release in the U.S. The GBA has a game based on Around the World in 80 Days too where players control Jackie's character Passeportout (I do have a sealed copy of this one but don't own a GBA!). Other games include five MSX computer titles based on Chan's films and the arcade game The Kung-Fu Master Jackie Chan (1995) which was later updated under the title Jackie Chan in Fists of Fire. Lastly, Jackie has (or had) a Facebook game and a couple of games on the XaviXPORT. If you're unfamiliar with the XaviXPORT, it's a console with motion controls that debuted in 2004 with a strong focus on sports and physical fitness.

Jackie Chan's Action Kung Fu
One review is for the 1990 NES game and three are for the TG16 version that released in 1992. I'm not certain if the levels are the same but the story is slightly different on each platform. In the NES game the Jackie character needs to rescue his sister Josephine from the Prince of Sorcerers. On TG16 the game has Jackie fighting to rescue his girlfriend Josephine from an evil power.

GamePro - December 1990

GamePro - October 1992

Electronic Gaming Monthly #38

Video Games & Computer Entertainment - September 1992

 Jackie Chan's Stuntmaster
All I've got for this one is a rather short review from Next Generation's March 2000 issue.

U-Force and the Power Glove

Nintendo is closing the Wii Shop Channel on January 30th which is only three days away. After it closes it will not be possible to purchase new digital games or download any past purchases. While disappointing, I'd expect this marks the end of the Wii, though that likely occurred many years ago for most (not Ubisoft which published Just Dance 2019 for the console!) as Nintendo has since released both the Wii U and the Switch. As a hugely successful console that uses motion controls, I decided to scan magazine articles about two Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) motion controllers from 1989. Of course, the people involved in the creation of Broderbund's U-Force and Mattel's Power Glove expected success, and the public may have been curious about them, but neither sold very well. Although I'm focusing on these two, it's worth noting Sega made an attempt at a full body motion controller for the Genesis called the Activator.

When I posted the ads for Mattel I mentioned the Power Glove and will repeat that summary here. The Power Glove is worn like a glove, hence the name, and contains a D-Pad, standard NES gamepad buttons, programmable buttons, and motion control functionality. Two games, Super Glove Ball and Bad Street Brawler, were made specifically for the controller, though those games can also be played with a regular gamepad minus extra features only usable with the Power Glove. U-Force is quite different from the Power Glove as players move their hands in front of the device without the need to hold anything. There is an accessory that can attach to the U-Force screen and be gripped to make simulation games, such as flight and driving games, easier to control. Both debuted in 1989 with a $10 price differential; the U-Force was $69.95 and the Power Glove cost $79.95.

I've got a variety of articles though none of the magazines appear to have officially reviewed the hardware. I am also including a review for Super Glove Ball which is the primary game designed for the Power Glove.

Electronic Gaming Monthly #2 (U-Force & Power Glove)

GamePro - May 1989 (U-Force & Power Glove)

Video Games & Computer Entertainment - May 1989 (U-Force)

Video Games & Computer Entertainment - September 1989 (Power Glove)

Video Games & Computer Entertainment - November 1990 (Super Glove Ball Review)

Dragon Warrior Reviews

With the upcoming September 4th release of Dragon Quest XI from Square Enix I thought these older reviews would be a fun read for fans. However, I wasn't sure if I should call this post Dragon Warrior or Dragon Quest reviews. Of course, since these are from 1990's North American magazines all of the games are titled Dragon Warrior as the game name was changed with each release up until 2005. Enix America must have thought "warrior" would make the games sound more appealing and thus lead to more sales. If you're not familiar with the series the first Dragon Quest, developed by Chunsoft, released in 1986 on Nintendo of Japan's Famicom (Nintendo Entertainment System or NES for short) and is one of the longest running Japanese role-playing game (JRPG) series.

However, the first wasn't released in the U.S. until 1989 and since three of the games had already been out in Japan before 1989 they rolled out quite fast here. From 1990-92 the next three parts released though I'm not positive of the dates. Multiple sources online state part three released in March 1992 but the two reviews I have indicate late 1991. GamePro even says available now at the end of the review though it's possible they simply expected it to be out when the issue hit newsstands. In any case, the first four did release on the NES with the series continuing on the Super NES after that. There have also been numerous re-releases and spin-offs, such as Dragon Quest Heroes from Koei's Omega Force (Dynasty Warriors) which is the only Dragon Quest game I've actually played any of since I grew up with Sega systems and for a long time the series was only on Nintendo platforms, and I rarely play JRPGs these days.

The reviews I scanned are for parts two, three, and four as the first game predates many of my issues or the magazines I have simply did not review it. Video Games & Computer Entertainment (VG&CE) was, perhaps, a bit harsh in its reviews of two and three while GamePro rated all three games a four out of five on "FunFactor." Three of the Game Informer staff reviewed Dragon Warrior IV rating it a 7.5, 7.5, and 9. It's not surprising that most publications rated the sound and graphics rather low since these are NES games that, as mentioned above, were already a few years old by the time they reached North America and the 16-bit generation had begun by then as well.



Dragon Warrior II

GamePro - November 1990

VG&CE - November 1990

Dragon Warrior III

GamePro - December 1991

VG&CE - November 1991

Dragon Warrior IV

GamePro - November 1992

Game Informer - Nov/Dec 1992

NES All Stars (GamePro - June 1990)

This post contains a rather lengthy article titled NES All Stars that originally appeared in GamePro's June 1990 issue. It's eight pages long and as the title implies, is all about baseball games for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). Charlie T. Aslan is the writer for Bases Loaded II: Second Season, Baseball Simulator 1.000, Bad News Baseball, and R.B.I. Baseball 2. The final two games, Dusty Diamond's All-Star Softball and Little League Championship Series, are covered by Slo' Mo. Although they aren't necessarily reviewing the games, they do provide some opinions and, of course, since the article title says "All Stars" they do imply that all of the games are worth playing.