The Wii’s Virtual Console service now offers over 300 retro games available for download. Chances are that of these 300 games, there has to be at least one title you haven’t heard of before. Events like Nintendo’s regular Hanabi Festival events add a lot of obscure, Japanese titles to the Virtual Console’s catalog. Not all of these games are necessarily good, but here are some of the better Japanese imports, as well as some other games that you might have overlooked.
Note: Some of the Japanese imports contain Japanese text. There are manuals that come with the games, but the untranslated text in menus and dialogue could be a bit of a language barrier to some.
Bio Miracle Bokutte Upa – NES – 600 points
Try it if you like: Super Mario Bros., Rainbow Islands, Babies
Roughly translating as “Bio Miracle – I’m Upa”, this game was originally released for the Famicom Disk System and was apparently supposed to have an English release on the NES. Though it is a fine platformer, it’s easy to see why it never made the leap stateside. A game where you play as a baby that defeats enemies by inflating them with a magic rattle then using them as platforms and projectiles is a tough sell. It’s not quite as well made as Super Mario Bros. 3 or Kirby’s Adventure but it has an undeniable charm, like the second stage featuring the infant protagonist eating his way through a giant cake (despite the fact he probably can’t eat solids yet). If you’re looking for an inexpensive platformer that tries some interesting ideas and you haven’t played to death, you could do a lot worse than Bio Miracle Bokutte Upa.
Cho Aniki – Turbografx-CD– 900 points
Try it if you like: Er…… Muscle March?
Gradius, R-Type, Air “Zonk”….. You know what all those games lacked? Male bodybuilders! Cho Aniki is completely insane, and that’s why I (cautiously) recommend it. No other game on this list will let you fly through space accompanied by two muscle men who shoot lasers from holes in their skulls at equally insane enemies like a Zombie Elvis spaceship. Frankly, it’s probably for the best. If you thought Parodius was crazy, just wait until you try Cho Aniki.
DoReMi Fantasy: Milon’s DokiDoki Adventure – SNES – 900 points
Try it if you like: Bubble Bobble, Adventure Island, That game I was talking about before with the baby
Don’t let the fact that this is a sequel to Milon’s Secret Castle for the NES put you off – it’s completely different to the original. There’s none of that exploration stuff (a.k.a. shooting bubbles randomly until something appears) this time, and instead there’s just a straight platformer with running, jumping and trapping innocent animals in bubbles. It was released relatively late in the SNES’s (well, Super Famicom’s) lifespan and it shows. The graphics are colourful and clean and the audio is top-notch. Well worth the extra 100 points.
Dynamite Headdy – Genesis/Mega Drive – 800 points
Try it if you like: Ristar, Klonoa
The most striking thing about Dynamite Headdy is its unique visual style. Everything in the game is done up to resemble a puppet show and there’s some neat pseudo-three dimensional tricks thrown in by the developers, Treasure, who tried similar things with Gunstar Heroes. Asides from the graphics, Dynamite Headdy is a fairly standard (though sometimes brutally difficult) platformer. You can detach the protagonist Headdy’s head, and use it to hit enemies, hang from platforms or switch it with various other heads for powerups like the ability to turn invisible or suck up enemies. With some elaborate set pieces and interesting boss fights, Dynamite Headdy is one of the best Genesis/Mega Drive games available for the Virtual Console and deserves a download.
Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen – SNES – 800 points (or 900 for PAL regions)
Try it if you like: Fire Emblem, Breath of Fire, Yggdra Union
Like Super Mario RPG and Kirby’s Dreamland 3, this particular version of Ogre Battle was never released in PAL regions, and even in the US only about 25,000 copies of the game were made, so chances are you didn’t get to play it the first time around. Rather than throwing down a few hundred dollar notes for an original cartridge, why not just settle for this Virtual Console emulation of Enix’s strategy classic? The game is divided into two sections. Firstly, you lead your various armies around an overworld map in real time, deploying troops and capturing towns and temples. Once an enemy army is encountered, the game switches to a more traditional RPG, with your party facing off against an enemy group Breath of Fire-style. There are over 70 different classes of soldiers to add to your army that can change based on characters’ experience or race (whether it be human, dragon, angel, demon, pumpkin and so on). There’s a lot of depth in Ogre Battle, more than probably any other game on the Virtual Console, so fans of strategy games, RPGs or just good music should definitely give it a try.
Pulseman – Genesis/Mega Drive – 900 points
Try it if you like: Sparkster, Mega Man, Drill Dozer
Game Freak is best known for their work on the Pokemon series, but not many people know that they produced plenty of other games before they got bogged down with pocket monsters, such as Pulseman. It’s (yet another) platformer, this time with the focus on utilizing Pulseman’s various electrical-based techniques. Pulseman can fire electricity from his hands and turn himself into a electric-powered pinball to propel his way around the numerous stages in order to confront the sinister Galaxy Gang (no, not Team Galactic). It’s quirky, it’s fun and it’s only 900 points for what was previously an exclusive to the short lived Sega Channel.
Puyo Puyo 2: Tsuu – Genesis/Mega Drive – 900 points
Try it if you like: Puzzle games in general, neither Kirby nor Dr. Robotnik
While Puyo Puyo was technically already on the Virtual Console in the form of Kirby’s Avalanche/Ghost Trap and Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine, Puyo Puyo 2 is widely considered to be the definitive version of the game. As with other games in the series, your goal is to link four blobs of the same colour together to make them disappear. Causing chain reactions allows you to send clear coloured “garbage” blobs over to your opponent’s screen, ideally filling it up to the top so they lose. Tsuu differs from the other two versions of the game already on the Virtual Console by adding the ability to counter your opponent’s attacks. What results is another layer of strategy, with two players parrying their Puyo airstrikes back and forth. Tetris and Dr. Mario are fun to play solo, but if you’re looking for a puzzle game that’s best suited to multiplayer action, Puyo Puyo 2 fits the bill.
Sin and Punishment – N64 – 1200 points
Try it if you like: Time Crisis, Panzer Dragoon
Sin and Punishment is the most expensive game on the Virtual Console, but it’s definitely worth the 1200 point admission price. Despite having never been previously released outside of Japan, the game boasts fully translated menus and English voices (though they were in the original Japanese version too), so unlike some of the other games on this list, there’s no real language barrier. Gameplay-wise, it plays very much like a traditional light gun shooter, though as well as just aiming and shooting, you can use an energy sword for close range attacks or deflecting projectiles while moving around and pulling off various acrobatic manoeuvres. It’s a bit more complex than your average rail shooter, but if it gets too much there is always the option to have a second player controlling the movement while you shoot things. It’s not the longest game, but it’s perfectly suited for quick bursts of gaming. The action is enjoyable and so it’s the kind of game you can keep coming back to, even if it is just to beat high scores.
So, those are my picks for obscure but great Virtual Console titles. Are there any other hidden classics out there you want to recommend? Maybe there’s another title that isn’t available for download yet?
That’s why we have comments.
