Once again, my very good friend marl has taken a trip to The Land of the Rising Sun, and once again, he was generous enough to throw together a collection of gifts to send to me. What a treat!
So this thing was sent directly from Japan, unlike the last one, and it spent about two months in the mail. I was getting to the point where I was wondering if it'd ever show up... But here it is! At this point, I've pretty much forgotten everything he told me was in here, and there may be some surprises lurking within that he never mentioned. Only one way to find out — let's get into it! Just like the last one, I'm writing my initial reactions as I pull stuff out of the package, then writing in my first impressions with the contents afterwards.
When I opened up the shipping box, I was greeted by these two cute bears, named Posukuma (the one holding the box) and Posukoguma (the one farting so hard that it's being propelled into the air). The names can be translated to "Post Bear" and "Kid Post Bear", or something like that. How sweet! I know these cuties aren't exactly part of the care package, but they're a nice bonus!
Only one of the most addicting puzzle games ever! In the west, we only got the Game Boy version, but in Japan, they had it in full, glorious 16 bit on the Super Famicom. A lovely addition to my SFC collection! Unlike anything else in one of these care packages, I've played this one before! If you've never played a Picross game, the best way to describe it the way the cover of this game does: Picture Crossword. I can't explain it better than that, so just go play it!
I mentioned to him that I already had one of these, but wouldn't mind having a second in order to have a set (you know, because the NES has 2 controller ports). I believe he said he found a great deal on these typically kind of expensive controllers, and that he snatched up several for himself. Good move!
First impressions:
So as I said, I already have, and have used one of these. That is, I have an American one. I forgot though, that as a Famicom controller, this thing was doomed to have a horrifically short cable! The Famicom was meant to be placed near the player, just like most of the home game consoles before it. It wasn't until the American NES that it became the standard to have the console placed by the TV with the rest of your AV gear, as an attempt to make it seem like more than JUST a "childish" video game system. Of course, most of the stuff that made it air more on the side of a general use appliance, like the Family Basic set and the Data Recorder, were exclusive to Japan... Just a bit of irony for you.
Oh right, the controller! Yeah, it's fine. Not as good as the original NES/FC gamepad, if you ask me, but I wouldn't really be shocked if someone told me they liked this one better. It's more ergonomic with the SNES-like rounded design, but I don't like the angle of the buttons. It's a lot harder to press both at the same time, as often you'll want to, unless you hold it in some weird way. Regardless, it's nice to have two to put with my later model NES/FCs!
Another FDS game! It's been so long since I've gotten a new one! And this one is a stunning blue disk, with — get this — a sliding cover to protect the internal disk, just like every other floppy disk! A novel concept! I've heard this game is a lot of fun! I believe it's a 3rd person racing game, much like Rad Racer. It also claims to be 3D... also like Rad Racer, which included 3D glasses. If you press select in that game, it goes into red-and-blue 3D mode. I'm interested to see if the same is true here!
First impressions:
Unfortunately, the disk is corrupted or otherwise broken and completely unplayable. It looks perfectly fine at first when you're navigating the menus and such, then you flip to side B for the actual game, and boom, it's just a garbled mess of jumbled up sprites. That's a real shame, I was really excited to check this one out!
This is so cute! It's a little charm of a TV displaying the penultimate confrontation in Kirby's Adventure, with a little acrylic Kirby and Nightmare jingling around inside! Kirby's also fired off a star with the Star Rod, so if you shake it up real hard, you can repeatedly deal damage to that nasty Nightmare!
You know, I don't actually remember anything about this game. I know it was on my wanted list, but I can't recall why. I guess I saw a video on it at some stage and thought it looked fun. I think it's about birds? I'll get back to you on that!
First impressions:
I was way off! No birds whatsoever, just little blobs with legs. In this arcade-style game, you have to walk, jump and climb around the screen grabbing all the fruit present therein. Once you do so, the house opens up and you can rescue the girl inside, who is, presumably, Milk. Meaning that the boy you play as is... Nuts...
...............
Anyway, for a game as simple as this, it's pretty tough! Even now that I more or less have the hang of it, the furthest I've made it is round 6.
I asked for this game because it was insanely cheap and it's a running gag between another friend and I. But... What on earth? This is the best condition Famicom cart I've ever seen! It's like they pulled it out of the original packaging just to sell it loose! There's hardly a scratch on it! Whoever previously owned this game, my hat's off to you. I believe I've briefly played this game before, but of course I'll give it a whirl and write my thoughts on it shortly.
First impressions:
This game is another cute arcade-style game. You control a young ninja boy who must defeat all the enemies on the screen with your throwing stars. There are fun power-ups and plenty of different enemy types, like bird men and kasa-obake. This is one I could see myself putting a lot of time into!
What's the best 4 player game on the SNES? Of course, it's Super Bomberman 2. So why not have a multitap that looks like Bomberman's head? This is a really cute piece of gear, and it'll surely replace my Super Multitap 1. I mean, I can't even describe what that thing is shaped like. Bomberman's head it is not! This one is a little dirty, so I'm gonna take it apart and scrub it down in just a moment.
Wow, what a great haul! I'm very eager to try everything out! Well, all the games and accessories, at least. I've tried the Kirby charm about as much as I can, but I don't think I'll be able to defeat Nightmare. Thank you so much, marl! The only problem is that there was no Vegemite this time... We'll be reunited soon, my beloved salty spread...