Famicom National Referendum - Japanese fan poll results (ongoing for the system's 40th Anniversary!)

[koifish | 557]

Maybe there will be some horse sim games too. You can learn about derby, right? Oh, and i just remembered, Famicom got a couple quiz games, didn't it? I remember America Oudan Ultra Quiz on GB, and figure if GB could fit them then so could Famicom.

5 hours ago, Tanooki said:

I was thinking family basic too but it's not great, yet there are learning games that might fit largely KOEI and it's copycats over there who also made a play off either the three kingdoms or nobunaga era type stuff.

I know they didn't get the Mario edutainment dreck we got, but they do have the earliest era stuff like that popeye and dk learning title choice too not that they're liked either.  They did get some that would basically teach you how to work the Japanese stock market in its boom period, so maybe?

I would bet you'll find something with the various Go and Shougi training/playing games hitting that one.  Some of them didn't even have AI, you had to play along with a going match coded into it (from real known played games then) and guess the best move, to being educated how to play.

Good idea, I didn't know there were training games for riichi/shougi, so that would definitely qualify.

And, I dunno, I used to think DK Jr Math was pretty fun. Maybe I'm just a turbonerd though.

[Tanooki | 4,943]

@koifish Igo Shinan, late release even on it in 1994, one of the last dozen titles.  That was a yearly release for a good stretch, and it wasn't the only one.

[BlackVega | 583]

On 11/3/2023 at 7:21 AM, koifish said:

Any game that has a lot of historical content will do well. Koei gang RISE UP!!!

@Daniel_Doyce get over here

[Daniel_Doyce | 475]

On 11/3/2023 at 2:21 AM, koifish said:

Any game that has a lot of historical content will do well. Koei gang RISE UP!!!

Romance of the Three Kingdoms, for sure, if you really do research on the time periods and generals in the games.

[scaryice | 589]

Here's the latest poll result:

Question #17 (11/2-11/8) - When it comes to "I learned a lot," what game comes to mind?

1	Popeye no Eigo Asobi	9.7
2	Donkey Kong Jr. Math	9.3
3	Super Mototarou Dentetsu	9.2
4	Momotarou Dentetsu	8.8
5	Nobunaga's Ambition	5.9
6	Dragon Quest III	2.5
7	Romance of the Three Kingdoms	2.1
8	Mahjong	1.8
9	Nobunaga's Ambition II	1.7
10	Nobunaga no Yabou: Bushou Fuuunroku	1.5
11	Dragon Quest	1.2
12	Sansuu 1 Nen: Keisan Game	1.2
12	Mindseeker	1.2
12	Family Mahjong	1.2
15	Okhotsuku ni Kiyu	1.1
15	Wagyan Land	1.1
17	Matsumoto Tooru no Kabushiki Hisshou Gaku	1.0
18	Sangokushi: Chuugen no Hasha	0.9
18	4-nin Uchi Mahjong	0.9
20	Time Twist	0.9

 

This is the closest result yet, with the Popeye English game beating out Nintendo's other educational release. Although, if the Momotarou Dentetsu vote wasn't split, either of those could've ended up first. The Switch version is super popular in Japan, BTW - it's sold 4 million copies.

You can also see the third Nobunaga game, plus one of Namco's Romance of the Three Kingdoms games - both of which we didn't get. No Family BASIC - I don't think it's part of Nintendo's database on their web site, actually. Maybe they classify it more as an accessory or something.

Next week's question:

When it comes to "5 character titles" what game comes to mind?

That would be characters as in letters or kanji, not game characters. So that's not the most interesting question, plus you can't really speculate unless you look at the Japanese spellings of everything. People on Twitter were saying Doraemon, Mega Man, and Metroid.

[SilverspoonGaming | 333]

That is super interesting info!

[Link | 2,715]

1 hour ago, scaryice said:

So that's not the most interesting question,

It’s not interesting in English. There are very few possibilities. I would say though, that like the question phrasing such as “when it comes to” and “what comes to mind” that this works better if you are versed in not only Kanji but also idiomatic expression of Japanese language and culture. 

[Brickman | 4,000]

41 minutes ago, Link said:

It’s not interesting in English. There are very few possibilities. I would say though, that like the question phrasing such as “when it comes to” and “what comes to mind” that this works better if you are versed in not only Kanji but also idiomatic expression of Japanese language and culture. 

Yeah I'm looking forward to this one because it will be interesting to see the results. Metroid, Doraemon and Rockman are most likely the top 3 but I'm thinking Goonies (グーニーズ), Batman (バットマン) and Twin Bee (ツインビー) should make the list. I'm also curious to see if Yokai Dochuki  (妖怪道中記) makes the list though. Besides the top 3, it was the next one I was thinking of.

[koifish | 557]

10 hours ago, scaryice said:

Here's the latest poll result:

Question #17 (11/2-11/8) - When it comes to "I learned a lot," what game comes to mind?

1	Popeye no Eigo Asobi	9.7
2	Donkey Kong Jr. Math	9.3
3	Super Mototarou Dentetsu	9.2
4	Momotarou Dentetsu	8.8
5	Nobunaga's Ambition	5.9
6	Dragon Quest III	2.5
7	Romance of the Three Kingdoms	2.1
8	Mahjong	1.8
9	Nobunaga's Ambition II	1.7
10	Nobunaga no Yabou: Bushou Fuuunroku	1.5
11	Dragon Quest	1.2
12	Sansuu 1 Nen: Keisan Game	1.2
12	Mindseeker	1.2
12	Family Mahjong	1.2
15	Okhotsuku ni Kiyu	1.1
15	Wagyan Land	1.1
17	Matsumoto Tooru no Kabushiki Hisshou Gaku	1.0
18	Sangokushi: Chuugen no Hasha	0.9
18	4-nin Uchi Mahjong	0.9
20	Time Twist	0.9

 

This is the closest result yet, with the Popeye English game beating out Nintendo's other educational release. Although, if the Momotarou Dentetsu vote wasn't split, either of those could've ended up first. The Switch version is super popular in Japan, BTW - it's sold 4 million copies.

You can also see the third Nobunaga game, plus one of Namco's Romance of the Three Kingdoms games - both of which we didn't get. No Family BASIC - I don't think it's part of Nintendo's database on their web site, actually. Maybe they classify it more as an accessory or something.

Next week's question:

When it comes to "5 character titles" what game comes to mind?

That would be characters as in letters or kanji, not game characters. So that's not the most interesting question, plus you can't really speculate unless you look at the Japanese spellings of everything. People on Twitter were saying Doraemon, Mega Man, and Metroid.

I totally forgot about Time Twist. I only checked it out once, and it had a load of text and was hiragana-only, so I noped out of there. Maybe I should try it again. The only other thing I know about it is that there is time travel and I think the KKK shows up.

Also had no idea that Matsumoto Tooru games existed. From the name I gather it's a game to train you in stock trading. FamicomWorld tells me there is a sequel as well.

Doing some more lookup of games I don't recognize, and Wagyan Land is here because of this, I suspect (description from StrategyWiki):

" The games features standard side-scrolling stages where the player must reach the goal, as well as boss encounter where the player must compete in a mini-game of shiritori (しりとり^? lit. taking the end). Shiritori (しりとり) is a Japanese word game in which the players are required to say a word which begins with the final kana of the previous word. "

Some people, especially kids playing it, probably learned a lot of new words by fighting the boss battles, in the same way that successive generations have learned new words from playing text-heavy RPGs in English.

Okhotsk is a murder mystery adventure, looks like, so that probably has its bits of education here and there.

Mindseeker looks strange, like an ESP trainer of sorts wrapped into an adventure game. Might have to check that out myself.

And then Keisan is a basic math training game, so basically DK Jr Math as far as anyone who isn't a kid learning math is concerned.

Overall, a very interesting list. Plenty of games we never got in the west, and some strange ones too.

[koifish | 557]

8 hours ago, Brickman said:

Yeah I'm looking forward to this one because it will be interesting to see the results. Metroid, Doraemon and Rockman are most likely the top 3 but I'm thinking Goonies (グーニーズ), Batman (バットマン) and Twin Bee (ツインビー) should make the list. I'm also curious to see if Yokai Dochuki  (妖怪道中記) makes the list though. Besides the top 3, it was the next one I was thinking of.

Hell if I can think of how many characters are in each title, I feel happy if I can read the basics...maybe someday, or when I'm less tired. Scrolling through wikipedia lists however, I do notice ピンボール. That seems like it was a bigger release in Japan, so maybe that will make the list.

[Brickman | 4,000]

3 hours ago, koifish said:

Hell if I can think of how many characters are in each title, I feel happy if I can read the basics...maybe someday, or when I'm less tired. Scrolling through wikipedia lists however, I do notice ピンボール. That seems like it was a bigger release in Japan, so maybe that will make the list.

Oh yeah I was thinking that one might too but didn’t know how big it might be. 

Those ones I mentioned just came to me because I think they were all pretty popular but after that I can’t think of much else. The list will probably end up having barely anything we’ve mentioned 

[DefaultGen | 5,415]

I guess DKJM did re-teach me how to do long division, although I've subsequently forgotten it again.

[koifish | 557]

5 hours ago, Brickman said:

Oh yeah I was thinking that one might too but didn’t know how big it might be. 

Those ones I mentioned just came to me because I think they were all pretty popular but after that I can’t think of much else. The list will probably end up having barely anything we’ve mentioned 

Just as well! I have recovered some and now I seem to think of some. In addition to pinball there is also pac-man パックマン and Ninja Gaiden comes back from the all-kanji group, as does Castlevania 3. Dig-Dug and another game I didn't know, ダウボーイ (port of the commodore 64 game "Doughboy") also fit. I expect to find more interesting new titles through this one as well. That's been the real boon of this list, I think; Finding out all kinds of new software to try. I would have never thought to check out some of these games had I not seen them here.

[Tanooki | 4,943]

Oh called it pretty well, was kind of obvious with the learning where that would go putting Popeye and DK Math on top along with the KOEI stuff, it just fits, as does mahjong.  Now the one that gets me is none of the obvious go/shougi trainers yet MindSeeker?  If anyone is unaware look that up it's ...unique.  To be fair I'm surprised I forgot about Wagyan Land, three of those and technically they really do fit that question.

I'm not sure what to think of the next other than what people said, so I'd maybe need to pull out the 50+ FC games I have and start counting symbols then see if they were popular I guess.

[scaryice | 589]

Latest results:

Question #18 (11/9-11/15) - When it comes to "5 character titles" what game comes to mind?

1	Metroid	17.0
2	Doraemon	7.9
3	Pac-Man	7.1
4	Goonies	6.0
5	Twinbee	5.7
6	Ninja Gaiden	5.2
7	Castlevania III	3.7
8	Mega Man	3.2
9	Genpei Touma Den	3.2
10	Dig Dug	3.1
11	Mendel Palace	2.5
12	Pinball	2.3
13	Youkai Douchuuki	2.0
14	Nazo no Murasame-jou	1.8
15	Touhou Kenbun Roku	1.8
16	Romancia	1.6
17	Life Force	1.5
18	Ghosts 'n Goblins	1.3
19	Momotarou Densetsu	1.1
20	TMNT	1.0

 

Metroid ended up winning easily. Funny that Life Force and Ghosts 'n Goblins are not 5 character titles but made it anyway. You always see a few weird results near the bottom. I guess if you spell them out and don't use the normal kanji titles, they would qualify then.

Next week's question:

When it comes to "tag", what game comes to mind?

The obvious choices are Tag Team Pro Wrestling and MUSCLE (full Japanese title: Kinnikuman: MUSCLE Tag Match). It'll be interesting to see what other stuff makes it - maybe games where you two characters working together, like Binary Land.

Edited November 16, 2023 by scaryice

[koifish | 557]

19 hours ago, scaryice said:

...Funny that Life Force and Ghosts 'n Goblins are not 5 character titles but made it anyway. You always see a few weird results near the bottom. I guess if you spell them out and don't use the normal kanji titles, they would qualify then.

Yeah, I was confused too, but indeed, as their phonetic versions, サラマンダ and まかいむら both fit the bill. At least for the first one, there are probably way more people who don't actually remember, when asked, the actual kanji for salamander, and who just think of the katakana instead. I don't think makaimura has that much of rare kanji though, so I am more surprised by it.

[DefaultGen | 5,415]

Yo, you guys are collecting cool data about a really important console and your questions are "What 5 character titles come to mind"

[DefaultGen | 5,415]

Xexyz was the first NES game that came to mind for English criteria.

[Link | 2,715]

3 hours ago, DefaultGen said:

Xexyz was the first NES game that came to mind for English criteria.

lol. I actually thought about this and tried to come up with a list of every NES title with 5 letters but quickly determined it would be a very narrow field.

[ThePhleo | 2,185]

5 hours ago, DefaultGen said:

Yo, you guys are collecting cool data about a really important console and your questions are "What 5 character titles come to mind"

3 Characters

1. 720*
2. Qix

4 Characters

1. 1942
2. Goal*
3. Golf
4. Hook
5. Jaws
6. MULE*
7. Narc
8. SCAT*
9. Toki
10. Trog*

5 Characters

1. 8 Eyes*
2. Cabal
3. Hoops
4. Joust
5. Loopz
6. Orb 3D*
7. Rambo
8. Rygar
9. Sqoon
10. Xexyz
11. Yoshi
12. Zanac
13. Q Bert*

720° may be 4 characters if you count the "°" symbol.

Goal! and Trog! may be 5 characters if you count the "!" symbol.

MULE and SCAT may be 7 or 8 characters if you spell it with 3 "."'s or 4 "."'s

SCAT may be more if you include the subline "Special Cybernetic Attack Team"

8 Eyes may be 6 characters if you count the space.

Q*Bert may be 6 characters if you count the "*" symbol

Orb 3-D may be 6 or 7 characters if you count the "-" symbol, or space.

 

...the longest title is tied at 59 characters

1. Jack Nicklaus' Greatest 18 Holes of Major Championship Golf
2. Wizardry Master Series: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord

The next one back is 58 characters

1. Fox's Peter Pan & the Pirates: The Revenge of Captain Hook

However, it would 60 characters if you spelled "&" as "and"

Edited November 17, 2023 by ThePhleo

[koifish | 557]

4 hours ago, DefaultGen said:

Xexyz was the first NES game that came to mind for English criteria.

A short list in total; I thought of Sqoon and Mappy.

[Link | 2,715]

34 minutes ago, ThePhleo said:

4 Characters

1. 1942
2. Goal*
3. Golf
4. Hook
5. Jaws
6. MULE*
7. Narc
8. SCAT*
9. Toki
10. Trog*

 

IT IS THE NINTIES AND THERE IS TIME FOR KLAX !!

[ThePhleo | 2,185]

1 minute ago, Link said:

 

IT IS THE NINTIES AND THERE IS TIME FOR KLAX !!

OK, fine...I'll include the garbage

4 Letter Garbage

1. Klax
2. Q-Boy (Sachen - Maybe 5 if you count the -)

5 Letter Trash

1. 6 in 1 (Maybe more if you spell it different ways)
2. Tasac (Sachen)

Happy.

 

Longest is Pesterminator: The Western Exterminator. I aint counting but it looks like 35-40

[scaryice | 589]

5 hours ago, DefaultGen said:

Yo, you guys are collecting cool data about a really important console and your questions are "What 5 character titles come to mind"

I know, I wish they had more gameplay related questions.

[Link | 2,715]

8 hours ago, ThePhleo said:

OK, fine...I'll include the garbage

Look, I know the whole match-3/falling block genre is a cesspool of garbage and shovelware now, but Klax is a really good game with tension and depth and a top-notch soundtrack.