What non-NTSC NES games are worth getting?

[CMR | 517]

6 hours ago, Sumez said:

The US Rainbow Islands is the Taito version, similar to the Japanese version (but with different music).

The European release is the Ocean port, which IMO surprisingly both looks and plays better. It's more similar to the original arcade version (though it lacks the last three "hidden" islands), while the Taito one changes up a lot of stuff, and has completely different stages, enemies and boss fights. It's almost like a "sequel".
Unfortunately Ocean's NES port isn't anywhere near as spot on as their Amiga one though. They must have had a different guy working on it or something.

I didn't know that.  Thanks for the info. This makes me think of other games that had multiple versions released like Namco StarWars, Indiana Jones and the Temple of doom, and eggerland/Adventures of Lolo.

Edited November 29, 2019 by CMR

[Friendsfa35 | 35]

as a European, i can vouch for Astérix

a good platformer, that can be beaten in less than an hour.

but still has a good difficulty.

[T-Pac | 7,510]

17 hours ago, Sumez said:

The US Rainbow Islands is the Taito version, similar to the Japanese version (but with different music).

The European release is the Ocean port, which IMO surprisingly both looks and plays better. It's more similar to the original arcade version (though it lacks the last three "hidden" islands), while the Taito one changes up a lot of stuff, and has completely different stages, enemies and boss fights. It's almost like a "sequel".
Unfortunately Ocean's NES port isn't anywhere near as spot on as their Amiga one though. They must have had a different guy working on it or something.

I really enjoy the US Rainbow Islands release (though admittedly I've never been able to make much progress in it) - would you say the Ocean port is different enough to seek out as well? A version with unique levels sounds interesting, but not if it's just a bunch of small discrepancies between the Taito and Ocean versions...

-CasualCart

[Sumez | 2,928]

On 11/30/2019 at 3:27 AM, CasualCart said:

would you say the Ocean port is different enough to seek out as well?

Absolutely. I'd say you gotta be appreciative of NES jank, or a big fan of the game in the first place, but that also goes for the US/Jap version. They definitely feel like very different games.

Personally I'm a huge fan to the point where it's my favourite arcade game of all time, and I have yet to play a home port that accurately represents the game (jury is still out on the PCE port - I own it, but most of my consoles are hidden behind a construction mess at the moment). So with that in mind I find it more interesting to play something that is drastically different.

Edited December 2, 2019 by Sumez

[Bronty | 187]

3 hours ago, Sumez said:

Absolutely. I'd say you gotta be appreciative of NES jank, or a big fan of the game in the first place, but that also goes for the US/Jap version. They definitely feel like very different games.

Personally I'm a huge fan to the point where it's my favourite arcade game of all time, and I have yet to play a home port that accurately represents the game (jury is still out on the PCE port - I own it, but most of my consoles are hidden behind a construction mess at the moment). So with that in mind I find it more interesting to play something that is drastically different.

Thanks for the list up above.   I don’t think this is well known so you might find it interesting to know that Don Doko Don 2 was very nearly released by Natsume in the US as Wacky-Man.   This was going to be the cover artwork (excuse the poor photo) .  It would have been one of the nicer looking boxes IMO

Edited December 2, 2019 by Bronty

[Sumez | 2,928]

Oh yeah, I remember hearing about that, but had forgotten it! There's an interview about it somewhere out there.

[Bronty | 187]

Was the interview by Frank Cifaldi maybe? He just about had a bird when I showed him and he found out it had gotten as far as cover art