I miss the style of games from Japan

I'm really craving a game with bright colours, a light hearted mood that is great fun.

Most of our games used to be made in Japan. Now it seems that the vast majority are produced in the West, and consist of gritty-grey and muddy-brown colours, are 'adult' themed, and take themselves way too seriously.

I own a 360 and a Wii- the Wii has been sat unused for years pretty much, but I am feeling that it may be time to treat it to some usage for Kirby and Donkey Kong and the likes..

 

Or a PC Engine.

 

Been looking at getting an NTSC one but generally they are expensive and tatty, at least on ebay UK. I'm not really that up to scratch on the best games on the system- what would you recommend?

 

Have to agree with ASSEMbler, either get a Super Fami or modify a PAL unit with a 50/60 switch and region mod and the world is your oyster. The DK and Kirby games on the Wii aren't a patch on their 16BIT counterparts. Get the originals and see how proper gaming used to be.

 

you're not looking hard enough.

unless you're telling me out of the hundreds (if not thousands) of ps3/xbox/pc games out now NONE of them satisfy you?

 

If you're dead set on getting a superfami, try any of the Kirby games (I love Kirby 3), or Kendo Rage.

 

Kirby Super Star is one my favs on the super fami.

 

Softmod your Wii and download WiiEngine. It's a PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16 emulator and it works great. I have the whole PC Engine library on my SD card that I play with. There's tons of games and most of them are quick arcade type games. I haven't really played anything that was deep on that system besides Golden Axe/Dungeon Explorer though.

 

Yes, why should be preserver to preserve old systems and work to collect games when we can just mod and emulate.:-(

 

You can do both, HCK. I have a PC Engine and a Super NES safely tucked away (I play them every once in a while, too - connected to an old CRT Trinitron TV) - but I also have the emulators and roms on my Wii so I don't risk my machines.

Still, the emulators cannot beat the awesome feeling of the early 90s, I tell you that.

 

Actually there's not much to risk on a Siper Famicom or a (hucard) PC-Engine These systems are rock-solid and many of them went through hell and are still working.

There are still some nice Japanese-style games that I admit are great even though I generally dislike the current generation of consoles and games. Kirby and Donkey Kong for Wii look nice, also Super Paper Mario, the Mario Galaxys and Vanquish has neat arcade-style gameplay.

If you want cute gems or just colorful wonderworlds, there's nothing best than a PC-Engine and a Super Famicom. For cool soundtracks and incredibly lots of hidden gems, try Mega Drive and Famicom. Or Sega Saturn, if you like arcade ports and the early + mid-90's or arcade games. The Playstation has got an awful lot of hidden gems both in 3D and 2D as well as plenty of arcade ports, classic compilations and cool original games. The deeper you dig, the more you'll find.

 

Why don't you take 10 seconds to think about it first?

Full game library
100% working emulation
Save states
You don't need to get up and change games
You can sit on your couch instead of in front of the TV because of the controller length

I can go on, but it should be pretty self explanatory.

 

While I do see the advantage of what you say, it's just not the same as playing with the original hardware. It serves different needs. It feels different.

If you want to just play the game, the emulation you suggest is quite sufficient. Hell, it even represents an improvement in some areas, like save states and filters, and whatnot.

But it you want to reproduce the feeling - the being 14 and playing Axelay at 3AM in 1995 - the actual way the games felt - you have to get the actual hardware. Emulated, with different controllers, new TVs or Monitors, extra technology... that just takes away from the experience.

And while PC Engine and SNES are rock solid, older systems are getting quite hard to come by in my area of residence, unfortunately. I've seen two PC-Engines in person in my whole life, for example. And one of them is the one I own.

Sad? Yes.

But you know, what you say is correct. I have never had to change my Super NES pads since 1994 - I've had the same Ascii pads and they work like a charm ever since.

 

I second that. Moreover, you should check out new retro-style games like Pole's Big Adventure:
http://www.gametrailers.com/player/44717.html
http://www.gametrailers.com/player/44719.html

Best WiiWare title after Cave Story and one of the best games I've ever played.

 

I know what you are trying to say, and I agree to an extent, but there's zero chance of me ever feeling 14 years old and playing games until 3AM as I have a job to get up and do. It wasn't just games that made childhood great... the reason the games bring back such nostalgia is not (solely) because they are better than recent efforts, more that we look back through rose-tinted specs because we didn't have to do a damn thing. No bills to pay, hell, barely a concept of money!

 

I think this could be a reply do the "Do you ever feel that gaming has passed you by?" thread.

It took me a while to figure this out, this is exactly the reason I barely play anything nowadays, Back in the day lots of "made in Japan" games got exported worldwide, I think about 70% of titles were "made in Japan" in the 16bit era, perhaps a bit less in the 32bit era.
Nowadays it's almost impossible to find anything other than F-P-S's or EA crap in the store shelves.

When I'm in Japan browsing the game shops I get that magic feeling back!
Thank god my Wii is soft-modded and region-free or else it would have been collecting dust for ages.

Same goes for my NDS+M3

 

Too bad even some Japanese games are going for the "realistic" look these days. Just look at Vanquish for example, made by a Japanese developer but as far as the color palette goes, not too different from Gears of War or whatever (thankfully it plays nothing like GoW).