Holy Diver peaks in difficulty in stage four. If you can overcome its utterly insane boss, you're golden. Between the wizard staff you find there that doubles your magic and the cape you get in the following stage that doubles your defense, you feel pretty godly by the finale. The sense of growth baked into this one is really very satisfying.
These folks deserve an award for that level of production value alone. That kind of love and attention is honestly heartening to see after the recent bad news for games archiving.
They are both fantastic. Holy Diver looks particularly great on a shelf with its minimalist designed box. Unfortunately neither game works on the Retron 5 (one of the best all in one consoles for retro games).
Yeah gimmick is one of the mose expensive Famicom games, even reproduction copies are uncommon, because special boards are needed. Most Sunsoft games are expensive, it would be cool if they packaged Trip world and Ufouria with gimmick, they have some similarities.
Mmmmhhh mhmm Yeah yeah Holy diver You've been down too long in the midnight sea Oh what's becoming of me Ride the tiger You can see his stripes but you know he's clean Oh, don't you see what I mean Gotta get away Holy diver, yeah Shiny diamonds Like the eyes of a cat in the black and blue Something is coming for you Look out
I think these games (and others) were included in the Super Retro-Bit, and I'm satisfied to play them there. Still, it's pretty cool that Retrobit is offering these titles to players with the original hardware.
SNES prices these days make me weep. About ten years ago, I sold my _boxed_ copy of R-Type III for $50. If only I could have known it was going to so valuable in the future....
Nah, a Metal Storm cart is about $100-150 these days. A boxed copy goes for about 4x that. Little Samson, on the other hand... that's pay-your-mortgage material.
I picked up Holy Diver back when it was relatively unknown for cheap and it's absolutely one of the best Famicom exclusives. It's difficult but once you learn how to best use your magic it's very fun and definitely up there with Castlevania itself.
Lol you gotta read the wiki everyone. "The game was developed by Japanese game developer Irem. The game is based on the 1983 album Holy Diver by Dio, however it is completely unofficial and has no connection with the band. The game has four main characters who are named after musicians Ronnie James Dio, Ozzy Ozborne, Zakk Wylde, and Randy Rhoads. Other characters and locations in the game are references to rock music such as the Crimson Kingdom and Black Slayer."
Holy Diver A platformer known for its difficulty Like Castlevania III Tried to play Rygar Don't blow on the cart if it's not working Do not clean with benzene Gotta get this game Holy Diver, yeah
You really put out some great content, thanks and keep it up! Any chance you could do a video on the Dragon Slayer series, Faxanadu, and the amazing Faxanadu Remastered?
I am sure other metalheads pointed this out but Randy's name is based off of Randy Rhoads, long lamented guitarist in the 80's of Ozzy Osbourne's solo band.
We don't forget about our EU fans! The PAL version is coming soon and pre-orders are currently available. You can find the list of retailers here: retro-bit.com/europe
People who brag about being able to beat difficult games are quite an oddity, but I guess we all need to revisit something that also occurred in the past; similarities over differences. Small favors...
The Holy Diver set looks sweet! I tried to look into it online but Retro-bit's site is down! Guess I'll just have to spend my hard-earned$60 on Nintendo scratch-off trading cards and a case of Jolt cola!
Hey Chris! We are currently working on the Retro-Bit website, and it may be down periodically. In the meantime, you can purchase the Holy Diver Collector's Edition here: castlemaniagames.com/shop?olsPage=products%2Fholy-diver-standard-edition-collectors-set
I doubt any of you will beat hd if its as hard as the famicom. Took alot of practice and the extra live cheat to help me beat it. 4th boss and last boss approach are brutal.
I didn't realize that copy of R-Type III I picked up in a small town Hard-Off held this kind of value! Talking about re-releases got me curious about my favourite too expensive too import SFC game: Majyuu Ou, aka King of Demons. It turns out play-asia put out a licensed re-release of it earlier this year, at a much better price than that one copy I saw at Super Potato 5 years ago! www.play-asia.com/majyuuou/13/70bwyl Do you have any experience with play-asia SFC copies? I'm really tempted, but it's still just a hair above my impulse price threshold.
Oh Lord, that dark souls reference was pure gold xD I did that to some idiot that kept saying how good he is in bloodbourne and darksouls lol..I put on the original Castlevania and didn't even make it to the first boss LOL
'Kenseiden was...okay I guess?' It's statements like this that make me wonder why so many US journalists seem incapable of fairly assessing Sega Master System titles in 2018. I understand that referencing other contemporary Castlevania knock-off titles is a good way to help contextualise a game like Holy Diver but Kenseiden isn't anything of the sort.
It's a deliberately-paced 8-bit action-platformer with a generally spooky style and a heavy focus on short range combat and slightly stiff precision jumping. How exactly are the two incomparable?
@@willmistretta They're not incomparable - but Kenseiden is in no way a derivative of Castlevania. Off the top - it has a non-linear structure, feudal Japan setting, original enemies etc and most importantly - unlike 98.98% of all 2D side scrollers ever made - the main protagonist keeps his dominant hand whether he changes direction or not. This kind of sprite detail is more what you'd expect to see in Metal Slug rather than an underrated, underplayed SMS game. My point is more about it being glibly dismissed as an unremarkable title and how common it is to hear sentiments like this from US games journalists. It's baffling.
Less linear? Sure. It also released almost a year after Castlevania 2, sooooo.... Look, the game isn't terrible or wholly unoriginal. Nobody said that in the first place. It is, however, also derivative in many respects of certain key big-selling "landmark" titles. Like most games ever made. Hell, Namco's Genpei Tōma Den (1986) and Konami's Getsu Fūma Den (1987) did side-scrolling samurai versus ghosts and demons action first and they were both fairly big in Japan.
I tried Holy Diver before and unfortunately i didn't enjoy it. your attacks are not as satisfying to use as a whip or maybe even a dagger, i do like how the character looks with that cape though.
8-Eyes should have been cool. You get an attack bird! Stupid hit-boxes and forced stage order. Why even have a level select screen if the bosses can't be beaten without going in a specific order?
Talking both as a longtime metalhead and NES/Famicom fan, honestly, I've never liked "Holy Diver"! (the game) The only reason of the "cult" behind this game is related to its background story, filled with tons of references to the world of heavy metal music. Just that. The gameitself is just mediocre, a classic example of overrated title. In fact, aside from its fascinating musical background, you'll find a game with very slow responding controls (and the execution is even slower), continuous enemy respawns with random and punishing schemes, insanely ridicolous difficulty level, poor general programming who brings even to some lethal game bugs (at a level that you can even get stuck into a wall, as some other bad NES/Famicom games...and, in that case, you can just reset your console). Over all this "tempting" technical background, the game is hugely surrounded by its disappointing halo of being another poor rip-off of Castlevania. End of the story: the game itself is just too punishing, badly made and, mainly, not fun at all. The only kind of "fun" you can get is having a laugh after an insane number of continuous deaths for the most stupid reasons: there's a limit for everything, and honestly "Holy Diver" has gone too far. Talking as a collector and as a fan of Irem stuff, that's the only one among the official reissues published by Irem/Retro-Bit that I still never own. And for a lot of very good reasons, as you can read. Its musical background means nothing to me: honestly, I prefer the pleasure of getting another listen to the real "Holy Diver" by RJ Dio (for me, the best heavy metal album of all time) instead of getting the pain to play a mediocre game titled with the same name. Sorry for the honest brutality and the long comment.... Cheers.
Oh poor Holy Diver. He’s been down too long in the midnight sea
Thank you so much for this. I wish you could ride a tiger in the game or perhaps even find a rainbow in the dark
Oh don't you see what I mean?
RIP
Za Warudo
Is there anyone out there who didnt immediately get holy diver stuck in their head on starting this vid?
Holy Diver peaks in difficulty in stage four. If you can overcome its utterly insane boss, you're golden. Between the wizard staff you find there that doubles your magic and the cape you get in the following stage that doubles your defense, you feel pretty godly by the finale. The sense of growth baked into this one is really very satisfying.
These folks deserve an award for that level of production value alone. That kind of love and attention is honestly heartening to see after the recent bad news for games archiving.
They are both fantastic. Holy Diver looks particularly great on a shelf with its minimalist designed box.
Unfortunately neither game works on the Retron 5 (one of the best all in one consoles for retro games).
@@Hrogoff have you tried updating the firmware on the Retron 5?
I didn't bother. I have an actual Japanese copy that works and another printing from a different company that works. I just use those.
They need to bring Mr Gimmick over. Even a Japanese copy runs like $800.
Yeah gimmick is one of the mose expensive Famicom games, even reproduction copies are uncommon, because special boards are needed.
Most Sunsoft games are expensive, it would be cool if they packaged Trip world and Ufouria with gimmick, they have some similarities.
Think randy is named for Ozzy osbourne’s guitar legend randy rhoads
Also a founding member of Quiet Riot
The Dark Souls of Castlevania!
This made me laugh ;>
Mmmmhhh mhmm
Yeah yeah
Holy diver
You've been down too long in the midnight sea
Oh what's becoming of me
Ride the tiger
You can see his stripes but you know he's clean
Oh, don't you see what I mean
Gotta get away
Holy diver, yeah
Shiny diamonds
Like the eyes of a cat in the black and blue
Something is coming for you
Look out
I used to wonder if there was harder NES action game than Contra and Castlevania.
Then I played Holy Diver...
Contra is child's play actually.
I think these games (and others) were included in the Super Retro-Bit, and I'm satisfied to play them there. Still, it's pretty cool that Retrobit is offering these titles to players with the original hardware.
@Matthew Lawton Come back here with that! (You don't have a power star, do you? Good.) Come back here with that!!!
SNES prices these days make me weep. About ten years ago, I sold my _boxed_ copy of R-Type III for $50.
If only I could have known it was going to so valuable in the future....
They should also give Metal Storm a rerelease considering the original cart goes for nearly THOUSANDS of dollars. That and Little Samson.
KT Johnson Wait it does? I have that cart 😮
Nah, a Metal Storm cart is about $100-150 these days. A boxed copy goes for about 4x that. Little Samson, on the other hand... that's pay-your-mortgage material.
@KT Johnson now they finally made it: you can still find an official Retro-Bit/Irem reissue of Metal Storm.
Cheers.
Your Videos are pure Gold! Love the effort on the edition of Titles and the clean aspect of all :)
Holy diver was also on their emulator unit you showed. I had hopes for them to do this once they did the “Retrobit Generations” and their multicarts.
I picked up Holy Diver back when it was relatively unknown for cheap and it's absolutely one of the best Famicom exclusives. It's difficult but once you learn how to best use your magic it's very fun and definitely up there with Castlevania itself.
Lol you gotta read the wiki everyone. "The game was developed by Japanese game developer Irem. The game is based on the 1983 album Holy Diver by Dio, however it is completely unofficial and has no connection with the band. The game has four main characters who are named after musicians Ronnie James Dio, Ozzy Ozborne, Zakk Wylde, and Randy Rhoads. Other characters and locations in the game are references to rock music such as the Crimson Kingdom and Black Slayer."
I pre-ordered Holy Diver and I want/NEED to have my copy like NOW.
The wait is almost over! Orders have started shipping this week :)
Holy moly!
More R-Type? Yes please.
Holy Diver
A platformer known for its difficulty
Like Castlevania III
Tried to play Rygar
Don't blow on the cart if it's not working
Do not clean with benzene
Gotta get this game
Holy Diver, yeah
Definitely gotta find both of these. As for R-Type 3, I paid about 40 bucks on eBay for a loose copy.
You really put out some great content, thanks and keep it up! Any chance you could do a video on the Dragon Slayer series, Faxanadu, and the amazing Faxanadu Remastered?
1. See Game Boy Works #079; 2. I will in NES Works 1989; 3. Unlikely
I am sure other metalheads pointed this out but Randy's name is based off of Randy Rhoads, long lamented guitarist in the 80's of Ozzy Osbourne's solo band.
Randy? I always thought it was Dio!
I would be interested in R-Type 3 but my SNES is a PAL one and I don't have an NES at all...
We don't forget about our EU fans! The PAL version is coming soon and pre-orders are currently available. You can find the list of retailers here: retro-bit.com/europe
I preordered both of these releases, and am eagerly awaiting their arrival!
Awesome to hear, and thank you for the support! Orders are shipping this week!
I recognise Paul Johnson's R-Type art there on the cards.
Thanks! (Just kidding, I'm not him.)
Yeah, his style is quite recognizable. X3 I enjoy how his work takes inspiration from classic anime. :3
It’s very hard game, but I still think CV3 Trevor solo, Alucard path is more difficult.
Btw, Randy comes from Randy Rhoads.
People who brag about being able to beat difficult games are quite an oddity, but I guess we all need to revisit something that also occurred in the past; similarities over differences.
Small favors...
Randy Rhodes is the reference, because Ozzy is mentioned.
The Holy Diver set looks sweet! I tried to look into it online but Retro-bit's site is down! Guess I'll just have to spend my hard-earned$60 on Nintendo scratch-off trading cards and a case of Jolt cola!
Hey Chris! We are currently working on the Retro-Bit website, and it may be down periodically. In the meantime, you can purchase the Holy Diver Collector's Edition here: castlemaniagames.com/shop?olsPage=products%2Fholy-diver-standard-edition-collectors-set
Any news of these cartridges burning your house down?
The 4th boss in Holy D. Is a nightmare!!! The last boss is a joke!
Randy Rhoads was Ozzy's guitarist. He died.
i'm crying for magic
I doubt any of you will beat hd if its as hard as the famicom. Took alot of practice and the extra live cheat to help me beat it. 4th boss and last boss approach are brutal.
Simon Belmont or Randy Rhoads?
Dracula or Dark Slayer?
r-type returns has been released as a normal non collector edition in japan if im correct
i just bought the holy diver retro-bit reissue
Or randy as in randy roads one of the best guitarist of the 80s he was heavy metal
I didn't realize that copy of R-Type III I picked up in a small town Hard-Off held this kind of value!
Talking about re-releases got me curious about my favourite too expensive too import SFC game: Majyuu Ou, aka King of Demons. It turns out play-asia put out a licensed re-release of it earlier this year, at a much better price than that one copy I saw at Super Potato 5 years ago!
www.play-asia.com/majyuuou/13/70bwyl
Do you have any experience with play-asia SFC copies? I'm really tempted, but it's still just a hair above my impulse price threshold.
I play a lot of dark souls all three of them . Holy Diver looks rough !
hey, you mentioned 8 eyes. I beat that game, but it was ill-optimized and all around a horrible experience.
its randy rhodes the guitar player for ozzy in the game he is the son of dio
Oh Lord, that dark souls reference was pure gold xD I did that to some idiot that kept saying how good he is in bloodbourne and darksouls lol..I put on the original Castlevania and didn't even make it to the first boss LOL
Talking Simpsons snipits leaking into the video game vids huh? ;)
'Kenseiden was...okay I guess?'
It's statements like this that make me wonder why so many US journalists seem incapable of fairly assessing Sega Master System titles in 2018. I understand that referencing other contemporary Castlevania knock-off titles is a good way to help contextualise a game like Holy Diver but Kenseiden isn't anything of the sort.
I'm impressed you can type so much while bearing such a heavy cross!
@@JeremyParish it's good for clearing out enemies behind you
It's a deliberately-paced 8-bit action-platformer with a generally spooky style and a heavy focus on short range combat and slightly stiff precision jumping. How exactly are the two incomparable?
@@willmistretta They're not incomparable - but Kenseiden is in no way a derivative of Castlevania. Off the top - it has a non-linear structure, feudal Japan setting, original enemies etc and most importantly - unlike 98.98% of all 2D side scrollers ever made - the main protagonist keeps his dominant hand whether he changes direction or not. This kind of sprite detail is more what you'd expect to see in Metal Slug rather than an underrated, underplayed SMS game.
My point is more about it being glibly dismissed as an unremarkable title and how common it is to hear sentiments like this from US games journalists. It's baffling.
Less linear? Sure. It also released almost a year after Castlevania 2, sooooo....
Look, the game isn't terrible or wholly unoriginal. Nobody said that in the first place. It is, however, also derivative in many respects of certain key big-selling "landmark" titles. Like most games ever made. Hell, Namco's Genpei Tōma Den (1986) and Konami's Getsu Fūma Den (1987) did side-scrolling samurai versus ghosts and demons action first and they were both fairly big in Japan.
"Randy" James Dio
Nope, Dio is referenced with Randy's dad. Randy is the main character.
I tried Holy Diver before and unfortunately i didn't enjoy it. your attacks are not as satisfying to use as a whip or maybe even a dagger, i do like how the character looks with that cape though.
Randy? Noooo. Ronnie James f'n Dio!!!!!!
That'd be _Ronnie_ James Dio. And no, the main character's named Randy, after Randy Rhodes. The Emperor, Randy's dad, is named Ronnie IV, after Dio.
8-Eyes should have been cool. You get an attack bird! Stupid hit-boxes and forced stage order. Why even have a level select screen if the bosses can't be beaten without going in a specific order?
Talking both as a longtime metalhead and NES/Famicom fan, honestly, I've never liked "Holy Diver"!
(the game)
The only reason of the "cult" behind this game is related to its background story, filled with tons of references to the world of heavy metal music. Just that. The gameitself is just mediocre, a classic example of overrated title.
In fact, aside from its fascinating musical background, you'll find a game with very slow responding controls (and the execution is even slower), continuous enemy respawns with random and punishing schemes, insanely ridicolous difficulty level, poor general programming who brings even to some lethal game bugs (at a level that you can even get stuck into a wall, as some other bad NES/Famicom games...and, in that case, you can just reset your console).
Over all this "tempting" technical background, the game is hugely surrounded by its disappointing halo of being another poor rip-off of Castlevania.
End of the story: the game itself is just too punishing, badly made and, mainly, not fun at all.
The only kind of "fun" you can get is having a laugh after an insane number of continuous deaths for the most stupid reasons: there's a limit for everything, and honestly "Holy Diver" has gone too far.
Talking as a collector and as a fan of Irem stuff, that's the only one among the official reissues published by Irem/Retro-Bit that I still never own. And for a lot of very good reasons, as you can read.
Its musical background means nothing to me: honestly, I prefer the pleasure of getting another listen to the real "Holy Diver" by RJ Dio (for me, the best heavy metal album of all time) instead of getting the pain to play a mediocre game titled with the same name.
Sorry for the honest brutality and the long comment....
Cheers.
channeling your inner bob mackey for that simpsons clip eh