A few of these leading ladies have received more in depth reviews including the jazzercize queen herself: Ghost Lion ruclips.net/video/Kkcd0HKQhaw/видео.html
"You can select Peach, but she's not really the main character." Considering that every single person I've ever met pretty much uses her exclusively for her float ability, I'm sure many people would beg to differ.
@@BigOleWords I also prefer Luigi. As a kid I was all about Peach like everybody else, but as I grew older and more competent at games in general, and could therefore actually control Luigi (as a kid, his jumps were impossible to use accurately), I started finding myself preferring him. I feel like his jumps actually have a lot of versatility once you do manage to get the control down.
Can we get some love for Clarice, the protagonist of City Connection? Her character was removed from the NES port in America (although she was in the FC version) and she predates Samus as one of the first female video game characters ever.
also the march rider in the game mach rider, is a woman too much like metroid if you beat the game on a good time she reveals herself outside the outfit
The Athena in the NES game is actually the grandmother of Athena in King of Fighters. They are not the same character. Athena Asamiya, who would go on to be in King of Fighters, made her first appearance in Psycho Soldier, which is a side scroller that also stars Sie Kensou, who is another member of Athena’s King of Fighters team, while Athena from the NES/arcade title would not see another appearance until 2003’s release of SVC Chaos: SNK Vs. Capcom, where she guards the gate to Heaven.
Furthermore, Athena and Kensou appear as major characters in 'Crystalis' for the NES. Although Athena is called "Asina" in the English version. Yay for poor translations!
The thing about Faria is that the main character was originally a man transformed into a woman by a wizard. He is a prince from another kingdom who was set to marry a princess of his neighboring kingdom.
@@BigOleWords Yeah, I was hoping you'd bring up that the main character of 'Faria' is revealed as actually a dude, but I guess you either didn't get that far or didn't look up info on the game first. Oh well.
Japanese version of krion conquest have cutscenes between levels that explains better the story of the game, and the Japanese game it's called magical kid's doropie, and it have an english patch as well, so yeah, check the Japanese version next time
Salamander/Life Force can be an example... Kinda I mean you control a plane so it won't really matter And only the JP Famicom version has the end credits which shows the long-haired lady, which even changes based on your gaming perfromance
It's actually very great game. Depends on taste, of course. I'd say it rather amazing. Fast scrolling, lots of enemies on screen at once. Great gameplay(Compile was very good in SHMUPs back then), was very fun to upgrade weapons. The only downside I see is that weapons not balances too well, and bosses also not too balanced in difficulty. But it was those times when many games lack such things in game design.
@@JohnDoe-wq5eu I did not dig into that, but exactly the Compile did closed officially. There was something like Compile Heart emerged out of that. But basically it's some other company with other approach to games. The last Compile's SHMUP was Zanac x Zanac in 2001
I think the Reason Ms. Pac Man wasn't released until 1993 was because Tengen already released an unlicensed cart of the game. Pac Man already had been released in both forms by Tengen and later got a re-release by namco along with Ms. Pac Man.
@@BigOleWords My guess is that Nintendo didn't want to release a game that was already released by Tengen since Tengen made a bunch of other licensed and unlicensed games, like Gauntlet for instance. Nintendo didn't want to compete with an unlicensed company for the same game.
@@BigOleWords Namco didn't have full ownership rights to Ms Pacman back then as well as to this day and don't like releasing or re-releasing anything with Ms Pacman because they have to get approval from @games to do so as well as split profits. That's why they started with Pac Girl now and basically canceled any acknowledgment that Ms Pacman ever existed.
@@leefischer5814 IIRC the original Ms. Pac-Man was a bootleg but the folks at namco liked it so much they made her an official part of the Pac-Man franchise, even though they never actually acquired the rights to the character. The whole thing was kind of a mess from Day 1. As you said these days Namco doesn't use her in any capacity and basically deny her existence...
The reason The Guardian Legend's North American cover art looks the way it does is that the artist shamelessly copied the poster for the 1985 sci-fi horror movie Creature.
Great video my friend! Im always suggesting guardian legend, and Krion Conquest when people say they want a good nes game to play. It was great seeing you at SEGE also! Can’t wait for next year! Plus I seen your channel is picking up a ton of steam, which is freaking awesome man and you totally deserve it! Can’t wait for the next video!
Excellent! I wanted a video like this for a long time. I think it popped up in my recommendations because a couple times I searched for it but not getting exactly what I was looking for
hi my friend in this list was missing the game Layla, a great game is a Platform game developed by dB-SOFT and published by dB-SOFT on December 20, 1986 for NES. Great video and a hug from Brazil !!
Hiya! Layla was only for the Famicom in Japan, so I didn’t include it or any of the other female centric games released there. Maybe another video! And thanks for the hug!
The Japanese version of Krion Conquest is a bit more interesting. While Krion Conquest has that one weird intro. Magical Dorope has Ninja Gaiden like cutscenes between every round. The American version takes out the continue function for some reason. Another fun fact is the game was originally going to be based off the Wizard of Oz anime but they couldn't get the license.
Not a popular opinion, but I have always been a fan of Athena. Yes, the game was accurately considered “clunky”, but the ability to search and find power ups, the catchy music, and diverse bosses made it fun for me as a kid. That said, I’ve still never had the gull to grind and beat it as an adult
The guardian legend is my favorite NES game. I have the nes cartridge, a shirt, the secret edition rom, i made the character out of legos and i have a pearler figure of the character and the ship mode...huge fan.....and her name is Miria
On the Arkista's Ring protagonist being named Christine I'm sure it's a cultural thing. I've recently been hearing that Terra from FF6 was called Tina in Japan because it sounds exotic to their ears but super common to Westerners. I'm sure that's probably the deal there and they didn't bother with it during localization.
There's one you missed: Life Force. The pilot of the ship is a woman. However, since the US version removed the credits, you can't see the pilot removing the helmet. You can only see it in the Japanese version.
Yeah there were a few Famicom versions like Mach Rider that revealed a lady at the end that they removed for the NES. After Metroid everyone wanted to get in on the action!
The first game I played with a female protagonist was probably Psycho Soldier in the arcades (I don’t count ms Pac-Man as it’s just a yellow circle and not a humanoid). That’s also probably the first game ever with a theme with vocals. Probably for most people in their 40’s the first game was golden axe.
Mugen Senshi Valis and Mahou no Princess Minky Momo are another female lead games. I am pretty sure there are more Japanese games but it might be difficult to find them all.
That was a good over view of NES games starring woman protagonists, as a newer subscriber I just wanted to say your content is good and. I hope you keep working at it
Something I think would be interesting to know too is how many NES games out there have a playable female character, even if not the sole protagonist. Examples Bucky O Hare; Tiny Toon 2; Super Mario Bros 2
Well, kind of rushed to make that comment. Then saw you mentioned that in about 40 titles you can play as a female that is at least selectable. Still think it would be a very interesting topic for a video listing these and maybe a few words about each one
I forgot about the little mermaid game. Hard to rely on this memory from 25ish years ago, but i remember it being difficult enough to be challenging and not so hard that i rage quit.
@@BigOleWordsAs a child playing NES, i thought i just wasn't good enough at certain games. It wasn't until recently watching nostalgia videos like yours that i learned certain games were made extra difficult on purpose. I don't remember any SNES games i had difficulty issues with, but had chalked that up to i was older and had gotten better- nope, they just made them easier 🤣
I hate myself for making this joke, but the protagonist of Guardian Legend is probably the only person who could non-ironically identify as an attack helicopter
I just discovered your channel today, very informative content, thank you. I have to say though in the Japanese box art of The Guardian Legend the main character looks like she goes on to become Jenova.
Kiki Kaikai: Dotouhen was ported to the Famicom Disk System. Does that count? The arcade game had a single female protagonist, Sayo-chan, but the Famicom port added a second playable shrine maiden, Miki-chan. Never played it myself, but the sequel (known as Pocky and Rocky in the west) is a classic.
@@BigOleWords Thanks for reminding me about Guardian Legend. If the main character had a memorable name, maybe it could have a classic. Maybe even a series? Publishers just didn't care back then.
You forgot The Legend of Zelda. You play as Zelda. That's why it's called that... There are people out there who still don't know Samus is a woman. Pretty crazy right? The Famicom cover for Guardian Legend is great and looks like something H.R. Giger would have done. You should do a video on NES covers that could be album covers. Athena, M.U.L.E., Dungeon Magic, Chiller, Deadly Towers are just a few of them.
Really enjoyed this video, great topic choice! I'm surprised I had never heard of Wurm before, it looks really interesting and forward thinking. Faria and Arkista's Ring are also new to me. Definitely will be trying these out later. Would you recommend one of them over the others? Thanks for the video!
I see! Arkistas Ring is the most fun but it’s pretty simple. Wurm is way more interesting and varied, but not as cohesive. Faria I wouldn’t recommend :)
Yes it did! The word I used there was “official” meaning they had to go through all the Nintendo hoops to release it legitly in 1993. But the fact that a Tengen version already was out for that long makes it’s later re-release even more perplexing!
@@BigOleWords yes, after all the litigation and strife, the public was provided an inferior official port. Yay Nintendo and its anti competitive practices! 😅
Not sure if this counts considering she's from a Famicom exclusive game with two protagonists, but I feel like Celica from Fire Emblem Gaiden deserves a mention
@@BigOleWords You don't get to choose in Fire Emblem Gaiden, there are two protagonists, and it switches which one you play as every few maps, but it is still famicom exclusive
You missed one called Layla, though I can understand considering it was a Famicom exclusive. Heck, might be more off that metric, but then its not explicitly the 'NES'.
7:16 as well as in her own Resident Evil style horror game for Play Station. Thanks GuileWinQuote. Also, this list would be two or maybe three times bigger if you included famicom.
Did not know about that! And yeah as a rule I do tend to exclude the Famicom so that topics don’t sprawl endlessly, but at some point I’ll give the system more of a spotlight.
@@BigOleWords My best theory at this point is suffering from "Ebay-itis" That is, from seeing the same game in so many lots for many many years that you incorrectly pass it off as being in your collection. That or I lost it. Or my 3 year old nephew stole it.
Neat list, I haven't heard of a lot of those games. Maybe do a follow up video for the Famicom and maybe also the unlicensed games? I feel like it's only part of the story without them.
Maybe? I’m pretty much only into the official NES library as that’s what I collect and know best, but for sure there are tons of other games that are parallel to these.
LifeForce (Salamander in Japan) has a woman as the main character piloting the ship as well, although this is only made known to you if you beat the Japanese version without continues.
talking about girl with hidden identity (such Samus) - Sypha from castlevania is the same - only at the end revials long hairs, and i have missed that 'wurm' video, probably will try to play it blind, looks interesting here
@@BigOleWords manual says "he/his" and only at the end, when she uncover long blond hairs and fall into trevor's hugs, the ending says 'she' - it had to be a big secret, didnt got a question 'til years later', do you mean 'didnt she always was mentioned as woman'?, pdf manual shows she wasn't
One choice game and one arguably main character game in your list: baseball stars has a team of all ladies. Silk worm, one of the pilots, I think the helicopter, is piloted by a woman. You can choose between a jeep and a helicopter to play as, but not who pilots each
So how many NES games feature a female villain? Only ones I can think of off the top of my head are Little Mermaid, Kid Icarus, Metroid and Battletoads. I'm sure I'm missing a lot of obvious ones!
Call me crazy but if I were Mattel and owned the most famous doll in the universe. I’d do a lot better when it comes to her games. They All seem like the devs just tweeted it in.
Female protagonists in video games before Lara Croft! That can't be true the Internet says only boys play video games 🤣 I've been delving into female protagonists recently myself. The 8bit Microcomputers had some, let's say "Interesting" titles 😉
Just NES? Famicom library featured many more games with gals as lead characters: City Connection, Urusei Yatsura, Wing of Madoola, Space Hunter (this one sucks tho), Sukeban Deka 3, Attack Animal Gakuen, or my personal guilty pleasure - Layla.
7:12 besides Athena, SNK frequently uses characters of its universes in the The King of Fighters franchise. Of course Ryo, Robert, Andy, Terry et all are obvious choices but there are also the Ikari Warriors, yes, the ones that were horribly ported to NES from the arcade game with the same name. If you check in Wikipedia will see that their names are Col. Ralph Jones and 2d Lt Clark Still
@@BigOleWords Ah, okay. I am Russian. In Russia NES/Famicom is known as Dendy. And all versions from the world is mixed. I remember Magical Doropie with poor Russian translation by Chinese pirates probably)
Gun-Nac is a rather bizarre shoot-em-up that features a female character as the pilot. The Japanese version makes that bit clearer in the story, though. S.C.A.T. is another game where you can choose between a male/female main character that tends to get overlooked. Mainly because it isn't immediately obvious that Sigourney is woman (even though she's named after Sigourney Weaver)
@BigOleWords as stated on said other video. So many advanced features that we later see influence Games like Lufias capsule summons, non traditional armor systems, Stat Leveling, mini games. Once again Great Video
As for Samus Aran being described as a man in the English manual, in Japanese, (gendered) third person pronouns are commonly not used to the same extent as in Western languages, so it might have been an ambiguous Japanese text where the translator would just assume the character was male by default... (In Japanese, it's very common with gendered first person pronouns, on the other hand...)
Wait! Isn't KoF Athena from the Psycho Soldier game? The very first game with digilized music and vocals (which got a pretty good new version in KoF 94, and it's called Psycho Soldier, too). I don't know if the Athena in the NES is the same one as in Psycho Soldier, though. Oh, and her team mate Sie Kensou is also from Psycho Soldier game, too!
Video games back then were of course geared towards boys, so female main characters was an odd decision. BUT i would not be surprised if the decision to use women as the main character in some of these games is what eventually lead to the opinion today of "badass female character" being popular.
Great idea for a video! I appreciate that modern games are much better at either letting us choose who we want to play as, and also creating cool, interesting females to play as so it's not always Mr. Generic Hero Man. Samus still going strong!
I remember when my older brother beat metroid and we all were shocked to find out that samus was a girl i believe i was around 7 years old ill never for get that moment😂
Hi! could you help me finding a NES game. I cant remember the name, and I've played it at least 25 years ago, but it was in a nes. The playable character is a little girl, shes an astronaut, and wears skirt. She also can use or not a helm. The first level (as I remember) occurs in a city. And I can barely remember everything in one or two colours, but this is the least accurated memory.
A few of these leading ladies have received more in depth reviews including the jazzercize queen herself: Ghost Lion ruclips.net/video/Kkcd0HKQhaw/видео.html
If we celebrating the ladies of the 80's I can't let you forget Bubbles from Clu Clu Land. She's no Ms. Pacman, but her game is a decent substitute.
Damn it you’re right, I forgot that one!
Is that anything like the Wii's celebration of 80's ladies, dummy?
Well, at least there was a tiny clip of that in the video.
The Guardian Legend is a great game. Thanks for telling us about the Japanese cover art. It’s amazing!
I never knew til this video! That shit still amazes me :)
TGL is just one of the best NES games. S-tier shit right here. Definitely in my top 20, probably even top 10.
@@Kylora2112 It's my personal favorite NES game.
"You can select Peach, but she's not really the main character."
Considering that every single person I've ever met pretty much uses her exclusively for her float ability, I'm sure many people would beg to differ.
Haha maybe I meant to say she “should” have been the main character. But y’know, I’m a Luigi man in that game so what do I know ;)
@@BigOleWords I also prefer Luigi. As a kid I was all about Peach like everybody else, but as I grew older and more competent at games in general, and could therefore actually control Luigi (as a kid, his jumps were impossible to use accurately), I started finding myself preferring him. I feel like his jumps actually have a lot of versatility once you do manage to get the control down.
@@gurvmlk He's the high skill high reward character for sure.
You could play as Lina and Mama in Doki Doki Panic
Can we get some love for Clarice, the protagonist of City Connection? Her character was removed from the NES port in America (although she was in the FC version) and she predates Samus as one of the first female video game characters ever.
Clarice is a great name :)
also the march rider in the game mach rider, is a woman too
much like metroid if you beat the game on a good time she reveals herself outside the outfit
Dammit! Now I want a Silence of the Lambs video game. 😄
The Athena in the NES game is actually the grandmother of Athena in King of Fighters. They are not the same character. Athena Asamiya, who would go on to be in King of Fighters, made her first appearance in Psycho Soldier, which is a side scroller that also stars Sie Kensou, who is another member of Athena’s King of Fighters team, while Athena from the NES/arcade title would not see another appearance until 2003’s release of SVC Chaos: SNK Vs. Capcom, where she guards the gate to Heaven.
Huh, there you go!
Furthermore, Athena and Kensou appear as major characters in 'Crystalis' for the NES.
Although Athena is called "Asina" in the English version. Yay for poor translations!
The thing about Faria is that the main character was originally a man transformed into a woman by a wizard. He is a prince from another kingdom who was set to marry a princess of his neighboring kingdom.
That’s wild, I had no idea!
@@BigOleWords Yeah, I was hoping you'd bring up that the main character of 'Faria' is revealed as actually a dude, but I guess you either didn't get that far or didn't look up info on the game first. Oh well.
Was she also originally a man in the Japanese version or was she a woman the whole time?
Japanese version of krion conquest have cutscenes between levels that explains better the story of the game, and the Japanese game it's called magical kid's doropie, and it have an english patch as well, so yeah, check the Japanese version next time
Salamander/Life Force can be an example... Kinda
I mean you control a plane so it won't really matter
And only the JP Famicom version has the end credits which shows the long-haired lady, which even changes based on your gaming perfromance
I think Mach Rider had a similar Japanese only ending reveal!
gun nac too
@@BigOleWords Um, Mach Rider is the same in Japan and the US, according to the ROM sites...
Arkista’s Ring and Faria went under my radar. Thanks for the mentions
You got it!
Thanks for this in depth video. I’ve never heard of The Guardian Legend and it looks really amazing! The European and Japanese cover art is great.
It’s pretty good! Maybe not as amazing as those covers indicate, but top 30 NES for sure.
As usual the famicom cover just blows every other version away.
Damn that is a cool ass cover.
It's actually very great game. Depends on taste, of course. I'd say it rather amazing. Fast scrolling, lots of enemies on screen at once. Great gameplay(Compile was very good in SHMUPs back then), was very fun to upgrade weapons. The only downside I see is that weapons not balances too well, and bosses also not too balanced in difficulty. But it was those times when many games lack such things in game design.
@@arseniy
I would say compile both did make great games and still makes great games. (last I checked compile is still around I'm pretty sure)
@@JohnDoe-wq5eu I did not dig into that, but exactly the Compile did closed officially. There was something like Compile Heart emerged out of that. But basically it's some other company with other approach to games. The last Compile's SHMUP was Zanac x Zanac in 2001
I think the Reason Ms. Pac Man wasn't released until 1993 was because Tengen already released an unlicensed cart of the game. Pac Man already had been released in both forms by Tengen and later got a re-release by namco along with Ms. Pac Man.
That’s right the Namco Pac came out around the same time! Maybe some king of copyright thing?
@@BigOleWords My guess is that Nintendo didn't want to release a game that was already released by Tengen since Tengen made a bunch of other licensed and unlicensed games, like Gauntlet for instance. Nintendo didn't want to compete with an unlicensed company for the same game.
Unlike Pac-Man though the Ms. Pac-Man releases from Tengen and Namco are actually different ports.
@@BigOleWords Namco didn't have full ownership rights to Ms Pacman back then as well as to this day and don't like releasing or re-releasing anything with Ms Pacman because they have to get approval from @games to do so as well as split profits. That's why they started with Pac Girl now and basically canceled any acknowledgment that Ms Pacman ever existed.
@@leefischer5814 IIRC the original Ms. Pac-Man was a bootleg but the folks at namco liked it so much they made her an official part of the Pac-Man franchise, even though they never actually acquired the rights to the character. The whole thing was kind of a mess from Day 1. As you said these days Namco doesn't use her in any capacity and basically deny her existence...
The reason The Guardian Legend's North American cover art looks the way it does is that the artist shamelessly copied the poster for the 1985 sci-fi horror movie Creature.
Whoa cool! That’s awesome, I never knew that!
@@BigOleWords That's just what I get for spending so much time at the video store.
Really? It made me think or Darkness from Ridley Scott's Legend.
Metroid for the win, although replaying this game now is quite a trip down memory road! Good video and have a great day!
Great video bro! I do believe you covered all of them. Don’t feel bad, I’ve never made it through the first stage of Krion Conquest ether!👊
Glad to know I’m in good company ;)
Looks like the protagonist of Wurm appears to be rockin’ the iconic Justin Bailey ensemble made famous by Metroid. I wonder if that was intentional… 🤔
Hmmm you may be right!
For me Urusei Yatsura: Lum's Wedding Bell comes to mind but it's a Famicom exclusive
That’s one I don’t know, I’ll check it out!
Great video my friend! Im always suggesting guardian legend, and Krion Conquest when people say they want a good nes game to play. It was great seeing you at SEGE also! Can’t wait for next year! Plus I seen your channel is picking up a ton of steam, which is freaking awesome man and you totally deserve it! Can’t wait for the next video!
Yeah dude great seeing you there as well mane!
Excellent! I wanted a video like this for a long time. I think it popped up in my recommendations because a couple times I searched for it but not getting exactly what I was looking for
hi my friend in this list was missing the game Layla, a great game is a Platform game developed by dB-SOFT and published by dB-SOFT on December 20, 1986 for NES.
Great video and a hug from Brazil !!
Hiya! Layla was only for the Famicom in Japan, so I didn’t include it or any of the other female centric games released there. Maybe another video! And thanks for the hug!
The Japanese version of Krion Conquest is a bit more interesting. While Krion Conquest has that one weird intro. Magical Dorope has Ninja Gaiden like cutscenes between every round. The American version takes out the continue function for some reason. Another fun fact is the game was originally going to be based off the Wizard of Oz anime but they couldn't get the license.
Huh did not know that about the Wizard of Oz connection. Neat!
I think there were some Hello Kitty games on the Famicom if those count.
Not a popular opinion, but I have always been a fan of Athena. Yes, the game was accurately considered “clunky”, but the ability to search and find power ups, the catchy music, and diverse bosses made it fun for me as a kid. That said, I’ve still never had the gull to grind and beat it as an adult
I don’t know if this counts but in Dragon Quest 3 and 4 you can choose a female hero.
Yes you can! Kinda falls more into the optional protagonist category though, but still pretty rad.
The guardian legend is my favorite NES game. I have the nes cartridge, a shirt, the secret edition rom, i made the character out of legos and i have a pearler figure of the character and the ship mode...huge fan.....and her name is Miria
On the Arkista's Ring protagonist being named Christine I'm sure it's a cultural thing. I've recently been hearing that Terra from FF6 was called Tina in Japan because it sounds exotic to their ears but super common to Westerners. I'm sure that's probably the deal there and they didn't bother with it during localization.
You may be right there! Interesting
There's one you missed: Life Force. The pilot of the ship is a woman. However, since the US version removed the credits, you can't see the pilot removing the helmet. You can only see it in the Japanese version.
Yeah there were a few Famicom versions like Mach Rider that revealed a lady at the end that they removed for the NES. After Metroid everyone wanted to get in on the action!
Athena's first game wasn't Athena, it was Psycho Soldier. And she actually appears in Crystalis, too.
In Japan, Salamander or Life Force in the west, the pilot was a woman as well.
Nice work! I'll have to check a few of these out.
Oh...and "Jeepers Creepers" is my favourite bit from _Mr. Show_!
Haha nice, always glad there’s Mr Show fans out there!
i was honestly hoping you'd say arkista's ring, that game was pretty fun.
Agreed!
The first game I played with a female protagonist was probably Psycho Soldier in the arcades (I don’t count ms Pac-Man as it’s just a yellow circle and not a humanoid). That’s also probably the first game ever with a theme with vocals.
Probably for most people in their 40’s the first game was golden axe.
And, you were playing as Athena, descendant of the Athena featured in this video :p.
The Japanese cover of Guardian Legend looks like something made by HR Giger. The guy who created the design of the Xenomorph.
Definitely very Giger for sure!
The artist for the cover is Naoyuki Kato, a legendary sci-fi/fantasy Japanese artist.
Mugen Senshi Valis and Mahou no Princess Minky Momo are another female lead games. I am pretty sure there are more Japanese games but it might be difficult to find them all.
That was a good over view of NES games starring woman protagonists, as a newer subscriber I just wanted to say your content is good and. I hope you keep working at it
Hey thanks so much! I’ll try my best :)
Something I think would be interesting to know too is how many NES games out there have a playable female character, even if not the sole protagonist. Examples Bucky O Hare; Tiny Toon 2; Super Mario Bros 2
Well, kind of rushed to make that comment. Then saw you mentioned that in about 40 titles you can play as a female that is at least selectable. Still think it would be a very interesting topic for a video listing these and maybe a few words about each one
Yeah I think it was a bit easier to do the 12 main protagonists since it refined the topic a lot, but I agree it would be cool to detail all of them!
I forgot about the little mermaid game. Hard to rely on this memory from 25ish years ago, but i remember it being difficult enough to be challenging and not so hard that i rage quit.
Yeah right in the middle between challenging and frustrating :)
@@BigOleWordsAs a child playing NES, i thought i just wasn't good enough at certain games. It wasn't until recently watching nostalgia videos like yours that i learned certain games were made extra difficult on purpose. I don't remember any SNES games i had difficulty issues with, but had chalked that up to i was older and had gotten better- nope, they just made them easier 🤣
I missed, and did not know a few of these. Thank you for the recommend.
You got it!
I hate myself for making this joke, but the protagonist of Guardian Legend is probably the only person who could non-ironically identify as an attack helicopter
hahahaha
7:34 Half-woman, half-robot, half-ship... ALL-badass!
I just discovered your channel today, very informative content, thank you.
I have to say though in the Japanese box art of The Guardian Legend the main character looks like she goes on to become Jenova.
Good call!
Really cool video! Lots of games I didn't know about that sound really fun.
Hey thanks!
Kiki Kaikai: Dotouhen was ported to the Famicom Disk System. Does that count? The arcade game had a single female protagonist, Sayo-chan, but the Famicom port added a second playable shrine maiden, Miki-chan. Never played it myself, but the sequel (known as Pocky and Rocky in the west) is a classic.
Sure? I was just sticking with the NES without dipping into the Famicom pool, but that game does sound rad!
@@BigOleWords Thanks for reminding me about Guardian Legend. If the main character had a memorable name, maybe it could have a classic. Maybe even a series? Publishers just didn't care back then.
You forgot The Legend of Zelda. You play as Zelda. That's why it's called that...
There are people out there who still don't know Samus is a woman. Pretty crazy right?
The Famicom cover for Guardian Legend is great and looks like something H.R. Giger would have done.
You should do a video on NES covers that could be album covers. Athena, M.U.L.E., Dungeon Magic, Chiller, Deadly Towers are just a few of them.
Zing! Yes very Giger ish! And that’s a great idea, I’ll think on the albums :)
Waiting to see who has not gathered the applied sarcasm here
Really enjoyed this video, great topic choice! I'm surprised I had never heard of Wurm before, it looks really interesting and forward thinking. Faria and Arkista's Ring are also new to me. Definitely will be trying these out later. Would you recommend one of them over the others? Thanks for the video!
Definitely Metroid and Guardian Legend are the top choices here, but almost all of them are pretty fun :)
@@BigOleWords Sorry, I meant from the three games I listed. I've played Metroid and Guardian Legend a gazillion times already, haha. 😅
I see! Arkistas Ring is the most fun but it’s pretty simple. Wurm is way more interesting and varied, but not as cohesive. Faria I wouldn’t recommend :)
@@BigOleWords Awesome, sounds good, thanks!
Didn't Ms Pacman first come out in 1988 as an unlicensed title? And was eventually recalled along with the rest of the black Tengen carts?
Yes it did! The word I used there was “official” meaning they had to go through all the Nintendo hoops to release it legitly in 1993. But the fact that a Tengen version already was out for that long makes it’s later re-release even more perplexing!
@@BigOleWords yes, after all the litigation and strife, the public was provided an inferior official port. Yay Nintendo and its anti competitive practices! 😅
@@aewtech
A fine tradition they have to this very day.
Not sure if this counts considering she's from a Famicom exclusive game with two protagonists, but I feel like Celica from Fire Emblem Gaiden deserves a mention
Yeah that’s a double whammy as I wasn’t including Famicom games or titles where you can choose to play as a woman. Still cool though!
@@BigOleWords You don't get to choose in Fire Emblem Gaiden, there are two protagonists, and it switches which one you play as every few maps, but it is still famicom exclusive
You missed one called Layla, though I can understand considering it was a Famicom exclusive. Heck, might be more off that metric, but then its not explicitly the 'NES'.
Yeah that is kinda where I draw the line, but it’s arbitrary. There’s probably 5-10 more Famicom titles that fit the bill including Layla.
7:16 as well as in her own Resident Evil style horror game for Play Station. Thanks GuileWinQuote.
Also, this list would be two or maybe three times bigger if you included famicom.
Did not know about that! And yeah as a rule I do tend to exclude the Famicom so that topics don’t sprawl endlessly, but at some point I’ll give the system more of a spotlight.
last I thought about this I thought I hit 14. eh I'm not really motivated to look again but thanks for the content!
Excellent job covering this! A few games I haven’t heard of. Hope you’re doing well, man.
Thanks, and you too bud!
Great idea for a video. Man, I was 100% sure I had The Guardian Legend. Tore my room apart, didn't find it. What the fuck.
Damn dude I hate that! Same thing happened to me with Soul Blazer recently. What gremlins are stealing these games?!
@@BigOleWords My best theory at this point is suffering from "Ebay-itis" That is, from seeing the same game in so many lots for many many years that you incorrectly pass it off as being in your collection. That or I lost it. Or my 3 year old nephew stole it.
@@DrBizz Hahaha eBay itis is real!
You are really doing a mind-blowing work 🍻
Hey thanks so much!
Neat list, I haven't heard of a lot of those games. Maybe do a follow up video for the Famicom and maybe also the unlicensed games? I feel like it's only part of the story without them.
Maybe? I’m pretty much only into the official NES library as that’s what I collect and know best, but for sure there are tons of other games that are parallel to these.
Jeepers creepers! That's awesome you use a Mr show sound byte. Love it. You gotta subscriber.
I was on the 18th holllleeee!
Great video! Really enjoyed seeing some obscure games with female protags!
Awesome, glad you liked it :)
LifeForce (Salamander in Japan) has a woman as the main character piloting the ship as well, although this is only made known to you if you beat the Japanese version without continues.
talking about girl with hidden identity (such Samus) - Sypha from castlevania is the same - only at the end revials long hairs, and i have missed that 'wurm' video, probably will try to play it blind, looks interesting here
I owned that game as a kid and didn’t she was a woman til years later :)
@@BigOleWords manual says "he/his" and only at the end, when she uncover long blond hairs and fall into trevor's hugs, the ending says 'she' - it had to be a big secret,
didnt got a question 'til years later', do you mean 'didnt she always was mentioned as woman'?, pdf manual shows she wasn't
I genuinely thought the Krion Conquest was a fan game, how did they manage to replicate the style of Mega Man so well?
It definitely has a hack kind of feel!
One choice game and one arguably main character game in your list: baseball stars has a team of all ladies. Silk worm, one of the pilots, I think the helicopter, is piloted by a woman. You can choose between a jeep and a helicopter to play as, but not who pilots each
Baseball Stars is on the list but I didn’t make that connection with Silkworm, thanks!
isn't the american cover of guardian legend actually stolen from a movie poster from the 80s?
Metroid Ripps of the Story and the Visuals of Alien - and Alien ripps of the Gameplay of Metroid - nice
The cycle continues!
So how many NES games feature a female villain? Only ones I can think of off the top of my head are Little Mermaid, Kid Icarus, Metroid and Battletoads. I'm sure I'm missing a lot of obvious ones!
Hmmm I don’t know! I can’t think of any other than the ones you mentioned!
The tengen version of girl pacman is the best...it has multiple different shaped levels and 2 player simultaneous action
The Guardian Legend is one of my favorite NES games.
It’s a good one!
Call me crazy but if I were Mattel and owned the most famous doll in the universe. I’d do a lot better when it comes to her games. They All seem like the devs just tweeted it in.
Yeah but unfortunately the same could be said for pretty much every licensed title at the time. Why not try harder? Easy money, that’s why!
Female protagonists in video games before Lara Croft! That can't be true the Internet says only boys play video games 🤣 I've been delving into female protagonists recently myself. The 8bit Microcomputers had some, let's say "Interesting" titles 😉
Oh it does? Go on….. :)
Somehow I have recollection that the protagonist in Guardian Legend is called Aryssa/Alyssa in some regions.
I think you’re right! Like the covers, the American market even got a more generic character name!
Just found your channel and loving the content. You got a sub from me…keep up the good work👍🏾
Hey thanks so much!
Just NES? Famicom library featured many more games with gals as lead characters: City Connection, Urusei Yatsura, Wing of Madoola, Space Hunter (this one sucks tho), Sukeban Deka 3, Attack Animal Gakuen, or my personal guilty pleasure - Layla.
Just NES! There are definitely more in the Famicom library although I hadn't heard of a few of those!
7:12 besides Athena, SNK frequently uses characters of its universes in the The King of Fighters franchise. Of course Ryo, Robert, Andy, Terry et all are obvious choices but there are also the Ikari Warriors, yes, the ones that were horribly ported to NES from the arcade game with the same name. If you check in Wikipedia will see that their names are Col. Ralph Jones and 2d Lt Clark Still
WOW. Krion Conquest. I remember it as Magical Doropie. Doropie is the name of heroine.
I think you miss Layla and Madoola.
Those are all Famicom titles! Maybe in another video I'll cover those as well.
@@BigOleWords Ah, okay. I am Russian. In Russia NES/Famicom is known as Dendy. And all versions from the world is mixed.
I remember Magical Doropie with poor Russian translation by Chinese pirates probably)
Big fan of Arkista's Ring. It's a bit of a weird one but it's a really cool game.
Agreed!
Gun-Nac is a rather bizarre shoot-em-up that features a female character as the pilot. The Japanese version makes that bit clearer in the story, though.
S.C.A.T. is another game where you can choose between a male/female main character that tends to get overlooked. Mainly because it isn't immediately obvious that Sigourney is woman (even though she's named after Sigourney Weaver)
Yeah SCAT falls under the optional female protagonist category. Gun-Nac no idea
One of my favorite games is legend of the Ghost Lion. So memorable as it was the actual first rpg I played through.
It’s pretty amazing for it’s time
@BigOleWords as stated on said other video. So many advanced features that we later see influence Games like Lufias capsule summons, non traditional armor systems, Stat Leveling, mini games.
Once again Great Video
Athena = Goddess of wisdom and WAR
Best intro in the entire RUclips BTW...
Hey thanks!
You forgot Haunted Hill on the NES . Shes usually referred to as Mrs. Tits . I didn't name her that so don't get mad at me lol
Damn you’re right! Love that game too :)
Guandian Legend é o Nier Automata do Nes.
"A Whitesnake video aired on Sesame Street" 😄😄😄
Japanese Guardian Legend cover is eerily like Tetsuo the Iron Man
That’s how I describe it!
As for Samus Aran being described as a man in the English manual, in Japanese, (gendered) third person pronouns are commonly not used to the same extent as in Western languages, so it might have been an ambiguous Japanese text where the translator would just assume the character was male by default... (In Japanese, it's very common with gendered first person pronouns, on the other hand...)
Huh, that is really interesting!
Layla and Wings of Madoola are a couple Famicom games with female leads. They are a bit rough around the edges but still fun and cute.
Wait! Isn't KoF Athena from the Psycho Soldier game? The very first game with digilized music and vocals (which got a pretty good new version in KoF 94, and it's called Psycho Soldier, too). I don't know if the Athena in the NES is the same one as in Psycho Soldier, though. Oh, and her team mate Sie Kensou is also from Psycho Soldier game, too!
The band that most comes to mind when looking at the legend of ghost lion cover is obviously...White Lion. But I guess that's a bit too obvious.
Wow, a fucking White Snake reference
Video games back then were of course geared towards boys, so female main characters was an odd decision.
BUT
i would not be surprised if the decision to use women as the main character in some of these games is what eventually lead to the opinion today of "badass female character" being popular.
You may be right!
Why has this hit the algorithm right off the Bat, tell me your secret.
Haha discreet handjobs to the algorithm committee.
@@BigOleWords Lol, you got me good.
Great video! A lot of games I haven't heard of.
Funny how most of these games remain pretty obscure!
Great idea for a video!
I appreciate that modern games are much better at either letting us choose who we want to play as, and also creating cool, interesting females to play as so it's not always Mr. Generic Hero Man.
Samus still going strong!
That’s for sure!
Glad RUclips just suggested you!
Hey me too!
You forgot the one game from action 52! :D
I remember when my older brother beat metroid and we all were shocked to find out that samus was a girl i believe i was around 7 years old ill never for get that moment😂
Legend of Valkyrie was a missed opportunity to get a port.
That does look pretty dope!
Definitely gonna play Arkista and Ghost Lion, thank you!
Both are solid for sure!
🤣 So many F'yeah's on this one! Keep it up Dude! (Reminded me of what I could play too, sweat deal!)
Hey thanks so much! And yeah most of these are pretty great!
Good List. Add Hello Kitty
Yeah if we expanded to the Famicom library there’d be a few more for sure. Maybe another video :)
Guardian Legend is legit one of the best games on the system. No joke.
Agreed!
I absolutely love the little mermaid game.
Hi! could you help me finding a NES game. I cant remember the name, and I've played it at least 25 years ago, but it was in a nes.
The playable character is a little girl, shes an astronaut, and wears skirt. She also can use or not a helm.
The first level (as I remember) occurs in a city. And I can barely remember everything in one or two colours, but this is the least accurated memory.
Athena maybe? No idea