So regarding Dr. Chaos, there's kind of a running theory that it may have originated as a licensed game loosely based on the 1985 horror film "House." I know that seems really random, but House was a weirdly popular movie in Japan for some reason, and the publisher of Dr. Chaos, Pony Canyon, actually released a licensed game based on it for MSX right around the same time. The MSX game was called "Mashou no Yakata Gabalin," or "Devilish House Gabalin," though, so for the purposes of this comment, you'll just have to trust me that it WAS officially based on the movie House -- everything about that movie's Japanese release is kind of weird and confusing. But yeah, the MSX game is a completely different experience (and a MUCH better game, with some really interesting level designs and one of the most deviously player-hostile endgame traps I've ever seen, which I very much mean in a GOOD way), yet the superficial similarities with Dr. Chaos are almost too numerous to ignore, and it's easy to see how a few tweaks to Dr. Chaos' sprite and story text would make it a perfect match for the content of the movie, too (which was about a Vietnam war vet suffering from PTSD who was trying to find his missing son in a haunted house that had all kinds of weird dimensional portals and things in it, which mixed with his PTSD hallucinations and the vengeful spirit of a former friend from his war days to create a variety of surreal environments, obstacles, and supernatural foes for him to overcome along the way). This has never been confirmed, and it does seem odd that Pony Canyon would be able to use the House license for their MSX game, but would have to randomly abandon it for their Famicom Disk System game -- but I am pretty convinced that this game was a last-minute modification of a House licensed game, much like Journey to Silius was originally a Terminator licensed game that had its license stripped from it at the last minute.
I always saw Dr. Chaos as loosely inspired by the Lovecraft short story "From Beyond," but I remember that film named House (not to be confused with the Japanese Gonzo horror film of the same name) and could see it being inspired by the same short story so so it all kinda fits. Anyway I actually liked Dr. Chaos, it's pretty rough yeah but I found the jank endearing.
@@kameoosama Yeah, I'm like 80% certain I would enjoy it if I played it. It very much looks right up my alley, and I've always been a fan of ambitious games, even when they're really rough around the edges. When I said that Gabalin on MSX is a much better game, I didn't mean that as a slight against Dr. Chaos, as I've never actually played Dr. Chaos -- just watched longplays of it. I really just meant it in the sense of, Gabalin is a genuinely EXCELLENT game. Like, by just about any metric, it's a real standout title on the MSX, and one that I rank among the very best action/adventure offerings on the platform. It is VERY WEIRD, though, especially if you don't know it's based on the movie House and don't have a copy of the manual to explain what's going on. Most of the game consists of exploring the house in Zelda 1 dungeon style, but every now and again you fall down a pit and play a short Commando-style auto-scrolling run-and-gun stage set in a jungle. Beat the boss (which is usually a tank), and you're returned to the house in a different location to resume your Zelda-style dungeon crawling. The manual specifically indicates these jungle stages are based on the main character's 'Nam PTSD flashbacks, but there is absolutely no in-game explanation as to why these stages exist, leading to a great deal of confusion among people who just randomly stumble upon the game and get whiplash from the sudden, seemingly inexplicable shift in genre, gameplay, and setting. ;)
Almost certainly some truth to this. Beyond the core concept of a guy accesing a weird horror dimension through the closets and cupboards of a home, several of the monster designs from the film are recognizable. Richard Moll's Big Ben character being one.
@@jessragan6714 Yes. He appears multiple times in and out of makeup as the main character's nightmare over guilt for not having saved him in some skirmish they were involved in during the war.
Along with the Counselor's Corner blerb in Nintendo Power, Dr. Chaos was also name dropped in the film The Wizard. The game must have had its fans somewhere in the 1980's Nintendoverse.
Some NES games have this strange artstyle that's hard to describe, The Punisher is a good example, but I think "outsider art" hits the nail on the head.
There is a lot of evidence that Dr Chaos was originally planned to be licensed on the American horror/comedy film "House". It includes many enemies that look like characters from the film. The alternate reality looks very much like an 80s platformer take on Vietnam. Just swap rescuing a son from the film with rescuing a brother in the game.
But but but Jeremy! I LIKED Superman! I mapped it out and everything, and solved it! Ok maybe it wasn't exactly top tier but it DID have some depth! I even 100%ed it, finding all the upgrades for each mission. You didn't mention that the japanese version had the full movie themes, and that the North American version had to replace a lot of music with music from Kemco's RPG Indora no Hikari. Also, Dr. Chaos took a lot of inspiration from the 1986 horror film "House".
I understand Superman's faults, but I legitimately enjoyed it back in the day. Maybe it was just the fact that I could control my favorite superhero (at the time), but I know I liked it more than other stuff like Ghostbusters and Mickey Mousecapades. The fact that characters like Jimmy and Lois were talking to me was pretty cool -- I had never seen anything like that at the time. There's also something very dumb yet charming in his conversations with the Statue of Liberty and the fact that he takes the subway (alongside humans twice his height). I'm not rushing to go back to play it, but I'd still give it a go before a lot of NES games of its time.
Enjoyed it myself, too. Same experience. I knew it was 'rough' at the time, but there was a certain... well, depth is probably too strong a word. But it had that element of exploration that made me go along with the janky gameplay just to see what else was just around the corner. Combine that with the art style, and the bonus novelty of actually transforming into Superman, and it's unsurprising that it held some weird appeal. So sure, it's not a game I'd consider a "hidden gem" if I'd unearthed it in modern times, but the effort is certainly acknowledged. :)
Yeah, I never quite got the hate for this one. It has flaws, sure, but I thought it was an alright game overall. (Plus, I think the soundtrack is actually one of the stronger ones of this era, something I’m actually kind of surprised he didn’t talk about.)
Same here, never got the undying hate for this game. As mentioned, it is not by any means a great game, but I enjoyed the hell out it back in the day across several rentals. There are far worse games for NES out there.
I guess I'd go for a Dr. Chaos remake. I gotta respect what they were going for even if they couldn't execute it. Superman on the other hand, pure kusoge that should have been sent to the Phantom Zone.
As a kid I rented Superman and legit enjoyed it for being kind of weird and different compared to usual platformer barrage going on at the time. Of course I quickly forgot it once I discovered River City Ransom as it felt like a more complete concept and execution of a similar idea.
Something to keep in mind... Superman was originally a famicom game. The famicom version is the definitive version. It's a little more enjoyable to play. It also had a strategy guide released. However both the game and the strategy guide is in Japanese. But if you go through the translations the game makes a little more sense. The soundtrack is simply awesome. So what I think happened was they ported a slightly stripped down version to the US on NES. That version is slightly stripped down. Does not have the original soundtrack. And god awful translations. Had the US version been a direct port, with the strategy guide, I think it would have been a more enjoyable game. I highly recommend the famicom version.
There was nothing like that Fleischer Superman short. It was the first time I've ever seen superheroes when I was four years old and my aunt had a whole series of these Fleischer Superman shorts on VHS. It's so powerful and it makes me cry in awe whenever I see it today.
I remember renting Superman and being profoundly disappointed. Let's not forget the absurdity of him getting his marching orders from the Statue of Liberty!
There always seems to be a curse in video games, where any title that contains animals that bare absolutely zero threat to you in real life as enemies is always a terrible game! :D But as for horror themed games, have you ever considered looking at Sweet Home for Halloween? Or just Horror themed NES titles in general for the day? (Also, a kid as school always insisted he not only saw saw Goonies II in theatres, but he also had a copy on VHS - So if Chris Willoughby ever reads this, you're full of s**t mate!)
I've always had a bit of a soft spot for the NES Superman just because of how bonkers it is. I mean, Superman gets his orders from a talking Statue Of Liberty, without explanation. That's so weird, it would fit right in with silver age Supes.
i mentioned this in a comment on the previous video in the series, but there was a comic book ad that was more or less a full page of the cover art, and it ALWAYS scared the piss out of me as a kid around 5-6.
The only game I ever called a helpline for was Dr Chaos. I just needed to find the entrance to the first area. After that, it was pretty easy and I finished it in a day. I enjoyed it even if it wasn’t very good. Thanks for the review!
I love Dr Chaos. Granted I got it for my 6th birthday. I always speculated that the game was originally based on the horror movie House. (My mother didn’t really care what I watched) As it has the fat demon woman and the skeleton army guy. That and going through a window only to end up in a jungle. Mind you that was my 6 year old mind at work. It’s the game that gave me my first jump scare lol
Hi Jeremy! I've been reading both GB Works vol. 1 and NES Works vol. 1. They are so well-written; I love how you dug deep in history to find info about the devs and such. Thanks for writing them!
I loved Dr Chaos as a kid in part because Goonies II was a favorite of mine as a proto-Metroidvania. Granted, I also loved Golgo 13 both then and now, so my tastes have always been offbeat to say the least. My favorite bug that I managed to pull off was getting killed in the final boss fight, collapsing into a pile, yet having the collapsed corpse perform the end game sequence with his brother.
Dr. Chaos apologist here. The game is actually based on the movie House (1985) but without the direct license. The bigger monsters are almost all based on monsters in that movie. The worldwide version's warp zones have been shortened from the FDS's version's. This causes the monsters to be more bunched together. Being open ended, this leads most players to finding a mid-game zone with a boss only vulnerable to grenades (that also hurt you until you get another power up) as their 2nd one. The biggest secret starting out is that there is a 3rd floor attic and basement to the house. They are not visible until you've been to them. All of the hidden areas in the adventure sections make sense. If you see a door you can't reach in the house, there's a West or East wall in the room next to it that you can punch a hole in. Ladders to the attic & basement are always hidden in North walls. Finally, every time you finish a warp zone, power ups respawn. Learn where the health & machine gun drops are and always have those topped off.
It’s funny how as Nintendo started developing a lack of third party software in about 2 generations and the Wii era Nintendo suddenly became entirely fine with shelves of micro games, the “this seal is a guarantee that Nintendo has personally approved the product” got reduced to “Official Nintendo Seal” I’ve always found even complete train wrecks of games to be fascinating in their own right (especially when there is the kernel of good intentions and not just a lazy third party cash in). Might as well have thrown in Nuclear man and done a Superman 4 tie in…. (Excellent work as always)
Always love seeing new uploads. This channel got me to grab Bionic Commando, Ice Hockey and Rygar. Love the Ernest feature at the start too, your work is so rewatchable!
i love how, even with the worst dreck in the NES library, you still find ways to be kind and considerate towards them in some ways. if i had been the designer of Dr. Chaos and i watched this video, i would still come away with a smile on my face.
I picked up Dr. Chaos on a whim at a convention years back. I struggled with it immediately, but I couldn't shake the feeling I'd seen it somewhere before. A quick trip to my bookshelf revealed that, indeed, I first learned of this game through an old Consumer's Guide, er, guide. The tips inside got me a little further ahead, and I got a tiny thrill out of experiencing an old weird game by using an old weird strategy guide.
Dr. Chaos was frustrating to play (and I rented it from the local video store more than once trying to beat it), but that title screen and music will forever be etched on my brain as one of the more atmospheric things I had seen on the NES.
I expect I'm one of the very few people on the planet that actually likes Superman for the NES. I remember renting it as a kid and really digging the SD/chibi art style in the instruction manual, and the character sprites in the game. Even I wouldn't recommend this game to anyone though. It had the potential, but couldn't bring any of it to fruition. I'd kinda like to see a remake that addresses the game's balance and control issues.
You know I liked Superman. I played it as a kid and then went back and actually beat it in my early 20s. It was a little wonky, but I enjoyed it. I still remember the main title theme as well, that is often shat upon, but I think it is perfectly suitable.
I definitely have a soft spot for Dr. Chaos. Had it as a kid and its title screen spooked me. Its gameplay setup is also pretty interesting when you get into it. That Superman though.. This is the first time I've seen it in action and yeah, it looks pretty janky (not to mention tedious).
My cousin owned the Superman game and we put a lot of time into it but could never figure out what the heck to do. I had forgotten all about it until this video. Thanks Jeremy for informing tonight's nightmares!
0:07 Awesome to see the great Jim Varney, though I’m not sure what he’s doing here. Bummer we never got Ernest goes to Camp of Hey Verne the video game.
Another note on Dr. Chaos ; The original FDS version was much shorter, albeit harder. All the action warp zones were only 4 screens long but it was also more difficult with frequent mini boss encounters kicking you outside of a room and more enemies crammed into each area. (also the "Smork" enemy could be found in the mansion hallway area) Also the FDS version utilized saving on disk vs. Dr. Chaos' password system.
Superman is one of my favorite nes games. Not because it’s great, but because of the time I had with it. It was a game that really ignited my imagination as a small child.
Speaking of cheap Dragon Quest clones, due to licensing issues the NES version of Superman had some of its BGM replaced with recycled tracks from Indora no Hikari, one of the blandest Dragon Quest clones ever created. Though not quite at the level of legendary kusoge like Ganso Saiyuuki or Jarvas. Thankfully it stayed in Japan you won't have to suffer through it for NES Works!
I kind of like Superman a bit? It's so weird! There's lots of other stuff, like the chibified (yet still gigantic) Statue of Liberty that gives you missions, the weird way the sprites lag behind the backgrounds when scrolling, and _especially_ the scene of Superman taking the subway between areas (behind silhouettes of other passengers that are for some reason much larger than he is). But then, I'm a big MST3K fan.... Also, the Japanese version managed to get the movie theme song for the title screen, which they couldn't get for the US release!
I love learning how to play those shitty games I could never wrap my head around as a kid. It's so easy to learn about the gaming greats, but learning the backstop to those games you'd never think of is fascinating. Love this channel.
I remember playing Dr. Chaos on NES years ago, didn't know it came out on FDS which has better scrolling. also apparently, because they can't license the Superman theme (that the Japanese version has), the overworld theme of Indora no Hikari was used instead in the title screen of the US version of Superman. Anyway I can't wait for the G.I. Joe episode btw.
Someone I knew as a kid had that Superman game. I remember us trying to play it from time to time. We would randomly run around not knowing what to do, get killed, and then put in a better game.
Being alive in the day,. the goonies II design was maybe the only way people could think of. I remember when 3d was on the radar and looking at my NES controller thinking how tf would 3d work?
It really says a lot that the best Superman game is STILL the arcade one, and even that is a 7/10 that I love just because I played it at Chuck E Cheese a lot as a kid
The best Superman games are the Injustice games and Lego Batman 2&3. Because of course the only good ones are the ones where he's either evil or stupid - people really need to stop acting like this is "subversive", when it comes across more like a rant Ayn Rand would be proud of. Anyways, you should check out the NES prototype Sunsoft made. It seems a bit inspired by the arcade. Or "Undefeated", a fan game on Steam that's missing the copyrighted material, but proves there's no excuse to make a bad game with his power-set.
@@juststatedtheobvious9633 I’m assuming they meant solo games since I would consider Injustice a superhero fighting game not a Superman game specifically.
The US version of "Superman" used music from a Kemco RPG called "Indora no Hikari". The Japanese version had renditions of the iconic John Williams score.
I am one of those weirdos that loves Dr. Chaos. It is full of flaws but I find it an enjoyable experience. My rule is that I play it randomly without any guides or maps and make notes as needed. After a few years I forget everything so it is always a fresh experience.
I had completely forgotten Dr. Chaos, but I remembered it as soon as I saw that bizarre half-melted, left-and-right twitching skeleton sprite. I rented this one, and I was initially very excited about it, because I'd loved Goonies II (though I never beat it back then). But yeah, Dr. Chaos is really hard to love. The house scenes control really poorly, and ammo is so scarce, and enemies respawn so frequently, that it's really a terrible chore to play those segments--which is weird, because they're almost supposed to be down time between the segments of searching the rooms and going into the actual dungeon-type areas. If they'd gone with a pure Blaster Master approach, where ammo is endless and you grow steadily more powerful so that enemies that are initially challenging become mere scenery, that would have worked; or if they'd gone with the survival horror approach of scarce resources but also few, impactful enemies, that might have been okay too. But instead it's this weird hybrid where you're so constantly harried by trivial enemies that the deeper progression elements of the game are essentially impossible to engage with. Squandered potential indeed!
I love everything about Dr Chaos except the execution. It's such a cool concept, it's very memorable, but the whole thing is kind of a tedious, shoddy mess.
I've always been intrigued by Dr. Chaos. I kinda get a resident evil vibe from it. I will have to give it a shot with low expectations so that way I won't be completely disappointed lol
I wanted Dr. Chaos so badly as a kid. I remember seeing it in Gamepro or Nintendo Power back in the day, and it looked like it could be just like one of my other favorite games of the time (Goonies 2). I've also always had kind of a soft spot for Kemko's Superman too, it was like a weird mix of Mighty Bomb Jack and Friday the 13th, but with a mission structure. I'd never recommend it to anyone, but I do kinda like it for some reason.
I rented Dr Chaos as a kid from the local video store. I never figured out how to get to any of the actual content. I guess that means I never found the "special sensor". I knew there was something I was missing but I didn't have internet in 1988
I picked up Dr. Chaos at a flea market and played it recently. It isnt "super bad". Its ambitious, as Jeremy says, and i had a good time with exploring it and find the secret walls and hidden items. Its not "great" and I only cleared about 6 bosses before getting bored, but its worth a look for a longer-play experience on NES.
Dr. Chaos is actually my #2 on my list of "games like Goonies II". In the #1 place, despite stark differences in theme, is Friday the 13th. But I guess you haven't gotten that far yet
I was wondering when Superman would show up, lol - this and Ghostbusters were the two games I first got for my birthday with the NES+Power Pad set (along with that triple cart that it came with). At the time, I didn't have much to compare it to, so I like it to a point. Definitely clunky, though! That said, I'd kinda like to see that reworked, because there's a possibly half-way decent game skeleton hidden under all that kryptonite! 🤣
Ahhh Superman, the game I asked my mom to get for me because I thought it was a port of Taito's arcade game but in a chibi form. Oh the horror of discovering it was not. What did I do? Played it and finished it, because money was spent on it.
I’m kind of sad that the most interesting thing about Superman NES didn’t get covered at all. The Famicom version illegally lifted John Williams’ music directly from the 1978 film, despite the fact that the score was owned by Columbia / Warner and not DC who licensed the game. Japan sort of just didn't care about chiptune rights. For the NES version, Kemco swapped in Hiroyuki Masuno's excellent, chill music from the Famicom-exclusive RPG Indora No Hikari. However, whoever did the swap job missed a bunch of tracks they didn’t recognize. The inscrutable Daily Planet music, for one example, is a direct rip of some weird incidental music from the Superman III film OST ("Saving the Factory / Acid Test," timestamp 1 :50) . Presumably, no one at Columbia / Warner ever noticed or cared, because this is a terrible game with a few fantastic original tunes bolted on to it. Source: mostly original research spurred by RUclips comments, because I am the biggest Hiroyuki Masuno stan in the western hemisphere, and his tracks in this game always caused me to have far greater affection for the NES version than its gameplay merits.
That Howard Phillips fella was dirty I tells ya...He wielded too much power. I bet he pocketed enough money under the table to retire at 40 in Fiji.... He was responsible for ruining childhoods and wasting loads of parents' money
What we did not know and what we were willing to tolerate before the nigh overwhelming abundance of choice for gaming we have today. I actually remember Dr. Chaos fondly. Not playing it; that was left up to my now-ex-brother-in-law. That creepy music, those strange enemies, and my nine-year-old sensibilities. I remember trying to slog through some of this myself a couple years ago--it was miserable and I lasted about 10 minutes.
16:38 Game Players was always there for us. Surely they knew not every kid was going to get the best games, and we still needed help with our bargain bin titles and weekend rentals.
I'd love a short side video examining how the failure of Japanese 8 bit micros in the west in part opened the door for the NES in the same way the 82/83 crash did.
Best line in this one ".. Scrape at the basement of of videogaming, like its heroic namesake drilling his body into the earth creating a tunnel to the worlds biggest coprolite". Thats just epic. Last time a terrible game was reviewed I stated something like "you managed to call this game absolute shit without stating 'this game is absolute shit'. I think calling it a coprolite is skirting *really* close to that line, no? 😆 For those who may not know a coprolite is literal fossilized shit.
A common thread in Pony Canyon games, regardless of developer, is how utterly disturbing the graphics tend to be. Dr. Chaos probably does this on purpose, but I also got the shivers from Super Pitfall, and a football game featuring Mike Ditka had a referee which was described by one reviewer as something from The Exorcist. Why are your non-Compile games so creepy, Pony Canyon?
There's just something wrong about the graphics. It's like something that shouldn't exist but does, and it's difficult to define. Super Pitfall used to both scare and fascinate me as a kid because of this.
I kind of like Superman. Yeah, it has a lot of rough edges, but I like what it's trying to do and it has a certain amount of charm. I certainly wouldn't call it the worst game on the NES to this point.
I never understood the design choice of NES Superman. He looks more like his own parody character Suppaman/Kenta Kuraaku from Dr. Slump. Otherwise, the game isn't as bad as how I remembered it. (I borrowed it from Blockbuster. It didn't come with manual)
"A crude, outsider's art appearance", that's the most polite insult I've ever heard, lol.
6 looks so much better
Specifically, “outside” of good.
So regarding Dr. Chaos, there's kind of a running theory that it may have originated as a licensed game loosely based on the 1985 horror film "House." I know that seems really random, but House was a weirdly popular movie in Japan for some reason, and the publisher of Dr. Chaos, Pony Canyon, actually released a licensed game based on it for MSX right around the same time. The MSX game was called "Mashou no Yakata Gabalin," or "Devilish House Gabalin," though, so for the purposes of this comment, you'll just have to trust me that it WAS officially based on the movie House -- everything about that movie's Japanese release is kind of weird and confusing.
But yeah, the MSX game is a completely different experience (and a MUCH better game, with some really interesting level designs and one of the most deviously player-hostile endgame traps I've ever seen, which I very much mean in a GOOD way), yet the superficial similarities with Dr. Chaos are almost too numerous to ignore, and it's easy to see how a few tweaks to Dr. Chaos' sprite and story text would make it a perfect match for the content of the movie, too (which was about a Vietnam war vet suffering from PTSD who was trying to find his missing son in a haunted house that had all kinds of weird dimensional portals and things in it, which mixed with his PTSD hallucinations and the vengeful spirit of a former friend from his war days to create a variety of surreal environments, obstacles, and supernatural foes for him to overcome along the way).
This has never been confirmed, and it does seem odd that Pony Canyon would be able to use the House license for their MSX game, but would have to randomly abandon it for their Famicom Disk System game -- but I am pretty convinced that this game was a last-minute modification of a House licensed game, much like Journey to Silius was originally a Terminator licensed game that had its license stripped from it at the last minute.
I always saw Dr. Chaos as loosely inspired by the Lovecraft short story "From Beyond," but I remember that film named House (not to be confused with the Japanese Gonzo horror film of the same name) and could see it being inspired by the same short story so so it all kinda fits.
Anyway I actually liked Dr. Chaos, it's pretty rough yeah but I found the jank endearing.
@@kameoosama Yeah, I'm like 80% certain I would enjoy it if I played it. It very much looks right up my alley, and I've always been a fan of ambitious games, even when they're really rough around the edges. When I said that Gabalin on MSX is a much better game, I didn't mean that as a slight against Dr. Chaos, as I've never actually played Dr. Chaos -- just watched longplays of it. I really just meant it in the sense of, Gabalin is a genuinely EXCELLENT game. Like, by just about any metric, it's a real standout title on the MSX, and one that I rank among the very best action/adventure offerings on the platform.
It is VERY WEIRD, though, especially if you don't know it's based on the movie House and don't have a copy of the manual to explain what's going on. Most of the game consists of exploring the house in Zelda 1 dungeon style, but every now and again you fall down a pit and play a short Commando-style auto-scrolling run-and-gun stage set in a jungle. Beat the boss (which is usually a tank), and you're returned to the house in a different location to resume your Zelda-style dungeon crawling. The manual specifically indicates these jungle stages are based on the main character's 'Nam PTSD flashbacks, but there is absolutely no in-game explanation as to why these stages exist, leading to a great deal of confusion among people who just randomly stumble upon the game and get whiplash from the sudden, seemingly inexplicable shift in genre, gameplay, and setting. ;)
Almost certainly some truth to this. Beyond the core concept of a guy accesing a weird horror dimension through the closets and cupboards of a home, several of the monster designs from the film are recognizable. Richard Moll's Big Ben character being one.
@@willmistretta Richard Moll? Like, Bull Shannon Richard Moll?
@@jessragan6714 Yes. He appears multiple times in and out of makeup as the main character's nightmare over guilt for not having saved him in some skirmish they were involved in during the war.
Along with the Counselor's Corner blerb in Nintendo Power, Dr. Chaos was also name dropped in the film The Wizard. The game must have had its fans somewhere in the 1980's Nintendoverse.
Some NES games have this strange artstyle that's hard to describe, The Punisher is a good example, but I think "outsider art" hits the nail on the head.
There is a lot of evidence that Dr Chaos was originally planned to be licensed on the American horror/comedy film "House". It includes many enemies that look like characters from the film. The alternate reality looks very much like an 80s platformer take on Vietnam. Just swap rescuing a son from the film with rescuing a brother in the game.
I love the idea of a modern take on the Goonies II/Dr. Chaos formula. Seems like a great project for an indie developer.
"Shake the firmament of.." is an excellent expression
But but but Jeremy! I LIKED Superman! I mapped it out and everything, and solved it! Ok maybe it wasn't exactly top tier but it DID have some depth! I even 100%ed it, finding all the upgrades for each mission. You didn't mention that the japanese version had the full movie themes, and that the North American version had to replace a lot of music with music from Kemco's RPG Indora no Hikari.
Also, Dr. Chaos took a lot of inspiration from the 1986 horror film "House".
Ah, I just commented to say basically what you did! Good, if weird, taste.
Yeah I said that too, I enjoyed it.
I like Superman too.
It's not great. But I like it.
And definitely better than the C64 game.
I understand Superman's faults, but I legitimately enjoyed it back in the day. Maybe it was just the fact that I could control my favorite superhero (at the time), but I know I liked it more than other stuff like Ghostbusters and Mickey Mousecapades. The fact that characters like Jimmy and Lois were talking to me was pretty cool -- I had never seen anything like that at the time. There's also something very dumb yet charming in his conversations with the Statue of Liberty and the fact that he takes the subway (alongside humans twice his height). I'm not rushing to go back to play it, but I'd still give it a go before a lot of NES games of its time.
Enjoyed it myself, too. Same experience. I knew it was 'rough' at the time, but there was a certain... well, depth is probably too strong a word. But it had that element of exploration that made me go along with the janky gameplay just to see what else was just around the corner. Combine that with the art style, and the bonus novelty of actually transforming into Superman, and it's unsurprising that it held some weird appeal. So sure, it's not a game I'd consider a "hidden gem" if I'd unearthed it in modern times, but the effort is certainly acknowledged. :)
Well said!
Yeah, I never quite got the hate for this one. It has flaws, sure, but I thought it was an alright game overall. (Plus, I think the soundtrack is actually one of the stronger ones of this era, something I’m actually kind of surprised he didn’t talk about.)
Same here, never got the undying hate for this game. As mentioned, it is not by any means a great game, but I enjoyed the hell out it back in the day across several rentals. There are far worse games for NES out there.
I guess I'd go for a Dr. Chaos remake. I gotta respect what they were going for even if they couldn't execute it. Superman on the other hand, pure kusoge that should have been sent to the Phantom Zone.
Dr. Chaos' title screen would've *_absolutely_* traumatized me as a kid.
I couldn't handle the Statue of Liberty from Zombie Nation for Pete's sake! 😂
As a kid I rented Superman and legit enjoyed it for being kind of weird and different compared to usual platformer barrage going on at the time. Of course I quickly forgot it once I discovered River City Ransom as it felt like a more complete concept and execution of a similar idea.
I haven’t played Dr Chaos since 1991, and the main theme is still stuck in my head.
Something to keep in mind...
Superman was originally a famicom game.
The famicom version is the definitive version.
It's a little more enjoyable to play.
It also had a strategy guide released.
However both the game and the strategy guide is in Japanese.
But if you go through the translations the game makes a little more sense.
The soundtrack is simply awesome.
So what I think happened was they ported a slightly stripped down version to the US on NES.
That version is slightly stripped down. Does not have the original soundtrack. And god awful translations.
Had the US version been a direct port, with the strategy guide, I think it would have been a more enjoyable game.
I highly recommend the famicom version.
I like Dr. Chaos quite a bit. I dig the music and general atmosphere.
I agree with you.
There was nothing like that Fleischer Superman short. It was the first time I've ever seen superheroes when I was four years old and my aunt had a whole series of these Fleischer Superman shorts on VHS. It's so powerful and it makes me cry in awe whenever I see it today.
I think the key to making a genuinely good Superman game would lie in studying those shorts.
I remember renting Superman and being profoundly disappointed. Let's not forget the absurdity of him getting his marching orders from the Statue of Liberty!
Not only is he getting orders from the Status of Liberty, they used up an entire graphics bank for that one cutscene alone.
There always seems to be a curse in video games, where any title that contains animals that bare absolutely zero threat to you in real life as enemies is always a terrible game! :D
But as for horror themed games, have you ever considered looking at Sweet Home for Halloween? Or just Horror themed NES titles in general for the day?
(Also, a kid as school always insisted he not only saw saw Goonies II in theatres, but he also had a copy on VHS - So if Chris Willoughby ever reads this, you're full of s**t mate!)
Reminds me of a kid I knew who told me that Japan was up to Super Mario 10.
Castlevania (bats and ravens) and DuckTales (snow rabbits) are terrible games? :O
@@Zeffarian Bats can definitely pose a threat in real life though, so Castlevania is safe.
I've always had a bit of a soft spot for the NES Superman just because of how bonkers it is. I mean, Superman gets his orders from a talking Statue Of Liberty, without explanation. That's so weird, it would fit right in with silver age Supes.
Yeah, I couldn't find a way to work the Statue of Liberty footage in there, but it's so damn weird. The whole game is a fever dream.
It's actually not the Statue of Liberty, it's another statue in Metropolis, but its name escapes me.
@@Doommaster1994 It's on Freedom Island.
Gotta give Dr. Chaos this much though: Great cover art!
i mentioned this in a comment on the previous video in the series, but there was a comic book ad that was more or less a full page of the cover art, and it ALWAYS scared the piss out of me as a kid around 5-6.
The only game I ever called a helpline for was Dr Chaos. I just needed to find the entrance to the first area. After that, it was pretty easy and I finished it in a day. I enjoyed it even if it wasn’t very good. Thanks for the review!
I love Dr Chaos. Granted I got it for my 6th birthday. I always speculated that the game was originally based on the horror movie House. (My mother didn’t really care what I watched) As it has the fat demon woman and the skeleton army guy. That and going through a window only to end up in a jungle. Mind you that was my 6 year old mind at work. It’s the game that gave me my first jump scare lol
Check out Wyrdwad's comment above you.
You might have been right.
Hi Jeremy! I've been reading both GB Works vol. 1 and NES Works vol. 1. They are so well-written; I love how you dug deep in history to find info about the devs and such. Thanks for writing them!
"Drilling a hole to the world's biggest coprolite...." Anyone who can fit that word into a review deserves your Patreon money!
I loved Dr Chaos as a kid in part because Goonies II was a favorite of mine as a proto-Metroidvania. Granted, I also loved Golgo 13 both then and now, so my tastes have always been offbeat to say the least.
My favorite bug that I managed to pull off was getting killed in the final boss fight, collapsing into a pile, yet having the collapsed corpse perform the end game sequence with his brother.
The way tree leaves move in Koneko Monogatari is strange and hypnotic?
It really is.
Dr. Chaos apologist here. The game is actually based on the movie House (1985) but without the direct license. The bigger monsters are almost all based on monsters in that movie.
The worldwide version's warp zones have been shortened from the FDS's version's. This causes the monsters to be more bunched together. Being open ended, this leads most players to finding a mid-game zone with a boss only vulnerable to grenades (that also hurt you until you get another power up) as their 2nd one. The biggest secret starting out is that there is a 3rd floor attic and basement to the house. They are not visible until you've been to them. All of the hidden areas in the adventure sections make sense. If you see a door you can't reach in the house, there's a West or East wall in the room next to it that you can punch a hole in. Ladders to the attic & basement are always hidden in North walls. Finally, every time you finish a warp zone, power ups respawn. Learn where the health & machine gun drops are and always have those topped off.
It says on TCRF that it was the US version that made the warp zones larger. Does it differ on a zone by zone basis?
Love this series and channel. Brings back all the memories.
Superman NES is worth existing just for the adorable character art in the manual.
It’s funny how as Nintendo started developing a lack of third party software in about 2 generations and the Wii era Nintendo suddenly became entirely fine with shelves of micro games, the “this seal is a guarantee that Nintendo has personally approved the product” got reduced to “Official Nintendo Seal”
I’ve always found even complete train wrecks of games to be fascinating in their own right (especially when there is the kernel of good intentions and not just a lazy third party cash in).
Might as well have thrown in Nuclear man and done a Superman 4 tie in….
(Excellent work as always)
Geez hearing that opening song theme of Dr Chaos gave me flash backs to Armake21.
Good times!
Always love seeing new uploads. This channel got me to grab Bionic Commando, Ice Hockey and Rygar. Love the Ernest feature at the start too, your work is so rewatchable!
i love how, even with the worst dreck in the NES library, you still find ways to be kind and considerate towards them in some ways. if i had been the designer of Dr. Chaos and i watched this video, i would still come away with a smile on my face.
As a huge fan of Goonies 2, i really wanted to like Dr. Chaos. I agree with you, that there is something there
I love how level headed and thoughtful you are with most games, that when you get one you are this critical of, you know it's bad.
That random clip from "Ernest Saves Christmas" definitely made me laugh for sure! XD
It fit so, so well in this format
I really love the addition in recent videos to talking about the magazine coverage!
Dr. Chaos was one of my favorite games.
I picked up Dr. Chaos on a whim at a convention years back. I struggled with it immediately, but I couldn't shake the feeling I'd seen it somewhere before. A quick trip to my bookshelf revealed that, indeed, I first learned of this game through an old Consumer's Guide, er, guide. The tips inside got me a little further ahead, and I got a tiny thrill out of experiencing an old weird game by using an old weird strategy guide.
Dr. Chaos was frustrating to play (and I rented it from the local video store more than once trying to beat it), but that title screen and music will forever be etched on my brain as one of the more atmospheric things I had seen on the NES.
I expect I'm one of the very few people on the planet that actually likes Superman for the NES. I remember renting it as a kid and really digging the SD/chibi art style in the instruction manual, and the character sprites in the game. Even I wouldn't recommend this game to anyone though. It had the potential, but couldn't bring any of it to fruition. I'd kinda like to see a remake that addresses the game's balance and control issues.
You know I liked Superman. I played it as a kid and then went back and actually beat it in my early 20s. It was a little wonky, but I enjoyed it. I still remember the main title theme as well, that is often shat upon, but I think it is perfectly suitable.
I definitely have a soft spot for Dr. Chaos. Had it as a kid and its title screen spooked me. Its gameplay setup is also pretty interesting when you get into it. That Superman though.. This is the first time I've seen it in action and yeah, it looks pretty janky (not to mention tedious).
My cousin owned the Superman game and we put a lot of time into it but could never figure out what the heck to do. I had forgotten all about it until this video. Thanks Jeremy for informing tonight's nightmares!
Honestly, a rom hack of Dr Chaos, as a resident evil demake is an idea i find oddly appealing.
0:07 Awesome to see the great Jim Varney, though I’m not sure what he’s doing here. Bummer we never got Ernest goes to Camp of Hey Verne the video game.
Another note on Dr. Chaos ; The original FDS version was much shorter, albeit harder. All the action warp zones were only 4 screens long but it was also more difficult with frequent mini boss encounters kicking you outside of a room and more enemies crammed into each area. (also the "Smork" enemy could be found in the mansion hallway area) Also the FDS version utilized saving on disk vs. Dr. Chaos' password system.
Superman is one of my favorite nes games. Not because it’s great, but because of the time I had with it. It was a game that really ignited my imagination as a small child.
Speaking of cheap Dragon Quest clones, due to licensing issues the NES version of Superman had some of its BGM replaced with recycled tracks from Indora no Hikari, one of the blandest Dragon Quest clones ever created. Though not quite at the level of legendary kusoge like Ganso Saiyuuki or Jarvas. Thankfully it stayed in Japan you won't have to suffer through it for NES Works!
I kind of like Superman a bit? It's so weird! There's lots of other stuff, like the chibified (yet still gigantic) Statue of Liberty that gives you missions, the weird way the sprites lag behind the backgrounds when scrolling, and _especially_ the scene of Superman taking the subway between areas (behind silhouettes of other passengers that are for some reason much larger than he is). But then, I'm a big MST3K fan....
Also, the Japanese version managed to get the movie theme song for the title screen, which they couldn't get for the US release!
I love learning how to play those shitty games I could never wrap my head around as a kid. It's so easy to learn about the gaming greats, but learning the backstop to those games you'd never think of is fascinating. Love this channel.
Oh, that was a delightful giggle in finally recognizing one of these clips.
Oh, right. I'm supposed to mention something about the games.
I remember playing Dr. Chaos on NES years ago, didn't know it came out on FDS which has better scrolling.
also apparently, because they can't license the Superman theme (that the Japanese version has), the overworld theme of Indora no Hikari was used instead in the title screen of the US version of Superman.
Anyway I can't wait for the G.I. Joe episode btw.
4:11 Ah they aren't too bad... _The Pale Man_ appears, oh god.
Oh man that map of dr chaos would have kicked ass at the time
Someone I knew as a kid had that Superman game. I remember us trying to play it from time to time. We would randomly run around not knowing what to do, get killed, and then put in a better game.
Please, Dr. Chaos was my father’s name. Call me Michael
Interesting failures. Now I want to play Kitten's story: Milo & Otis!!
I liked Dr Chaos. Except for the lack of any instructions on how to find the ultra space sensor
Being alive in the day,. the goonies II design was maybe the only way people could think of.
I remember when 3d was on the radar and looking at my NES controller thinking how tf would 3d work?
It really says a lot that the best Superman game is STILL the arcade one, and even that is a 7/10 that I love just because I played it at Chuck E Cheese a lot as a kid
The best Superman games are the Injustice games and Lego Batman 2&3.
Because of course the only good ones are the ones where he's either evil or stupid - people really need to stop acting like this is "subversive", when it comes across more like a rant Ayn Rand would be proud of.
Anyways, you should check out the NES prototype Sunsoft made. It seems a bit inspired by the arcade. Or "Undefeated", a fan game on Steam that's missing the copyrighted material, but proves there's no excuse to make a bad game with his power-set.
@@juststatedtheobvious9633 I need to check out Undefeated, looks cool
@@juststatedtheobvious9633 I’m assuming they meant solo games since I would consider Injustice a superhero fighting game not a Superman game specifically.
Every time I think about Dr. Chaos, I remember Armake21's review of that game. Still funny after all these years.
The US version of "Superman" used music from a Kemco RPG called "Indora no Hikari". The Japanese version had renditions of the iconic John Williams score.
I am one of those weirdos that loves Dr. Chaos. It is full of flaws but I find it an enjoyable experience. My rule is that I play it randomly without any guides or maps and make notes as needed. After a few years I forget everything so it is always a fresh experience.
Oh, that game of Superman...the quintessence of Kusoge!
I had completely forgotten Dr. Chaos, but I remembered it as soon as I saw that bizarre half-melted, left-and-right twitching skeleton sprite. I rented this one, and I was initially very excited about it, because I'd loved Goonies II (though I never beat it back then). But yeah, Dr. Chaos is really hard to love. The house scenes control really poorly, and ammo is so scarce, and enemies respawn so frequently, that it's really a terrible chore to play those segments--which is weird, because they're almost supposed to be down time between the segments of searching the rooms and going into the actual dungeon-type areas. If they'd gone with a pure Blaster Master approach, where ammo is endless and you grow steadily more powerful so that enemies that are initially challenging become mere scenery, that would have worked; or if they'd gone with the survival horror approach of scarce resources but also few, impactful enemies, that might have been okay too. But instead it's this weird hybrid where you're so constantly harried by trivial enemies that the deeper progression elements of the game are essentially impossible to engage with.
Squandered potential indeed!
I'd like a modern prequel of Dr. Chaos back when he was still Grad Student Chaos.
A tower defense game (the tower is your doctoral dissertation)
I love everything about Dr Chaos except the execution. It's such a cool concept, it's very memorable, but the whole thing is kind of a tedious, shoddy mess.
lmao the sprites are cheetahmen tier in Dr. Chaos
I like how the shuffling zombie looks like Thurston Howell with three layers of manboobs.
I've always been intrigued by Dr. Chaos. I kinda get a resident evil vibe from it. I will have to give it a shot with low expectations so that way I won't be completely disappointed lol
I wanted Dr. Chaos so badly as a kid. I remember seeing it in Gamepro or Nintendo Power back in the day, and it looked like it could be just like one of my other favorite games of the time (Goonies 2).
I've also always had kind of a soft spot for Kemko's Superman too, it was like a weird mix of Mighty Bomb Jack and Friday the 13th, but with a mission structure. I'd never recommend it to anyone, but I do kinda like it for some reason.
“Who would go on to make Pachinko Time!”
And Konami would take inspiration
I rented Dr Chaos as a kid from the local video store. I never figured out how to get to any of the actual content. I guess that means I never found the "special sensor".
I knew there was something I was missing but I didn't have internet in 1988
I picked up Dr. Chaos at a flea market and played it recently. It isnt "super bad". Its ambitious, as Jeremy says, and i had a good time with exploring it and find the secret walls and hidden items. Its not "great" and I only cleared about 6 bosses before getting bored, but its worth a look for a longer-play experience on NES.
Dr. Chaos is actually my #2 on my list of "games like Goonies II".
In the #1 place, despite stark differences in theme, is Friday the 13th. But I guess you haven't gotten that far yet
I was wondering when Superman would show up, lol - this and Ghostbusters were the two games I first got for my birthday with the NES+Power Pad set (along with that triple cart that it came with). At the time, I didn't have much to compare it to, so I like it to a point. Definitely clunky, though! That said, I'd kinda like to see that reworked, because there's a possibly half-way decent game skeleton hidden under all that kryptonite! 🤣
Ahhh Superman, the game I asked my mom to get for me because I thought it was a port of Taito's arcade game but in a chibi form. Oh the horror of discovering it was not. What did I do? Played it and finished it, because money was spent on it.
I’m kind of sad that the most interesting thing about Superman NES didn’t get covered at all. The Famicom version illegally lifted John Williams’ music directly from the 1978 film, despite the fact that the score was owned by Columbia / Warner and not DC who licensed the game. Japan sort of just didn't care about chiptune rights. For the NES version, Kemco swapped in Hiroyuki Masuno's excellent, chill music from the Famicom-exclusive RPG Indora No Hikari. However, whoever did the swap job missed a bunch of tracks they didn’t recognize. The inscrutable Daily Planet music, for one example, is a direct rip of some weird incidental music from the Superman III film OST ("Saving the Factory / Acid Test," timestamp 1 :50) . Presumably, no one at Columbia / Warner ever noticed or cared, because this is a terrible game with a few fantastic original tunes bolted on to it.
Source: mostly original research spurred by RUclips comments, because I am the biggest Hiroyuki Masuno stan in the western hemisphere, and his tracks in this game always caused me to have far greater affection for the NES version than its gameplay merits.
That Howard Phillips fella was dirty I tells ya...He wielded too much power.
I bet he pocketed enough money under the table to retire at 40 in Fiji....
He was responsible for ruining childhoods and wasting loads of parents' money
I'm glad everyone else remembers the chibi Statue of Liberty. Statue of Chiberty?
What we did not know and what we were willing to tolerate before the nigh overwhelming abundance of choice for gaming we have today. I actually remember Dr. Chaos fondly. Not playing it; that was left up to my now-ex-brother-in-law. That creepy music, those strange enemies, and my nine-year-old sensibilities. I remember trying to slog through some of this myself a couple years ago--it was miserable and I lasted about 10 minutes.
My hats off to you sir !!! Going through more bad nes games than AVGN and Pat the nes Punk combined ....
Ernest inclusion is excellent
The open-shut door gag fit perfectly into this format.
Anything with Ernest is awesome.
I, like many other children of the 80s, am still waiting for The Goonies II: The Movie.
Ya that movie needed some kind of sequel. I seen it at the theater back in the 80s.
16:38 Game Players was always there for us. Surely they knew not every kid was going to get the best games, and we still needed help with our bargain bin titles and weekend rentals.
I was pretty good at NES games and i can't remember exactly when I got Dr Chaos but I never made it past the first stage.
Superman for the NES makes Superman 64 look like Superman for the Atari 2600 by comparison :D
I'd love a short side video examining how the failure of Japanese 8 bit micros in the west in part opened the door for the NES in the same way the 82/83 crash did.
>snare intensifies
Lol that intro use to scare me but it's bad ass now
Always good content. Always.
Best line in this one
".. Scrape at the basement of of videogaming, like its heroic namesake drilling his body into the earth creating a tunnel to the worlds biggest coprolite".
Thats just epic. Last time a terrible game was reviewed I stated something like "you managed to call this game absolute shit without stating 'this game is absolute shit'. I think calling it a coprolite is skirting *really* close to that line, no? 😆
For those who may not know a coprolite is literal fossilized shit.
If a kid beat Dr. Chaos on a 3 day rental, how skilled a gamer would he/she be.
A common thread in Pony Canyon games, regardless of developer, is how utterly disturbing the graphics tend to be. Dr. Chaos probably does this on purpose, but I also got the shivers from Super Pitfall, and a football game featuring Mike Ditka had a referee which was described by one reviewer as something from The Exorcist. Why are your non-Compile games so creepy, Pony Canyon?
There's just something wrong about the graphics. It's like something that shouldn't exist but does, and it's difficult to define. Super Pitfall used to both scare and fascinate me as a kid because of this.
I asked for Dr. Chaos as a kid based solely on the box art and was profoundly disappointed.
Why do the big skeleton monsters look like they're dancing?
They must be some kind of boogie men.
I kind of like Superman. Yeah, it has a lot of rough edges, but I like what it's trying to do and it has a certain amount of charm. I certainly wouldn't call it the worst game on the NES to this point.
I never understood the design choice of NES Superman.
He looks more like his own parody character Suppaman/Kenta Kuraaku from Dr. Slump.
Otherwise, the game isn't as bad as how I remembered it. (I borrowed it from Blockbuster. It didn't come with manual)
GOONIES II IS MY FAVORITE NES GAME!!!!!
@9:50 Anybody ever seen one of those Captain Commando Battery Powered Watches?