I must admit, the amount of effort you put into this project is genuinely admirable. It's a really nice change of pace from the usual Western NES content - you know, "LJN sucks, did you know that Stadium Events is crazy rare, etc.".
"All that's required to beat Dragon Quest II is patience" Say that again once you reach the cave to Rhone, and say it again once you pass it and are on the way to Hargon's castle. Navigating that cave is a nightmare, and then just reaching the final boss requires a lot of luck to avoid getting party wiped, not to mention a strategy to reach that last area with enough MP to keep your party at full health.
I hope you do look into famicom guidebooks some day, I collected a handful of some for Kid Icarus, including a choose-your-own-adventure adapation and it really is a very unnoticed area of early gaming media. I enjoy all the original art and comics in them. I hope to find and collect more for other games I've played to fill in that hole of wanting to see more content. Famicom games my beloved.
Although I concur that this is a very flawed list, I'm supremely pleased that it represents quite a bit of my own experience with Famicom games. It also represents a culmination of sort of my journey to know more about them. Allow me to explain. When I was in my teens, on two occasions I was gifted handheld famiclones. The first one, which I was very fond of, contained first-generation games; with Contra and International Cricket as the standout titles. This is where I fell in love with quaint but simple games such as Astro Robo Sasa, Binary Land, Challenger, Mighty Bomb Jack, Sqoon and Star Luster. Since the list of 100 impossible games to beat before you die contained so many Boom-era titles, I Was able to reminisce my experiences with so many of the games mentioned therein. The second famiclone had a far more esoteric and random selection. It paired recognisable games like Super Mario Bros. 3 and Ms. Pacman with titles like Ghosts 'n Goblins, Booby Kids, Bomber King and Chesterfield. Now because I live in a country where Nintendo stuff is extremely hard to come by, I was at my wit's end as to how to play those games. But it intrigued me so much that I listed all the games I had and sought to figure them out through my rough internet sleuthing skills. Subsequently, I started to watch a lot of retro game-related media on RUclips. Starting with AVGN, I found Jeremy Parish, then a long-discontinued series called Famithon by SpongeTheKid, and then discovered Game Center CX. It was through /vr/ that I stumbled across this channel and the Famidaily project in mid-2021. Needless to say, it was a massive revelation to me. I was very excited and got immediately hooked onto the videos, keen on learning something new every day onwards. When the project moved to games from 1987 onwards, I pulled out my old list and crossed out every game from the second famiclone that inevitably received a video. If my count is right, Gekitotsu Yonku Battle is next to be crossed out. Therefore, my interest in this extremely niche subculture emerged because I cared a little too much about some cheap little toys in my boyhood. Though my gaming chops are really poor and I never did manage to finish most of the games, I never gave up on my fascination with them. It sort of defines me. I have been in the closet about this for far too long, but today I find that I cannot contain my happiness and put out this wall of text. As to the list of 100 impossible games to beat before you die, I would nominate two games from different eras. First, Championship Lode Runner should definitely be on this list because of how mind-boggling the levels are and because it is the absolute cruellest Famicom game that was deliberately designed that way. I was astounded when I learned how to beat the first level and promptly gave up. The second game would be Air Fortress, because of its similarity to Astro Robo Sasa in terms of the mechanics and the extreme spike in difficulty from about level 3 or 4. Notwithstanding my very limited experience with Famicom games in general, I believe these two games would be worth beating in one's lifetime; if only for the bragging rights in case of Championship Lode Runner. If you managed to make it till the end of my long and soppy story, thank you so much for giving me your time. I wish you a great day ahead!
1:14:57 "They're non-euclidean... they're non-euclidean" Minor flub in vocal outtake. I'd just like to say how insanely impressive it is that this is the first and only flub I've ever spotted in a Famidaily video, given the sheer volume of content you release. Keep up the good work! Ed: 1:26:26 "And that secret is... and that secret is" Another one
40:39 - According to the official strategy guide, Lin (the girl) always gives the correct paths in Hokuto no Ken. It's the boy (Bat) who misleads Ken, although this is only true in the first three stages from my experience. On Stage 5, Lin misleads Ken too, even when the player is on the highest level.
I do question the logic of putting score attack games on a list of games to beat which ostensibly have an ending of some description, as much as I like Balloon Fight 😛
Sorry to be a broken record on this, but as much as I like the overall gameplay of Spelunker and as much as I still want to complete it some day, I feel that the game's jumping is irreconcilably difficult. No, not the regular jumping and "try not to fall a foot" thing. It's jumping from vine to vine (or chain to chain) since just moving a smidge too far in either direction will cause you to fall off and die immediately. That is the game's true challenge.
"Localized Title: My Personal Hell" I love it! I've been looking at this book a bit in regards to the Super Famicom side. Hooo boy. Listing Hoshi no Kirby 3 as 5 star difficult? Good lord. Super Metroid with a 1 star in Quality? Geez. Light Fantasy and Hook didn't even get all 3 ratings. It's a REAL mess over in that half of the book. I was, however, really happy to see Fuurai no Shiren and Umihara Kawase on the list. Top tier games that are quite difficult!
Definitely looking forward to watching some of those 1990 game episodes. And yes, Tower of Druaga has an outsized influence on many of the games on this list.
As for Getsu Fuuma Den, I wish the Famicom game didn't have the added weird board game/time limit requirement, since I was having a lot of fun in it before it randomly game overed on me and I had to find someone to tell me what province it randomly decided I needed to go to.
unofficially halfway done!! (at least as far as my binge goes) I do question a lot of these, except for the obvious stuff like atlantis no nazo and SMB: The Lost Levels. also super cool to see the stuff in your reference library, like I'd definitely be interested in finding some of those console guides. even though they're all in Japanese, they'd still be neat to look at. oh and I discovered something since watching the 'hoshi wo miru hito' episode I found interesting.... 'bad game hall of fame' was streaming that one, and apparently kusoge are revered in Japan?! at least that was the explanation they gave for games like this. IDK if I'll ever understand it, but there you go.
I actually really liked Relics when I played it. It just had this feeling that was totally different from what would become standard for Famicom. I guess that's why I like it and games like Batsu and Terii.
It feels like it's trying to replicate the realistic handling of Karateka, though that loading is rough. I suppose on an emulator where that can be sped up it's better.
I have that exact issue of Mario-kun, and it's the only one I have. I also got gifted the "manga mania" which is the first (and probably going to be only) time the comics were officially translated to english.
I also really did enjoy Hoshi wo Miru Hito, once I accepted it was going to a bloody meatgrinder, and I had some fun with it showing it that yes, I can beat your bs if I try ! Though even if you level up to the point where you one hit kill stuff in the first area, you can still get one hit KO'd in the second. So one should keep that in mind.
There's definitely something to taking on an exceptionally bad game and smashing it. I've definitely done that more than once. You gotta have the right mindset, though.
1:14:13 I'm sorry, *what*? 8 Eyes is about how the Ottoman Empire aliven't-ing Armenians was good actually? I thought it was about James Bond's ancestor fighting a bunch of demon-worshipping bandits who had killed a bunch of archaeology researchers from the British Museum, or at least that's what Wikipedia says. Is there something I'm missing? Is the "genocide is cool actually" messaging something you get slapped in the face with once you beat the game? EDIT: I went back and watched the 8 Eyes episode. I had *completely forgotten* all of the inexplicable Armenian hate in the manual. How utterly bizarre. Wikipedia's description cuts all of that out, which is why I was so confused earlier.
The story was changed for the NES version. The Famicom manual goes into detail with a story about devil worshipping Armenians seeking to destroy the innocent Turks. It's pretty distasteful when you know the actual history, though in this case I think it's a result of only having Turkish sources rather than actual malice.
I find it interesting that there is no Castlevania games here. I personally don’t find them difficult, but so many people online call it very difficult. And although I haven’t played Contra enough, but I’ve heard that can be hard too. It is strange that easy games are on here, but not Castlevania or Contra, games that are pretty huge and notoriously difficult. Are they not considered hard in Japan or something?
I do hope you'll consider doing the FDS library at some point. A lot of cheapo crap there, but also some obvious all-time Nintendo greats, a bunch of killer sleepers from Konami (Ai Senshi Nicol, Arumana no Kiseki, etc.) and some plain fascinating stuff (Otocky). Personally, I go back and forth on whether it's a separate platform but usually err toward it being not. Sure, the expanded sound/memory, and disk writability are things you can't do on a stock Famicom, but they're all recreatable with mapper chips, and something like Kirby's Adventure that would have been inconceivable in 1983 is still a Famicom game at the end of the day. Maybe if the disk unit could run games on its own.
I think at this point I'm going to have to do it, though it'll obviously be after and I'll probably space it out over a year rather than doing daily videos.
I personally wouldn't put most JRPGs on a list like that, since all you need to do is grind to get through them; and well, 'maybe' solve some puzzles too. There 'are' exceptions, like Digital Devil games or Dragon Quest II, but for example - I don't seem to recall any Famicom RPGs with limited number of encounters per area or something like that. Same goes to adventure games - you just need patience, unless a game is totally cryptic... and if it is, perhaps it's arguably not worth bothering with. (I also own Chou Kusoge, those books are quite interesting; Double Dragon III? Maybe... but Michael Jackson's Moonwalker wasn't that bad. >_>)
Yeah, the Chou Kusoge books do have some interesting picks as well, but not a proper list for a video. 😄 I'd probably go Wizardry for hard RPGs, or one of the Deep Dungeons. Weird how it's the first person view games that get really cruel with the encounter design.
Well, there are Cave to Rhone in DQ2, Ice Cave in FF, Mt. Itoi in Mother and everything in Shinsenden. Yeah, technically it's more about your luck and MP consumption but still, classic JRPGs were a little bit challenging. :)
@@romannikonenko7325 Yup, Shinsenden is definitely one of those exceptions on the whole. Irem really wanted to have their own Holy Diver of RPGs. Well, let's just say they succeeded in their attempt!
Dragon Quest II definitely belongs in this list. The US release was toned down a bit but it is still quite a challenging JRPG. Even if you grind all the way to the level caps, it's not a guarantee you can just walk into the last area and beat the game. The boss mechanics can, and will, wipe you when it has had enough of your crap.
Surprised to see Karateka on the list, it's easy, enemies are the same, nothing changes. The last guy looks different, but it's the same fight. Ikari (Warriors), you can't just walk through the game, the continue code stops working at level 3 or 4. You have to use game genie if you want to cheat and win. Unless it's different in the Japanese version. I've beaten surprisingly few games 50 minutes into the video. Ghosts and Goblins, SMB2 and Karateka. I think Binary Land will be easy now that I know there is a continue code, but without it, it's a tough game.
Tower of Druaga. Seriously, everyone wanted to be Tower of Druaga which was a massive hit in Japanese arcades and every stage had a secret to find. Most of which were required and amazingly obscure.
The moment you said "3 was the last great Rockman game before the series started to slump", I completely lost interest in the video and this channel. Just another person that would rather play lower quality Mega Man games than ones that are actually well made because the low quality ones are more iconic. Pathetic. I swear the Mega Man """fandom""" is really just a cult for the overhyped and mediocre 2nd entry. It disgusts me that people like this still exist in 2022. You really aren't being fair to the franchise and it really sucks.
2 is great aside from the lack of polish due to its harsh development cycle culminating in a shitpost being the "boss" of a Wily stage, but 4 is an underappreciated beast that actually gives us the starting cutscene of the entire franchise instead of 1, and even got an episode of Nico Evaluates comparing it to 2 while explaining why 4 is his favorite.
I must admit, the amount of effort you put into this project is genuinely admirable. It's a really nice change of pace from the usual Western NES content - you know, "LJN sucks, did you know that Stadium Events is crazy rare, etc.".
"Are you aware that in Japan Super Mario USA was called Super Mario USA?" 😁
@@RndStranger What do they call it in the USA, Super Mario Japan?
the lost levels @@BagOfMagicFood
@@BagOfMagicFood Super Mario Royale with Cheese
"All that's required to beat Dragon Quest II is patience" Say that again once you reach the cave to Rhone, and say it again once you pass it and are on the way to Hargon's castle. Navigating that cave is a nightmare, and then just reaching the final boss requires a lot of luck to avoid getting party wiped, not to mention a strategy to reach that last area with enough MP to keep your party at full health.
grinding
Just grind to max level with everything, it's tedious not hard.
I hope you do look into famicom guidebooks some day, I collected a handful of some for Kid Icarus, including a choose-your-own-adventure adapation and it really is a very unnoticed area of early gaming media. I enjoy all the original art and comics in them. I hope to find and collect more for other games I've played to fill in that hole of wanting to see more content. Famicom games my beloved.
Although I concur that this is a very flawed list, I'm supremely pleased that it represents quite a bit of my own experience with Famicom games. It also represents a culmination of sort of my journey to know more about them. Allow me to explain.
When I was in my teens, on two occasions I was gifted handheld famiclones. The first one, which I was very fond of, contained first-generation games; with Contra and International Cricket as the standout titles. This is where I fell in love with quaint but simple games such as Astro Robo Sasa, Binary Land, Challenger, Mighty Bomb Jack, Sqoon and Star Luster. Since the list of 100 impossible games to beat before you die contained so many Boom-era titles, I Was able to reminisce my experiences with so many of the games mentioned therein.
The second famiclone had a far more esoteric and random selection. It paired recognisable games like Super Mario Bros. 3 and Ms. Pacman with titles like Ghosts 'n Goblins, Booby Kids, Bomber King and Chesterfield. Now because I live in a country where Nintendo stuff is extremely hard to come by, I was at my wit's end as to how to play those games. But it intrigued me so much that I listed all the games I had and sought to figure them out through my rough internet sleuthing skills. Subsequently, I started to watch a lot of retro game-related media on RUclips. Starting with AVGN, I found Jeremy Parish, then a long-discontinued series called Famithon by SpongeTheKid, and then discovered Game Center CX. It was through /vr/ that I stumbled across this channel and the Famidaily project in mid-2021. Needless to say, it was a massive revelation to me. I was very excited and got immediately hooked onto the videos, keen on learning something new every day onwards. When the project moved to games from 1987 onwards, I pulled out my old list and crossed out every game from the second famiclone that inevitably received a video. If my count is right, Gekitotsu Yonku Battle is next to be crossed out.
Therefore, my interest in this extremely niche subculture emerged because I cared a little too much about some cheap little toys in my boyhood. Though my gaming chops are really poor and I never did manage to finish most of the games, I never gave up on my fascination with them. It sort of defines me. I have been in the closet about this for far too long, but today I find that I cannot contain my happiness and put out this wall of text.
As to the list of 100 impossible games to beat before you die, I would nominate two games from different eras. First, Championship Lode Runner should definitely be on this list because of how mind-boggling the levels are and because it is the absolute cruellest Famicom game that was deliberately designed that way. I was astounded when I learned how to beat the first level and promptly gave up. The second game would be Air Fortress, because of its similarity to Astro Robo Sasa in terms of the mechanics and the extreme spike in difficulty from about level 3 or 4. Notwithstanding my very limited experience with Famicom games in general, I believe these two games would be worth beating in one's lifetime; if only for the bragging rights in case of Championship Lode Runner.
If you managed to make it till the end of my long and soppy story, thank you so much for giving me your time. I wish you a great day ahead!
2:08:20 I...was not expecting an SD Gundam game to just stick Amuro Ray in a suit of armor and call it a day.
1:14:57 "They're non-euclidean... they're non-euclidean" Minor flub in vocal outtake. I'd just like to say how insanely impressive it is that this is the first and only flub I've ever spotted in a Famidaily video, given the sheer volume of content you release. Keep up the good work!
Ed: 1:26:26 "And that secret is... and that secret is" Another one
That happens when my cat interrupts me. I'm usually good at catching these things in playback while editing, but one was overwhelming.
@@RndStranger relatable
40:39 - According to the official strategy guide, Lin (the girl) always gives the correct paths in Hokuto no Ken. It's the boy (Bat) who misleads Ken, although this is only true in the first three stages from my experience. On Stage 5, Lin misleads Ken too, even when the player is on the highest level.
ive been waiting for this one
edit: worth the wait
I do question the logic of putting score attack games on a list of games to beat which ostensibly have an ending of some description, as much as I like Balloon Fight 😛
Sorry to be a broken record on this, but as much as I like the overall gameplay of Spelunker and as much as I still want to complete it some day, I feel that the game's jumping is irreconcilably difficult. No, not the regular jumping and "try not to fall a foot" thing. It's jumping from vine to vine (or chain to chain) since just moving a smidge too far in either direction will cause you to fall off and die immediately. That is the game's true challenge.
"Localized Title: My Personal Hell" I love it! I've been looking at this book a bit in regards to the Super Famicom side. Hooo boy. Listing Hoshi no Kirby 3 as 5 star difficult? Good lord. Super Metroid with a 1 star in Quality? Geez. Light Fantasy and Hook didn't even get all 3 ratings. It's a REAL mess over in that half of the book.
I was, however, really happy to see Fuurai no Shiren and Umihara Kawase on the list. Top tier games that are quite difficult!
Definitely looking forward to watching some of those 1990 game episodes. And yes, Tower of Druaga has an outsized influence on many of the games on this list.
As for Getsu Fuuma Den, I wish the Famicom game didn't have the added weird board game/time limit requirement, since I was having a lot of fun in it before it randomly game overed on me and I had to find someone to tell me what province it randomly decided I needed to go to.
Thanks for this special surprise!
Fantastic video! Can you please update the description with the list of titles?
unofficially halfway done!! (at least as far as my binge goes) I do question a lot of these, except for the obvious stuff like atlantis no nazo and SMB: The Lost Levels. also super cool to see the stuff in your reference library, like I'd definitely be interested in finding some of those console guides. even though they're all in Japanese, they'd still be neat to look at.
oh and I discovered something since watching the 'hoshi wo miru hito' episode I found interesting.... 'bad game hall of fame' was streaming that one, and apparently kusoge are revered in Japan?! at least that was the explanation they gave for games like this. IDK if I'll ever understand it, but there you go.
I wouldn't say "revered", more like toyed with for bemusement. So just like awful games in the US, really.
Great video! Hopefully someday you’ll be able to show us the SFC part of the list!
I actually really liked Relics when I played it. It just had this feeling that was totally different from what would become standard for Famicom. I guess that's why I like it and games like Batsu and Terii.
It feels like it's trying to replicate the realistic handling of Karateka, though that loading is rough. I suppose on an emulator where that can be sped up it's better.
I have that exact issue of Mario-kun, and it's the only one I have. I also got gifted the "manga mania" which is the first (and probably going to be only) time the comics were officially translated to english.
I also really did enjoy Hoshi wo Miru Hito, once I accepted it was going to a bloody meatgrinder, and I had some fun with it showing it that yes, I can beat your bs if I try ! Though even if you level up to the point where you one hit kill stuff in the first area, you can still get one hit KO'd in the second. So one should keep that in mind.
There's definitely something to taking on an exceptionally bad game and smashing it. I've definitely done that more than once. You gotta have the right mindset, though.
1:14:13 I'm sorry, *what*? 8 Eyes is about how the Ottoman Empire aliven't-ing Armenians was good actually? I thought it was about James Bond's ancestor fighting a bunch of demon-worshipping bandits who had killed a bunch of archaeology researchers from the British Museum, or at least that's what Wikipedia says. Is there something I'm missing? Is the "genocide is cool actually" messaging something you get slapped in the face with once you beat the game?
EDIT: I went back and watched the 8 Eyes episode. I had *completely forgotten* all of the inexplicable Armenian hate in the manual. How utterly bizarre. Wikipedia's description cuts all of that out, which is why I was so confused earlier.
The story was changed for the NES version. The Famicom manual goes into detail with a story about devil worshipping Armenians seeking to destroy the innocent Turks. It's pretty distasteful when you know the actual history, though in this case I think it's a result of only having Turkish sources rather than actual malice.
@RndStranger Is that why video game creators now have cultural sensitivity consultants?
Can't wait for the other half of yhe book to be covered in superfami daily which is totally happening im sure 🙏😀
For Famicom Mini games for the Gameboy Advance, I would've rather had Rockman or Rockman 2 instead of Makaimura
I find it interesting that there is no Castlevania games here. I personally don’t find them difficult, but so many people online call it very difficult. And although I haven’t played Contra enough, but I’ve heard that can be hard too. It is strange that easy games are on here, but not Castlevania or Contra, games that are pretty huge and notoriously difficult. Are they not considered hard in Japan or something?
Some Konami games were easier in the Japanese original and made harder for the American market in response to the American game rental market.
1:52:27 the best and the hardest Famicom/NES game ever,a MASTERPIECE made by IREM!
Did you really go back and do another playthrough and review for each game in this video?
"Playthrough" is a bit much. It was usually about ten minutes to make sure that I wasn't just showing the first few seconds of every game.
I do hope you'll consider doing the FDS library at some point. A lot of cheapo crap there, but also some obvious all-time Nintendo greats, a bunch of killer sleepers from Konami (Ai Senshi Nicol, Arumana no Kiseki, etc.) and some plain fascinating stuff (Otocky).
Personally, I go back and forth on whether it's a separate platform but usually err toward it being not. Sure, the expanded sound/memory, and disk writability are things you can't do on a stock Famicom, but they're all recreatable with mapper chips, and something like Kirby's Adventure that would have been inconceivable in 1983 is still a Famicom game at the end of the day. Maybe if the disk unit could run games on its own.
I think at this point I'm going to have to do it, though it'll obviously be after and I'll probably space it out over a year rather than doing daily videos.
great video :)
I personally wouldn't put most JRPGs on a list like that, since all you need to do is grind to get through them; and well, 'maybe' solve some puzzles too. There 'are' exceptions, like Digital Devil games or Dragon Quest II, but for example - I don't seem to recall any Famicom RPGs with limited number of encounters per area or something like that. Same goes to adventure games - you just need patience, unless a game is totally cryptic... and if it is, perhaps it's arguably not worth bothering with. (I also own Chou Kusoge, those books are quite interesting; Double Dragon III? Maybe... but Michael Jackson's Moonwalker wasn't that bad. >_>)
Yeah, the Chou Kusoge books do have some interesting picks as well, but not a proper list for a video. 😄
I'd probably go Wizardry for hard RPGs, or one of the Deep Dungeons. Weird how it's the first person view games that get really cruel with the encounter design.
Well, there are Cave to Rhone in DQ2, Ice Cave in FF, Mt. Itoi in Mother and everything in Shinsenden. Yeah, technically it's more about your luck and MP consumption but still, classic JRPGs were a little bit challenging. :)
@@romannikonenko7325 Yup, Shinsenden is definitely one of those exceptions on the whole. Irem really wanted to have their own Holy Diver of RPGs. Well, let's just say they succeeded in their attempt!
Dragon Quest II definitely belongs in this list. The US release was toned down a bit but it is still quite a challenging JRPG. Even if you grind all the way to the level caps, it's not a guarantee you can just walk into the last area and beat the game. The boss mechanics can, and will, wipe you when it has had enough of your crap.
Surprised to see Karateka on the list, it's easy, enemies are the same, nothing changes. The last guy looks different, but it's the same fight.
Ikari (Warriors), you can't just walk through the game, the continue code stops working at level 3 or 4. You have to use game genie if you want to cheat and win. Unless it's different in the Japanese version.
I've beaten surprisingly few games 50 minutes into the video. Ghosts and Goblins, SMB2 and Karateka. I think Binary Land will be easy now that I know there is a continue code, but without it, it's a tough game.
I'd put Hana no Star Kaido on this list. It's a terrible game on top of being brutally difficult.
That is a nasty one. Any of the games where you control two characters simultaneously seem to be pretty mean.
Why was overly vague and obtuse secrets so in vogue during the heyday of Famicom games from 1986 to 1990?
Tower of Druaga.
Seriously, everyone wanted to be Tower of Druaga which was a massive hit in Japanese arcades and every stage had a secret to find. Most of which were required and amazingly obscure.
wow, this book is dumb... but great vid.
poggers
Whats the 1 game u might not have
kage 2 is good
Number 5 has to l's
The moment you said "3 was the last great Rockman game before the series started to slump", I completely lost interest in the video and this channel.
Just another person that would rather play lower quality Mega Man games than ones that are actually well made because the low quality ones are more iconic.
Pathetic.
I swear the Mega Man """fandom""" is really just a cult for the overhyped and mediocre 2nd entry.
It disgusts me that people like this still exist in 2022. You really aren't being fair to the franchise and it really sucks.
2 is great aside from the lack of polish due to its harsh development cycle culminating in a shitpost being the "boss" of a Wily stage, but 4 is an underappreciated beast that actually gives us the starting cutscene of the entire franchise instead of 1, and even got an episode of Nico Evaluates comparing it to 2 while explaining why 4 is his favorite.