In search of GOTY for 1989

While us Americans in 1989 were enjoying the last good Indiana Jones movie (you know, before the aliens anal probed the series), in Japan, the next generation of gaming was heating up with PC Engine picking up momentum and the MEGA DRIVE's first full year on the market. Nintendo however continues to dominate with the Famicom in the middle of its lifecycle while the Disk System started to wind down with only 20 releases. No worries, Nintendo had a new entry up their sleeve: portable gaming.

GAME BOY

If you're old like me, you might have at one point played one of those shitty Tiger Electronics sad excuse of pretending to be a game. Ignoring unplayable shit like that, it's safe to say the GAME BOY was the first portable gaming handheld that had a rich and actually fun library.

Yay, you can still buy this shit (why though?)

Despite never owning a NES nor a Genesis as a kid (no matter how much I begged and cajoled), I did have access to the GAME BOY thanks to my older sibling's arubaito money. She got it for herself but I um... "borrowed it" and played it for way longer than she probably ever did. Ah, the nostalgia of playing Tetris with my buddy head-to-head almost literally with that short ass link cable. I watched the space launch and the other ending so many times, seeing it again immediately brings back those nostalgia tears. I never did figure out what the fuck launching into space had to do with lining up blocks but kids don't sweat the details.

Plot twist: we were distributed compute units for Russia's space program

I think many of us older folks have fond memories of staring at that green screen for hours on end with no backlight and by some amazing coincidence, we're all also probably near-sighted. Super Mario Land was a solid and fun launch title, which I got good enough to beat in an afternoon whenever I was bored. And there were even a couple RPGs in the first year, one of which was Selection: Erabareshi Mono which has the word "select" in two languages for some reason? I did play the English version The Sword of Hope as a kid and vaguely remember wasting hours trying to figure out how to get to the next area. It was a weird RPG/Adventure game hybrid that brings back nostalgia tears that are a bit too salty to consider for GOTY.

Random encounters and puzzles were perhaps not the best combination

I have to say looking back at things in context, the Game Boy was an amazing piece of technology for its time. Yeah sure, everything is various tones of green but putting the lack of color aside, the sound chip is amazing. Check out some of these rocking tunes!

Makai Toushi Sa·Ga（魔界塔士Sa・Ga）

Release Date: December 12

I played the WonderSwan Color version of the first Saga game. As far as I can tell, it's pretty much the same except of course, with you know, color. Localizers fucked up as they often do by calling it The Final Fantasy Legend. No, it has absolutely nothing to do with Final Fantasy. 

It's a pretty simplistic RPG but what can you expect given that it's the first RPG on a portable console (that I know of). It's a cool game and pretty fun especially considering that it came out in the first year of the GAME BOY. The setting is definitely not your normal fantasy RPG, as you can clearly tell from the rocket launcher and chainsaw on the cover. We definitely need more RPGs with modern weapons other than Metal Max.

While I haven't played many GAME BOY games, it's generally because they are too simplistic for my tastes. Being one of 2 RPGs released in the first year, this is definitely my GOTY for the system as it was actually pretty fun even today.

Verdict: GOTY for portable gaming

PC Engine

The PC Engine really started hitting its stride this year, offering what in my mind is undoubtedly the most technically advanced titles. Even super expensive PCs didn't offer CD quality music yet. There are a ton of titles I still need to play through so I'm sure I will be updating this section over the years.

Valis II（ヴァリスII）

Release Date: June 23

Overall, I liked Valis II though parts of it definitely got really frustrating near the end. While I wouldn't say that it's one of the best action games, once again the PCE CD technology shines here so I would say this takes GOTY for Soundtrack until I find something better.

Verdict: GOTY for Soundtrack

Ys I & II（イースI・II）

Release Date: December 21

The first two Ys game on PC were so choppy, I wouldn't really consider them playable. For me, the PCE port is the first platform where it was genuinely fun to play. While I had a blast with the PSP version, it would have been amazing to play this version all the way back in 1989. It's all about the bump for reals. Once you go bump, you never want to go back!

Verdict: GOTY for Action

PC

While I haven't yet had the time to really dive into the Japanese PC88/98 games, Sierra was still pumping out great titles such as Space Quest III: The Pirates of Pestulon and who can forget Hero's Quest: So You Want to Be a Hero.

The latter was especially highly regarded for mixing RPG elements into Sierra's classic ADV games and not in a shitty way like The Sword of Hope. I played the heck out of the later VGA remake as a kid and really enjoyed how your character class directly affected how you played the game. However, enough talk about Sierra, there's a new game in town.

SimCity 

SimCity from Maxis was definitely a highlight for yet more childhood nostalgia. To be clear, I was not part of a rich family with a Mac or Amiga so all of my time playing SimCity was the SNES version that came out a couple years later. And to be fair, SimCity 2000 is so much more superior and the Maxis game I spent the most time on.

Wow, this city looks like shit. Greg Abbott, are you playing games again?!

However, SimCity deserves GOTY due to pretty much bringing about an entirely new genre of games. Sure, you can dig up earlier sim games that probably have some aspect of city building but not one that included zoning, connecting power lines, managing traffic, etc., etc. As for me, playing this on the SNES was the gateway to hours of fun from SimAnt and of course, the freaking amazing SimCity 2000. Reticulate some splines, y'all!!!

Verdict: GOTY Overall

Other Games I tried

MOTHER

Release Date: June 23

MOTHER is finally available in English so the Jhipster smugness factor is gone but honestly, I did not enjoy this game at all. It feels limited on the Famicom especially compared to newer systems that were available at this time. GOTY for the category: "Thank god for save states!" Meh.

Verdict: GOTY for being overrated

Dragon Knight（ドラゴンナイト）

Release Date: November 1

Dragon Knight is definitely not a great game, much less GOTY. It's a very simplistic DRPG with a single party member and hardly any depth to the gameplay at all.

Butt (sic) if you think about the graphics, you'd be hard pressed to find anything that would tickle your fancy like this on say the Famicom. I'm a sucker for the retro style and comparing it to other games that came out in 1989, I'm afraid it really is one of the best looking games this year.

Verdict: GOTY for visuals "assets"

Games I plan to try later

FC

がんばれゴエモン2

西村京太郎ミステリー ブルートレイン殺人事件

里見八犬伝

山村美紗サスペンス 京都花の密室殺人事件

マルサの女

スクウェアのトム・ソーヤ

暗黒神話 ヤマトタケル伝説

ヘラクレスの栄光II タイタンの滅亡

ハイドライドIII

スイートホーム

Megadrive

ファンタシースターII 還らざる時の終わりに

ヴァーミリオン

PCE

コブラ 黒竜王の伝説

魔界八犬伝 SHADA

エナジー

凄ノ王伝説

神武伝承

天外魔境 ZIRIA

ニンジャウォーリアーズ

ガンヘッド

めぞん一刻

ワンダーボーイIII モンスター・レアー

鏡の国のレジェンド

ダブルダンジョン

ニュートピア

弁慶外伝

PC88

Emerald Dragon

魔晶伝紀ラ・ヴァルー

Shin Megami Tensei II（真・女神転生II）

I can't believe I wrote about the first Shin Megami Tensei game in 2018. In fact, I can't believe I started this blog in 2015! Jesus, I'm old! Well, it's now 2022 and I finally finished the sequel Shin Megami Tensei II. I've said this before but at this point, I just have to live with the fact that I'll die of old age before I finish every game in my closet. I no longer try to force myself to finish awful games (fuck you Avalon Code) so the fact that I was able to complete this one already means it was enjoyable enough to reach the end.

I'll enjoy SMTV in like 10 years, in the meantime...

Probably my favorite part of the first game was the beginning, talking to your mom and going to the mall. The events in normal Tokyo leading to the apocalypse was fun and pretty much all I remember from the first game.

Remember when everything didn't suck? Oh man, the good ol' days

In this sequel, it's not clear what happened to the first game's characters but apparently they did end up building Tokyo Millenium, which was maybe the Law ending? In any case, you start out as a gladiator with memory loss, which doesn't seem to be the most original start to a story. But no worries, without any spoilers, the story did not disappoint. 

Is it amnesia or... something else? No spoilers on this blog!

Even though 95% of the game consists of filling maps, grinding, and going here and there, you'll read some brief dialogue that drop some bombshell revelations. It is a good reminder that you don't need hours and hours of dialogue to tell a good story though I won't complain if it's voiced by Kana or Ayachi.

Fully voiced remake when? Ahh, it'll probably suck cause it won't be the same (huh?)

As for the gameplay, it's a pretty mixed bag, nothing surprising if you've played the previous games. First of all, the Mag consumption really discourages walking around with demons in your party. I almost always played with just two characters. The only time I felt the need to recruit and fuse demons was when you had to go rescue Hiroko all by your lonesome and to beat Abbadon. You really, really need to fuse a demon with Tarukaja because trust me, I tried to beat him whittling away at his HP on auto mode and gave up after a couple HOURS.

Near the end, you run into enemies where neither swords nor guns work but I just ran away from them. Maybe because I pumped all my points into speed, I had no trouble running away from any enemies that were annoying to kill.

Apparently this is Cero A... fine with me?

All in all, it was pretty much auto battle all the way. The enemies in this game are so generous in dropping full health items, I hardly used any magic. Now, you could conceivably go to town, recruiting and fusing, and devising all kinds of clever strategies but I just slashed and shot everything and ran away if that didn't work. Near the end, Hiroko learns a spell that allows you to summon your demon as undead and that seemed almost a cheat because they're pretty much invincible. I just spammed Tarukaja and whittled away at the final boss to reach the neutral route ending where you basically kill everybody... again. 

A quick couple things to note if you are interested in playing this game. There are two points in the game where you have to raise both your INT and MAGIC to 10, really annoying for a character that doesn't use magic. Though I suppose INT is supposed to help you recruit demons. Also, the direction your avatar spins no longer shows your alignment. You can check with law/chaos exclusive gear or by trying to heal at either.

It's a classic, you gotta use your imagination, damn kids these days...

Fortunately, I was able to switch my alignment back to neutral even after the game asks you a bunch of questions near the end that swings it pretty hard one way or the other. The final point to decide is when Zain asks you to join him, about 10 hours from the end of the game so you may want to keep a couple saves at that point. For me, I doubt I'll ever come back to replay the other routes.

Score:  "Oh, you like Nocturne? Kids these days..." 3 dismissive snorts out of 5 (45 hours to beat)

All in all, this game is tied for my favorite Megaten game so far with Kyuuyaku Megami Tensei 2. I liked that your character has an actual backstory to reveal instead of just some generic kid from the first game. I also really like Beth's character and would totally play a remake with her voiced by some cute voice actress.

Hot springs event / bikini DLC, c'mon Atlus it's free money!!!

The difficulty balance was weird and quirky but at least it wasn't super frustrating and frankly fairly easy to play through even on so called EXPERT mode. Yeah Abbadon was a pain but at least his body wasn't too annoying to navigate again if you didn't have the proper skills to beat him. All in all, not a bad way to spend my ever dwindling life span...  I guess?

Scale
0 - Awful
1 - Bad and not worth your time
2 - Has some flaws but still enjoyable
3 - An average enjoyable experience
4 - A great game
5 - Masterpiece of a caliber only found very rarely

In search of GOTY for 1988

Here we go, 1988. While us proud American kids were deeply engrossed in mutant turtles and the 1988 Crystal Light National Aerobic Championship was in full swing, the Japanese console market was heating up with the PC master race Engine in its first full year on the market and the Mega Drive that launched on October 29 for the holidays.

Somehow I missed this on my TV Guide 

However, despite the newer, shiny consoles, the Famicom had just begun its peak of dominance with a whopping 142 titles and even 55 titles on the FDS. This is compared to just 21 games on the PC Engine and 28 Sega Mark III games along with 4 launch titles on the Mega Drive. While I'm not a big fan of the FC, I would never write something so cliché as "quality over quantity". It's hard to argue for other consoles when the numbers are so dominating for Nintendo.

PC Engine

Let's quickly go over the PC Engine's lineup which mostly consisted of a mix of action, sports, shooting, and other genres I'm not really into. There was only one RPG Necromancer, released in January. I did put in a few hours but man, it's pretty tedious. Will update when (or if) I ever do finish it.

Among the handful of shooters, the most notable ones are R-Type I and II. I rented Super R-Type on the SNES a bunch as a kid and got good enough to almost beat it. So I guess if I was a rich, Japanese kid I could have been playing at home a few years earlier. However, it's kind of lame that it's split into two parts. Overall, it's a good game but not a GOTY contender.

I like to stick it to the back. What? It's a valid strategy.

Also of note are the first two CD-ROM games released in December No・Ri・Ko and Fighting Street and needless to say, these first two games are not a good showcase for the new technology. I always did wonder as a kid growing up when everybody was playing Street Fighter II, what happened to the first one? It sucked ass, was what happened.

Yes, I did play this... and no I don't want to talk about it

Among all the games, Makyou Densetsu looks to be the most impressive technically, especially that sweet music. It basically looks like a Super Famicon platformer except of course 2 years before that console even hits the market. Still, while visually impressive, doesn't seem likely to be GOTY.

Sega Mark III

1988 effectively marks the end of the Sega Mark III besides the last game Bomber Raid released in February of 1989. The Sega Mark III has a paltry total 85 games for the system, which is surprising given that the Sega Master System lived on with far more games overseas over the years.

So far, I've only played through one game: Hoshi wo Sagashite. It was a family-friendly and decent ADV game I suppose. Nothing special in my opinion.

Another notable game is Maou Golvellius, an action RPG ported from the MSX version released the year prior. I remember the snakes from this game playing it at some kid's house back in the day. The controls are kind of stiff but given the paltry library on the system, it does bear mentioning. At least the MSX2 updated version has a nice intro but $128??? Jesus.

Some poor sap payed that based on the cover art

I loved the Master System as a kid but objectively, it falls far short of the FC. But don't worry, Sega fans, here's another console you have to buy!

MEGA DRIVE

As Sega has historically always done, they launched another console before owners of the old console could get much value for their investment. Not much to really comment on given the paltry 4 titles released in the first year. Space Harrier II is cool and all but not a GOTY for me.

I have to say though as a kid, I wanted a Genesis and Altered Beast SOOOOO bad when it released state site, I would dream about it for weeks. To this day, I never did own a Genesis.

Oh nice, a screenshot of broken promises and depressing childhood

I supposed I do now finally own the arcade version of the game now on my Astro City Mini. It only took like over 30 years. Thanks mom and dad, I didn't need you guys after all! But then we knew that all along didn't we?

It's as good as I remember playing at the store's demo kiosk as a kid but not GOTY level for me. Ok, let's move on (per my therapist's suggestion).  #NotBitter

PC-88/98

The early PC gaming era is really nostalgic for me because it still has that distinctive old-school yet mature feeling that caters to a completely different market (that also incidentally happens to have jobs and money). And by "mature", I mean more advanced writing and scenarios intended for adults not porn, you sickos.

It's all about the music, right guys?!

Not to mention, the still graphics were way ahead of consoles. Check out the intro for Digan no Maseki for instance, this game is definitely on my radar to check out. Will update here at a later date.

Sorry, I haven't played it... yet

At this point in time, I still have quite a ways to go in terms of covering the PC games of 1988... who knows when I'll have the time.

Famicon and Disk System

At last, we come to the big pile of shovelware... err I mean timeless classics loved by all the privileged kids whose parents bought them an NES and $120 games (adjusted for inflation). Bitter, me? Nah! Yeah, I haven't played even a tiny fraction of the almost 200 games. So far, I've only played Ripple Island. I'm just really not into the FC except for what I have to admit is GOTY.

Super Mario Bros. 3

This is undoubtedly going to be the first and last Mario game I would even nominate as GOTY because I don't even like them. But damn, as much as I hate to admit it, 3 is fucking amazing. Not only does it blow every other FC game out of the water, I still sometimes confuse myself into thinking it's a SFC game.

It's leagues above the first game and the lame remix sequel (aka Lost Levels to non-jhipsters). The Tanuki suit, P-Wing, flying battleships... there was no other platform game that could even touch it. Ah yes, the fond memories of holding the down button on the white hill for 3 seconds. Yes, I even watched the infomercial... err I mean movie The Wizard as a kid at some point. As much as I hate to admit it, I find it hard to believe I will find another game in 1988 that was better than Super Mario Bros. 3.

Verdict: GOTY Overall

Other games I tried

Dragon Quest III

Release Date: February 10

To be clear, I did not play the original version that was released on the Famicom. The SFC remake was so well done and looks so much better that I don't really feel any need to replay the original version. However, putting aside the graphics and music, given the great story that completes the first trilogy, I would be surprised if I run into a better RPG. Sorry, Final Fantasy II, you lose this round.

Verdict: GOTY for RPGs

Snatcher

Release Date: November 26

There's a lot to like about Snatcher. I mean sure, it "borrows" ideas (to put it mildly) from movies that are pretty obvious. But it has amazing music and graphics for the time even on the original PC-88 hardware. 

It's ok to show nudity if we don't know what gender they identify as

The only reason why it's not GOTY for me is because Act 3 was never released on this version. By the time the game was finally finished with SD Snatcher and PC Engine CD, it wasn't as impressive. Still, the music holds up even today, listen for yourself.

Verdict: GOTY for Soundtrack

Games I plan to try later

妖怪道中記

リップスティックアドベンチャー

ファンタジーゾーン

オールドヴィレッジストーリー

リサの妖精伝説

Dragon Quest IV（ドラゴンクエストIV 導かれし者たち）

Ahh Dragon Quest IV, the fourth entry in one of the most mainstream RPG series you can think of. Does the internet really need yet another review of this game? I only played the DS version, which I would imagine is very different from the original 1990 Famicom release. But yeah, it's good and if you like traditional RPGs, you should play it. What more is there to say that hasn't already been said? Let's find out, shall we? Heh, heh, heh.

I created an all female party in Dragon Quest III thereby missing some pafu pafu dialog with an NPC. On the flip side, I was able to equip them all with extremely strong bikinis and garter belts. There's no visible difference in the game but I'm sure the fictional game characters felt objectified nonetheless. This time, as a more "mature" gamer, I went with the male protagonist. This had absolutely nothing to do with any concern that a female protagonist would not be pafu pafu eligible. In the end, as far as I could tell, your gender made zero difference to the story.

Not sure if original author but source is here

There is no "official" explanation of what pafu pafu actually IS so thanks to random internet artist for very clearly illustrating an event that takes place in the first chapter where an NPC regains his memory with help from Fureya's umm assets. Speaking of the chapter structure, I really enjoyed playing through each of the character's backstory in each chapter and then recruiting them into your party in what was originally the last chapter (more on that later). I'm frankly shocked that Squeenix didn't make the game into separate episodic purchase$$$ for their mobile ports (barf).

DS version looks mostly the same so fuck this app shit

Overall, I liked the diverse cast such as the twins and Arina, the strong tomboy female character. She doesn't use any magic or any of that weak nonsense, just physical attacks with knives, whip, claws, etc. Oh wait, I forgot that strong female characters didn't exist before Aloy in Horizon Zero Dawn. 

Hey, Aloy doesn't wear a weird hat!

I also liked the fact that you can talk to your party members every time you talk to an NPC. I'm not sure if this was part of the original Famicom release but I found that for the most part, your party members say something unique for every NPC conversation, which adds a ton of additional dialogue to the game. It gave a bit more personality and flavor to the adventure since they weren't silent for the majority of the game. You do miss the comments of people you don't really use so who knows what the old guy or Toruneko had to say about shit. While I prefer something like the skits in the Tales series, it's better than nothing for sure.

As usual, since I can't take screenshots from my game file on the actual hardware, here's a quick screenshot I took of the game status screen.

Definitely better than the male version with the weird fish hat

The final boss animations really stood out for me and were pretty cool. While writing this, I actually found out there was an additional chapter not in the original version even though the game clearly said "Fin". The post credit chapter was pretty grindy and features what looks like the same final boss but with different color palette and a tiny change to the original ending. Meh.

Score: 3 missed opportunity to translate final boss name as "DEATH PISS ARROW" out of 5 (38 hours to beat)

Overall, this was a solid fun and traditional RPG, which of course is what the DQ series is known for. I would definitely recommend setting battle speed to the fastest setting. In additional, having the dual screen real estate made it really easy to look around the map by rotating your view where that was allowed. The dungeon maps are pretty small and easy to navigate as well. As long as you have the hang of basic buffs and debuffs (Sukuruto and Rukana), it's a pretty simple and frictionless playthrough.

Scale
0 - Awful

1 - Bad and not worth your time
2 - Has some flaws but still enjoyable
3 - An average enjoyable experience
4 - A great game
5 - Masterpiece of a caliber only found very rarely