VC Tuesday: The Mysterious Nintendo Game
Today's Japanese VC lineup isn't as vast as last week's, but it's loaded with excellence nonetheless. The highlight of today's releases is doubtless Nazo no Murasame-jou, a Japan-exclusive game from Nintendo's famed EAD division, which appeared on the Famicom Disc System in 1986. It's like Zelda if Zelda had been set in Japan. And it was an action game. So maybe a better description is "like Dragon Power, but not as terrible."
The other standout: Parasol Stars, the PC Engine sequel to Rainbow Islands, itself the sequel to Bubble Bobble. Instead of bubbles or rainbows, you have a taco parasol that can be used to catch droplets and fling them at enemies.
Lord Monarch is a strategy game, part of Nihon Falcom's Dragon Slayer series, in which medieval kingdoms battle to destroy all of the other side's camps. It was remade on the PC as Lord Monarch Online and released for free. It even seems to be in English!
Nazo no Murasame-jou (Famicom Disc System, 1 player, 500 Wii Points)
Lord Monarch (Mega Drive, 1 player, 700 Wii Points)
Parasol Stars (PC Engine, 1-2 players, 600 Wii Points)
