Final Fantasy III, released in Japan in 1990, didn't get a Western NES version. A complete prototype for FF2 was created but scrapped due to the release of the SNES. FF3 never even had a chance, which is a shame, because it's the best of the 8-bit Final Fantasy games! The Japanese Famicom Classic rightfully came with FF3 instead of our NES Classic's FF1 . Famicom cartridge Final Fantasy II changed the formula by scrapping XP and levels in favor of a skill-based system. It didn't work very well, so with Final Fantasy III, Square went back to the source. As in both prior games, four heroes go on various quests, explore sundry dungeons, and interact with diverse NPCs, some of whom even briefly follow the party. The big innovation of FF3 is that, instead of choosing a party of four heroes at the beginning, each of the four elemental crystals bestows new classes! You can switch any hero's class whenever you want by spending "capacity points" earned in battle (...

Fire Emblem, one of the oldest tactical role-playing series, debuted in Japan in the spring of 1990. The series didn't come to the U.S. until 2003. Five years ago, Nintendo belatedly translated into English the first Famicom game, subtitled Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light, and released it on the Switch to celebrate its 30th anniversary (though it was soon removed from the eShop). Now it celebrates its 35th anniversary! A tactical RPG is defined as an RPG that uses either grid- or hex-based combat after the style of tabletop wargames like Warhammer, Stratego, or chess. Instead of controlling a party of adventurers exploring dungeons and fighting monsters (a la Dungeons & Dragons), in tactical RPGs you control an army confronting other armies on a battlefield. You array your units strategically based on the terrain and enemy positions. You can't just select "fight" from a menu and then pick a target. Many factors must be accounted for, such as bottlenecks on b...

Final Fantasy II, the 1988 sequel, never came to the NES. The "black sheep" of the series, it is inferior to both I and III . A complete English prototype of the game was made but then shelved due to the release of the SNES. This was an understandable business decision, as FF4  is the far better game. The root problem was how long it took RPGs to make it to the West. Final Fantasy II has a clichéd story cribbed from Star Wars. There is an evil empire and emperor, rebels, dark knight, and city-destroying, flying death machine. The protagonists are four young people, orphaned by the empire. The game opens with a battle they can't win, but three of them are revived by one of the game's many NPCs, Minwu, a white mage. He works for Princess Leia—I mean Hilda, the leader of the rebellion (and yes, at one point the party rescues her from a cell). You choose the heroes' names: each is a tabula rasa , like in FF1. The girl's brother is missing and doesn't appear u...

12. Final Fantasy II  (Famicom) The black sheep of the series, FF2 is underappreciated. This is the only Final Fantasy game to eschew classes and XP, with skills leveling up as you use individual spells and weapon types. Unfortunately, this system is broken, especially for magic spells, which level up too slowly, but it works better than people usually give it credit for. It's only in retrospect that it seems so flawed. Infamously, you can attack your own party members to gain HP, but this is neither necessary nor fun. This is also the first Final Fantasy to have characters (some of whom come and go) instead of blank slates. The plot is not about Crystals, but rather a generic struggle between empire and rebellion. The game also uses a unique keyword system, in which you memorize certain terms and then repeat them to certain characters to advance the story. A fully-translated English prototype was made, but it went unreleased due to the SNES already being out. A fan translation bro...

On paper, Dragon Buster sounds like a great Japanese arcade game: a side-scrolling dungeon crawler in which you (a boy named Clovis) slay monsters and wizards and collect potions, jewels, scrolls, and other treasure. But when I actually played it, I was disappointed. The stages (dungeons) are made up of hallways, monster rooms, elevators, and a few drops and ledges. Smaller enemies roam the hallways, but each room contains a big monster to fight, such as a Golem or the hilariously-misnamed Bishop, who is an ax-wielding fighting-man. When you defeat it, you collect an item, then continue on your way. In a certain room, defeating the monster will produce an exit instead. Some of the stages are labyrinthine. There are a total of twelve worlds (maps), and you have some choice of which dungeons to do. In the last dungeon of each map, you have to fight a fire-breathing Dragon. Each one has a different weak point that flashes red. The number of dungeons on each map varies greatly, from just o...

Last month Nintendo added an obscure Famicom title called Ninja JaJaMaru-kun to the NES Switch Online platform. It's an arcade-style platformer from 1985 reminiscent of Namco's  Mappy . Each stage has four floors of enemies to clear, and the screen scrolls a little bit horizontally. JaJaMaru can break brick platforms with his head (not unlike Super Mario), which then allows him to jump between floors. Broken bricks sometimes drop a coin (points), an extra life, or a power-up. The power-ups are medicine (temporary invincibility), a speed-up ball, a throwing star that increases attack range, and a tram car that lets JaJaMaru run over enemies! You have to be careful, though, because broken platforms can also leave bombs that cost you a life if touched. If you collect three different power-ups, a giant frog appears that JaJaMaru rides to destroy all the enemies! As you move through levels, the stage's aesthetic changes a little, and the enemies grow more difficult. They're ...