1. Antarctic Adventure (Famicom)
2. Nuts & Milk (Famicom)
3. Commando (Atari 2600)
4. Binary Land (Famicom)
5. Devil World (Famicom)
6. Disney's Aladdin (SNES)
7. Popeye (NES)
8. Super Mario Land (Game Boy)
9. Ys: The Vanished Omens (Sega Master System)
10 Ys II: Ancient Ys Vanished - The Final Chapter (Famicom)
11. Final Fantasy Mystic Quest (SNES)
12. Lunar: The Silver Star (Sega CD)
13. Otenba Becky no Daibouken (MSX)
14. Metroid (Famicom Disk System)
15. Mahou Kishi Rayearth (Game Boy)
16. Wabbit (Atari 2600)
17. Kirby's Dream Land (Game Boy)
18. Warpman (Famicom)There sure were a lot of Famicom
games that weren't released on the NES in North America. Yeah, I'm kind of stating the obvious here, but the figures really appear staggering when you get down to the nitty-gritty. Take Namco, for instance. Of their classic eighteen-part "numbered" Famicom game line, only eight made it stateside. Among those that remained in Japan are clunky stinkers like
The Tower of Druaga and
Valkyrie no Bouken, as well as primitive previously-released-on-older-hardware second-genners like
Galaxian and
Dig Dug (on a related note, it doesn't look as if Taito deemed Famicom
Space Invaders worthy of leaving Japan either). Then there are the obscure oddball titles, like
Warpman, which likely would have received some moderate success had it been released in North America early in the NES lifespan. Depending on who you ask,
Warpman is either an enhanced port of - or a sequel to - a previously-released arcade game called
Warp & Warp. Ports also appeared on the MSX, PV-1000, and Sord M5. Props if you're familiar with those last two.
I'm typically fond of old arcade
games (and their subsequent ports) and
Warpman hits all the right notes. I suppose this could be called a "top-down shooter" of sorts; think of a less terrifying
Berzerk and a less insane
Robotron: 2084. The player controls an astronaut fighting off aliens throughout the course of many fixed-screen levels. Controls are dead simple, the astronaut walks in four directions and A or B perform the identical function of firing the weapon. Aliens are adorable fuzzy things; continuously waddling towards the astronaut they fire projectiles of their own. Surprisingly, the alien gunfire can be cancelled out by astronaut gunfire. The extraterrestrials themselves spawn from the four corners of each board. There are no
Gauntlet-style portals here, the aliens merely materialize, so it's important to keep moving. In typical old-school fashion, additional lives can be earned should one shoot down the baddies that harbor letters spelling EXTRA.
There are two "types" of stages to be accessed. The "space" stages are mostly wide open, with the occasional asteroid or two cluttering things up a bit. Then there are the "maze" levels where the gun is replaced by bombs. These have timed fuses à la
Bomberman so taking out the enemies becomes a bit trickier. Bomb explosions will also hurt the astronaut. The same can be said for the upgraded gun weapon, which has explosive bullets, so there's a bit of a risk in grabbing power-ups.
The game's quite fun in that unexplainable cerebral sort of way. It's essentially a pure high score chaser, though an extended play will cause the level counter to roll over eventually. Controls are fluid, and the primordial visuals and sound are ever-appealing. It's an "easy" game, at least for that initial cluster of stages, and one that's highly addictive and tailor-made for lengthy play sessions. There's a bit of pleasant nuance to the score system too, as aliens blasted near screen center are worth additional points. I must admit I still don't understand how the game "progresses" however. Sometimes stages will end once all enemies are vanquished. Other times a portal appears at screen-center; hopping in takes the astronaut to the next stage. There are also portals that pop up in "random" spots that must first be opened. There's certainly some formulae working under the hood, that I'd probably comprehend if I sank more time into
Warpman (or possessed the instruction manual).
What you're looking at here is good clean retro gaming comfort food. It's like an Atari game that escaped and made its way to the Famicom. Recommended.