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NES Works Gaiden #31: Chack'N Pop / Dig Dug / Flappy (Patreon)

Published:
2021-12-29 13:10:58
Imported:
2024-04
Tags:

Content

This week's episode will seem very familiar to long-time viewers. And, I guess, new viewers alike. These games have all appeared on video games other platforms throughout the years, one as recently as last month (Chack'N Pop) and one way back in about 2015 or so (Flappy). Of course, because of my out-of-order approach to videos, all of those other renditions are either contemporary releases (as we now know Chack'N Pop shipped in the same month on both SG-1000 and Famicom! https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1GqBqA9LsX5HAkrBbGfvCnFRBK2JFZ1BhPEgbmHiwkxc/edit?usp=sharing) or else subsequent releases. Anyway, just a quirk of history, I guess. NES Works Gaiden will increasingly feature unfamiliar works as I power through to the end of 1985 (which as far as I'm taking the early Famicom stuff)!

Files

Chack'n Pop / Dig Dug / Flappy retrospective: Digging in the dirt | NES Works Gaiden #031

A real sense of deja vu this week as we look at three games that have all appeared on this channel in other versions. I would like to say that these iterations are all the superior works, but Mom taught me not to be a liar. Now, this version of Dig Dug is far and away the best 8-bit home version ever published, an almost arcade-perfect rendition that captures both the broad strokes and the tiny little details that made it a classic (vexing enemy A.I.! Musical walking!). And Flappy is much better on Famicom than it was on Game Boy, its one major downside moving that it moves more quickly to the point of almost being TOO fast. Chack'n Pop, though. That's a tough one. In terms of looks and animation, this version is much slicker than the SG-1000 release. But in terms of gameplay, it's weirdly worse. The levels have all been redesigned in unfortunate ways, ramping up the difficulty quickly and demanding almost expert-level play right from the start. I suppose for Chack'n Pop pros, this would be the equivalent of Championship Lode Runner, but how many kids out there in 1985 were demanding a hyper-challenging variant of this game!? Production notes: SG-1000 footage captured from a combination of Sega SG-1000 II with (with Card Catcher) and @Analogue Mega Sg with card adapter module and DAC. Vintage hardware mods courtesy of @iFixRetro. NES/Famicom footage captured from @Analogue Nt Mini Noir. Video upscaled to 720 with @Retro Tink 5X. Video Works is funded via Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/gamespite) — support the show and get access to every episode up to two weeks in advance of its YouTube debut! Plus, exclusive podcasts, eBooks, and more! Also available in print: Virtual Boy Works Vol. I Hardcover: https://limitedrungames.com/collections/books-board-games-and-more/products/virtual-boy-works-book

Comments

TheyCallMeSleeper

Apparently, the Egret II Mini was announced last week to be getting Western distribution through a subsidiary of Strictly Limited/ININ. Not canceling my Amazon Japan preorder though, since they didn't give a firm date and it'll likely remain the original model as was (I believe) the Astro City Mini's case. But as long as Taito's machine also has an English-language option, all will be good. (Even if it doesn't, what kind of person would I be to turn down a round of Space Invaders???)

Vinushika

People just really wanted to make games about birds back then, I guess. Some of them turned out to be foundational (Flicky, Chack'n Pop sort of if you see it as a proto Bubble Bobble), or not, but "cute blob that can hop around" is a pretty compelling game concept going all the way back to Nuts & Milk. I wonder how much of Tose's strange games in this era come from the publishers not giving them much cash versus the actual technical competence of Tose's staff. Their output quality has certainly varied a whole lot between Chack'n Pop and, say, Yoshi's Cookie (NES/Game Boy)

TheyCallMeSleeper
>>74587539

I would say it's a combination of budget and whoever the publisher is that happens to be contracting the project in the first place. Having played some Tose games over the years myself, there are definitely a few that appear to have been small-budget and yet have shown the team flexing their muscle.