Jeremy Parish

NES Works Gaiden #045: Kinnikuman / Sky Destroyer / Ninja Jajamaru-Kun (Patreon)

Published:

2022-09-07 12:53:41

Imported:

2024-04

Tags:

Jaleco bandai famicom home data muscle nes works nes works gaiden ninja jajamaru-kun sky destroyer tose

Content

A strange World War II motif runs as an undercurrent beneath this episode. First, you have Kinnikuman: Muscle Tag Match, which is exactly the same as M.U.S.C.L.E. Tag Team Match except for the fact that you can play as a literal Nazi in the JP release. Weird choice! And then there's Sky Destroyer, in which you play as a Zero pilot single-handedly wiping out the American fleet. That's less weird, and it actually creates a sort of cosmic balance for the upcoming 1942.

Ninja Jajamaru-Kun, on the other hand, has nothing to do with World War II, and that's nice. Unless there was some sort of weaponized youkai program that history never talks about, I guess.

Files

Kinnikuman / Sky Destroyer / Ninja Jajamaru-Kun retrospective: Zero sum game | NES Works Gaiden #045

One of the games will look quite familiar to NES fans, and I apologize for that. No one likes M.U.S.C.L.E. Tag Team Match outside of Stockholm Syndrome victims, but at least we can take comfort in knowing that we share the psychic damage inflicted by that wreck of a wrestling game in common with our peers in Japan. At least we didn't have to deal with Brocken Jr., too. The rest of this episode has more of an upbeat tone. Sky Destroyer from Taito and Home Data/Magical offers about as impressive a behind-the-cockpit shooter as you're going to find on Famicom and NES, though (like M.U.S.C.L.E.) it too had some WWII-era themes that apparently were deemed too spicy for America. Pity they didn't edit the content for U.S. release and leave M.U.S.C.L.E. in Japan rather than the reverse. And Ninja Jajamaru-Kun didn't reach the NES until decades later, when it showed up on Virtual Console. I can't really explain that one, because it's a perfectly decent little platform action game with no troubling content and a pretty solid design. It managed to reach million-seller status in Japan and actually deserved it! I suppose Jaleco's relatively belated entry into the NES market made it a bit dated for a mid-1988 release. Production notes: 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! NES/Famicom footage captured from @Analogue Nt Mini; arcade footage captured from MiSTer with thanks to @MiSTer Addons. Video upscaled to 720 with @Micomsoft xRGB Mini Framemeister.