The Konami NES games left in Japan

[NeoZeedeater]

I would say Konami was the best third-party console game developer of the 8-bit era. How they managed to make so much quantity, variety and quality is beyond me. While many of their best games made it to the West the company still had a lot of Famicom/Famicom Disk games left in Japan. This thread is about those Konami NES games that never made to North America or Europe.

Yie Ar Kung Fu(1985)
This is based on the MSX version rather than the arcade one. I actually like this version more than the arcade game. It was an excellent fighting game and it was easily the best of its genre on console at the time. Some might find it too simplistic today as the gameplay is completely based on timing and positioning unlike much more complex modern fighters but I still enjoy it.


Arumana no Kiseki(1987, Disk)
This was sort of like Indiana Jones meets Castlevania. Castlevania's definitely better but I like this too.


Rampart(1991)
Konami did license the game from Atari Games but unlike the domestic NES Rampart from Jaleco this isn't really a port of the arcade game; it's more of an original work.

Falsion(1987, Disk)
This was a rail shooter and one of the few games to support Nintendo's 3d glasses. It scrolls pretty smoothly.


Dragon Scroll(1987)
A fantasy action/adventure game.

Tetsuwan Atom(1988)
A side-scroller based on the Astro Boy anime. I loved the look but the game itself is kind of dull, one of Konami's weakest licensed games.

Hi no Tori(1987)
I picked this one up a few years ago at the flea market not knowing what it was and I was pleasantly surprised as it's a quality puzzle-ish platformer. Like Astro Boy, it's based on a Tezuka property.


Ai Senshi Nicol(Disk, 1987)
Overhead action.
http://www.vgmuseum.com/images/fds/01/3.htm

The Goonies(1986)
Thankfully, the Famicom wasn't advanced enough to recreate Cyndi Lauper's voice from the movie.


King Kong 2(1986)
An overhead view action game where you punched and jumped on enemies. The first Konami King Kong game was on MSX if you're wondering.


Bio Miracle Bokutte Upa(1988, Disk)
This platformer was re-released on cartridge in 1993. I don't know if any changes were made.


Hyper Sports(1985)


Akumajou Special: Boku Dracula kun(1990)
An offshoot of the Castlevania series.


Gradius II(1988)
Out of all the games Konami left in Japan this confuses me the most. Gradius 1 was popular enough. Life Force came here. Why did we get denied? Anyway, I'm not the biggest Gradius fan around but there's no denying this game is excellent.


Moero Twinbee: Cinnamon Hakase wo Sukue!(1986, Disk)
The first Famicom game in Konami's colourful Twinbee series of shooters came here as Stinger but this never did make it over. Cinnamon was re-released on cartridge in 1993, at least I think it's the same game as the disk one.


Twinbee 3(1989)


Circus Charlie(1986)
This wasn't actually a Konami release on the Famicom as it was released by Soft Pro but it was a port of a Konami arcade game.


Lagrange Point(1991)
This sci-fi RPG had a special chip in it called VRC7 which gave it exceptional sound. I have been meaning to check out the translated rom but I haven't done it yet.


Getsufuu maden(1987)
I know I would have really loved this game had it been released here back then as it's totally my kind of theme. It's still definitely worth a look today. It's a platform/RPG with excellent art and atmosphere.


Risa no Yosei Densetsu - Risa Tachibana(1988, Disk)
A graphic adventure game, way too Japanese text heavy for me to play. I'm guessing Risa Tachibana is some Japanese pop star.


Racer Mini Yonku Japan Cup(1989)

Doremikko(1987, Disk)
I'm not sure if this was a game or a music program of some kind.
http://www.vgmuseum.com/images/fds/01/46.htm

Exciting Baseball(1987, Disk)


Exciting Billiards(1987, Disk)


Exciting Boxing(1987, Disk)

Daimashikyou Galious(1987)
A port of the MSX Galious game I think.

Esper Dream(1987, Disk)


Esper Dream 2(1992)
Does anyone have pics/info on this? All I have found is box art.

Meikyuu Jin Dababa(1987, Disk)
This game seems cool but the constant forced jumping gets on my nerves.


Konamic Tennis(1988, Disk)


Ganbare Goemon(1986)
This was the first in the Mystical Ninja/Goemon series that didn't get released outside Japan until the first SNES game.


Ganbare Goemon 2(1989)


Ganbare Goemon Gaiden(1990)


Ganbare Goemon Gaiden 2(1992)

F-1 Sensation(1993)


Antarctic Adventure(1985)
An excellent port of the arcade game. It was on rails 3d game where you had to jump and avoid things. At least the Coleco port made it to the West. It had a sequel called Penguin Adventure on MSX and the main character Pentarou also appears in the Parodius series.


Yume Penguin Monogatari(1991)
Pentarou returns as a tubby penguin. This time he's on a mission to lose weight to win his girlfriend back.


Cosmic Wars(1989)
Turn-based strategy in the Gradius universe.
http://www.vicviper.com/review-cosmicwars.html


Moai kun(1990)
Some sort of puzzle/platformer I gather, based on the Moai head things in Gradius. I only played it briefly.


Mouryou Senki Madara(1990)
An RPG with somewhat strategy-like battles. It had a sequel on SFC.


Konami Wai Wai World(1988)
Long before Sega mixed their various franchises in Fighters Megamix and Nintendo/HAL with Super Smash Bros., Konami had Wai Wai World. In this game you rescued various members of past Konami games(like Simon Belmont, Goemon, King Kong) and they joined your character selection. I certainly enjoyed it but it wasn't the ultimate awesomeness it could have been.


Wai Wai World 2(1991)


Ganbare Pennant Race(1989)
Another great sports game from Konami. This baseball game was more cartoon-ish than their sports games usually were.

Motocross Champion(1989)


Quarth(1990)

Jarinko Chie(1988)
An adventure game based on a TV show. It's another one of those too text heavy ones for me to comprehend.

Crisis Force(1991)
This was one of the best shooters released on the system and it holds its own nicely against 16-bit shooters of the time. It even had some MUSHA-style multi-layer parallax cavern effects.


Please add any additional info, opinions, etc.. I'm sure Johnny Undaunted will catch anything I missed or made a mistake on. Anyone here a fan of any of these games?

[Frogacuda]

I'm pretty sure I played Goonies on NES at freinds' houses. It didn't come out here?

[NeoZeedeater]

Goonies 2 came here but Goonies 1 was only in Playchoice form. Goonies 1 was really common on those multi-pirate carts too.

[sethsez]

A Game Boy version of Quarth came out in America. Pretty fun little puzzle game.

[Melf]

Gradius II, Circus Charlie, and especially Hyper Sports piss me off that they weren't released here. I played the shit out of the last two in the arcades.

[1CCOSA]

Cosmic Wars(1989)
Turn-based strategy in the Gradius universe.
http://www.vicviper.com/review-cosmicwars.html

Ok, just when I thought I'd seen it all. Neato! EDIT: Just read the review, doesn't sound so neato anymore.

Also, Twinbee is one series that I think would have done well here with the proper marketing. I want my Twinbee McHappy meal toys and plush figures to fight for on ebay, dagnabbit!

[Johnny]

That's one hell of a lot of games, some of which look interesting. Konami certainly ruled in the NES arena, they along with Capcom and Nintendo put out more quality titles then every other developer combined. Konami had the best title screens as well. O_o

[Johnny Undaunted]

F-1 Sensation was actually released in Europe (it was supposed to come out here as Konami Grand Prix, but didn't), as well as Road Fighter, Parodius and Crackout (Nazo no Kabe, an Arkanoid-clone), none which were released in America. In Europe, Konami released Hyper Soccer and Rackets & Rivals (a Tennis game under the Palcom label), although they were not based on any existing Konami game in Japan. There was also Smash Ping-Pong, which was published by Nintendo for the FDS, as well as some educational Space School titles (three of them) which saw very limited release.

Other than those, you pretty much covered most of them. Some of the Konami games that were localized for the NES were altered too. Some of them are well-documented (such as the Castlevania and Contra titles), but others are a bit more obscure. Like the fact that Mad City (the Japanese Bayou Billy) was actually much easier and had a hidden quiz mode and multiple endings or the fact that the Japanese Jackal (which was oddly enough called Akai no Yousai, even though the Arcade game was called Jackal there) had a shorter screen width due to the size constraint of the disk card media.

especially Hyper Sports piss me off that they weren't released here. I played the shit out of the last two in the arcades.

Well, there was Track 'n Field II, which was essentially a better version of Hyper Sports.

[ChaoofNee]

Ganbare Goemon(1986)
This was the first in the Mystical Ninja/Goemon series that didn't get released outside Japan until the first SNES game

I absolutely love this game. I play the questionable copy all the time. This was released on a GBA cart in Japan this year, wasn't it?

[AstroBlue]

Circus Charlie(1986)
This wasn't actually a Konami release on the Famicom as it was released by Soft Pro but it was a port of a Konami arcade game.

I <3 this game.