Any decent NES hidden gems?

[ninjainspandex]

wow I never knew that the Japanese version of Power Blade was so inferior to the US version. That sort of thing never seems to happen, most the time its the opposite where things are left out of the US version.

[ninjainspandex]

Got another Hidden Gem of a game that is quickly rising in value, Metal Storm. not exactly cheap but not too bad, I just bought mine for $40. Seems like just a year or two ago it was in the $20 range wish I had bought it then. It is a really fun plat former where you play as a mech who can shoot, get power ups, and the gimmick is that he can change his gravity. Game gets pretty tough as one hit and your dead unless you have the armor bonus.
here is a great review of the game http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2IkkkfAc9k

[ExedExes]

It's now trending at $40-$70. Unfreakingbelievable. Good game, yes, but I don't think it got a limited print run?

[Cronozilla]

Pretty much everything HVGN reviewed immediately went up in price. A lot of the quality reviews out there by people just causes resellers to jack the price up on ebay. People go looking for the games, because, they just saw a killer review about an amazing game they never heard of, and now that's the price it is, because people are paying it.

[ExedExes]

Pretty much everything HVGN reviewed immediately went up in price. A lot of the quality reviews out there by people just causes resellers to jack the price up on ebay. People go looking for the games, because, they just saw a killer review about an amazing game they never heard of, and now that's the price it is, because people are paying it.

Yeah, the boys at Continue? also reviewed it a few months back. It was $20 just a few years ago. Never thought an IREM title would be in such demand all of a sudden. What's next, Street Combat for $50?

[kidfresh]

As well since I know quite a few of you probably play the japanese games and probably on the actual (super) fami, is there a place you might recommend learning japanese?

If you're still looking into this; I'm in the process of learning Japanese myself! The first thing you really have to do is kick yourself in the ass, actually sit down, and do it. There's a website called textfugu that I used for a good while, but that can only take you so far. I strongly recommend listening to recordings of Japanese speech, music, TV, changing your phone language to Japanese, and just totally immersing yourself as much as you can. Work hard, study hard. Learn the alphabets hiragana and katakana first and foremost. Language learning isn't tough, it just requires a lot of effort on your part. So make sure you have a good reason to keep on studying!

Other resources I recommend;
realkana.com
wanikani (for kanji)
tae kim's guide to Japanese grammar
Japanese for Busy People (book)

[Gunstar Green]

wow I never knew that the Japanese version of Power Blade was so inferior to the US version. That sort of thing never seems to happen, most the time its the opposite where things are left out of the US version.

Here's the behind the scenes story of Power Blazer's transformation into Power Blade. All the entries in this series are a pretty interesting read about the early industry (even if the author is a bit full of himself at times).

http://www.nintendoplayer.com/the-man-behind-captain-nintendo/chapter-8-new-worlds-to-conquer-and-a-new-superpower/

The funny thing is when it came time for a sequel it was Power Blade 2 that Natsume made while Power Blazer disappeared.

Got another Hidden Gem of a game that is quickly rising in value, Metal Storm. not exactly cheap but not too bad, I just bought mine for $40. Seems like just a year or two ago it was in the $20 range wish I had bought it then. It is a really fun plat former where you play as a mech who can shoot, get power ups, and the gimmick is that he can change his gravity. Game gets pretty tough as one hit and your dead unless you have the armor bonus.
here is a great review of the game http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2IkkkfAc9k

I picked it up when it was around $15-20 and even then I thought I was paying a lot.

It's a fantastic game though.

[Ghegs]

http://www.nintendoplayer.com/the-man-behind-captain-nintendo/chapter-8-new-worlds-to-conquer-and-a-new-superpower/

Pretty interesting read, though calling George Lucas "one of the most creative geniuses of our time" is...yeah. Can't see any date on the article, I wonder if it was written before the prequels?

He did do good job on Power Blade, though. I bought Power Blazer some time ago and it is kind of clunky, his changes were for the better, I think.

$20 a lot for Metal Storm? C'mon now. I paid quite a bit more for the game's CIB JPN release a few years ago and I think it was money well spent.

[Gunstar Green]

Randy Studdard (the formerly anonymous author) contacted Nintendo Player with his stories in 2005 so his taste is thrown into question, yes.

I won't hold that against him though. Power Blazer is a serviceable but kind of lousy Mega Man knock-off. Power Blade is a legitimately fun game that I recommend. It's one of those few cases where a game was completely changed for Western audiences and turned out much better. That's likely because the game wasn't very good to begin with though.

Natsume's own followup with Power Blade 2 is interesting, but it didn't do a whole lot for me.

And I guess I shouldn't complain about Metal Storm it's just when I bought it I thought it was a bit much to be paying for a NES game. It was quite a while ago. It's become one of my favorites though. Irem had a lot of great stuff. I love the hell out of Kickle Cubicle, which also belongs on any list of gems.

[darsparx]

As well since I know quite a few of you probably play the japanese games and probably on the actual (super) fami, is there a place you might recommend learning japanese?

If you're still looking into this; I'm in the process of learning Japanese myself! The first thing you really have to do is kick yourself in the ass, actually sit down, and do it. There's a website called textfugu that I used for a good while, but that can only take you so far. I strongly recommend listening to recordings of Japanese speech, music, TV, changing your phone language to Japanese, and just totally immersing yourself as much as you can. Work hard, study hard. Learn the alphabets hiragana and katakana first and foremost. Language learning isn't tough, it just requires a lot of effort on your part. So make sure you have a good reason to keep on studying!

Other resources I recommend;
realkana.com
wanikani (for kanji)
tae kim's guide to Japanese grammar
Japanese for Busy People (book)

I'll definitely look into those, i've been semi-using memrise. But the only problem with that is i've been busy both this past week and now this week with exams(got a few more things to do this week and then finally done and can relax for 2 and 1/2 months). Maybe if i get some spare time after that I'll start really learning it but I'm half tempted this summer to pick up modding so I can mod my controllers for a full wireless experience(wireless controller and wireless audio receiver hooked to both controller and system so I can listen wirelessly to music by plugging headphones into the controller)....