It’s rather enlightening to look at the early Famicom titles, there was such variety in them. Everything from arcade action to edutainment. Nintendo was really leaning into the Famicom being an accessible computer for the whole family, more so than just another games console.
Yeah, Nintendo definitely wanted to appeal to everyone with the Famicom. I think they wanted that for the NES as well, but they had to tread more carefully there, given the hesitation around purchasing gaming consoles in the mid-80s.
This is awesome. Hadn't heard of any of these before.
On "Renju" -- it's fascinating that in Japan, a rule exists in a traditional game to eliminate one side's advantage. Chess really ought to have this. Give the black player the option to switch sides immediately after white's first move.
Mahjong -- I learned this game for the purposes of the minigame in Yakuza, and unlike, say, shogi , I think Mahjong is fundamentally bad and I don't understand how it ever became popular. In particular, most of its complexity doesn't seem to be in service of making the game more fun in any way. Are there really people in the world who have the scoring system memorized? It would be like if in Poker, instead of the ranking of winning hands being something that fits on an index card, it was a 20-page manual with all sorts of baffling edge cases. Jacks are worth more than Queens if the opponent to your right has a prime number of black cards, etc.
Popeye -- Fascinating that this exists, but only thing I'll say is that you've underrated the original NES Popeye! Maybe I'm biased because it was, I think, my 3rd game for the NES after SMB and Duck Hunt. Bluto was truly terrifying to a 5-year-old, but I think it remains simple but highly playable. B- at worst.
Yeah, mahjong seems like it should be simple, but it's also really complex, apparently? Japan must love the game, though, given the insane amount of mahjong games on just about every console, PC, mobile, etc.
I grew up with Popeye too, but... nah. It's ok, it's playable, the level design is fine, there's jut not much to it.
It’s rather enlightening to look at the early Famicom titles, there was such variety in them. Everything from arcade action to edutainment. Nintendo was really leaning into the Famicom being an accessible computer for the whole family, more so than just another games console.
Yeah, Nintendo definitely wanted to appeal to everyone with the Famicom. I think they wanted that for the NES as well, but they had to tread more carefully there, given the hesitation around purchasing gaming consoles in the mid-80s.
This is awesome. Hadn't heard of any of these before.
On "Renju" -- it's fascinating that in Japan, a rule exists in a traditional game to eliminate one side's advantage. Chess really ought to have this. Give the black player the option to switch sides immediately after white's first move.
Mahjong -- I learned this game for the purposes of the minigame in Yakuza, and unlike, say, shogi , I think Mahjong is fundamentally bad and I don't understand how it ever became popular. In particular, most of its complexity doesn't seem to be in service of making the game more fun in any way. Are there really people in the world who have the scoring system memorized? It would be like if in Poker, instead of the ranking of winning hands being something that fits on an index card, it was a 20-page manual with all sorts of baffling edge cases. Jacks are worth more than Queens if the opponent to your right has a prime number of black cards, etc.
Popeye -- Fascinating that this exists, but only thing I'll say is that you've underrated the original NES Popeye! Maybe I'm biased because it was, I think, my 3rd game for the NES after SMB and Duck Hunt. Bluto was truly terrifying to a 5-year-old, but I think it remains simple but highly playable. B- at worst.
Thanks!
Yeah, mahjong seems like it should be simple, but it's also really complex, apparently? Japan must love the game, though, given the insane amount of mahjong games on just about every console, PC, mobile, etc.
I grew up with Popeye too, but... nah. It's ok, it's playable, the level design is fine, there's jut not much to it.