SUNSOFT FDS Games

[Jedi Master Baiter]

I decided to check out Sunsoft's FDS catalogue only to be disappointed that they delved into that dismal, forsaken sarlac pit we call

Spoiler

edutainment.

[close]

Yes, that word. Probably the famous last portmanteau of many small developers.

If this wasn't bad enough, the games also shamelessly rip off the style of Zelda as well. So the games I'm talking about are Adian no Tsue and Super Boy Allan. It wasn't until Chitei Tairiku Orudoora that I thought things were going to be different, until I read that it wasn't.

The next series in the lineup is Nazoler Land, and what I looked up comprised of minigames and quizzes.

Has anyone played these games? When does it get good?

[P]

I have some of the Nazoler Land disks but it was a long ago I tried them. They are magazine disks so not really games, though they contain some smaller games which I haven't really played much.

Though the content on these magazine disks may not include any hidden gems, I just likes these types of magazines for other systems, so it's fun that the Famicom also got some.
The Puyo Puyo series had its debut on another Famicom magazine disk series (Famimaga, though it seems it was also released on MSX at the same time), so that's one gem though not exactly hidden as the game was released standalone later and for about every other console in existence.


As for edutainment, that's probably the one genre I can think of that I don't actually like, so no I haven't tried any of those. These games just tends to be bad at both education and entertainment at the same time in my experience. Alega's Cheops Pyramid for DOS might be the only exception I can think of, that one was actually fun and had good math exercises.

[Skawo]

I do own Aidan No Tsue. It is pretty bad. What a clunky game to load, too.

Music's okay, though.


Sunsoft used to make pretty terrible games until later on in the FC's life.

[Jedi Master Baiter]

The Puyo Puyo series had its debut on another Famicom magazine disk series (Famimaga, though it seems it was also released on MSX at the same time), so that's one gem though not exactly hidden as the game was released standalone later and for about every other console in existence.

I didn't know that about Puyo Puyo, and look at it now! It's Compile's It's Sega's.

I do own Aidan No Tsue. It is pretty bad. What a clunky game to load, too.

Music's okay, though.

Thank GAWD! The entire reason why I was looking up these games was because I bought this: https://vgmdb.net/album/27671

[adori_12]

Out of those I also own Adian no Tsue. I didn't really care about the game, I just bought it because it has some cool packaging. It comes in a big plastic box and instead of an instruction manual it comes with a story manga that's very charming.
As for the game itself it's interesting but not very good, you wonder around a castle and some gardens but it's very easy to lose your way since most rooms look the same. In fact I got stuck a long time ago and never bothered to finish the game because of that (if I find my way through I might beat it) You attack some monsters and then you solve a math exercise to advance to another room. Your character moves slow and hitboxes for enemies are sometimes annoying. Still, you can tell they were trying to make a good game and for an edutainment game you could do much worse.

Interestingly the disk has two games, Adian no Tsue on Side A and Step Drill Seisuu on Side B. Step Drill is quite boring though, you walk through Japan or something but you can't really do anything other than solving several equations on a boring black screen. Step Drill's exercises are much more difficult and like I said there's no "game" here which makes it pretty unappealing nowadays.

Chitei Tairiku Orudoora looks fun at least for mid 80's Sunsoft standards, and judging by some gameplay it looks like you can avoid the math puzzles.

[Skawo]

Ah, yeah, Adian no Tsue has the distinction of being the only FDS game I've seen that actually has two games on it and the B side on the OBI filled in from the factory



~~the misalignment of those boxes bothers me~~

[P]

You mean it came with two games from the start? That's pretty cool trivia!
The second game Step-drill Seisuu (ステップドリル整数, "seisuu" means "integer"), I can't find any info about it. Is it a standalone game?

OK I tested the Adrian no Tsue disk image (031_SSD-ADA-3-0) in an emulator (Nintendulator-NSR is good for loading arbitrary disk sides since it allows freely inserting any disk/side of any game at any time) and it seems side B is not bootable (you get the A/B side Error). And when you boot side A, it will load then ask to insert side B to go to the title screen. Here you can choose either Adian no Tsue or Step-drill Seisuu by pressing A or B. Adian no Tsue then requires switching back to side A, but Step-drill Seisuu stays on side B if you pick that one. It does have its own title screen but it's not a separately bootable game and both sides are required to load either game.

So that should explain why Step-drill Seisuu doesn't have its own entry in any database. It's still interesting that they printed Step-drill Seisuu logo on the B side label of the disk though.

I didn't know that about Puyo Puyo, and look at it now! It's Compile's It's Sega's.

Compile (now Compile Heart among other things) were one of the better and more diligent developers of MSX games which they often also released on Famicom. Madou Monogatari 1-2-3 (Compile's take on the "blobber" dungeon crawling RPG genre) started on the MSX2, but they didn't make a Famicom port (though Sega got 3 separate ones for Game Gear). It seems Sega obtained Puyo Puyo in 1998 but both Compile (or whatever are left of them now) and Sonic Team continued to develop games for the series ever since.

Out of those I also own Adian no Tsue. I didn't really care about the game, I just bought it because it has some cool packaging. It comes in a big plastic box and instead of an instruction manual it comes with a story manga that's very charming.

I recognizes it mainly because it has very good artwork. Videos of its gameplay however are very disappointing though, which is why I've never tried it before. I tried it a bit in the emulator now and it was a bit stiff and slow indeed (and even seems to have slowdown at times despite not much action going on), but also sort of fun looking. Step-drill Seisuu seems a pretty solid math drill game.

[adori_12]

Yes, Step Drill Seisuu can't be booted by just inserting side B unlike every other disk with a game on each side, which is why I've never considered it a different "game". Besides by definition it technically is but I just like to think of it as a minigame or "Game B", like the Clay Shooting game in Duck Hunt, it has different gameplay, music and graphics, but it's never referred to as a second game in the cartridge. It is cool that they bothered to include something playable on Side B instead of releasing the game only on Side A like SMB2. Perhaps they couldn't do this because for playing Adian no Tsue the system needs to read both sides.

We've been referring to Step Drill Seisuu as a standalone "game" on Adian no Tsue but Step Drill is technically a franchise! All 3 IQ Game Series disks Sunsoft made contain a different Step Drill game, Step Drill Bunsuu for Super Boy Allan and Step Drill Shousuu for Chitei Tairiku Orudoora. I assume they are the same just with exercises oriented towards fractions and decimals.

I recognizes it mainly because it has very good artwork. Videos of its gameplay however are very disappointing though, which is why I've never tried it before. I tried it a bit in the emulator now and it was a bit stiff and slow indeed (and even seems to have slowdown at times despite not much action going on), but also sort of fun looking. Step-drill Seisuu seems a pretty solid math drill game.

Yes, they really put some effort in making it more than just a cheap educational title. All 3 games come in this kind of presentation so it would be nice to own them all.
The game is nothing to write home about but it can be fun in small doses. I wish I knew what to do though since i got stuck.