Sunsoft is Back: Retro Game Selection Game Review – Game Review

The NES and Famicom era is a fascinating period, especially in terms of what was or wasn’t released outside of Japan. The Nintendo Entertainment System was a 600-pound gorilla in North America during the late 1980s, and Japanese publishers and their American branches made it a curious dice roll as to whether a game might be brought to the eager English-speaking market or left unlocalized. Plenty of Famicom titles stayed in Japan for reasons sometimes sensible and sometimes bizarre, but compilations like Sunsoft is Back: Retro Game Selection aim to fix that.

Sunsoft is Back marks the first officially released English translations and worldwide debuts for The Wing of Madoola, 53 Stations of the Tokaido, and Ripple Island. They’re all Famicom titles that never left Japan back in their day, and here they’re presented with modern features like save-states, rewinding, and a multitude of display options, including one that mimics old CRT sets. Are they as relevant now as they were in the 1980s? Maybe not, but they’re all intriguing in one way or another.

Hailing from mid-1986, the arduous 53 Stations of the Tokaido is the oldest release here. It’s a side-scroller of a seemingly simple structure, as it sends its firework-tossing hero Kantaro through twenty-one stages. Each spans several locations on the historic Tokaido route during the Tokugawa era. Harried by criminals seeking his explosive expertise, Kantaro fends off ninjas, bandits, psychic monks, rogue samurai, and the less directly antagonistic distractions of streetwalkers, ghosts, and government officials.

Surprisingly, 53 Stations isn’t based on an arcade game. It certainly has that same sense of merciless challenge, where one hit brings down the hero and leaves the player to memorize and practice if they want to get anywhere. Kentaro tosses fireworks in slow arcs that make it a challenge to hit enemies reliably, and it takes a few stages for the game to grant him power-ups or useful secrets. Progress comes largely from knowing precisely what’s ahead, and frustration arises easily when you’re booted back to the start of the game. There’s a reason this one stumped Arino on Game Center CX.

Many retro-game reissues add save states and a rewind feature, and for some games, they’re just for convenience. Most players wouldn’t need to constantly save and reload to make it through a Mega Man stage or a Duck Tales temple. For stricter fares like 53 Stations, however, such features are practically essential. One could play as Famicom owners did in the 1980s, memorizing every step and starting over completely upon defeat. Yet that just makes it harder to dig into the game’s later stages and appreciate techniques such as planting firework mines or finding warp zones. In fact, it’s fun to imagine the rewind feature as a built-in mechanic, as though our hero has a Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time ability to turn back the clock just enough to cheat death. He certainly needs the help.

The Wing of Madoola comes from the end of 1986 when the solidifying genre of action RPGs sought new and complex ways to punish players. It’s a side-scroller in mechanics, as the warrior Lucia jumps around, dashes through levels, and hacks at enemies in her quest to rescue a prince and an entire nation with him. Yet it’s often a puzzle in its design, as there are numerous dead ends to stymie players and trick doors. And that’s to say nothing of the enemies that often hound Lucia relentlessly.

In fact, The Wing of Madoola is a suitable subject to introduce if you’re ever discussing the most difficult NES or Famicom games. Lucia gets seemingly generous hit points and can gain new spells and weapons, but the game challenges her in almost every moment of exploration. Take the wrong door, and she’ll have to start the level over. Missing a key item in one stage, and the next might be impossible to clear. She’ll need a distinct strategy for every foe, even if it’s something as bizarre as floating purple blobs that can’t damage her if she’s crouching. And if Lucia falls in battle, it’s back to the title screen and a secret continues to feature.

As with 53 Stations, this new collection is the best way to experience The Wing of Madoola: with generous save states and that handy rewind feature. It’s easy to argue that Sunsoft should have implemented a forgiving password or save feature in 1986. The game’s still rigid in its approach, and it’s surprisingly long for its time. Early bosses reappear as drone enemies in later stages, and even with those save states it’s a challenge to reach the ending–which, by the way, you can’t see unless you beat the last boss and have sufficient magic points left over. The game’s graphics are perhaps standard for its day, and Naoki Kodaka’s soundtrack is pleasant but perhaps not on par with the composer’s later work on Blaster Master, Batman, or Journey Sillius. To be fair, that’s some of the best 8-bit music around.

If it’s a little too punishing, The Wing of Madoola remains an interesting stop on the evolution of action RPGs and video-game heroines. One can only imagine how a localization would have fared in the West around 1987 or so. Lucia rescuing the prince would have countered the common save-the-princess narratives of the NES era, but the harder levels and those vexing purple blobs would have prompted nonstop calls to Nintendo’s game counselor hotlines.

Ripple Island is the real star of this collection. It’s an adventure game in the point-and-click tradition, set on an isle where an enterprising young man named Kyle sets out to rescue a princess from the malevolent Groaker. Along the way, he’ll recruit a young woman named Cal and meet all sorts of talking animals, from hostile foxes to obstinate armadillo guards. It recalls the tone of a slightly better-known NES title: Princess Tomato in the Salad Kingdom. Ripple Island never throws in pepper police or cucumber knights, but there’s a similar laid-back charm to everything. Even the antagonists are cute and only mildly threatening, and the game’s perfectly willing to let you walk away happy in its most cowardly ending.

Not that Ripple Island is easy. The player has a multitude of options for interacting with the scenery, including “Look” and “Talk” as well as the vaguer “Push” and “Pull.” The challenge comes from figuring out exactly what to do to advance the story, and like most adventures of this type, it’s often a matter of trying every possible option in every possible place. That can grow tedious, especially when the game subjects players to an interminable trial-and-error cave maze. At least Ripple Island doesn’t spring game-overs very often. It’s forgiving even without the save states or rewinding.

It also helps that Ripple Island was made after Sunsoft grew more familiar with the NES. It has a gentle style that’s deceptively simple at times, but it’s amusing when it breaks out a detailed landscape or a scene of Cal and Kyle riding a giant flying squirrel. Kodaka’s soundtrack is light and catchy, even if you’ll hear it a lot when navigating the same areas over and over.

Ripple Island can be enjoyed now almost as it was in 1988, with its limited hints and more abstract solutions encouraging you to think about the game when you’re not playing. There’s an appeal to taking the puzzles slow, to pondering solutions that fit the game’s often bizarre cartoon animal logic. It makes it all the more rewarding when you finally hit the answer.

It’s also easy to imagine Ripple Island finding a decent following had it been localized in the 1980s. One can almost see the Nintendo Power spreads detailing clues and items—and the Counselor’s Corner snippets in later issues, telling players how to get that red flower for the cave hermit. And much like The Wing of Madoola, Ripple Island subverts its princess-saving premise in its true ending.

Interestingly, these aren’t Sunsoft’s first attempted English releases for The Wing of Madoola or 53 Stations. Both were prepped in the 1980s for Nintendo’s VS System, an arcade version of the NES, with international debuts planned. Neither of these ports was released, but Sunsoft showed off a recovered circuit board for Madoola (renamed The Wings of Madoola) last year. It would have been nice to have that in this compilation, along with the VS edition of 53 Stations and perhaps even the completely unreleased overhead action game VS. Lionex. Still, the extras here are nice, including manuals and some extra production art that’s particularly charming in Ripple Island‘s case.

This sort of collection often catches us between tackling its subjects as straightforward games and appreciating them in a historical context. That flatters 53 Stations and The Wing of Madoola. They’re strict and harrowing without much payoff, but they’re interesting to examine in the evolution of NES and Famicom games or, with Madoola, the emergence of video game heroines who were refreshingly empowered within games even if the official art made no secret of their target audience. Context helps when you’re struggling through their tougher stages.

Fortunately, Ripple Island sells this anthology without the need for such academic distance. It’s a light and appealing adventure well worth playing through entirely on its own merits, and it’s a good example of the sort of engaging old title these collections should bring to light. It’s also a reason to hope that Sunsoft keeps digging into its catalog.