8/16-bit Pirate/Unlicensed games with good production values?

[Pr3tty F1y]

As odd as it may be (being that I don't play sports games), I had a dream last night of a Ken Griffey Jr. Winning Run NES Pirate cartridge (_it does not exist_, as far as I know, but it was a quite weird dream), and it's got me thinking:


Are there any pirate cartridges/games with high production values that most would consider "must play"?

I guess the rules should be pretty simple. The game should be a unique pirate game (i.e, Somari on the NES) or one-off total conversion (i.e., Speedy Gonzalez --> Sonic 4 on the SNES) that has production values so high/great playability that it should be recommended to the community at large.


What would you recommend?

[markusman64ds]

Squirrel King for Genesis is okay. It is a Chip and Dale style game, and also has a hack with the Mario Bros.

PS: You aren't the only one with weird dreams. Last night I dreamed that I met James Earl Jones, and he told me his real name was James Earl James LOL

[Parodius Duh!]

Thunderbolt II for Genesis (decent space shooter), Space Turtle Force for Genesis (Korean space shooter), AV Girl Fighting for Famicom (awesome 2D fighter), Street Fighter III for Famicom (out of all SF clones on the system this is best), ToTo World for Master System (good platformer), Divine Sealing for Genesis (nice space shooter with N00Dz), Super Shinobi for Famicom (Awesome port of the Genesis game), Super Mario 64 for Genesis (Actual port of SMW, NOT the Squirrel King hack)....theres sooooo many, mostly on the Genesis/Megadrive. Famicom has some gems here and there but theres a ton of garbage as well.

[squirrel_king]

Vast Fame's games on the Game Boy and GBA are some of the best around IMO. A lot are RPGs or similar relying on Chinese knowledge but some of the more action-y ones that are dumped include Soul Falchion, Rockman DX3 aka Zook Hero 2 (though the common ROM has all the levels pre-cleared so you can't fight the bosses) for the GBC, and Digimon Sapphire for the GBA. Digimon Ruby/Rury for the GBA is an RPG but the English version is dumped so it's playable, even if you can't work out what the hell anyone is talking about half the time. There are a bunch more undumped ones too.

On the NES, Super Game's ports of The Lion King and (Mega Drive) Aladdin are generally considered better than Virgin's official Europe-exclusive ports.. and plenty of Hummer Team games are pretty good, like Aladdin (port of the SNES version) Donkey Kong Country 4 and Tiny Toon 6. Super Mario World (the full version) is pretty impressive too, although the controls are a bit iffy.

edit: Forgot to mention Open Corp's games, Buzz & Waldog and Metal Force (I think).

Also:

Super Mario 64 for Genesis (Actual port of SMW, NOT the Squirrel King hack)
have you played that? I haven't, but I've heard some pretty bad impressions from people who have - apparently it looks impressive to start with but there are only a few levels, the controls are way off, it's missing a lot of features and the final boss is some kind of ... black ball-thing. Plus only the first level music is actually from Mario World, the rest is stolen from random games, including the Jeopardy theme...

[Parodius Duh!]

I have not played it from start to finish, but I do enjoy it from time to time. It certainly has flaws (as do most pirates) but Its definitely more playable than the Famicom SMW and the controls are decent. I consider it more like its own game and not a direct port of SMW for snes. Definitely check it out and if you can find a cart for under $60 its certainly worth it!

[rbudrick]

Wai Xing Zhan Shi, a port of Phantasy Star 4 for the Famicom. I believe it is in Taiwanese. Never seen a copy no matter how hard I looked. Only the ROM.

-Rob

[Melf]

Thunderbolt II for Genesis (decent space shooter), Space Turtle Force for Genesis (Korean space shooter)


These are actually pretty decent for unlicensed games. Most people think they're well-done bootlegs, but they're actually just unlicensed.