NES game imitations released on SMS

[NeoZeedeater]

In the early '90s the Sega Master System received a few games that were obviously inspired by popular NES franchises. Golden Axe Warrior highly resembles the first Legend of Zelda, Ninja Gaiden is an original game in the style of the NES trilogy and Master of Darkness is very similar to Castlevania I and III.

There haven't been a lot of comparisons that I have found between the NES originals and these SMS games and I'm curious as how people think they compare.

I left out other SMS games that resemble these NES series' like Kenseiden, Golvellius, etc. because they are not really obvious cloning attempts like these ones. Here are my thoughts on them:


Golden Axe Warrior

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b223/NeoZeedeater/GoldenAxeWarrior.png

Graphics/Art - It's much newer and is on more advanced hardware so it's better looking as expected.

Sound - Decent music but nothing as memorable as Koji Kondo's classics aside from the few spots where it has music from the original Golden Axe.

Gameplay/Design - I don't think the dungeons are quite as well made as Zelda's but the overworld and overall feel is an improvement.

Overall - It gets minus points for originality as it blatantly rips off Nintendo's work but I think it manages to surpass Zelda 1(I should hope so since it came out 5 or so years afterwards).


Ninja Gaiden

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b223/NeoZeedeater/NinjaGaidenSMS.png

Graphics/Art - The colour is superior to the NES games but I don't think the boss designs and cinemas compare to Tecmo's stuff at all due to lack of animation and parallax scrolling.

Sound - Great sound quality on the music. The compositions are good although I prefer the NES games' tracks and its sound effects too.

Gameplay/Design - The level design is weaker than in the NES trilogy. They did get Ryu's control down perfectly though and I really like the wall jump move.

Overall - I think all three NES Ninja Gaiden games are superior but I still give the SMS game a thumbs up. It's one of the best 8-bit ninja games.


Master of Darkness

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b223/NeoZeedeater/MasterofDarkness.gif

Graphics/Art - There's some impressive detail that couldn't have been done on the NES although style-wise I prefer the Castlevania series. MoD's cinemas are a nice touch though.

Sound - On its own it's a quality soundtrack but Castlevania is a tough act to follow in this department and I don't think this is as good.

Gameplay/Design - The controls are a tad better than the 'vanias; they're not quite as stiff. I would say the level design is about equal although the branching path concept in Castlevania III is cooler.

Overall - I guess I would rank it above Castlevania I but below Castlevania III. I was never hardcore into 8-bit Castlevania like many gamers but I do own them and have played through them all. I think fans should definitely check out Master of Darkness too if they haven't already.


Agree/disagree? Please provide your own comparisons and opinions on these games.

[Ed Oscuro]

Aside from Golden Axe Warrior I haven't spent much time with any of them. That should change!

[pseudonym]

i don't see how golden axe warrior is a blatant rip-off of legend of zelda, although i can definately see similarities. the whole idea of finding x number of magical items in a hidden dungeon(s) was already old by the time loz came out.

i agree with you about the sound and the dungeon design not being as good as loz.

the overworld is very nice, with three or four different towns in the game afaik. there are secrets in the majority of the screens, some of them require different items to reveal them and not all of them are good.

there isn't too much variety in the enemies (a lot of palette changes) but they are tougher to defeat in some cases than the enemies in loz which is a plus in my book. there are a lot of items and some magic to find.

i don't know but i write more as i think about it. anyway, i disagree about golden axe warrior for sure, but i never played the other two in enough depth to comment on them.

[diskoboy]

Out of all the games you mentioned, I think only Golden Axe Warriors came out in the US.

For the love of god, I would've been all over an SMS version of Ninja Gaiden, had I known there actually was one. Lucky Europeans!

[Ed Oscuro]

For the love of god, I would've been all over an SMS version of Ninja Gaiden, had I known there actually was one. Lucky Europeans!
I guess they thought we were too pampered what with that Lynx version of 3 and all ;)

Anyhow, Golden Axe Warrior is a huge Zelda ripoff...but unfortunately there are some issues. I'm having a bit of fun with it, though.

As in Zelda, you can pick things up by hitting them with your sword, and also like Zelda you can't block and attack at once. Unlike Zelda, you get a shield at the beginning.

The map is also incredibly similar, though I've only seen towns (one screen wide) and large open forest sections. You have large bodies of water in which a monster will spawn and start hurling slimeballs/rocks at you. Long wooden bridges to islands can be found. These two elements are taken right out of Zelda, no question.

Dungeons. I've just entered a Dungeon...that I reached via a wooden bridge...and it looks almost exactly like a dungeon out of Zelda, except purple. Same perspective to the walls and everything. Here we have sword-wielding skeletons, the critters you can ride in Golden Axe (except smaller), and bats, instead of the pigs and slimes in the overworld...hmm.

Unfortunately, the combat sucks. For tough enemies like the pigs/orcs, you've got to time your hits just *so* and hope a piggie doesn't decide to run into you when you do. Other enemies just walk around and fail to attack you, which makes the difficulty wildly uneven between the dynamic and the lazy enemies.

Yes. It definitely borrows more than it should, but makes the fatal mistake of not being dynamic enough.

The game's one innovation is that once you clear a screen, enemies don't come back (as far as I've played).

I think the music is easier on the ears, and there's a bit of variety. Don't mind this aspect at all.

The whole "horns" thing...it's not really reaching too far to say that Golden Axe Warrior wanted some interesting form of currency like Zelda's rupees (unlike, say, Y's currency, which I think was just bags of gold). A horn even looks a bit like a rupee, except yellow and without the geometric perfection.

[pseudonym]

i never had much of a problem trying to hit enemies but i agree with you on some points.

you have to time your hits but not really to the degree you're talking about in my experience; you also have to line yourself up with the enemies or they will just walk past your sword and damage you which sucks sometimes.

most of the enemies will attack you at some point if you stick around on the screen. some of the enemies are definately similar to loz but others i though were just generic monsters/enemies.

i still don't see how the overworld map is overtly similar to loz. although the bridges were probably taken from loz they were rarely used, and the idea was expanded in this game.

[rbudrick]

Speaking of similar games, anyone know what the deal is with Wonder Boy 1 for SMS and Hudson's Adventure Island for NES? The games are practically identical.

-Rob

[Skyway_Recreation]

i thought it was still by hudson, they just changed the name to hide from nintendo's no games on other systems or we sue you policy and let sega publish it?

[Ed Oscuro]

Speaking of similar games, anyone know what the deal is with Wonder Boy 1 for SMS and Hudson's Adventure Island for NES? The games are practically identical.

-Rob
Wonder Boy for the SG-1000 is the same thing, too.

Speaking of Golden Axe Warrior, if you liked that you probably should try out Sylvan Tale (get the AGTP translation patch).

[anagrama]

From the KLOV entry for the original arcade Wonder Boy:

"If you ever wondered why this game and an NES game called Adventure Island has so many similarities, the answer is simple: Wonderboy was developed by a company called Escape (who later changed their name to Westone). They decided to release a Famicom port with Hudson Soft, but since Sega owned the "Wonder Boy" trademark, Escape and Hudson were forced to change the name to "Takahashi Meijin no Boukenjima" (Master Takahashi's Adventure Island). Escape also ported the Monster World series to several consoles under the name of "Bikkuriman" (Bikkuri means Astonishing). Escape was not involved with the later games of the Takahashi Meijin series. "

[NeoZeedeater]

What confuses me is that all the Hudson Wonder Boy ports have different names except one: the Japanese port of the arcade game Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair. There's no Sega credit anywhere on the game or package.

[rbudrick]

After the first WOnder Boy, both the Adventure Island and Wonder boy series were completely different series....so strange.

-Rob

[blue lander]

Speaking of Hudson ripoffs, Their Super Star Soldier and most of its sequels have been total ripoffs of Compile's Gunhed.

And speaking of Compile games and related SMS/NES games, Aleste on the SMS and Zanac on the NES are quite similar. But that's because Aleste is a sequel to Zanac.

[chrisbid]

wasnt ninja gaiden on the SMS a port of the arcade game?

given sega and nintendos track record with releasing faithful arcade ports, this would be my educated guess

[MegaDrive20XX]

All the games you mentioned for the SMS are all so damn good.

Ninja Gaiden on SMS is not even close to the Arcade, but man it's good.

Master of Darkness really does the job well.

Golden Axe Warrior, I really need to find, because it's really quite as fun as "Golvellius Valley of Doom" imho

[CRV]

wasnt ninja gaiden on the SMS a port of the arcade game?

No...It's an original game based off the NES series.

[Elusive]

Many European releases seem similar to the NES releases, as they are licensed from Nintendo. As the NES sold horribly in most of Europe - particularly the UK - many popular licenses were converted & ported to the more popular Master System. There's a paragraph about it in the Wikipedia entry for Master System, I believe.

[MegaDrive20XX]

Many European releases seem similar to the NES releases, as they are licensed from Nintendo. As the NES sold horribly in most of Europe - particularly the UK - many popular licenses were converted & ported to the more popular Master System. There's a paragraph about it in the Wikipedia entry for Master System, I believe.

You are correct, god bless Wikipedia :)

[Dire 51]

Regarding Ninja Gaiden and Master of Darkness: I love 'em both. Coincidentally, I've reviewed them both here. Check them out: Ninja Gaiden (http://www.digitpress.com/reviews/ninjagaiden_sms.htm) and Master of Darkness (http://www.digitpress.com/reviews/masterofdarkness.htm)

[vintagegamecrazy]

I should find a copy of GAW as I hear good stuff about it, I am just lazy though.

[anagrama]

Many European releases seem similar to the NES releases, as they are licensed from Nintendo.

Huh? :hmm: Please give an example of a game that Sega licensed from Nintendo.

[NeoZeedeater]

Regarding Ninja Gaiden and Master of Darkness: I love 'em both. Coincidentally, I've reviewed them both here. Check them out: Ninja Gaiden (http://www.digitpress.com/reviews/ninjagaiden_sms.htm) and Master of Darkness (http://www.digitpress.com/reviews/masterofdarkness.htm)

That's not really a coincidence as I was reading those before making the thread and was thinking there aren't enough reviews like those on these games. ;) Good stuff.

[segagamer4life]

Out of all the games you mentioned, I think only Golden Axe Warriors came out in the US.

For the love of god, I would've been all over an SMS version of Ninja Gaiden, had I known there actually was one. Lucky Europeans!

man do yourself a favor and pick up ninja gaiden on the sms,,, great great game... don't pass this one up..

[Ed Oscuro]

Many European releases seem similar to the NES releases, as they are licensed from Nintendo.

Huh? :hmm: Please give an example of a game that Sega licensed from Nintendo.
This also makes me wonder.

I think somebody got it backwards and off-kilter: Tengen released some unlicensed NES games based off Sega properties.

[idrougge]

I think somebody got it backwards and off-kilter: Tengen released some unlicensed NES games based off Sega properties.

I'd be happy if someone could explain the connection between Sunsoft and Tengen when it comes to these properties.

[kedawa]

Is the SMS Ninja Gaiden the same as the GG Ninja Gaiden?
I used to have it for GG and I loved it, but I don't remember it looking like that screenshot.

[CRV]

Is the SMS Ninja Gaiden the same as the GG Ninja Gaiden?
I used to have it for GG and I loved it, but I don't remember it looking like that screenshot.

No, they're very different.

[rbudrick]

The GG one is a side scroller, but very different than the NES and SMS ones...not at all similar to the arcade or GameBoy, or PC Engine versions either. However, I don't believe the GB one was originally a NG game anyway. It's kind of blah...ok, but nothing to write home about.

Was the JP Megadrive version ever actually released?

-Rob

[Ed Oscuro]

The Mega Drive one has never shown up, so nope. I can't even get through the ROM, as the game seems buggy (unfinished). There are complete (?) sound rips of the game, though.

The rumor (which 1up printed as fact, and aside from that it just makes sense) is that Natsume produced a Kage/Shadow of the Ninja game for Game Boy, but it was eventually released as a Ninja Ryukenden/Gaiden game. I think it's great - awesome graphics, very good sound, interesting enemy patterns - but it has a huge problem in that it's far too short. Were it even twice as long it would've been an instant classic...

The Game Gear NG...I've only played through most of the first level (up to the nearly impossible to hit boss, whom you somehow need to trick into taking a swing without being in the way, and then jumping in for a hit, and then repeat the process). I hope that's no indication of the overall quality of the game, because it's repetitive and boring.

[anagrama]

Was the JP Megadrive version ever actually released?


Not officially, but there's known protos and Asian bootlegs.

[NeoZeedeater]

Ninja Gaiden Shadow is an underrated game and yes you can tell it was going to be a Shadow of the Ninja game. Look at the intros and see the similarities.

GG Ninja Gaiden was okay at the time but it's weaker than the SMS game. Kenyuu Densetsu Yaiba is another GG ninja game worth playing.

None of these portable ninja games compare to the GG Shinobi games though. I would kill to see another game in the style of those.

[Ed Oscuro]

Kenyuu Densetsu Yaiba is another GG ninja game worth playing.
I will check that out, thanks for the tip!