Topic: Nintendo Download Games by Region

[Stratos]

Does anyone know if there any discernible difference between the two versions?  I seem to recall the Genesis version had extra levels but maybe I'm thinking of another game.

According to Wikipedia, the SNES version had some censorship done to it. No real specifics are given.

Wasn't that typical for that era, though? SNES had the censorship but better color/sound while Genesis/MD had the blood and gore.

I D/L'd Zombies Ate My Neighbors out of curiosity. Never played it before.

[Mop it up]

Yeah, that's how things were before the ESRB was formed in 1994. After that, I believe Nintendo dropped most of their censorship policies. I'm pretty sure Mortal Kombat II had the blood and gore intact, and I know Doom does.

[Stratos]

There was a censored version of Doom on the SNES. It was called 'Super Noah's Ark 3D'. They basically did a total conversion of Doom except you were Noah and all of the animals were running loose on the ark and you had to but them to sleep with your tranquilizer crossbow. Good times. 

[Mop it up]

Actually, that was a censored version of Wolfenstein 3D, or rather a heavily censored version as a regular censored version was legally released. It is the only unlicensed game ever released, I saw a copy on eBay once which sold for $200. The funny thing about it is that it can't operate on its own, you need to insert another game in the top of it to override the Super NES lockout chip. It looks like a Game Genie.

[Stratos]

I stand corrected. I always thought it was funny how people tried to work around those lockouts.

I also never understood how those companies avoided legal retribution. I forgot how that lawsuit went down.

[Mop it up]

With the NES I think companies found a loophole in the NES patent or something which allowed them to create NES games as long as the cartridges weren't shaped like Nintendo's trademarked design. This, I believe, is why the Tengen version of Tetris is the only one where legal action succeeded, as it infringed upon the copyrights of another game. With the Super NES, I'm not sure. Considering the game had a limited release and sold very poorly, it may have been that it simply wasn't worth pursuing to squash just one game that didn't make money.

[Stratos]

They still sell the game, last I checked. Remember part of the way they got away with it was by selling the religious ones in religious stores so Nintendo couldn't threaten to stop supplying them with games because they only carried the religious games.

[TJ Spyke]

"Super 3D Noah's Ark" was one of (not the only, but one of the very few) the unlicensed games released for the SNES. It was from a company called Wisdom Tree, who also released unlicensed NES games like "Bible Adventures" and "Sunday Funday", who licensed the mazes and code for Wolfenstein 3D from id Software. Players shot food at little goats that escaped from their pen. Nintendo never sued the company because almost all of their games were religious games (they even released Game Boy Color "games" that consisted of nothing but the text for the King James and New International versions of the Bible) and it they didn't want to worry about the publicity. This info come from the excellent book "The Ultimate History of Video Games" by Steven Kent. The company eventually shifted its focus to PC games.

Anyways, the SNES version of ZAMN did have some blood removed and other blood changed to green. This was standard for the time per Nintenodo's orders. As Mop said, after the ESRB was formed, Nintendo dropped these restrictions. This resulted in the SNES version of Mortal Kombat II having all of the blood and fatalities in the game and the SNES version crushed the Genesis version in sales.

No company was ever legally able to release illegal games (which unlicensed games are) for the NES. Nintendo sued and won against most of them. As I mentioned above, the main reason Nintendo didn't sue Wisdom Tree is because they didn't want to worry about possible bad publicity for suing a company that published religious games (another is that most of their games came out in 1992 and later, after the NES was fading away and the SNES was in full swing). All of these companies releasing unlicensed games were breaking the law as they were violating copyrights and patents.

[Stratos]

Really? I thought they ripped the Wolfenstein code. Glad to know they licensed it. And wasn't wisdom Tree a sub-group of Tengen?

I still have one or two of those Wisdom Tree games from when my parents bought them for me as a kid. The Zelda knock-off was actually pretty good. They even had a 'Mario Party' type board game generations before Mario Party was invented.

Angry Videogame Nerd did a piece on most of those games. Half of them were crap.

I'll have to check out that videogame history book. Sounds really interesting.

I remember a lot of my friend's parents being angry at Nintendo for 'making a game like Mortal Kombat with blood for children'. They couldn't understand when I explained that other companies made them because 'It was a Nintendo so Nintendo made the games'. *SIGH* ignorant parents 

[TJ Spyke]

Wisdom Tree was a subsidiary of a company named Color Dreams. They weren't involved with Tengen in any way. Color Dreams themselves released unlicensed NES games like "King Neptune's Adventure", "Pesterminator", "Metal Fighter", and "Menace Beach".

A funny story about Wisdom Tree. Their owners were openly Christian, but not their employees. One of the game designers who worked on Bible Adventures took the money he made for working on the game and went to Vegas and blew it all in less than a week.

I never played any of Wisdom Tree's games, but I remember EGM once called Bible Adventures one of the worst games of all time.

[Mop it up]

"Super 3D Noah's Ark" was one of (not the only, but one of the very few) the unlicensed games released for the SNES.

Really? It's the only one I'd heard of. Do you know what the others are?

[Stratos]

Wisdom Tree was a subsidiary of a company named Color Dreams. They weren't involved with Tengen in any way. Color Dreams themselves released unlicensed NES games like "King Neptune's Adventure", "Pesterminator", "Metal Fighter", and "Menace Beach".

A funny story about Wisdom Tree. Their owners were openly Christian, but not their employees. One of the game designers who worked on Bible Adventures took the money he made for working on the game and went to Vegas and blew it all in less than a week.

I never played any of Wisdom Tree's games, but I remember EGM once called Bible Adventures one of the worst games of all time.

I guess I assumed that all of the groups making bootleg NES games were all connected together.

There was one where you could throw Baby Moses in the Nile River on purpose. It was bad enough the guards would punch a girl carrying a child and take the child and throw it in the river, but you playing as the girl could also hurl Baby Moses in the river. At least Baby Moses was a nice, quiet little baby. Though, in Yoshi's Island, there were points where I wished I could throw Baby Mario in a river too.

"Super 3D Noah's Ark" was one of (not the only, but one of the very few) the unlicensed games released for the SNES.

Really? It's the only one I'd heard of. Do you know what the others are?

I googled 'unlicensed snes games' and it tried to correct me to say NES instead of SNES games. I too am curious to hear about the others.

[TJ Spyke]

I don't know the others, but Kent' book says the game was "one of the few unlicensed games to appear on the SNES".

There was another company that did sell technology to circumvent the NES's lockouts. However, Tengen and Wisdom Tree were separate companies (Tengen was owned by Atari Games to allow them to release console games since Atari Corporation owned the console rights to the "Atari" name, and Tengen did released licensed NES games like "Pac-Man" and "RBI Baseball" too).

[TJ Spyke]

This weeks Japanese releases:

Championship Lode Runner for the NES on VC
Sonic & Knuckles for Genesis on VC
Faceoff for VCA on VC
Rolling Thunder 2 for VCA on VC
Simple Series Vol. 5: The Judo for WiiWare
Shadow Walker: Boy of Shadow, Fairy of Light for WiiWare
Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth for WiiWare
Bit.Trip Void for WiiWare
Earth Saver: Meteorite Haku Ha Dai Sakusen for DSiWare
Puzzle Magazine Crossword House Volume 6 for DSiWare
Koku Yaburete San Kawaari for DSiWare

[TJ Spyke]

This weeks PAL releases:

Zombies (known in North America as Zombies Ate My Neighbors) for SNES on VC
Lit for WiiWare
Ghost Mansion Party for WiiWare
Little Red Riding Hood's Zombie BBQ for DSiWare
A Little Bit of... All Time Classics: Card Classics (known in North America as Clubhouse Games Express: Card Classics) for DSiWare

[TJ Spyke]

This weeks North American releases:

Fighting Street for TGCD on VC
R-Type for SMS on VC
Carnival King for WiiWare
"Aha! I Got It!" Escape Game for WiiWare
Family Card Games for WiiWare
Viking Invasion for DSiWare
Battle of Giants: Dragons – Bronze Edition for DSiWare

North America also gets a DSiWare App:

Sparkle Snapshots (this lets you take a picture with the DSi camera and then edit it with stuff like fancy frames, stamps, backgrounds, etc.)

[TJ Spyke]

This weeks Japanese releases:

Fire Emblem Gaiden for NES on VC
Fatal Fury Special for Neo Geo on VC
Ah! Eureka! Item Search Game for WiiWare
Kyoto Students Taishi Higashida Thought Puzzle Inspiration Signed Painting for DSiWare
Handy Mahjong for DSiWare
Art Style: Digidrive (known in Europe as Art Stye: Intersect) for DSiWare
Space Invaders Extreme Z for DSiWare

Japan also gets a DSiWare App:
Daily Sodateru Diary Calendar

[TJ Spyke]

This weeks PAL releases:

Fighting Street for TGCD on VC
Tales of Monkey Island Chapter 3: Lair of the Leviathan for WiiWare
Manic Monkey Mayhem for WiiWare
Uno for WiiWare
Bomberman Blitz for DSiWare
Sudoku for DSiWare
A Little Bit of... All Time Classics: Family Favorites (known in North America as Clubhouse Games Express: Family Favorites) for DSiWare

[TJ Spyke]

This weeks North American releases:

Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap for SMS on VC
Cybernoid for C64 on VC
Excitebike: World Rally for WiiWare
Frogger Returns for WiiWare
Dragon Master Spell Caster for WiiWare
Bomberman Blitz for DSiWare
Electroplankton Trapy for DSiWare
Electroplankton Hanenbow for DSiWare
Electroplankton Rec-Rec for DSiWare
Electroplankton Nanocarp for DSiWare
Electroplankton Beatnes for DSiWare

[KDR_11k]

Doesn't Elektroplankton count more as an app than a game?

[TJ Spyke]

Borderline. Technically it is a "game", the same way karaoke games like SingStar or Lips are (or fellow DSiWare games like Art Academy). I do feel torn about listing it though as the creator of the retail game said he didn't put a save feature in because he wanted it to just be an experience and not a goal.

This weeks Japanese releases:

Street Fighter II: Champion Edition for TG16 on VC
Grobda for VCA on VC
Tank Force for VCA on VC
Panel Connection: 3 Minute Rocket for DSiWare

Japan also gets a App:
ACT Series Tango Choo Nichi Jyuu Hen for DSiWare (basically you write a Japanese letter and it gets translated into Chinese)

[TJ Spyke]

This weeks PAL releases:

Ninja Gaiden for VCA on VC
My Zoo (known in Japan as Animal Life) for WiiWare
Rock N' Roll Climber for WiiWare
A Little Bit of... Nintendo Touch Golf for DSiWare

[MegaByte]

I never played any of Wisdom Tree's games, but I remember EGM once called Bible Adventures one of the worst games of all time.

Conversely, Spiritual Warfare is a very good NES game.  It's a Zelda clone with Satan as the final boss.

[Stratos]

I never played any of Wisdom Tree's games, but I remember EGM once called Bible Adventures one of the worst games of all time.

Conversely, Spiritual Warfare is a very good NES game.  It's a Zelda clone with Satan as the final boss.

That was my favorite. But I never beat it because Satan cheats and uses a big old rock as a shield.
I always thought it was hilarious that your main weapons were the 'fruits of the spirit' as actualy pieces of fruit and you used them to bludgeon and beat people to death -sorry, conversion.

[TJ Spyke]

This weeks North American releases:

Indiana Jones' Greatest Adventures for SNES on VC
Street Fighter II': Champion Edition for TG16 on VC
Pokémon Rumble for WiiWare
Art Style: Digidrive (known in Europe as Art Style: Intersect) for DSiWare
Arcade Bowling for DSiWare
Robot Rescue for DSiWare

North America also gets the launch of the new WiiWare demo service. The first 5 games to get demos are:
Pokémon Rumble
Bit.Trip Beat
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a Darklord
NyxQuest: Kindred Spirits
World of Goo

An interesting note about Arcade Bowling is that it's designed by David Crane, one of the co-founders of Activision.