NES Works Gaiden

By request, a look at another cult favorite Konami game that never made its way west. Arumana no Kiseki (The Miracle of Almana) will remind you of a lot of different Konami NES games... and of a certain movie franchise, too. It's not quite polished enough to have made its way to the U.S., but you can definitely see Konami's 8-bit prowess at work here.

Who says NES Works has to be exclusively about old games? A Japanese indie group has released three new cartridges for the Nintendo Famicom over the past year, putting a contemporary twist on the platform. With vivid visuals and top-flight music by legendary composers, Kira Kira Star Night DX and 8Bit Music Power (and its follow-up, 8Bit Music Power Final) offer an intriguing extension of the Famicom legacy.

By Patron request, here's a "controversial game": An unlicensed and slightly smutty American game that became straight-up porn when Japanese publisher Hacker International got ahold of it. And to further tempt the fates, they sold it with packaging that made it look like a Mario game starring Princess Peach. Some men want to watch the world burn; myself, I'd settle for burning this janky excuse for an NES game.

By patron request, we look at the horrible and hideous ball that Nintendo got rolling when it localized the Famicom to America and Europe as the NES: Region-locking. This quick (and not at all comprehensive!) overview of the different methods console manufacturers have used to prevent and punish international software importation does at least offer a promising light at the end of the tunnel: It appears to be a dying practice. Once 3DS shuffles off this mortal coil, we'll once again be free to buy games in yen and pretend we understand the mysterious runes in which their menus are written.