Rare gems in video games

What games have you played on the SNES that are rarely, if ever, talked about? Lately I've been trying to find games I haven't played and found a few good ones that I wouldn't have thought of if it weren't for some translations I found.

First off is a couple of brawlers by the creators of River City Ransom:

Shodai Nekketsu Kōha Kunio-Kun

Instead of increasing your abilities by buying food and other items with money dropped by enemies as in River City Ransom you gain experience for every enemy defeated. At various levels you learn new Ki Abilities, which are spell like abilities that heal you or increase your stats, and new fighting techniques. You can also equip a weapon, armor and shoes which can either drop from a defeated enemy, be gained from an ally after a story even or won by playing the Crane Game. Other times enemies may drop various cards, the most important being the Pre-paid Cash Card which is used to buy healing items from vending machines and use the games in the Arcade.

Shin Nekketsu Kouha: Kunio Tachi no Banka

Another game starring Kunio and Riki, although this one is unfortunately a pure brawler with no RPG elements at all. For me it's also quite difficult, although if you die you just restart at whatever screen your at so as long as you have the patience it's beatable. One thing that can prolong your life is that after certain story evens you can control four different characters: Kunio, Riki and their girlfriends by pressing Select to switch between them. As far as controls go each character is basically the same aside from their special attacks.

Both games could be played in Japanese but there are completed translation patches for both games. I'd be glad to link a site where the patches can be located, but I'm not sure if it would be against the rules.

Magical Pop'n

A platformer in which you control a princess who looks a lot like Link in blue, and I have to say she may be the cutest heroine I've ever seen. Almost every action is accompanied by a her voice which only serves to make her even cuter. In order to defeat the evil penguin empire you're armed with a sword and six different spells. Each spell has two functions, a normal use that only takes a small amount of stars (magic power), and a supercharged version that takes a much larger amount but usually hits everything on screen.

Again it was never released out of Japan so if you want it in English you're going to need a translation patch. So far I haven't seen much in terms of text, just the main menu and "Stage #" but I'm only on Stage 6 so far. It's worth a try if you're in the mood for a solid platformer along the lines of Kirby (closest comparison I can think of). Plenty of secret rooms to find while making your way through each stage, some hidden behind hollow walls, others behind destructible walls or otherwise just tucked away.

Update: Magical Pop'n is unfortunately only 6 stages long, but is still worth a go now and then when you're in the mood for a platformer other than what you've played a hundred times already.

It amazes me that even though I played, enjoyed and love most of the games you guys have listed I forgot to list them myself haha. I finally played Earthbound a few months ago and fell in love with it.

Another one I discovered tonight is Brandish 2, it just got an English translation patch yesterday (November 7th). It's an Action RPG that plays out as a dungeon crawler somewhat similar to Azure Dreams for the PSX and GBC (without the monster collecting and random dungeons) if anyone has played that. It's got a fair amount of difficulty, especially if you don't know what you're doing so I'd recommend checking the walkthrough on GameFAQs even if it isn't complete. My only real gripe with the game so far is how limited the inventory space is, but since you can always go back to where you've been before it's not a big problem. Interesting thing about it compared to similar Action RPGs is that your level only controls your HP and MP while your strength, magic power and magic resistance is controlled by how you fight. Hitting enemies increases your strength, using spells and magic rings increases your magic power and getting hit by spells increases your magic resistance.

One thing you need to know if you want to play it is even if you prefer ZSNES like I do you're going to want to use SNES9x to play this. There's some odd graphical glitches on ZSNES unfortunately while SNES9x has run it perfectly so far.

As far as JRPGs go it may not be considered a hidden gem but it isn't talked about enough in my opinion so I feel obligated to mention Dragon Quest 3 (also known as Dragon Warrior 3). Originally released on the NES it's been re-released on both the SNES and GBC, although until recently in order to play the SNES version you needed to know Japanese or have a thorough understanding of the game.

Admittedly the main difference between the SNES and GBC versions is the graphics and sound quality it's worth a play through even if you've played it before.

For those that have never played Dragon Quest 3 it is much different from the newer DQ games, or even the remakes in that the only party member that is a part of the plot is the hero. But not even the hero is set in stone. When you first start the game you're asked to name the hero and choose his or her gender. You're then asked a series of questions that will determine the hero's personality which will influence the stat gains at level up as well as change a few small things various NPCs say. After a short introduction to the back story and what your quest is you're able to explore your home town.

Located in town is the one and only Ruida's Tavern, where various adventurers await your invitation to join you in your quest to defeat the Archfiend Baramos. On the first floor of the tavern you can recruit up to 3 of the pre-made adventurers or you can go up to the second floor and create your own allies. As one of the few games in the Dragon Quest series that includes various character classes you can create the exact party you desire. And later on you can even change your ally's classes while keeping whatever spells and abilities they have as well as half of their stat's.

Some people complain that because of the character creation that their is no character development. I don't know about all of you, but I'd rather have the ability to enjoy using the faceless characters I created and trained the way I wanted than to have three or more characters with skills and abilities I hate.

Just remembered about another game that very few people seem to know about.

Brainlord was an action RPG made by Enix which focused heavily on puzzles. I'm not going to try and say it's the greatest game as it does have its problems but it's also very fun. You have access to a variety of weapons including, but not limited to: swords, boomerangs, bows and morning stars, and can always equip a shield to help block attacks. You can also find and buy different magic spells with effects that range from slowing down the enemies, to creating an orb that bounces off the walls to damage enemies to a spell that evaporates the water within the enemies body.

And if you need more help than that you can find various Jades that summon different fairies that can help you fight, increase your offensive or defensive abilities, heal you or even brink you back to life if you die.