Yeah that’s right, it’s a Year in Review. This way, the fact that I’m talking about nine-month-old translations almost seems intentional! Right?
May was a pretty slow news month in Translation Land, but it’s certainly still worth talking and reading about! Right?
New articles will have to wait; I’ve got some five-month-old patch releases! Are you excited?
Sure, it’s several months late, but only about half of these games had their own news post on Romhacking.net. So, the other half will be news to you! Right?
Dragon Ball Z: Assault of the Saiyans for Nintendo Entertainment System
Published by Bandai on 27 October 1990
GoodNES: Dragon Ball Z – Kyoushuu! Saiya Jin (J) [!]
No-Intro: Dragon Ball Z – Kyoushuu! Saiya Jin (Japan)
Header: 4E45531A1020F0900000000000000000
I don’t exactly understand the intense fascination and association of Dragon Ball Z with cards, but this began the very long and very painful saga of Dragon Ball Z RPGs where you fight with cards, a saga that continues, yes, to this very day. Sure, there were previous Dragon Ball games with cards, but those were more like weird board games than fully fleshed-out RPGs. This game is where everything “came together”, for better or worse.
Aww, bro. Remember February? That was so sweet, bro.
Trouble Shooter Vintage for Sega Genesis / Mega Drive
Published by Vic Tokai on 24 December 1993
GoodGen: Battle Mania – Dai Gin Jou (J) [c][!]
No-Intro: Battle Mania Daiginjou (Japan, Korea)
One day there was a horizontal shoot-em-up game for the Genesis / Mega Drive called Trouble Shooter, or Battle Mania in Japan. It occupied the very small subgenre of shooter where instead of controlling a World War II plane, or a galactic space fighter, you controlled a cute anime girl who floated around. There’s a few of these!
It was a pretty okay game, but not really anything too special. Fortunately it must have done well enough for a sequel, though, because it was followed up a year and a half later by this game here, Battle Mania Daiginjou. It’s fortunate due to the fact that this game, also known as Trouble Shooter Vintage, is a much better game in every respect.
And, of course, that naturally meant that it was never released outside of Japan. Why does that kind of thing happen so often?
Yeah, this is a little bit late. Travel back with us to the distant past of… January.
Antarctic Adventure for Nintendo Entertainment System
Published by Konami on 22 April 1985
GoodNES: Antarctic Adventure (J) [!]
No-Intro: Kekkyoku Nankyoku Daibouken (Japan)
Header: 4E45531A010100000000000000000000
Wow! See the origins of Penta, the lovable Konami penguin! His son, Pentarou, went on to become one of the selectable fighters in Parodius, while Penta himself got fat and starred in Dream Penguin Adventure. Of course there’s some who think that Penta and Pentarou are really the same penguin, and “Penta” is just short for “Pentarou”. There actually used to be a pretty lengthy article on Wikipedia about these dumb Konami penguins and their relationships throughout the years. It’s no longer there, which is good because it was all very stupid.
All three of the translations released last month have something in common: they’re all great translations of bad games. Join us as we investigate!