Help me find this Famicom game

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Specineff
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Help me find this Famicom game

Post by Specineff »

I know the description may be meager, so I apologize for that. I remember seeing this Famicom game as a hack in one of those multi-game pirate carts made for the system; it featured Mario in place of the main character, but the graphics would some other times switch to the default ones.

The character was a Scarlet Pimpernel or Musketeer-looking guy (or was it a girl?) with a red and black outfit, the colors similar to Mario's in SMB3.

The game was a platformer with deep vertical underwater sections.

You could equip a fish costume/suit to swim in those vertical underwater sections.

Don't think it was ever released in the West.

Could have been based off an anime or manga, judging from the graphics.

That's all I remember. Thanks for any help.
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Ghegs
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Re: Help me find this Famicom game

Post by Ghegs »

Musketeer-looking guy makes me think of Nagagutsu o Haita Neko (Puss in Boots) but that doesn't quite match the rest of the description...
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BIL
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Re: Help me find this Famicom game

Post by BIL »

^^^ Yeah, that's what I thought too, offhand.

I've a pet suspicion that there were at least a couple FC games featuring that mascot (can't recall offhand which studio he was from... Toho? EDIT: Aha, Toei). I've fond memories of the game localised on NES as Puss n' Boots - one of those "desperation rentals" when all the good stuff was gone :lol: distinctly recall enjoying it - but decades later, when I demoed the ROM of the FC game I was thinking of buying, it didn't seem at all familiar.

Maybe Specineff played a different game featuring Pero? Or maybe what we got on NES was some hackjob in and of itself (assuming the game Spec's looking for is even featuring this character, ofc).
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Ghegs
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Re: Help me find this Famicom game

Post by Ghegs »

BIL wrote:Maybe Specineff played a different game featuring Pero? Or maybe what we got on NES was some hackjob in and of itself (assuming the game Spec's looking for is even featuring this character, ofc).
Yeah, it might be tricky to find the original game this way, since (I'm assuming) Spec played the game a long time ago so his memories might not be accurate, and there's no way of knowing just what the hack changed in it.

It may be easier to try to find the hack instead? There's a big list of NES/Famicom Mario hacks here and the same site has tons of other NES/Famicom hacks listed, so that might be a good starting point, if Spec hasn't already perused those.
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BrianC
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Re: Help me find this Famicom game

Post by BrianC »

Puss and boots was changed quite a bit for the US version. It was also one of those games oddly featured on Captain N.
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Specineff
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Re: Help me find this Famicom game

Post by Specineff »

Yeah, not Puss in Boots, for sure. And the character was human, looking closer to Tezuka's Princess Knight than anything else. May have been an unauthorized HK game, for all I know, since it came in one of those multi-game bootleg carts.
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Re: Help me find this Famicom game

Post by Ghegs »

Probably not, but going with the musketeer-look again...Captain Silver?
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Re: Help me find this Famicom game

Post by BareKnuckleRoo »

Because memory is one of those highly fallible things I figured I'd throw something out there based purely on it being a platformer with a fish transformation: is it possibly Magic John (JP) / Totally Rad (US)? It was changed significantly between versions and I think the character sprite for Magic John fits somewhat like what you're describing.

If it was actually a game hack though with the sprites altered, or possibly even a bootlegged original game, honestly it might be pretty difficult to find.
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Re: Help me find this Famicom game

Post by Sengoku Strider »

Playing video game detective is always fun.

It couldn't have been Ufouria/Hebereke, could it? That's a platformer with deep vertical underwater sections, and enemies who are guys in fish suits:

https://youtu.be/EdhyVyvuSJs?t=2317

The Famicom Doraemon has vertical underwater sections as well:

https://youtu.be/vWwZB8Zky2k?t=573

Clash at Demonhead has you buying a diving suit for vertical underwater sections:

https://youtu.be/k3Cg7YaACB4?t=243

There's also Goonies II, which features a character with Mario-ish colours who dons a wetsuit for underwater exploration:

https://youtu.be/mdpmDqR4ZDc?t=1804
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BrianC
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Re: Help me find this Famicom game

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Re: Help me find this Famicom game

Post by BareKnuckleRoo »

Wow, that pretty much fits exactly with his description of sprite swapping between Mario and the original. Good job on figuring it out, I'd bet money this is the game.
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