I told you I've got Harvest Moon on the brain (plus a Binary Land surprise)

A couple of weeks ago, I admitted to buying the original, SNES version of Harvest Moon from the clunky old Wii eShop.

In that same post, I also admitted to having the Harvest Moon series "on the brain" at the moment. Which makes sense when you consider I got the latest 3DS-based Harvest Moon title, The Lost Valley, for Christmas, then I picked up the SNES iteration and then, about a week ago, I bought a loose copy of Harvest Moon 64 from my Internet pal, Jeremy--who also goes by "Nightmare Bruce" and "the guy who runs the Ribbon Black blog."

Although I've had my copy of Harvest Moon 64 in hand for about a week now, it hasn't even sniffed the inside of my dusty Nintendo 64, as I've been too busy playing--wait for it--Harvest Moon: The Lost Valley.

In fact, I've put nearly 20 hours into The Lost Valley over the last couple of weeks, which has left me nearly no time for other games (aside from my #ADecadeofDS titles, of course). 

Anyway, the photo at the top of this post showcases how fabulously Jeremy packaged the copy of Harvest Moon 64 he sold and sent me. He included a fun postcard, a strip of adorable Mario stickers and ... some sort of "bonus gift" wrapped in sparkly paper?

Inside that sparkly paper was the copy of Binary Land shown in the snapshot that sits just north of this block of text. How cool is that? It's a fully working cartridge, by the way, and the label was designed by Jeremy himself.

Now I just need to find the time to play both of these beautiful-looking carts.

Acquisition #149: Binary Land (Famicom)

Full disclosure: I went on a bit of an eBay binge shortly after the holidays and ended up buying a bunch of Famicom, GameBoy Advance, PlayStation and even PSP games.

The game seen in the photos below--Hudson Soft's Binary Land for the Famicom--was one of the aforementioned pick-ups.

I know a good number of you won't believe me, but I didn't buy this one because of its overt pinkness. In fact, it's one of my favorite Famicom games (here's a video of its first stage), and the only reason it took me so long to add it to my collection is that complete-in-box copies of this unique, arcade-y title don't seem to pop up on eBay all that often.



Sure, this copy's box is kind of banged up, but I don't mind. Actually, I like that its previous owners showed it some love.

Here's a better look at the game's awesome box art, by the way:



It's hard to hate on a game that features a pair of adorably pastel penguins, isn't it? It's also hard to hate on a game that has a logo made up of a number of hearts.

Or at least it's hard for me to hate on a game that meets such criteria.



Going back a bit to my comment about the love this copy of Binary Land was shown by its previous owner(s): as you can see in the photo above, the back of its box features a smidge of handwriting. I don't suppose any of you can suss out what it says?

Regardless, expect to see a number of "Acquisition #123" posts in the coming weeks that focus on the remainder of my recent eBay haul.

See also: previous 'Acquisition #123' posts

Five favorites: non-Capcom, non-Enix, non-Konami, non-Namcot, non-Nintendo, non-Square Famicom games

Is this "five favorites" post even more ridiculous than the PC Engine-focused one I published last week? Yes, I think you could say that--especially since this one is even more limited than its predecessor.

It had to be done, though, in order for this post to not be suffocated by Famicom titles that appear on nearly every such list. You know some of the ones I'm talking about, I'm sure: Hitler no Fukkatsu: Top Secret (aka Bionic Commando), Hoshi no Kirby: Yume no Izumi no Monogatari (Kirby's Adventure), Pajama Hero Nemo (Little Nemo: The Dream Master), Super Mario Bros. 2 and 3 and Wanpaku Dakku Yume Bōken (Duck Tales), just to name a few.

With that out of the way, here are five of my favorite Famicom games that weren't made by Capcom, Enix, Konami, Namcot, Nintendo or Square:

1. Adventures of Lolo 2--Would you believe this was the fifth Lolo game released in Japan? The series' storied history is too long to recount here (read about it at hardcoregaming101.net), but the short-and-sweet version is that the first three had the name Eggerland attached to them. Another interesting note about this game: it was known as Adventures of Lolo 3 in North America. Whatever you call it, though, it's an awesome little puzzler that's well worth at least a bit of your time and attention.

2. Binary Land--I'm pretty sure I've written about this early Hudson Soft effort before. (Fake update: yep, I mentioned it in a past post about my five favorite games featuring penguins.) Regardless, it's worth bringing up again, as I'm pretty sure it's one of those import-only puzzlers that's largely been ignored by the non-Japanese masses. It's more than a bit antiquated, and it's not exactly the deepest game around, but it's more enjoyable than the bulk of its flashier, lengthier counterparts.

3. Chô Wakusei Senki Meta Fight--Does the name of this game not ring a bell for you? How about Blaster Master, which is what it was called outside of Japan? My older brother and I spent more time than I'd like to admit playing through this as teens. You don't have to own a pair of nostalgia-tinted glasses to find this part-platformer, part-run-and-gunner appealing, though, as its tight gameplay and atmospheric soundtrack (don't worry, it's graphics are pretty ace, too) can and should be appreciated by gamers of all ages and stripes.

Five favorites: Games featuring penguins

My recent experiences with The Berlin Wall, a Japanese Game Gear title that's filled with penguins of various colors and sizes, got me thinking it might be fun to write about my favorite games that feature these waddling, flightless birds.

This post is the result of that brainstorming, of course. Please note that I decided to focus on games that have penguin protagonists. As such, you won't see games like the aforementioned platformer or, say, Super Mario 64 discussed here.

1. Binary Land (Famicom)--This Hudson Soft-made game, which puts players in control of a pair of in-love penguins, is one of my favorite Famicom games, so it shouldn't be too surprising that I'm including it here. I don't love Binary Land because of its adorable protagonists, by the way; I love it because of its unique gameplay (you literally control both characters at the same time as you work them toward each stage's "exit" of sorts) and its highly hummable soundtrack.

2. Parodius Da! (PC Engine)--I could have included any of Konami's Parodius games in this post, really, but I decided to go with this, the series' second release, because it's the first I played. A few additional reasons for its inclusion here: it stars Pentarou, son of Antarctic Adventure's main character, and it features hordes of penguin "baddies" as well as a rather notable penguin boss (who earns extra points from yours truly for being both pink and a pirate), too.

You've never looked more beautiful, Binary Land

If you ask me, it's a crying shame that one of Hudson Soft's earliest Famicom games, the rather romantic Binary Land, was never released outside of Japan.

That's because Binary Land is one of the cutest, not to mention one of the most unique, titles to hit the console that was called the Nintendo Entertainment System everywhere else in the world.

Sure, it's more than a bit archaic in terms of graphics--although the main characters, Gurin (the blue penguin in this video of Binary Land's first level) and Malon (the pink penguin), were crafted with a good bit of care and skill--but the boring-ish visuals never detract from the gameplay, which calls on players to lead Gurin and Malon through each maze-like stage until they meet at the caged heart in the middle. (This is more challenging than it sounds, as players control both players at the same time.)



Anyway, I'm guessing that even if Binary Land had been released in Australia, Europe or North (or South) America, its cartridge label likely wouldn't have been half as cute as the one seen in the photo above.

Said label was made by the proprietor (or proprietress) of "the laboratory" tumblog, by the way. If you like his/her style (and you should), you'll probably like these Famicom label mockups and these mockups of a make-believe series of games called Wander World, too.

(Via the comments section of this famicomblog post)