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)
