DS 4-in-1 Famicom Cart

Origin: Japan
 # of Games: 1
 Type: Famicom Game Cart

Information

This is not your average run-of-the-mill Famicom multi-cart. The label should be enough to peak your interest. We have a strange space picture for Jackal (spelled “The Jakal” here), which is odd, since Jackal is a military type game taken place mostly in deserts. Next to “The Jakal” is a shot of Serious Sam of PC first-person shooter fame and the Contra label underneath. This isn’t just a copy of the game, though. But more on that later. To the right of Contra is Daiva, a Famicom-only game that before now I never knew existed. That might have been for the best. And finally is the most enticing one yet (the reason I bought this in the first place): “Pretty Girl Fighte”! Fighte? Yes, Fighte! They ran out of room for the r.

1. Contra

The first game listed on the multi-cart selection screen is Contra. When you click on Contra, you’re taken to yet another menu: one that lists twelve more choices. (12 in 1 inside of a 4 in 1? You just blew my mind, man!) This is really neat. You can start up regular old Contra, or start with 30 players (no Konami code memorization needed), or you can choose whichever weapon to start with, or (my favorite) numbers 06 – 12 act as a level select with the last (“Contra 8″) taking you directly to the Alien Boss.

Finally! I beat the game without losing a life or my mind!

2. Jackal

Unlike the cool options for Contra, Jackal, unfortunately, is same old Jackal. I couldn’t find any differences.

3. Pretty Girl Fighter

Oh yes. Here it is. My perversion has waited long enough. Hit me, baby. I am a self-proclaimed historian of adult video games, so when I saw that this multi-cart had this title, I immediately thought it was some sort of NES hack of the Super Famicom fighting game of the same name (which does, by the way, exist on a Famicom pirate… unfortunately, not this one).

This is an actual licensed Famicom game put in ’87 by Toei. I found a little bit of information about this title, which goes by “[Something] Detective III.” From what I could translate, there’s a shadow star… something called “the grass”…. hand medicine (?)… something involving demons and the Tokyo Metropolitan police department, three sisters, and a yo-yo. This must be one hell of a game.

Much to my dismay, there is not much sexiness to be had here. Some enemies are female and fond of short skirts, but they are faceless, and that’s a turnoff for me. Honestly, I have no idea what this game is about. You control a girl (wearing a long black dress, sigh) and your weapons include throwing stars and a mighty yo-yo. The playing field is a huge city which goes on and on and on, my friend, and on and on. Gameplay is basically dodging the projectiles from a variety of ninjas (who all do pretty much the same attacks) and running. Lots of running. Always the running.

4. Daiva

Last, and by far least in importance, we come to Daiva. Daiva is a strategy game, the first in the series of seven that spanned several different machines including the computer. The object is to battle in cities, but I couldn’t actually find any, so I flew around the screen until I feel asleep. Feel asleep! Now I know I’m playing too much NES!