Final Fantasy III, released in Japan in 1990, didn't get a Western NES version. A complete prototype for FF2 was created but scrapped due to the release of the SNES. FF3 never even had a chance, which is a shame, because it's the best of the 8-bit Final Fantasy games! The Japanese Famicom Classic rightfully came with FF3 instead of our NES Classic's FF1 . Famicom cartridge Final Fantasy II changed the formula by scrapping XP and levels in favor of a skill-based system. It didn't work very well, so with Final Fantasy III, Square went back to the source. As in both prior games, four heroes go on various quests, explore sundry dungeons, and interact with diverse NPCs, some of whom even briefly follow the party. The big innovation of FF3 is that, instead of choosing a party of four heroes at the beginning, each of the four elemental crystals bestows new classes! You can switch any hero's class whenever you want by spending "capacity points" earned in battle (...

Kirby's Dream Land 2 is an exemplary sequel, improving upon everything from its predecessor . In addition to being much longer, it includes Kirby's copy ability (from Kirby's Adventure ) and animal friends for Kirby to ride! Kirby has his usual abilities: in addition to walking, ducking, and jumping, he can inhale enemies, fly (via self-inflation), spit out enemies or puffs of air, and copy enemy abilities. This robust move-set makes Kirby games much easier than, say, Super Mario, skewing towards a younger audience. For adult fans, it may qualify as "cozy gaming"! Riding between worlds on a star The game has seven worlds of three to six levels each plus a boss fight. Compare that to the original game, which had just five levels (each containing multiple segments). This game is about three times longer. There are eight abilities Kirby can copy by swallowing certain enemies and then pressing ↓: fire, ice, spark, cutter, sword, parasol, needle, and stone. It's fu...

Fire Emblem, one of the oldest tactical role-playing series, debuted in Japan in the spring of 1990. The series didn't come to the U.S. until 2003. Five years ago, Nintendo belatedly translated into English the first Famicom game, subtitled Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light, and released it on the Switch to celebrate its 30th anniversary (though it was soon removed from the eShop). Now it celebrates its 35th anniversary! A tactical RPG is defined as an RPG that uses either grid- or hex-based combat after the style of tabletop wargames like Warhammer, Stratego, or chess. Instead of controlling a party of adventurers exploring dungeons and fighting monsters (a la Dungeons & Dragons), in tactical RPGs you control an army confronting other armies on a battlefield. You array your units strategically based on the terrain and enemy positions. You can't just select "fight" from a menu and then pick a target. Many factors must be accounted for, such as bottlenecks on b...

The popular Pokémon Trading Card Game (TCG) came to the United States at the beginning of 1999, a few months after the original Game Boy games and simultaneous with the anime show. One year later, on April 10, 2000, the first digital implementation of the game arrived in the form of a Game Boy Color game. Although it features only the first three sets–just over 200 cards–and a low-resolution interface, it is a complete and faithful reproduction of the card game. I've played Magic: The Gathering, the world's first (and best) TCG, since 1994 but only got into the Pokémon TCG a couple years ago thanks to the free digital version. As a teenager I dismissed Pokémon as too simple, but the game is a lot of fun. I no longer see the simplicity as a drawback. There is plenty of strategy, and tournament-quality decks can do crazy things thanks to powerful deck-searching cards. A skippable tutorial teaches you how to play the Pokémon TCG. Players use their card collection to build decks of...

Just in time for its 30th anniversary, Nintendo added the Game Boy game, Mario's Picross, to its Switch Online Expansion Pack. The portmanteau "picross" refers to the fact that each puzzle is solved by cross -referencing both vertical and horizontal numeric clues on a grid, creating a picture . The game is barely known in the States, though it led to several Japanese sequels. Each puzzle is made up of columns and rows of boxes, somewhat like Sudoku, either 5x5, 10x10, or 15x15. Each row and each column is labeled with one or more numbers. These show how many consecutive boxes in that column or row must be filled in. When all the right boxes have been filled in, a simple picture, like a cactus or frog, will have been formed. Before you fill any boxes, you can accept a "hint," meaning one column and one row are filled in for you—a significant headstart, which I enjoy. To solve these puzzles, you have to use logic to deduce which boxes are the targets. For example...

My lifelong love of role-playing games began with a free copy of Dragon Warrior—part of a promotion by Nintendo Power. The game was primitive, as Western ports of Japanese RPGs lagged years behind. Dragon Quest III came out in early 1988, just three months after Final Fantasy , but we didn't get Dragon Warrior III until four years later . (The name had to be altered because someone had trademarked "Dragon Quest" in the U.S.) By then the Super Nintendo was already out; Dragon Warrior III made almost no impact. Enix declined to localize V and VI. (Fortunately, Squaresoft and Enix merged in 2003, and the new company ported both to the DS for international release!)  Dragon Warrior III and IV are easily the best RPGs on the NES. DW3 does everything Final Fantasy does and more. Instead of choosing your party of four only at the beginning, you control a central hero or heroine (you choose the gender, although they are called Ortega's "son" either way), who can re...