The NES is a classic console with hundreds of titles to its name. There are far too many great games to list, so, instead, we are going to go over some of the games released for the console that weren’t kosher with Nintendo. These are some of the weirdest bootleg games that you’ve probably never heard of!
- . Windows 98
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This one doesn’t make a lot on sense. Chinese developer Bei Tongfang decided it would be a fun idea to port the Windows 98 to the Famicom console. It seems to only be a surface level port as while looking correct, nothing seems to work correctly or at all. It features no sound and doesn’t even have any Family BASIC programs that most OSes that got ported to the Famicom used to at least pretend to function. This seems to be more of a novelty item than anything else, but you can get yourself a copy on an NES cart if you really want to confuse your gamer friends.
- . Hot Dance 2000
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This one makes a lot on sense as DDR was massive and porting the PS1 game to the NES could make a company a few bucks in emerging markets where a PlayStation was out of reach. Hot Dance 2000 actually manages to work well with how basic DDR is. Many of the original tracks are here only done in 8-bit form which makes it really unique. If you are a fan of the original DDR then this port is actually a must if only to hear the 8-bit renditions.
The only change here is that there is no life bat and you can’t lose mid song. All the game does is record your score. Still, the D-pad on the NES is not great at reading multiple commands and people have managed to create plug-and-play dance pads so they can play the game as intended. Not many, or any that I know of, bootlegs have their own dedicated fanbase who create controllers for their games.
- . Street Fighter II: The World Warrior
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Street Fighter 2 changed the gaming world, but it was a game designed for the Super Nintendo because the NES simply couldn’t handle it. Well, that didn’t stop developers Hummer Team who managed to squeeze the game down onto a NES/Famicom cart. They released the game for foreign markets where the bootleg scene thrived and the cost of a modern console was out of reach for most people.
The game does have some liberties taken and only features four characters in Ryu, Chun-Li, Guile and Zangief. M. Bison/Vega is the final boss but his name is spelled wrong and shows up as “Viga” in the game. It’s not going to replace, or even be considered on par with the SNES port, but it let a lot of people get in on the Street Fighter 2 train, even if it was through a bootleg port.
- . Hello Kitty
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Hello Kitty is a massive kids brand that made its fortune by licensing it, and other Sanrio characters, to almost any company that is willing to pay for it. It’s almost like everywhere you turn you’re bound to find some sort of Hello Kitty made product regardless of what sort of store you are in. For her part, Hello Kitty has had a number of video games, even having one exclusive to Japan on the Famicom You’d think that this bootleg would be that title released for Eastern markets outside of Japan, but that isn’t the case.
Instead, Hello Kitty is a rom hack based on the popular arcade game Dig Dug. It mostly saw release on various Chinese Famicom multicarts that made there way around the globe, but there are cases where the game has been found on dedicated carts. One weird thing is that Kitty’s clothing is blue in the game instead of her iconic pink. Later revisions, the ones found later multicarts and on solo carts, fixed this and gave her the proper pink coloring.
- . Harvest Moon
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Another SNES classic that got reduced down to the NES, Harvest Moon is an example of not a simple downgrade, but a weird altering of the original. The game isn’t based on the SNES version and instead pulls maps and entire areas from Pokémon Ruby, Pokémon Sapphire, and Pokémon Emerald. It downgrades these GBA maps in and have them serve as the world for Harvest Moon on the NES/Famicom.
From looking at the one and only video posted on the game online, Harvest Moon looks pretty impressive on the surface. The issues seem to lie under the surface as the game is lacking many animations and the player can’t seem to do anything as when they open the toolbox the game breaks. It’s possible its a language barrier or a bootleg issues. I’d wager the later as anyone who had an old multicart knows most of the games never worked right.
- . Magic Giral
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The only title on this list that can’t have a video made on it, at least not in its original form. Magic Giral is most likely a butchering of the term Magical Girl. Sometimes known as Wildball (no idea way), this title is a port of Super Pig’s Emi’s Hot Strip Game, already an unlicensed game for the Famicom. So, this is a bootleg of a bootleg. The game can’t be shown and would never have been officially released as its a rock paper scissors game you play against a cute anime girl.
Every time you win a round Emi-chan will take off an article of clothing until she’s completely naked. In the days before the internet you could get your digital fix with some pixelated cartoon nudity. Some versions removed all sexual organs leaving a naked Emi-chan looking like a mannequin and thus okay to see on YouTube and okay for all those poor children buying illegal multicarts.
- . Harry Story
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Harry Story is the story of Harry Potter. The idea of porting a game to the NES based on the property isn’t that wild as a few fun Gameboy Color games did release and could serve as a base for a fairly easy porting. Instead of going that route Harry Story decides to be a port of Wacky Races for the Famicom. Even weirder is that Wacky Races isn’t a racing game like the series it was based on, instead being a traditional platformer where you play as Muttley and Dick Dastardly.
Muttley is replaced with Harry Potter and he uses the same attacks. Instead of biting you smack enemies with a wand, and instead of using bombs you shoot music notes. You also shoot out ninja stars that creepily look like swastikas in the item screen because wizards are also racist ninjas in this universe. The game is junk but maybe if they changed the enemies to be ones from the Harry Potter universe it could have worked, but probably not.
- . Dark Seed
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Dark Seed is a fantastic looking DOS-era adventure game with art by H. R. Giger of Aliens fame. It was a huge adventure that delt with out-of-this-world elements and a very dark story about a man with an alien growing inside his head and living in a home with portals to another world. It seems that someone, Mars Production in this case, were big fans of the game and took it upon themselves es to port it to the NES/Famicom.
The game plays pretty faithfully to the original, but sacrifices had to be made and so Dark Seed plays like the Spark Notes version of the original. Certain segments are omitted and the gameplay sections are ported from the lesser Amiga version of the game. The music is also just a single 15 second loop that will drive you mad before games end. H. R. Giger’s art manages to look creepy in 8-bit form so fans of the original might want to track this bootleg down.
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