Talk:MSX

Excellent!
I've always been interested in the MSX, but have never played any MSX games except Metal Gear. Great page idea! - MFGreth1 12:25, September 28, 2010 (UTC)

FUCK. YES. I wasn't sure if we'd be able to have one or not, but given that this exists now, I guess we have to! Early recommendations to consider:

MOTHERFUCKING MAZE OF GALLIOUS. This is a MUST. This is just a personal opinion, but I think this game shits all over Castleroids and Metroidvanias and holds the unbridled position as king of the genre until La-Mulana came around. Also, a link to the freeware version or note that it also exists as freeware.

Both Metal Gears. Despite being harder, and abit tougher compared to their NES remix counterpart (which is more or less its own game, same with Snack's Revenge); I found these both to be excellent games, with regards to early stealth and hardware constraints. Also, FISTFIGHTING GREY FOX IN A MINEFIELD IN MG2 FUCK YES.

Snatcher: Apparently a translation exists or some version that was in English. The content is a bit different compared to the Sega CD version, but from what I heard and have seen, it's still worth checking out, if only for curiosity's sake.

SD Snatcher: Different from the MSX and Sega CD (and later) versions, this is more of a sort of Action RPG but still has the spirit of the original, despite a slightly different story and more comical look and take on the Snatcher world of Neo-Kobe. Also, everyone is little animu chibi people, even Jean Jack Gibson (who STILL gets his head twisted off! Poor guy can't get a break...)

The Goonies (1 for MSX, not 1 for NES or 2): Action-Adventure-ish, Platform-Puzzle arcade-styled game (yeah, its kind of an oddball). A bit short, but the stages are long and require some thinkan to beat and skill to dodge and defeat enemies. I'm a bit split between this and the NES game on which is better since you have different aspects which are stronger between the two. The structure of the game seems like it was utilized and mastered in Maze of Gallious, most specifically the EXP bar to restore health. This also had a freeware remake by the same crew as the Gallious remake, although you play as Sloth instead of the presumed Mikey (both play the same).

Eggerland Mystery and Eggerland 2 (remixed and known on NES as the Adventures of Lolo): Relatively bare-bones compared to their Famicom/NES cousins and remixes, but not too bad, I'd say.

The Castle Excellent (a.k.a. Castlequest): I haven't played too much of this series, but I heard they're pretty good puzzlan games.

Thexder: A bit choppy maybe, but really cool for the time. Essentially you switch on the fly between jet and robot mode. The jet can move anywhere, but only fires in the direction it is facing and flying toward (out of 8 (?)), while the robot has an auto-aim laser, but less movement capabilities. An interesting concept at least, but masterfully remade on PSP and PS3.

Salamander: Although must shmups get flak for their awkward MSX conversions, this version of Salamander was supposedly pretty good, and had a number of stages and songs that were supposedly exclusive to it, at least for a good while.

Dragon Slayer IV: Drasle Family: Known as Legacy of the Wizard on NES. 4 family members and their "dog", each with different abilities, explore a big ass dungeon. IIRC, the MSX version map is different from the NES one, making it a new experience to take on.

Golvellius Series+Super Cooks: Action Adventure games by Compile that predate The Guardian Legend in mixing 3 genres of overhead, auto-scroll overhead, and 2-D platforming. The first was remixed on the Sega Master System, but 2 is exclusive to MSX. Super Cooks is a sort of comical spin off to the series, but still playing like G2, but with new levels and what not, but based on cooking and ingredients strangely enough.

Vampire Killer: A curious remix of Castlevania 1 on NES, controls notably faster (at least when I played), has merchants, and different types of weapons/subweapons and power-ups. Controls a bit weird on keyboard compared to the NES CV1, but more properly on input gamepad controls from what I can understand.

I would consider adding Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest 2, but as far as I know, those are untranslated. Visually, they are updated (especially FF1, dem colors man), but a little bit choppy when scrolling. DQ2MSX has the infamous "Abunai Mizugi"/"Dangerous Swimsuit" joke though. Not sure if it'd be worth playing a slightly altered version of DQ2 versus just laughing at the video on Youtube.

Not sure how the versions of Bomberman and Lode Runner fare.

There are fans of the Xak series, but I don't know much about it outside of it being an action RPG series, that had a relatively good following in European MSX import fanbases.

The Ys games might be worth looking into, but I don't know how they stand up compared to other versions.

The shmup games by Compile might be worth checking out. Pretty good on NES but I don't know how they fare on MSX. Curiously, Alyssa from The Guardian Legend on NES is the same fighter ship/robot in Guardic released on MSX (For those not in the know: In Japan, TGL was known as Guardic Gaiden).

Surprisingly, the MSX version of Parodius (the first one, not Parodius Da! which was different, despite often being called just "Parodius") wasn't all that great so I wouldn't go recommending it. I don't know about other shmups though.

Can't think of anything else right now other than consider some of the stuff on

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_MSX_games that is also seen on http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/

And I'm out! Dejiko 22:49, September 28, 2010 (UTC)