I played the original Nintendo system. A lot. Some of the games I adored for that system were the Romance of the Three Kingdoms games, Genghis Khan, and Nobunaga’s Ambition. Some sequels were produced (we’re up to 11 on Romance of the Three Kingdoms, unfortunately they’re on PlayStation and not in English on the PC. Sequels were made for the other two titles.)
With the complexity and popularity of the Total War games, the time seems ripe to revisit these games and recreate them with our technology today. I’d love to see them come out with new games that expand on the original titles.
Anyways, this rant was launched with a point in mind. I wanted to see if anyone else played them and if there’d be any backing for it.
I played Nobunaga’s ambition, and also it’s sequel, Lord of Darkness.
I still own a KOEI historical simulation for super nintendo called Liberty or Death. It’s not as good as Nobunaga series, but the gameplay is similar, and it’s about the American Revolution! Can’t get any cooler than that.
I remember Liberty of Death, but I’ve never played it. God those games were much fun. If I remember correctly, there was even a game that was released in Japan that was about the American political system. That coulda been interesting, but I never got my hands on it.
Oh man, my friends and I played so much Nobunga’s Ambition. I still have that infernal music stuck in my head.
At once point, we set it up for all computer players and left the super nintendo going for 3 months straight to see if anyone would ever win. We cried when someone tripped over the power cord.
Now with emulators, we have learned that if you fast forward long enough, something special happens after the year 9999… It goes to the year 10000! AHHHHH! I have no idea the end date, but to add another digit would take 2 months of fast forwarding that I’m just not willing to commit a computer to.
I remember those games as well. I think I still have a NES cartridge of PTO: Pacific Theatre of Operations stashed away somewhere. That game was their take on WW2 in the (duh) Pacific. I remember one of the coolest parts of that game was taking control of the strike force on Pearl Harbor. Little planes zipping around the harbor, wreaking carnage KOEI-style.
Another thing that was cool about KOEI was that their underlying framework for every game (at least all the ones I saw) was similar enough so that, once you got into one of their games, it wasn’t too much of a leap to get quickly into another one. Of course, they always made each game unique by throwing in an insane level of attention to historical detail. Good stuff.
That’s also one of the things that’s shocked me. I read te Wikipedia entry for Genghis Khan recently, and it’s amazing how many things were perfectly accurate from the video game to real history.