The next installment in my series, 'Juan VS 100', in which I play Japan's favorite video games, is Nobunaga's Ambition Xevious for the Nintendo Famicom. Oh, this was a tough one...
Unlike Xevious, this game came in an oversized, plastic clamshell case. The sticker reads ¥5,200, but the suggested retail price on the box is ¥9,800! I believe I paid ¥300.
That extra cost can be attributed to the additional chips needed to run a game that was very much considered advanced for its time. Hence, the much larger cartridge.
It does come with what is essentially a book.
That's 30 plus-year-old cellophane tape.
The game has you assuming the role of ruler of a town in Japan during the feudal 1500s. Now, I really don't know anything about Japanese history, but apparently, this is the most interesting, action-packed, romantic time. You pick a town you want to rule over and make choices to keep your citizens happy and healthy. Watch out for that plague.
Unlike Xevious, this title isn't what I would consider to be very 'gamey'. There's no running, jumping, shooting, or exploring. You simply make tactical decisions (going to war, growing more rice, getting married) to further your power. I know that these games have their fans, but this just isn't for me. In fact, until this point, I've pretty much been able to completely avoid these kinds of tactical simulations.
When I first loaded the game, I wanted to cry from boredom. I couldn't be bothered to think deeply about my choices or look up any general strategies. I simply rolled the dice and selected whatever choices my cursor was already on. However, the game did open up once I got into some battles. Skirmishes take place on tiled landscapes. You move your soldiers into position and play a kind of Chinese checkers against the foe. This was almost kinda fun. But more often than not, I was out-manned due to my own lack of strategizing.
All hope is lost. A typical play-through took me between 5 and 20 minutes. And that was pretty much all I could handle.
And then that's it. This is what the end of a failed journey looks like. We're still in the infancy of home video games, so it's to be expected. More tactics games are awaiting me later on this list. Another in this hugely popular series (which continues today) is after the next game. But I am looking forward to more modern tactics games. They can't be this dull (for me).
This is simply not my type of game. Looking forward to my next challenge. 2 down. 98 to go.
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