Best Game of the 80's Round 2: American-Edited Games

Welcome to the long-awaited round 2!  These games have one thing in common:  They are different from their Japanese counterparts by a longshot!

The Astyanax



Platform:  NES
Date:       December 21, 1989
Publisher: Jaleco

Plot

Astyanax is a 16-year-old student from Greenview High School who has been having a recurring dream in which a young woman is calling out for his name. One day, while on his way to class, Astyanax is suddenly transported into another dimension. Astynax meets the fairy Cutie, who explains that he is in the kingdom of Remlia and has been summoned to rescue its ruler, Princess Rosebud, who is being held captive by the evil wizard Blackhorn. Armed with the legendary axe Bash granted, Astyanax sets out on a journey to Blackhorn's lair with Cutie in order to rescue Rosebud.

Gameplay

The game is a fantasy side-scroller. By picking up a power-up, Astyanax's weapon, the Bash, changes shape from its default axe form into a spear, which can be upgraded again into a sword. The spear has the weakest attack strength, but allows Astyanax to use his magic spells more often by consuming less magic points, while the sword can deal the most damage on enemies, but consumes the most magic points when casting a spell. The player will revert to his previous weapon after losing a life.
The player's magic spells consists of a binding spell that temporarily freezes all enemies for a few seconds, a fire blast spells that damages all enemies within range and a thunderbolt spell that damages every enemy on-screen. Each spell consumes a different amount of magic points, with the binding spell consuming the least point, while the thunderbolt consumes the most.
Other power-ups that includes a power supply that extends the length of Astyanax's power gauge, allowing for stronger axe swings, a wing that increases the refill speed of Astyanax's power gauge, potions that restores the player's health and magic and extra lives. Astyanax can also encounter Cutie throughout certain stages, who will offer to either change Astyanax's weapon or refill his magic points.

Trivia:

This game's plot is completely different from the arcade version in Japan.  The storyline was drastically edited, and characters were given even more strange names.

This is the youngest game to qualify in this tournament.  It is a mere eleven days away from qualifying in Best Game of the 90's.




Super Mario Brothers 2



Platform:  NES
Date:       July 10, 1987 (Japan)
Publisher: Nintendo

Plot:

Mario, Luigi, Toad and the Princess must free the dream-land known as Subcon from a character known as Wart.

Gameplay:

The game is a side-scrolling platform game. At the beginning of each stage, the player is given a choice of four protagonists to control: Imajin/Mario, Mama/Luigi, Papa/Toad, and Lina/Princess Toadstool. Each character has different strengths: Imajin/Mario runs faster; Mama/Luigi can jump the highest of the four; Papa/Toad can run and pluck vegetables the fastest but is the poorest jumper; and Lina/Peach can jump the farthest, due to her ability to hover for a short time, though she is the slowest runner and slowest at plucking items from the ground. All characters have the ability to increase the height of their jump by ducking briefly before they jump.
Unlike the previous and following Mario games, no enemies can be defeated by jumping on them. Instead, the player character must throw objects at enemies, such as vegetables plucked from the ground. Certain opponents can be picked up and thrown as well, and several levels feature blocks marked with the word "POW", which when picked up and thrown kill all the enemies on screen at impact, similar to the one in Mario Bros.
The game features a life meter, a then-unusual feature in the series. The player begins each stage with two points of health, represented by hearts/red hexagons (in remakes of Super Mario Bros. 2, they are shaped like hearts), and can increase the number of health points in the meter by picking up heart containers/mushrooms. Health can be replenished by floating hearts, which appear after a certain number of opponents have been defeated. The invincibility star from the previous game appears, with a player needing to collect five pairs of cherries to acquire it.
Each stage contains one or more hidden flasks of genie lamps/potions. When plucked and thrown, it creates a door to Sub-Space, an alternate world in which coins are collected instead of vegetables when plucked. The heart containers/mushrooms used to increase the health meter can also be found here. The player automatically leaves Sub-Space after a short time. The coins collected are used in a slot machine mini-game played between stages. This mini-game is the chief means of obtaining additional lives. In addition to the items found in Sub-Spaces, certain ones are also used as warp zones; these involve the use of vases as pipes.

Trivia:

This game is even more different from it's Japanese counterpart.  This game was edited from a Japanese title called "Doki Doki Panic."  The Japanese version of Super Mario Bros. 2 was claimed to be too difficult for the average American to play.  Miyamoto decided he wanted to work on a Mario game that introduced vertical scrolling as well; and decided to edit the Doki Doki Panic game with Mario characters, and market it in America.  It was a major success.