Do You NintenKnow: September 2024

Below is a set of clues for games that have a notable US release date anniversary (5, 10, 15, etc.) in the current month. See if you can figure out the title before clicking the blurred image to find out if you were correct! Head down to the comments when you’re finished and reminisce about the personal memories that were dredged up. Remember that these are going by the release date in the United States. Have fun!

September 1989

Capcom released this sidescrolling NES platformer based on a popular Disney animated series about a family of fowl. Bounce around on your cane as Scrooge McDuck, collecting treasure and defeating enemies in various stages like The Amazon, Transylvania, and the Moon – complete with iconic stage music!

September 1994

This GameBoy version of a title in Capcom’s “blue bomber” series is unique in that it features original bosses called Stardroids exclusive to this release as opposed to using bosses from the NES versions. These Stardroids have names that are out of this world! As in literally “out of this world” since they’re named after planets including “Venus”, “Mars”, etc. Besides these original bosses, the gameplay is pretty much tried and true from the rest of the series, which isn’t a bad thing.

This Quintet SNES action RPG puts you in the shoes of Will and his alter egos Freedan and Shadow to save the world from a comet that will bring “ill fortune to the world”. Levels are based on real life locations such as the Great Wall of China and the Egyptian Pyramids. This title was the second released in what’s known as the “Quintet Trilogy” following Soul Blazer and preceding Terranigma.

This Midway arcade sequel to one of the most influential – and controversial – fighting games of all time found its way to the SNES in full, uncensored glory. No more “sweat” this time when characters took damage, we got red blood, baby! Full, gory Fatalities were on display along with other ways to end a match like Babalities and Friendships. Most of the characters from the original game returned along with new favorites like Jax and Baraka. I spent way too many hours than I’d like to admit as a youngster screwing around in the 2-player mode with no one on the second controller so I could see the Fatalities…and I turned out relatively OK!

September 1999

Another Midway arcade sequel port to talk about, though this one made its way to the N64 which allowed for 4-player action as long as you had an Expansion Pak. Otherwise you were limited to 3-player fun. This third title in the series continued the hack and slash dungeon crawling of the previous installments but was translated to 3D for the first time. Also new to the series was the ability to level up your characters by defeating enemies and finding treasure. The Warrior, Wizard, Archer, and Valkyrie are back along with secret forms of those characters like the Minotaur and Falconess. I never got very far in this game but still have fond memories playing this with my cousin for hours on end.

September 2014

Koei Tecmo and Nintendo teamed up for this Wii U spinoff title featuring characters and settings from Nintendo’s popular fantasy series. The gameplay, however, was a big departure from the usual action adventure fare into the hack-and-slash genre with a massive number of enemies on screen. This game was packed with content including a separate “Adventure Mode” which has players exploring a map similar to the original NES debut title for the series to complete specific tasks. Oh, and our green clad hero has a new, blue scarf…neat!

September 2019

This stunning Level-5 action RPG released on the Switch in 2019, nearly a decade after it originally released on both the Nintendo DS and PlayStation 3 in 2010/2011. It looks like a Studio Ghibli game…because it IS a Studio Ghibli game! At least they produced the animated sequences. Play as Oliver and tame “familiars” that can be sent out into battle. The story is a tear-jerker FYI but I won’t spoil it here. Maybe I should’ve been called Drippy, just like Oliver’s fairy friend. Tidy!

This Square Enix RPG from a long running series finally released on the Switch in 2019 after having been one of the first games ever confirmed for the “NX” back in 2015 before the console was officially revealed. To make it worth the wait, the Switch version had plenty of extras not seen on the other platforms where the game released earlier including a 16-bit option adapted from the 3DS title, an option for orchestral music, and an expanded story. Sometimes, waiting can be good!