Famicom National Referendum - Japanese fan poll results (ongoing for the system's 40th Anniversary!)

[Link | 2,878]

12 hours ago, scaryice said:

When it comes to oceans/ships, what comes to mind?

SQOON!
Cobra Triangle
Eliminator Boat Duel

uh... Fantasy Zone

[Tanooki | 5,085]

A couple of those about best villains I find confusing but ok... Xevious?  A couple of Mario and Mega Man when the villain is the same.  The list is largely solid, a nice surprise seeing DQ4 up top too.  Strange it is not seeing Zelda make the list at all, and also strange but nice to see Ghosts n Goblins hit it as that is deserving.

With oceans/ships at play, it would be sad to see that SMB3 wouldn't make the cut given the air and lava based ships in that one.  Maybe something KOEI like Uncharted Waters, possibly PIRATES could make the list if that one showed up overseas(I forget.)  Final Fantasy is well known for ships, both water and more so airships.  I do agree on Higemaru Makaijima.  It would be odd, but maybe Popeye with that ship stage to collect the HELP letters.

[koifish | 588]

Gilligan's Island lmao

[fcgamer | 4,965]

On 6/27/2024 at 11:49 PM, Link said:

SQOON!
Cobra Triangle
Eliminator Boat Duel

uh... Fantasy Zone

 

1 hour ago, koifish said:

Gilligan's Island lmao

 

On 6/27/2024 at 11:49 PM, Link said:

SQOON!
Cobra Triangle
Eliminator Boat Duel

uh... Fantasy Zone

Aside from Sqoon and Fantasy Zone, none of these games were released on the Famicom, unless you count the Taiwanese bootlegs that came out during that time.

[Tanooki | 5,085]

And even then like Afterburner Fantasy Zone has it own versions of things vs the US.

[koifish | 588]

23 hours ago, fcgamer said:

Aside from Sqoon and Fantasy Zone, none of these games were released on the Famicom, unless you count the Taiwanese bootlegs that came out during that time.

Yeah I know, just felt like joking around.

After some more thought, two games that come to mind are Castlevania 3 and Ninja Gaiden 3. The latter for its title and the former for its boat level.

[Tanooki | 5,085]

Well if you want to get into boats that widely, Mickey Mousecapade has a boat and ocean stage where you can deal with tick tock from Peter Pan as a boss.

[fcgamer | 4,965]

Technically space ships are ships, just in outer space. That opens a lot of doors too.

[scaryice | 620]

This week's results:

Question #50 (6/27-7/3) - When it comes to ocean/ships, what games come to mind?

1	Dragon Quest II	16.0
2	Higemaru Makaijima	16.0
3	Uncharted Waters	10.5
4	Dragon Quest III	7.4
5	Mississippi Satsujin Jiken	7.0
6	Final Fantasy III	5.8
7	Super Mario Bros. 3	4.5
8	Sqoon	3.4
9	Goonies	3.3
10	Raid on Bungeling Bay	2.5
11	Super Arabian	1.8
12	Doraemon	1.1
13	Dragon Quest IV	1.0
14	Okhotsuku ni Kiyu	0.9
15	Final Fantasy	0.9
15	Popeye	0.9
17	Super Mario Bros.	0.8
18	Fushigi no Umi no Nadia	0.7
18	Fleet Commander	0.7
20	Sky Destroyer	0.7
20	Navy Blue	0.7

I was right on the money with my predictions last week, although I didn't call DQ2 getting first. That makes a lot of sense though. Getting the ship was a big part of that game, opening up the world. Just like in FF1 also. Both of those games were clearly inspired by Ultima 3, but that game didn't make the list. Anyway, it was an extremely close finish, with both DQ2 and Makaijima dead even. I can only assume it was a tiny handful of votes that made the difference.

 

Next week's question: When it comes to Famicom, what comes to mind?

Just the word "Famicom" is listed. Only two polls left, I'm guessing, so the last will probably be favorite game or best overall game. For this one, we could see some games with Famicom in the title (Famicom Detective Club, Famicom Jump, Famicom Wars, Famista), but also probably a lot of Dragon Quest and Super Mario too.

EDIT: It turns out the 51st poll will actually be the final one - I forgot that one poll was two weeks long because of holidays.

Edited July 12 by scaryice

[Tanooki | 5,085]

Nice I had a feeling about that water one, feel bad I forgot about a game I've owned for like 30 years as it's all about island hopping to wreck factories -- Raid on Bungling Bay, such a solid good game, not great, just good.

I'd just say if not literally because Famicom is in the name I'd give it to Super Mario, it's the key mascot of the system with Link(Zelda) being a closer second.  But if the intent is the name of the system, given their hardcore insane love of what is traditionally an American past time I'd throw it to baseball-- Famista, since for years others blatantly ripped them off or tried to use it and do other stuff which usually ended in a fail.  If not that the entire "Family" line of carts from Namco which had various sports and even pinball.

[koifish | 588]

I forgot about Mario 3 having ships in it. Nice touch. Guessing the Mario 1 votes were people mixing up this game with 3. Also forgot about the adventure games. How did Sqoon end up there?

 

For "Famicom", my mind goes to black box games, so maybe for Japanese it will be famicom pulse line games. Actually, for me it's Excitebike and Balloon Fight specifically. They're the first two NES games I remember playing.

[Tanooki | 5,085]

Sqoon why not?  It's all about the sea there, subs, ships, weird stuff, mermaids, captives.  Even has a cool red LED on the FC cart.  I imported this one since the US price is clown territory and prefer it.  And on that, Jaws could have worked too.

[fcgamer | 4,965]

5 hours ago, Tanooki said:

Sqoon why not?  It's all about the sea there, subs, ships, weird stuff, mermaids, captives.  Even has a cool red LED on the FC cart.  I imported this one since the US price is clown territory and prefer it.  And on that, Jaws could have worked too.

No Jaws on Famicom 

[scaryice | 620]

This week's results: (it's also the final result, because one previous poll was 2 weeks long)

Question #51 (7/4-7/11) - When it comes to Famicom, what comes to mind?

1	Super Mario Bros.	49.7
2	Mario Bros.	6.3
3	Dragon Quest III	3.4
4	Famicom Wars	3.4
5	Famicom Detective Club (part 1)	3.1
6	Donkey Kong	2.8
7	Famicom Jump	2.6
8	Super Mario Bros. 3	2.0
9	Dragon Quest	1.2
10	Shin Onigashima	1.0
11	Kirby's Adventure	0.9
12	Mother	0.9
13	Legend of Zelda	0.9
14	Famicom Detective Club (part 2)	0.8
15	RBI Baseball	0.7
16	Xevious	0.7
17	Masuzoe Youichi: Asa Made Famicom	0.6
18	Baseball	0.5
19	Downtown Nekketsu Koushinkyoku	0.5
20	Dragon Quest IV	0.5
20	Bomberman	0.5

 

This is the biggest vote share and margin of victory for any poll winner. It had to be Mario, right? I'm surprised a bit by the margin of victory, as well as DQ3 not being closer. I feel like SMB3 would win a western poll, right? It's been a fun year of following this, and I really, really hope Nintendo does this for the 40th anniversary of the NES next year.

I'll post some stats shortly.

[scaryice | 620]

Number of Polls Won

5	Dragon Quest III
5	Super Mario Bros.
3	Dragon Quest II
2	Dragon Quest
2	Legend of Zelda
2	Mother
2	MUSCLE
2	Takeshi no Chousenjou
1	Atlantis no Nazo
1	Baseball
1	Castlevania
1	Chubby Cherub
1	City Connection
1	Doraemon
1	Dragon Quest IV
1	F1 Race
1	Famicom Wars
1	Final Fantasy II
1	Ganbare Goemon
1	Gradius
1	Gyromite
1	Ikki
1	Kung Fu Heroes
1	Life Force
1	Mario Bros.
1	Metroid
1	Minelvaton Saga
1	Popeye no Eigo Asobi
1	Portopia Renzoku Satsujin Jiken
1	RBI Baseball
1	Renegade
1	Shin Onigashima
1	Star Soldier
1	Tetris
1	Twinbee
1	Xevious

 

36 different games won in 51 polls.

 

Most Times in Top 20

20	Dragon Quest III
17	Mother
16	Dragon Quest IV
14	Dragon Quest II
13	Dragon Quest
13	Super Mario Bros.
13	Super Mario Bros. 3
11	Ghosts 'n Goblins
10	Final Fantasy III
10	Kirby's Adventure
10	Mega Man 2
9	Doraemon
9	Legend of Zelda
9	Momotarou Densetsu
9	Ninja Gaiden
9	Okhotsuku ni Kiyu
8	Famicom Detective Club (part 2)
8	Fire Emblem
8	Mario Bros.
8	Shin Onigashima
8	Takeshi no Chousenjou
7	Ice Climber
7	Mega Man
7	Mississippi Satsujin Jiken
7	Xevious
6	Bomberman
6	Captain Tsubasa II
6	Castlevania III
6	Donkey Kong
6	Famicom Detective Club (part 1)
6	Ganbare Goemon
6	Genpei Touma Den
6	Kunio-kun no Jidaigeki Dayo Zenin Shuugou
6	Megami Tensei II
6	Metal Slader Glory
6	Spelunker
6	Wizardry
6	Youkai Douchuuki

 

Highest Cumulative Percentage from Top 20 Appearances

		Total	App
1	Dragon Quest III	218.3	20
2	Super Mario Bros.	176.4	13
3	Mother	128.8	17
4	Dragon Quest II	110.5	14
5	Dragon Quest	96.9	13
6	Shin Onigashima	79.0	8
7	MUSCLE	72.4	5
8	Legend of Zelda	64.3	9
9	Doraemon	63.0	9
10	Mario Bros.	60.5	8
11	Dragon Quest IV	58.7	16
12	Momotarou Densetsu	48.3	9
13	Takeshi no Chousenjou	47.8	8
14	Gradius	46.8	4
15	Chubby Cherub	45.1	3
16	Super Mario Bros. 3	41.5	13
17	Ikki	40.9	5
18	Star Soldier	38.7	4
19	Excitebike	38.4	4
20	Mega Man 2	38.2	10
21	Xevious	37.9	7
22	Atlantis no Nazo	37.5	5
23	Fire Emblem	36.8	8
23	Raid on Bungeling Bay	36.8	5
25	Transformers: Convoy no Nazo	34.6	4

 

Total number of different games

402, I think, out of 1252 FC/FDS titles. So basically, 1/3rd appeared at least once.

 

[scaryice | 620]

https://www.nintendo.com/jp/topics/article/a6893372-f4fd-4b45-99ec-ddaca8bc7e83

Some more info on the final poll from Nintendo's site. Broken down by age group, every group had SMB1 first. But second/third differed.

 

What game comes to mind when you think of "Famicom" ?

 

Age	2nd	3rd
0-19	Mother	Kirby's Adventure
20-29	Donkey Kong	Mother
30-39	Kirby's Adventure	Super Mario Bros. 3
40-49	Mario Bros.	Dragon Quest III
50-59	Mario Bros.	Donkey Kong
60-69	Dragon Quest III	Legend of Zelda

 

They have a few more stats but that was the most interesting part. I have to imagine Mother ranking higher with young people is due to Undertale's influence.

 

[Tanooki | 5,085]

Well that and just all the truly unbalanced fan behavior around Mother/Earthbound for decades now, really ramping up in the internet era of the late 90s into the 00s.  It puts a point on the age group as more and more got sucked in so with that and likely Undertale that makes sense. We're in the era of Mother/Mother2 being reissued enough on Nintendo services too.

Kind of disappointed SMB3 never cracked #1 on any but largely rode the wave sitting high in averages though.  I question some gamers sanity having MUSCLE / Kinnikuman showing so well.

[koifish | 588]

The 50-59 picking the earliest arcade ports makes sense; 50-59 year olds were playing when they were pre-teens/teens/young adults and would have gravitated most to arcades I'd think. 60-69 throws me a bit, as they were adults already and picked DQ3 (logical since it was the all-star of RPGs), but were the only ones to pick Zelda. Is this poll suggesting that for those of 60-69 years of age who are still engaged enough with Nintendo to respond to a famicom poll that Zelda was a big influence on them when they played in the 80s? Did it appeal more to adults than to younger players in Japan? Very curious about this.

Also seconding the hope that NoA does this too. I doubt they will to be honest, but it would be nice if they did.

[wongojack | 308]

The biggest surprises for me are the low showing for

• Metroid (1 win and low top 20 count)
• Contra (did it ever appear in top 20?)
• Punch Out (1 appearance, and I think it was a joke)

I'm a weirdo, so I personally like those 3 titles better than any Mario game I've ever played (I know Mario's in Punch Out), and they were huge in North America.  Like . . . my childhood and millions of others wouldn't be the same without them huge.

 

 

Edited July 17 by wongojack

[koifish | 588]

9 hours ago, wongojack said:

The biggest surprises for me are the low showing for

• Metroid (1 win and low top 20 count)
• Contra (did it ever appear in top 20?)
• Punch Out (1 appearance, and I think it was a joke)

I'm a weirdo, so I personally like those 3 titles better than any Mario game I've ever played (I know Mario's in Punch Out), and they were huge in North America.  Like . . . my childhood and millions of others wouldn't be the same without them huge.

 

 

I can't speak for Contra, but the other two were successful but never really made a mark in Japan like they did elsewhere. Punch-Out in particular was a bit of a sleeper there IIRC.

[scaryice | 620]

11 hours ago, wongojack said:

The biggest surprises for me are the low showing for

• Metroid (1 win and low top 20 count)
• Contra (did it ever appear in top 20?)
• Punch Out (1 appearance, and I think it was a joke)

 

Metroid, like Zelda, is hurt by being on the disk system. That's probably the main reason those two series are less popular in Japan, even to this day. Although Zelda seems to have overcome that.

Contra made 5 top 20s. People say it was overshadowed by DQ3, since it came out one earlier over there.

 

 

[koifish | 588]

9 hours ago, scaryice said:

 

Metroid, like Zelda, is hurt by being on the disk system. That's probably the main reason those two series are less popular in Japan, even to this day. Although Zelda seems to have overcome that.

Contra made 5 top 20s. People say it was overshadowed by DQ3, since it came out one earlier over there.

 

 

My favorite trivia from a Famicom book I perused once was that Volleyball on FDS sold better than metroid, kid icarus, and both zeldas.

[Tanooki | 5,085]

I can't quite agree on Zelda doing low because of the disk system, the game years later when FC still was selling pretty solid now into the SFC era got a cartridge release.  People, far enough apart no less, got reminded of it and a generation of years enough apart too so more got exposed.  There was an 8 year gap as the FDS was 86 and FC was 94 both in February.  That's enough time with someone starting early to have played that game as a teen, to then have their own small kid have the cart too.

[koifish | 588]

On 7/18/2024 at 10:29 PM, Tanooki said:

I can't quite agree on Zelda doing low because of the disk system, the game years later when FC still was selling pretty solid now into the SFC era got a cartridge release.  People, far enough apart no less, got reminded of it and a generation of years enough apart too so more got exposed.  There was an 8 year gap as the FDS was 86 and FC was 94 both in February.  That's enough time with someone starting early to have played that game as a teen, to then have their own small kid have the cart too.

I dunno if it was because they simply wanted to go with the later release, but it's worth noting that the cart version of Zelda, not the disk version, was the one they used for the gba famicom mini series and for the virtual console.

[Tanooki | 5,085]

Yeah I did not appreciate that they did that, it's a real shame.  The music and little bits of the FDS game were nice and just got snuffed out, and it was a pure choice to be that annoying given the US got cart Metroid and Japan got FDS metroid (which is why I got the FC mini version of Metroid instead.)