3 NEWLY DISCOVERED SNK Fighting Games for the GAME BOY COLOR?!

In 2022, three new Fighting Games for the Game Boy Color have been dumped for the first time ever! These are SNK's Gals Fighters, King of Fighters and Soul Falchion, a Samurai Shodown / Last Blade inspired game.
00:00 - Fighting Games on the Game Boy
01:41 - New Game Boy Color Fighting Games
02:18 - Why were they undumped for 20 years?
03:20 - SNK's tech behind these games
04:51 - SNK Gals Fighters / Queen Fighters 2000
08:00 - Did the Soundtrack rip-off Michael Jackson?
08:33 - Card Captor Sakura and Final Fantasy 8 Fighters
09:18 - WHY IS THIS GAME SO GOOD?!
10:18 - BUT WAIT! IT GETS BETTER!
11:12 - King of Fighters '99 / Super Fighters 2001 Alpha
14:29 - It has link cable support lol
14:59 - Samurai Shodown / Last Blade / Soul Falchion
17:38 - Castlevania, Megaman and Harry Potter
18:18 - Where to find these games
#nintendo #gameboycolor #kingoffighters

[@PowerPandaMods]

I learned, living in South Korea in the early 2000s (prior to Nintendo being allowed into the country), that there is a difference between a bootleg that is a cash grab, and a bootleg that was made because of restricted markets. The ones made in restricted markets are made by passionate people who are really trying to make a good product.

[@st1ka]

very true!

[@budgiecat9039]

Taekwon V

[@lilifel]

Why was Nintendo not allowed

[@evan250592]

@@lilifel japan-korea has bad time relation on the past

[@PowerPandaMods]

@@lilifel I don't know exactly. I remember that when Brain Age released on the DS, that was their ticket into the country. By pushing the DS as an educational machine that also played games, they finally made it in. But the bootlegs were plentiful and surprisingly high quality prior to that.

[@tycho042]

It's interesting looking at these creations. Rina's moveset is almost exactly King's moves from Art of Fighting, Venom Strike, Trap Shot being the most used in the footage for the first game shown.

[@st1ka]

Yep, she was clearly inspired by King

[@DragoonMS]

Not to mention King's Desperation Move, Illusion Dance...every time Rinoa - I mean Rina - did that, I could hear King in my head: "Illusion..." *plenty of beatdown* "...yaaah!!" And then I'd try to hear it in Rinoa's voice, which makes it hilarious.

[@st1ka]

@@DragoonMS hehe xD

[@axelprino]

Turning Athena into Sakura because both have multiple outfit changes and a similar enough aesthetic is pretty clever actually. That kind of recycling of existing mechanics or assets is something that bootlegs were quite fond of, and sometimes the results were pretty decent.

[@st1ka]

Indeed. It's a pretty great idea

[@peachflavored]

When actual bootlegs are better than official games released on GB... what a world we live in! Also, some one savvy in the romhacking community should try to repurpose these games into actual SNK/Capcom games. I'd put these on a repro cart!

[@st1ka]

That'd be awesome! :D

[@TheGunmanChannel]

finally your channel is getting the attention it has always deserved. much respect for sticking at it brother.

[@st1ka]

Thanks man! Not gonna lie, there were many moments of desperation. I hope things are going well for you too ^^

[@DanielMonteiroNit]

Falchion is a kind of sword...in pt, it's called Alfange. It's somewhat related to the Iberian Falcata, somehow. It's the kind of sword Strider Hiryu uses, if I'm not mistaken

[@st1ka]

aaah thank you xD

[@DemonChildCC]

Sword that Hwang also uses as well as Yun seong..

[@ultralowspekken]

I've been looking all my life for the perfect bootleg fighter. This is a treasure.

[@st1ka]

haha glad I could help

[@timmer919hep]

ive always loved the neo geo pocket color fighting game aesthetics. these look pretty cool.

[@st1ka]

same here. I was super happy to get the neogeo pocket color collection for the Nintendo Switch

[@timmer919hep]

@@st1ka I only got Card Fighters. I havent grabbed the collection yet but now I must.

[@st1ka]

@@timmer919hep sadly the physical edition is a LRG exclusive so it might be difficult

[@timmer919hep]

@@st1ka theres still the digital version

[@st1ka]

@@timmer919hep yep very true ^^

[@TonyTheTGR]

So, this looks 100% like an adaptation/expansion of KoF '96 GB and by someone who REALLY understands the engine behind it! It's always something I've wanted to tinker with, between this and the GB adaptation of Battle Arena Toshinden. I'm surprised TAKARA didn't have as many mainline fighting game titles as it did behind it's portable series. The graphical stylization is totally NGBC stuff/edits, too; and someone REALLY has to know their stuff to work spriting/movement/collision to sprites that were inconsistent with the base game. I hope there's a devkit for this, now; or at least the tools used to make this.

[@st1ka]

Hopefully this will lead to tools being leaked /created as well

[@st1ka]

Thumbnail art by Ssambatea: twitter.com/SSAMBAtea?t=rX1jyyEIy0rPqnRWmDvfIw&s=01 If you liked the video, please Consider Subscribing: kzbin.info Or supporitng me on Patreon: www.patreon.com/St1ka

[@user-jc2lz6jb2e]

Consider crediting the artist of the thumbnail

[@st1ka]

@@user-jc2lz6jb2e that's a good idea. Done!

[@RetroVisage]

These seem real cool what an odd piece of bootleg history. St1ka your toshinden gameboy video really got me interested in gb fighters! So its great to see more emerge somehow.

[@st1ka]

Oh yeah Toshinden is so good! It's crazy how good it is!

[@chazmaru9583]

Nice stuff! 7:20 Not sure who you consider to be Ryu’s clone here, but "Regin" seems based on Kyoko Minazuki from Rival Schools and "Tanya" seems based on Iori Yagami from KOF.

[@st1ka]

Ah sorry I actually used the wrong footage. There's a character that has Ryu's background, but also shoots hadoukens, shoryukens, hurrican kicks and even has the same idle pose as Ryu

[@paolonavarro8318]

Maybe Regin's sprite desing was inspired from Kyoko, but her moves are taken off from Chun-li. Francis is the Ryu's clone, and Cio is a clone of Sakura from the Street Fighter series (also she appears in Super Fighters Alpha).

[@st1ka]

Yep Francis was the character I meant to use xD

[@royshaheer]

Oh boy... Whoever made these and similar bootleg ports needs to be given props for effort in doing so...

[@st1ka]

Right?! It's so cool!!

[@CarlolucaS]

I feel like if those were released as indie titles they would probably bang.

[@st1ka]

oh yeah, that's a very good point!

[@forple8930]

Wow, I knew these games were good, but I never took the time to really sit down and play them (plus I'd much rather play them on a real GB/C system, heh). To know they're actually insanely solid titles, fits right in line with VF's early-mid era before things seemed to go downhill. Your point about it being up to the fans to preserve these bootlegs; it's true. Any "official" company would want these games best off forgotten and dead. I'm surprised they haven't taken any sort of measures against these games floating around... By the way, there's a GBS rip for Queen Fighter 2000, I intend to upload the whole soundtrack at some point since the songs are insanely good, and it's a shame they weren't as accessible until now! Liao Yishen did a really good job with these soundtracks!

[@st1ka]

Indeed, we can't rely on companies to preserve these :\

[@barry-allenthe-flash8396]

I discovered KOF '96: Heat of Battle on the Game Boy recently thanks to emulator consoles, and having known about Takara's other conversions for the Game Boy, it _did_ make me wonder why SNK stopped 'em on the GBC. I mean, yeah, they had competing hardware with the Neo Geo Pocket Color.... but the Neo Geo was competing with the MegaGen and the SNES during the 16-bit era, and that didn't stop 'em from having Takara put out Fatal Fury, Art of Fighting and SamSho games on other consoles for them. I like that Vast Fame did this - it's like a peek into another universe where Takara kept making _pretty good_ Game Boy fighting games.... even if yeah, Street Fighter Alpha and Power Quest *by far* play the best. I mean, there's also stuff like Super Chinese Fighter EX and SD Hiryu no Ken EX for the Game Boy Color though... I think one of them is pretty good, and the other's just as slightly janky and iffy with things like slowdown, slight input delays and hit detection as Takara's fighters... or Vast Fame's now, lol. But yeah, a little Game Boy jank is not a dealbreaker. Definitely wanna give these a whirl this weekend now that I know they exist!

[@st1ka]

I'll check them out, thank you for the awesome recommendations:D

[@almaelma11]

Once again an amazing video! I love the fact that your videos about bootlegs slowly taught me that there are some really good bootlegs out there and this video is no different. Its such a weird and fascinating world to explore! I hope for more videos of this quality :) Also I will be very much preserving these games!

[@st1ka]

good, I'm really glad to hear that :D

[@Mankey619]

Fatal Fury looks amazing on the GameBoy color. The sprites look nice and colorful and the gameplay looks very decent,even though it never release outside Japan. Even the bootleg games looks very nice too on the GameBoy.

[@st1ka]

yep that's true! ^^

[@mordanpixchannel6155]

I remember when I've discovered Queen Fighting 2000 on 2013. and took like till 2021 to be dumped because of an anti-piracy protection the cartbridge had. It felt like a treasure being shared after so many years of trying to dump it.

[@st1ka]

I'm jealous, I want a copy too xD

[@workaholick]

Where's cat eating on a diner table for the thumbnail?...

[@royshaheer]

The devs

[@st1ka]

I ran out of space on the thumbnail xD

[@subarashiineko1]

Great video, this is some seriously cool stuff! I love the NGPC fighting games and I can't wait to try all of these out!

[@st1ka]

hope you'll enjoy it! :D

[@Yesterzine]

Copy protected bootlegs seems to be an awfully common thing. I assume because they wanted to sell carts to a market that embraced piracy where possible.

[@st1ka]

yep. It was very common, but it'll always be hilarious to me.

[@GeovaneSanciniSR]

Great video, I got around these games when you released the Metal Gear one, with Matel Gear II (which led me to the hhug website again - again because some time ago I downloaded some bootlegs for the game boy there). Also, on the same subject, I would recommend the Game Boy Color Japanese only Kettou Beast Wars: Beast Senshi Saikyou Ketteisen, which was developed by Takara and ALSO uses the same engine of those King of Fighters games.

[@st1ka]

Ooh I'll check them out. Thank you! :D

[@retroprojections]

St1ka, that video was a true work of art! You're the best, thanks for all you do!

[@st1ka]

Haha thank you I try!

[@vidarlystadjohansen9829]

just bumping your algorithm, great channel!

[@st1ka]

Haha thank you

[@dananasplitgl9926]

the art in the thumbnails really cute! do you have a source for the artist?

[@st1ka]

This is where I got it facebook.com/139788632766909/posts/pfbid027bmXkwQs8388D6vNFq68SLPZKp12mMPboWy3WU1aSu7fG6e2nCPjGbwAcbGykujol/

[@retroactivekev]

It’s crazy how nice these are for being unofficial. Awesome vid!

[@st1ka]

right?! They did such a good job

[@manuelaxolot4945]

are these multiplayer playable with the link cable?

[@st1ka]

Sadly I can't test it out for myself. But they should be compatible with the link cable

[@zigrotoday]

2:00 what's the song? I really like the sound :)

[@st1ka]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/gnKzp41ua72toJY

[@gtzice]

Who made the art from the thumbnail / where is that from?

[@st1ka]

Here's where I got it facebook.com/139788632766909/posts/pfbid027bmXkwQs8388D6vNFq68SLPZKp12mMPboWy3WU1aSu7fG6e2nCPjGbwAcbGykujol/

[@SaadAzim]

Great video. Thank you for sharing these games. :D

[@st1ka]

Thank you! I appreciate it :D

[@st1ka]

Thank you! I try! :D

[@MegamanElric16]

So, are these ROMs stripped of their copy protection, or is there something on the hhug website where I have to do it myself? I really want to play these games on my modded 3DS.

[@st1ka]

From what I understand, they were striped of their copy protection, but still use some mappers that aren't read by most common emulators.

[@MegamanElric16]

@@st1ka Okay, thanks!

[@PyronsLair]

Só de ver o vídeo deu vontade de jogar e como você disse no vídeo a jogabilidade parece ser melhor que 90% dos jogos de luta lançados oficialmente

[@st1ka]

Sim é mesmo muito bom :D

[@puresugah]

Dude! You are slaying your voiceover work!!

[@st1ka]

haha thank you my dude!

[@renzokufc]

When I watched the first game footage, I thought "what's the fuss about this? Game like these have existed in the Neo Geo Po... WAIT A MINUTE!"

[@st1ka]

Hahah

[@noaht2005]

Great video, definitely lives up to my hype! I'm not overly familiar with anime, so some of the stuff in Queen Fighter passed me by. Even though these games are fairly easy, they're still fun and well made. Thanks for highlighting them and I hope this means more love for Vast Fame

[@st1ka]

Thank you! I try! :D

[@DemonChildCC]

I got a King Of Fighters 97 cart for Gameboy color.. there is no orochi or orochi team(o.iori and o.leona are in the game as the Gameboy version of 96 is the first time we actually see orochi versions for Leona and Iori).. anyways, with that said, all this game is is someone took the Gameboy 95 and Gameboy 96 and combined them into one game as each char from both games is on this cart .. final bosses are still the same as 95 where you fight saishu and rugal(and sometimes nakoruru who is actually in the 95 Gameboy game as a hidden boss).. you also have the 96 bosses(chizuru and goenitz as well as Gameboy 96 hidden boss Mr. Karate)..

[@st1ka]

Oh I know is about that hack. It's still an interesting hack ^^

[@analogmoz]

0:20 "LOOK TO LOOK TO LOOK TO LOOK TO LOOK TO LOOK TO LOOK TO" Man, I agree. St1ka, you have a subversive streak and seem to really like finding pirate companies, (and countries,) and I applaud you.

[@st1ka]

Haha

[@jengelenm]

DANG-IT. Not working on the GBC Core from NT Mini Noir, only the cracked ones are working….

[@st1ka]

Yeah I think these only work with a specific emulator

[@Ninthusiast]

Can you cover Robert Cop on the sega mega drive next? And yes that wasn't a typo lol.

[@st1ka]

Oh I know about that game. There's not enough for a full video, but perhaps as part of a list video or a theme like this video was

[@juststatedtheobvious9633]

2 Samurai Shodown games, World Heroes Jet, 2 Super Chinese Fighter games, Transformers: Beast Wars....I don't know, I think you're selling the 8-bit Gameboy line a bit short. I haven't even mentioned Konami's Raging Fighter or the SD Hiryuu no Ken Gaiden series. And I could keep going. The fighting game library is easily deeper than what you'd find on the Sega Genesis. But thank you for doing this video. Even as an obsessed fighting game fan, I had no idea any of these 3 existed. It feels good to be schooled.

[@st1ka]

I have to admit, I did not know about a lot of those fighting games. Thank you so much for telling me, I'll check them out. I'm surprised though, is Transformers: Beast Wars good? Usually cartoon to game adaptions tend to be a bit lacking xD

[@juststatedtheobvious9633]

@@st1ka It's Takara, doing their usual SNK thing. Only every character has two modes, so you're essentially playing tag team as just one character. Also, I'm oversimplifying. And you should read the GameFAQ for this thing. This was either made by obsessive fans, or a development team showing off.

[@st1ka]

@@juststatedtheobvious9633 damn that's amazing. If Takara made it I have to check it out

[@budgiecat9039]

@@st1ka Its freakin amazing I was shocked myself.

[@liveyourdreammedia]

Another quality video :D such amazing games

[@st1ka]

Thank you! I try ^_^

[@jengelenm]

How the hell did you dig up this goodness? Great job! Looove the graphics!

[@st1ka]

I've been following a few bootleg scenes

[@bishopcruz]

Can you play these on original hardware w roms?

[@st1ka]

I assume so

[@yoymate6316]

i'm so glad to see some love to good unlicensed games :) you should also take a look at vast fame's take on lotr: the return of the king on the gba… it might be their only good gba game and i'll just say that it makes it all worth it lol. i also find impressive that handheld underground is mostly the work of just one guy who's bought and dumped literal hundreds of chinese and taiwanese carts

[@st1ka]

yep, Taizou has done an amazing job! And I know all about that LOTR game, I plan on covering it eventually.

[@BridgetGX]

ayo HOLD UP THEY FINALLY DUMPED CHAOJI GEDOU 2001 ALPHA?!?!??! I've been keeping tabs on this shit since 2010. I never thought I'd actually see the day!

[@st1ka]

Indeed they have! Enjoy :D

[@cabbusses]

Finally, Game Boy Color games that look and play like NeoGeo Pocket Color games. Where's my clicky stick mod, handheld modders?

[@st1ka]

Maybe one day 😎

[@Dead-Pool3_II_Sij6]

"And what if I told you these games had remained undumped and unplayable until 2022" \*looks at Kenny Lauderdale's video of anime starting to disappear and Golden Bat media that are so far only have the tiniest of scraps to prove it existed posted on the web* I say I believe it that said I'm impressed with both the character rosters these games have included and the sprite art/gameplay implemented as well as the surprisingly robust copy protection. I assume its Fal Chion(She~on) but it will be interesting to see these gems retranslated to be properly spelled/read and be ported into a program to play on a 3DS handheld. also I loved your video on those Chinese Mega Man bootleg \*hug*

[@st1ka]

Oh yeah I've seen that video too. It's sad how much anime was lost.

[@Dead-Pool3_II_Sij6]

@@st1ka indeed but if technology and cleverness are used right what is there can be salvaged, remade into a sleek clean look and possibly redubbed using all surviving notes along with a greater push to preserve medias that would be difficult to obtain I say we have a chance. biggest thanks to icons like Kenny and yourself to not only make these thing aware but to give those that have the ability to help that motivation to seek out to aid

[@st1ka]

@@Dead-Pool3_II_Sij6 haha thank you! I try! ^^

[@DragoonMS]

"Because the official Gals' Fighters game...doesn't have tag team!!" Well...yeah, sure, SNK Gals' Fighters ain't have it, BUT!! You completely forgot about The King of Fighters R1 & R2, the NeoGeo Pocket & NeoGeo Pocket Color versions of The King of Fighters 97 & 98, which did have the three-on-three style. (Gals' Fighters & KoF R2 are easily my favorite games on the NGPC...) Definitely gonna have to check it out.

[@st1ka]

Well yeah I Know the KOF games have them. But this was their take on Gals' fighters:P

[@secretshadow9515]

Does anyone know how to download the emulator hhugboy on an android device

[@st1ka]

I don't think it's available for phones, but I could be wrong

[@richiecuna5781]

that smooth criminal was just a cherry on top

[@st1ka]

Haha right?!

[@radicalmusoka9383]

hey i remember some games like this that ran on a specific gbc emulator, hhugboy! its always pretty neat to find these! aaaaand its mentionned at the end of the video XD ! that will teach me to comment before finishing a vid! thank you for mentionning that, because i really love these little pepits of the past :D

[@st1ka]

haha no worries. Glad you enjoyed the video ^^

[@ricardo_alemanes]

Where I download this Roms?

[@st1ka]

Handheld underground ^^

[@iiviigames]

Been with you for years and it's not right that you have so few subscribers. Don't give up! Keep these awesome, niche topics coming and you'll be getting your 100k plaque in no time.

[@st1ka]

Thanks man! Hopefully some day :D

[@AlexBaldwinFTW]

Does anyone know where I can find the ROMs for these?

[@st1ka]

yes, you can find them on handheld underground.

[@AlexBaldwinFTW]

@@st1ka thank you so much!

[@st1ka]

@@AlexBaldwinFTW be sure to download their emulator or the games won't work. Their emulator is set up to be compatible with bootlegs and forego their copy protections

[@blacksunshine7485]

Saw these on the Handheld Underground. Great games. Long time coming!

[@st1ka]

Very true! :D

[@zanegandini5350]

Looking at the notes on Handheld Underground, it looks like Kong Feng still distributes these in mainland China. That's interesting since they made the GB Boy Colour clone with a backlit screen and built-in games (sadly all the built-in games are for the original GB), but it also accepts any GB/GBC cartridge. I own one, and it was my preferred method for playing GBC games before they made drop-in LCD screen mods that I eventually used for my real GBC.

[@st1ka]

That's pretty cool. So it should be possible to find a physical copy of these games

[@zanegandini5350]

@@st1ka Actually I read down further after I made this comment, and while they did distribute the game at one time, they no longer do games anymore, just the clone systems I mentioned.

[@st1ka]

@@zanegandini5350 aaaah okay. That explains why I never see vast fame or syntax games on eBay

[@zanegandini5350]

@@st1ka I actually managed to find a couple of them... But not for less than $198.

[@st1ka]

@@zanegandini5350 oof

[@Cartoonguy133]

These look impressive. I love the Sakura and Athena mishmash.

[@st1ka]

Yep same here :D

[@dayveeman]

Oh man, now I'm going to have to track these down. I hope you're proud of yourself.

[@st1ka]

Haha sorry :P

[@joezar33]

1:44 Really impressive how accurate spot on that actor looks too Andy Bogard

[@st1ka]

right?! :D

[@NeoTechni]

I'd play that one just for Sakura.

[@st1ka]

She plays like Athena from the king of fighters series in case you're curious

[@tsubasasupremo]

you say that game have CardCaptor Sakura Me: say no more, i'm sold

[@st1ka]

haha

[@emeyeseekayeewhy776]

Can you make a full list video of all the bootleg/fan games ever released for all the console systems

[@st1ka]

Tbh no one knows the full list a lot of stuff hasn't been catalogued yet. It's a wild west. Your best source is the bootleg games wiki though

[@mscottjohnson3424]

Holy s***, I'm in love with the Game Boy SFII chip tunes. The game may suck, but that music is A+

[@st1ka]

Oh the Gameboy has great music

[@djcactus]

World heroes 2 on the GB was great. I got it on a bootleg cart on holiday in Malta in my youth. Still have it

[@st1ka]

oh damn, I'll have to check out World Heroes 2 for the gameboy. Didn't even know that one existed.

[@FoxyPiratess]

@@st1ka It's a pretty good port. I would have rathered they ported the original World Heroes 2.

[@st1ka]

I'll check it out though :D

[@bottledviolence133]

Great video man and the snk kof series and samurai showdown on the NGP specially queen fighters are the best handheld fighting games hands down

[@st1ka]

thank you! Glad you enjoyed the video!

[@dexocube]

I love these bootleg game videos, I've not even heard of these but they look legitimately good!

[@st1ka]

indeed they're very fun :D

Vato, es admirable la dedicación que pones en tus videos.

[@st1ka]

Muchas gracias! Yo bien que lo tento de hacer los mejores videos que puedo

[@julianobitsgen]

Although the first game looks pretty cool(specially by the late 90s / early 2000 standards for portable fighting games), I think it is necessary to mention that its mechanics are not that much of an improvement over SNK's Gals Fighters simply because it doesn't limit itself by ripping off only that game. Upon closer inspection, one can see that Morrigan sprites were actually taken from SNK vs Capcom: Match of the Millenium. The tag system was taken from the KOF R-1 and R-2, and there's even a scenario from Samurai Shodown 2 Pocket Fighting Series, all of those also Neo Geo Pocket games.

[@DeskoDev]

"Vast Fame" Now THAT'S a mark of bootleg quality... at least during their GBC days. Their GBA games are a lot more hit-or-miss. Hummer Team, an NES bootleg dev, is another one that comes to mind (the surprisingly good NES Street Fighter II and Fatal Fury Special bootlegs you've looked at before, Somari, Kart Fighter), but they aren't nearly as good. EDIT: The standalone release of Soul Falchion finally got dumped? Awesome! Why did nobody tell me!? :p

[@st1ka]

Hey did you know? The vast fame solo release of soul falchion got dumped

[@PhantomPhoton]

Dude, this is a great video, but normalize your audio! The sound alternates between too quiet, just right, and ear damage.

[@st1ka]

Ah sorry! I'll try to be more careful in the future

[@omegadragoon1544]

I'm so trying the fighting ones out

[@st1ka]

hope you enjoy it! :D

[@Ercdouken]

"Official best girl Leona!" Ah, I see you're a man of culture as well!

[@st1ka]

Heck yeah! 😎

[@thrillhouse_vanhouten]

What an interesting historical curiosity!

[@st1ka]

Right?!

[@ankosgbx]

Every Vast Fame game has had some variant of it dumped, though some still have undumped variants

[@st1ka]

From what I understand queen fighter and super Fighter 2001 were undumped until now ^^

[@ankosgbx]

@@st1ka Yes. They were the last ones remaining. There are still variants of some Vast Fame games that are undumped, such as English translations of some of their RPGs, but those translations are pretty much gibberish. A lot of Vast Fame's games were dumped due to their multicart releases. These were not aftermarket multicarts, but instead official game compilations made by Vast Fame. The copy protection normally found in the games did not work with the multicart code, so they used earlier versions that had no copy protection. Some had pretty much no differences from the final version, like Zook Hero Z, while others had oddities like taking music and pallets from previous entries, like how Soul Falchion's multicart ROM features music from Super Fighters 2001 Alpha. Copy protection was a necessity for companies who sold their stuff in copyright-weak regions (Vast Fame sold their goods in Taiwan, Mainland China, and some parts of Southeast Asia). Without it, aftermarket copies of their games would have out-competed the originals. Considering the regions Vast Fame operated in, they were definitely a lot more legit than many of their peers

[@st1ka]

@@ankosgbx I would like to play their RPGs, but between me not speaking the language and their shoddy translations... Well...

[@ankosgbx]

@@st1ka Their best RPGs did not get any translations that made it to retail. With that being said, there is a fan translation in the works for Shi Kong Xing Shou, or Spatio Monster as it is called on their multicarts. It's a Pokemon-inspired game, and is pretty good. It has some nasty glitches though, so if you do wind up playing it, I'd recommend making lots of savestates. I've heard using the move roar in a boss fight crashes the game and deletes the save file

[@st1ka]

@@ankosgbx oh where can I get the translated version?

[@mscottjohnson3424]

Hey, I live in Taiwan! I'ma pick these up after work.

[@st1ka]

Oh man send me some if you find them haha

[@mscottjohnson3424]

@@st1ka I'm a big retro gamer. If I ever see any interesting bootlegs, I'll reply to THIS comment about it.

[@st1ka]

Thank you! Be sure to check the metal gear solid and Zook (MegaMan) bootlegs too

[@BackPalSA]

II would not have expected a Neil Breen reference in the video thumbnail, but here we are.

[@st1ka]

My references bring all boys to the yard

[@robertdanker6193]

ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!!! As a huge SNK fan this is mindblowing!!!! This made my day!!! PREMIUM CONTENT RIGHT HERE!!😎👍👍👍👌👌👌

[@st1ka]

Glad you liked it :D

[@comfyghost]

A TRAINING MODE!?!? i know that was considered a standard feature of the time, but a lot of fighting games and ports would omit it for seemingly no reason, so to see a bootleg find the time to put it in is outstanding. plus training modes are really appreciated by most fighting game players, so it's totally worth it.

[@st1ka]

Agreed:D

[@otaking3582]

Now if only the copy protection could be broken on Primal Rage so that it can be emulated properly...

[@st1ka]

Oh, I didn't know primal rage wasn't emulated properly

[@otaking3582]

@@st1ka Yeah, currently trying to emulate it in MAME causes graphical issues such as layers not aligning properly.

[@popixel]

Man Queen Fighter looks amazing.

[@st1ka]

right?!

[@gabrielcastejon7914]

13:13 I always knew Leona was best girl It's nice to know it's official

[@st1ka]

*fist bump*

[@thrrax]

Rina is basically King from KoF.

[@KuroNoTenno]

But do any of these have bosses?

[@AnonYmous-hj1tb]

That's all fine and dandy, but where's the source of that Mai pic?

[@st1ka]

here you go: m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid04GnqThJFjGtmggNFDS9ZemhEXYB3sf7ZAv1VKwdV5JRWmiPkqfwvL1YwdyewbV1vl&id=139788632766909

[@fredflinstone9774]

Where can I buy them legally?

[@st1ka]

Buy them? That's difficult, tracking down bootleg carts isn't easy as they rarely surface on eBay. Honestly there's no good way to track these, you just gotta be very lucky

[@fredflinstone9774]

@@st1kaOk. Thanks

[@fredflinstone9774]

I checked ebay. Saw a Game year version of the snk gals but no game boy. I guess my mistake is looking on english websites.

[@SoushinSen]

To be honest, I find the pixel demake on Street Fighter II (GB) looks amazing.

[@st1ka]

It looks good and it sounds good, but it's very choppy imo

[@SoushinSen]

@@st1ka Yeah it looks like it plays horribly, lol. The Street Fighter Alpha in comparison has such fluid animation.

[@st1ka]

@@SoushinSen oh Alpha 1 for the GBC and Alpha 3 for the GBA are technical marvels!

[@cloongc88]

There are 2 other good unlincesed games from TW ( one is a metal slug clone and the other is a Dynasty Warriors beat em up).

[@st1ka]

Oh man I gotta check those out. Any idea where I can find them or what their names are?

[@dylan.t180]

Wow fantastic underground game reviews

[@st1ka]

Thank you! ^^

[@otaking3582]

The bootleg devs actually managed to redraw Morrigan's sprite to fit the art style, something that Capcom famously never did even once until they finally switched to polygons.

[@st1ka]

Hahah

[@otaking3582]

@TrueSinister True, but that barely counts since she had a much smaller moveset in Pocket Fighter than her other appearances, and therefore less frames that they'd have to redraw.

[@ExtremeWreck]

Seeing them go from making such incredible games like these to terrible GBA games makes me wonder just what was even going on behind the scenes during the GBA times. I would assume that after their glory days, some of their best staff left the studio for some reason & then got merged with some other Taiwanese unlicensed game developer. Not sure who it could've been, but whatever studio they got merged with was likely a rather crappy developer, likely Sintax considering they made Zook Hero 3. Definitely not Makon Soft since I'm pretty sure not even Sintax wanted to work with Yong Yong for very good reasons. And that ultimately resulted in Vast Fame being forced to rush out their titles for release like what happened with Hummer Team & Ei How Yang with publisher JY Company meanwhile Sintax themselves just kept using their crappy platformer engine over & over again. Combine with the fact that again, their best staff had left the studio & you got yourself a recipe for disaster. I know that sounds a bit strange, but that's my possible theory as to why Vast Fame's GBA games sucked.

[@st1ka]

Oh I assume it was the same. The decline in quality was immense so clearly something happened

[@falksi3182]

Another great vid

[@st1ka]

Thank you! :D

[@extremelyprofessionalsalaryman]

O Queen Fighters 2000 parece-me que usou como base o SNK VS CAPCOM THE MATCH OF THE MILLENNIUM do Neo Geo Pocket Color... Tanto que o moveset da Dina é muito similar ao da Morrigan! (edit: vi agora que falas no mesmo!) Não conhecia estes bootlegs. Obrigado pela partilha

[@st1ka]

Ah é possível que sim

[@Unholy_Louie]

They all seem really similar to many Neo Geo mini /c; which until today I thought would remain the only 2-btutton handheld fighters that I actually like! I'll have to try those out, maybe on a cheap plastic retro emulation handheld :)

[@st1ka]

Hope you enjoy them! :D

[@tuffasgong]

Those Tawaine's developers are impressive.

[@st1ka]

Right? :D

[@anewbimproves5622]

A "falchion" is a type of 13th century French sword.

[@st1ka]

how do you pronounce it? xD

[@anewbimproves5622]

@@st1ka From what I remember f-al-ch-ee-on.

[@anewbimproves5622]

@@st1ka Swordtube has the answer kzbin.info/www/bejne/hZ2weIeOgtSfh9E

[@st1ka]

Thank you xD

[@Sinistar1983]

I always enjoy these cursed bootlegs that go out of their way to be great beyond what's normal.

[@st1ka]

indeed, though in this case it's surprisingly good :D

[@sakinchowdhury]

Can you post source for the thumbnail please.

[@st1ka]

here you go: m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid04GnqThJFjGtmggNFDS9ZemhEXYB3sf7ZAv1VKwdV5JRWmiPkqfwvL1YwdyewbV1vl&id=139788632766909

[@xTerrySunderlandx]

it's a good video wich explain very well the 3 games, one correction i would do is that there are a LOT more gb fighters that you dont mention (saying there are few) and most are VERY good (like samurai shodown 1 and 3) , world heroes 2 jet , at least 1 of yuyu hakuyo is good, the super chinese fighter games... and a LOT more, in total i have 53 fighting games (mixed from GB and GBC) , and the rom for this games are not that hard to get actually.

[@st1ka]

Oh interesting. I do know about the SNK ports, but I wasn't aware about the others. Thank you for that :D

[@nesmario123]

my only issue with these bootlegs is that their animations are slow and clunky if they were a bit faster they would be so much better!

[@st1ka]

To be fair that's a common issue with Gameboy fighting games