M.U.S.C.L.E. retrospective: It's third party and I'll cry if I want to | NES Works

The NES gets its very first game from a third-party publisher, and... it really makes you pine for relative classics like Urban Champion and Stack-Up. TOSE and Bandai assault the sense with this vaguely wrestling-like brawler based on the M.U.S.C.L.E. Things toyline and Kinnikuman anime. The Nintendo Seal of Quality finds itself stretched to the breaking point in its very first outing.

[@toadsage]

I just realized I used to play M.U.S.C.L.E. as a kid, but I completely forgot about it. What a nostalgia trip!

[@benjaminramsey4695]

I collected M.U.S.C.L.E men back then, and my favorite were the 10 packs (for $2.50) that came in a little "garbage can" container that I could then use with my playing and with other toys and stuff. I had a big poster of all them with the check-boxes to try to gather a complete collection (I never did).

[@JeremyParish]

Same! I included the garbage can here for that very reason. There's a shop at Nakano Broadway in Tokyo that has this giant bin of random MUSCLE/Kinnikuman figures, and I always have to force myself not to just buy a few hundred of them every time I see it.

[@Phediuk]

Texas Instruments actually used a similar software-licensing system for the TI-99/4A, beginning in 1983. It was also the first platform to incorporate a "lockout chip" to prevent unlicensed games, as far as I am aware. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Instruments_TI-99/4A#Lack_of_third-party_development

[@ClarenceDass]

"Ugly sloppy game" lol... I loved this game as a kid. Had it on the Famicom.

[@Octopuswithcorn]

Japan seems to have fond memories of this game. It's included as an unlockable in Kinnikuman Nesi: Dream Tag Match for thw Wonderswan Color and Kinnikuman Muscle Grand Prix Max 2 had it along with an equally bad Famicom Disk System game

[@MrJWTH]

Octopuswithcorn It May be due to nostalgia since the franchise was far better known in Japan.

[@error4159]

The Kinnikuman manga and anime were huge in Japan. So the inclusion of this game as Easter egg in later titles makes sense for historical reasons.

[@PositronRobo]

The trio of Bandai games that came out early in the NES life are bad, but I do like how the package design tries to evoke Nintendo's black-box style. Reminds me a little of how the early Hudson titles on Famicom copied Nintendo's first-party box style and the cart labels used a stylized "Hu" that was similar to the pulse-line design on Nintendo carts.

[@jokerzwild00]

This was always one of the last games left at the rental store if you got there too late on Friday night. Better to just rent a movie, or go back home and play SMB or Zelda for the thousandth time.

[@GuiOmania]

I still love this game i even bought the famicom cart 😂

[@SmashBrosOdyssey64]

I remember playing this game as a bootleg called "WWF" and not knowing any better I just assumed this was the standard back then hahaha. That aside, even though the criticisms are completely this is actually way more fun than any official WWF game on the NES

[@hansamurai]

I still have a ton of those MUSCLE guys, always called them Muscle Men though.

[@LorenHelgeson]

When I was a kid back in the 80s, we called them Muscle Men too.

[@snickersthekillerdog3641]

They're expensive now look at what they sell for

[@neufelb]

I've never heard about the game. But I've never heard about MUSCLE either, though. Wikipedia tells me that the toys only came out in France via counterfeit products called "Cosmix". No mention of Bandai or Mattel on the branding. Aaaah. The 80s.

[@thisandthatmatt6937]

I had completely forgotten about this game and had never realized they were based off of the figures. I hadn't remembered the name of this game or the name of the figures. I remember having a few of the figures, and I also remember playing the game at a friend's house. I remember having a good amount of fun with it.

[@bjornh1527]

Personally I´ve always liked M.U.S.C.L.E. It´s very primitive, but the simplicity makes it easy to pick up and actually more fun than most wrestling games. Having just a handful of distinct attacks makes it important to choose your strategy. Learning the ideal distance for jumping kicks and bouncing from the ropes gives you a great advantage, and it´s rewarding to outmanouver your opponent and preform a suplex. The tag team feature really makes the game more enjouable too.While this isn´t a great title I think it´s reputation is undeserved. The power up mechanic sure is crazy over powered, but that is also one thing that makes the matches intense and fun to play.

[@germancastano2241]

I still like it. And even i organized tournaments with this game in the lineup. And maybe I will do it again.

[@JeremyParish]

Hey, man, it's your life, I can't tell you what to do.

[@TheT3rr0rMask]

I always heard Nuts and Milk was the first third party NES game. Never knew of this history of Muscle. Another awesome video

[@PositronRobo]

Nuts & Milk was the first third-party game for Famicom.

[@elfman1357]

Very harsh. I used to love this game as a kid. It could be nostalgia goggles speaking, but I think this is at least more fun than Ice Climbers or Urban Champion.

[@spahr001]

I remember renting this several times and generally liking it quite a bit.

[@rashidisw]

This games also the first of 3rd party release for US market that censored. The only character who has projectile attacks when powered up, he would actually looks like a green suited police. In non US release, during the character selection screen his icon would me man wearing a usual police's hat.

[@TheSmart-CasualGamer]

Well, I kind of agree with you about Urban Champion, that's a irritating game. I have a soft spot for Ice Climbers though.

[@Poever]

Being harsh is the point of this channel

[@doha057]

Same here, I have loved this game from the first moment I played it, never noticed the name back in those days, one day searched "Nes Wrestling games" and found it finally, right now I have it in my 3ds custom VC.

[@diebesgrab]

I still have that Optimus Prime toy.

[@Dracalis]

I always enjoy these retrospectives. If I can offer critique: while I suppose it thematically makes sense to change the style of the text overlays - going from slanted and black like the black box games, to horizontal and orange like your title card - I found the former style easier to read. Coloured and white text on a black background offers greater contrast over white and yellow on saturated orange. Having either style more opaque would also make it easier to read, especially when it's over top fine patterns or other text, like I've seen in previous videos. And on a subjective note, I'm just a fan of the black box aesthetic, so I liked the slant. Also, I noticed pixelization when your title card zooms in and out. Was it created as a vector image? If so, you can fix that in After Effects by using an option called "Continuously Rasterize." That will make your logo look crisp on every frame. If you can't use After Effects, a workaround is to use Photoshop (or similar software) to import your vector file, then scale it up to the max size you need it to be. It'll be a pretty large canvas, but when you put it into Premiere Pro (or whatever editing software you use), you can then scale it down to fit on screen, and it will look sharp throughout the whole zoom animation. Keep up the good work!

[@matthewwithanm]

Another awesome video! Thanks!!

[@adamking6645]

Good work as always, JP. I would have suggested another third-party game you could have started with but sadly the NES third-party lineup started with the three Bandai games and Data East's Tag Team Wrestling. Such is the hazards of documenting a game's library in chronological order, I suppose. Maybe Ninja Kid since it was the lesser of three evils?

[@RoyStantz]

While the Kinnikuman toyline was brought over to America by Mattel, there was no chance of the anime being brought over and dubbed into English because it had so much content (massive amounts of violence and blood, Kinnikuman being a perverted slob, and Brockenman and his son Brocken Jr. both dressed as Nazis) that was too explicit for 1980's American children's TV (in which G.I. Joe was forced to use laser guns, and bathroom humor was not allowed), and would've had to have been heavily censored. Besides, anime wasn't as popular in America in the 80's as it is today, due to Harmony Gold and World Events Productions being the only anime distributors at the time. Yeah, you had Voltron, Battle of the Planets (one of many English dubs of Gatchaman), Robotech (which is just three unrelated shows with similar art styles combined into one show), and Saber Rider & The Star Sheriffs, but those were all heavily censored for English-speaking audiences, which would've been the same fate for the Kinnikuman anime if it was brought over to the USA. As for the manga, its market was non-existant too. Sure there was Barefoot Gen, Golgo 13, and Lone Wolf & Cub, but if the Kinnikuman manga was going to be released in the USA, then it too would require heavy censorship like all those other manga's I mentioned above, since what's intended for kids in Japan is *MUCH* different than what's intended for kids in other countries. Fist of the North Star? Meant for kids. JoJo's Bizarre Adventure? Meant for kids. See where I'm getting at?

[@YadonTheCat]

I kinda like this game. I don't even usually like wrestling games or know a thing about MUSCLE, but there's something charming about it

[@VahanNisanian]

Jeremy, some has tried to correct the release dates for Nintendo's first wave and second wave (Fall 1985 and Summer 1986) on Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nintendo_Entertainment_System_games

[@thankyou329]

When I die, bury me in a M.U.S.C.L.E. 10 pack trash can.

[@Mdg897]

this game was amazing when it was new and i was 3. I was recently doing yardwork at my childhood home and I FOUND AN AN MUSCLE FIGURE!!!

[@TudenJamir]

i enjoyed it as a kid. Don't know what to think now :(

[@TeruteruBozusama]

People like different things, and there's nothing wrong with that ^^

[@EddieSlabb]

I enjoyed it too. The specials were what made it for me

[@SMAXZO]

Honestly, I love this game. Still do. Looks limited but hey..it's fun.

[@sarowie]

steam - closed down system. That joke was hilarious. Yes, it used to be that way, but opening the flood gates... well: we know which flood gate broke.

[@AddyLovestar]

I just found you and I'm impressed

[@StrangeGamer859]

It may be trash, but I have some nostalgia for it. It was one of the many games in an unlicensed plug-and-play system I owned as a kid

[@MaxW-er1hm]

3:55. Atlantis might be the most frustrating and poorly tuned game on Fami....Muscle isn't *that* bad. I had some fun

[@KamenRider1985]

Ultimate Muscle for gamecube is a straight up remake of this game. From jumping off ropes to the power ball that comes in. Favorite game of all time. If Aki made a new one with Dragonball Fighter Z graphics, oooooo

[@joshthefunkdoc]

The Muscle Grand Prix games (on arcade/PS2) are amazing too, and the only other thing out there like them at all (i.e. hybrid wrestling/fighting games) is the Saturday Night Slam Masters series. i think MGP blows Slam Masters out of the water though, much more robust combo system

[@Dre2Dee2]

I like this game! I had a blast with it as a kid. It was fun as hell when it was a new release, only time has made it look bad now

[@WeirdWonderful]

I dunno, I kinda like Hoshi o Miru Huto. It was extremely grind heavy, to the point where being able to one shot anything in one area still didn't prevent you from possibly getting decimated in the next one easily.....but you could just keep trying and get back at it, basically fighting a war of atrition with the game to see who backs down first. I dunno, I kinda felt it was a bit more challenging then regular rps of this type.

[@snickersthekillerdog3641]

Im happy to have this on my NES Chinese clone

[@ElaEhDoTempoDoBob]

8:02 WTF

[@davemarx7856]

Whoa wait... didn't they reboot MUSCLE about five years back?

[@keimakoh]

It should probably be mentioned that the game went through some light and much needed censorship in the NES version, considering a problematic character: the very outright nazi Brocken Jr. If someone is up for a shock or a laugh, I recommend looking up his theme song. The trade off is that Brocken Jr. was replaced by... the slightly stereotypical 'indian' Geronimo.... Appearances aside they function about the same, with Brocken's ranged attack Red Rain of Berlin turning into a thrown tomahawk... that Geronimo didn't really use in the series. Because I'm an insufferable nerd, I'll also point out that the brief description of the original series it was based on could also mention that it was born as a comedy series and eventually turned into a slightly (VERY slightly!) more serious battle story. It was born as a parody of superheroes, but somehow ended up falling into wrestling and it stuck there, discarding old elements like flying, growing gigantic a-la Ultraman and fighting monsters.

[@SMAXZO]

I want to correct you on something...it's not Brocken Jr...it's Brockenman.

[@apollosungod2819]

Even though Electronic Arts became a better game dev the fact that they made Sega Genesis/MegaDrive games without official permission and shipped some crappy games does not mean they are excused by highlighting some late 2000s 3d graphics big budget game. Not all of the early EA Genesis/MD games were immediate winners and although Bandai has a reputation as a toy company, they actually do have some really good 8bit and 16bit anime/manga classic franchise to videogame classics (yes that was intended as twice) and it is debatable and arguable that Bandai and Banpresto made some amazing 8bit and 16bit anime/manga videogames BEFORE the mid 2000s merger with Namco which combined with the forced mid 2000 next gen jump which led to dev kits costing too much plus game devs having to re-learn new hardware that as a consequence led to less videogames being crafted as opposed to when Bandai and Banpresto had not merged with Namco as each of the three were contributing a lot more classics than E.A. Also there is a bias when it comes to IP based on franchises because it does depend on your (that is the reviewers/journalists and consumers) having any familiarity with the franchise and why Star Wars games often got a huge free pass even when the game was sub-standard and fully sub-par where even a mediocre and questionable original story would also get a free pass (The Force Unleashed btw)

[@deadpoinsettia]

I still have all my M.U.S.C.L.E.s

[@exeacua]

It is not a great game, but is a fun game. Simple but not bad.

[@SMAXZO]

I like this...and yes, I play this single player. It's simple...and fun.

[@shadowscribe]

Survive until you grab the orb; and win... why does that ring a bell?

[@JeremyParish]

Are you subtweeting Smash Bros.!?

[@shadowscribe]

😉 yeah, but at this high a concept saying it uses electricity is a connection.

[@DeathCrustPunk]

Castlevania?

[@rowtow13]

This is what I never liked about Power Stone.

[@josephattwell1006]

Any particular reason why you changed the name of the series?

[@please_eject_the_disk]

It was explained here: www.retronauts.com/?p=2203

[@michaelsegal3558]

This wasn’t the first wrestling game there was a black label game called Pro Wrestling

[@JeremyParish]

Pro Wrestling was released quite a while after MUSCLE. Please see the Pro Wrestling episode.

[@michaelsegal3558]

@@JeremyParish ok sorry

[@broy8172]

I dumped a doujin Touhou version of this game on Archive, called All Gensokyo Pro Wrestling. It's literally the same except touhou girls instead. woo games preservation

[@bookmark2846]

WTF. This game was a masterpiece. I am still in search of its spiritual successor. The only people that didn't like this game were people with no friends or little brothers they could suplex out of anger from losing a match!

[@DeathCrustPunk]

Now I have its my party stuck in my head, thanks Jeremy. I think this game is better than people give it credit for, but maybe its my nostalgic love for the toys. It still better than the WWF NES games (except maybe that one in isometric view). Soon you will have to suffer through Tag Team Wrestling.

[@DeathCrustPunk]

"Nobody knows where my quality's gone..."

[@DeathCrustPunk]

"You would cry too if you bought this game new"

[@theologamer]

Why the name change?

[@severeerror52]

On twitter he said he wanted to merge all three series into one brand and "NES World" already existed

[@DubbD]

I remember playing this game as a very young kid thinking since it had the Nintendo seal it was awesome but that I sucked at it...had no idea it was based on a anime/manga franchise until much later in life. Age has done this game no favors. Yikes lol.

[@TrueGrandImperial]

Transformers was Japanese? I enjoy learning things.

[@rubberwoody]

um, why is chubby cherub like 70 dollars loose?

[@davemarx7856]

Are you the theoretical fan? What is a "Woolworth" ?

[@DeathCrustPunk]

Nutty factoid: The Japanese version features a Nazi character (he was replaced with a Native American).

[@CSGraves]

Ahh yes, the regrettable 'Brocken Man' and his poison gas attack. Oof. When playing two-player matches in my house growing up, we actually banned using him because his special attack was so cheap... if you got an orb, victory was all but guaranteed. Of course at the time we didn't know this crude green chibi character was a Nazi in the source material.

[@hashem811]

I grew up reading the manga, watching the anime, collecting the figurines, and loved the storyline and the characters and this game was still absolute shit.

[@70smebbin]

i liked this game as a kid it wasnt bad u only hate it because u hate wrestling !

[@JeremyParish]

I hate wrestling and also this is a bad game. Both things can be true.

[@70smebbin]

ur right i probably would hate this game today

[@JeremyParish]

Yep, MUSCLE has no place in a world where wrestling games by Human and Aki have existed.

[@salvatronprime9882]

The sprites look like South Park character designs... they were too far ahead of their time.

[@MrNorbert1994]

TOSE is like the japanese version of LJN. They had next to no good games at all.

[@JeremyParish]

This is absolutely not true at all.

[@ChristopherSobieniak]

I'm sure they got better.

[@MrJWTH]

MrNorbert1994 LJN was a publisher not a developer.

[@beauwalker9820]

Not true, TOSE made some good games like Mappyland (an NES sequel to Mappy) and the Game & Watch Gallery series for Gameboy.

[@error4159]

God, I hated his game, lol. This was the only game my cousin had and I was stick playing it for a week, lol. It's horrible

[@childofcascadia]

Eh. I have to massively disagree with you. Steam is stuffed so full of garbage shovelware its hard to browse for decent games unless the algorithm feeds it to you or youre looking for a specific title. Which sucks if you get algorithm locked and you want to just browse for something different. Even 4 years ago when this vid came out it was the case. All it takes to publish on Steam is paying a small fee and a review of the game. But they arent looking for content, they are looking for things like malware, really objectional stuff (like child sex) or making sure that theres something, anything there that is some kind of game or software. Its a completely open platform. For an example of what Im talking about look up "super fight", a $200 (not a typo) single level stock asset streets of rage style game. That was allowed, even though a bunch of people assumed it was money laundering. Steam is a lot of things, but a closed platform it isnt.

[@avalond1193]

Muscle was such a garbage new game

[@robertnamias9675]

Admit it the retro games ARE 10x better than fortnite.

[@Red_Ranger_Wien]

Excuse me, but based on what? The toys? Uh, try again. It was based on the manga.

[@jamesmoss3424]

I will stay away from this game.