Dr. Chaos & Superman retrospective: Injustice for all | NES Works  

"A crude, outsider's art appearance", that's the most polite insult I've ever heard, lol.

So regarding Dr. Chaos, there's kind of a running theory that it may have originated as a licensed game loosely based on the 1985 horror film "House." I know that seems really random, but House was a weirdly popular movie in Japan for some reason, and the publisher of Dr. Chaos, Pony Canyon, actually released a licensed game based on it for MSX right around the same time. The MSX game was called "Mashou no Yakata Gabalin," or "Devilish House Gabalin," though, so for the purposes of this comment, you'll just have to trust me that it WAS officially based on the movie House -- everything about that movie's Japanese release is kind of weird and confusing. But yeah, the MSX game is a completely different experience (and a MUCH better game, with some really interesting level designs and one of the most deviously player-hostile endgame traps I've ever seen, which I very much mean in a GOOD way), yet the superficial similarities with Dr. Chaos are almost too numerous to ignore, and it's easy to see how a few tweaks to Dr. Chaos' sprite and story text would make it a perfect match for the content of the movie, too (which was about a Vietnam war vet suffering from PTSD who was trying to find his missing son in a haunted house that had all kinds of weird dimensional portals and things in it, which mixed with his PTSD hallucinations and the vengeful spirit of a former friend from his war days to create a variety of surreal environments, obstacles, and supernatural foes for him to overcome along the way). This has never been confirmed, and it does seem odd that Pony Canyon would be able to use the House license for their MSX game, but would have to randomly abandon it for their Famicom Disk System game -- but I am pretty convinced that this game was a last-minute modification of a House licensed game, much like Journey to Silius was originally a Terminator licensed game that had its license stripped from it at the last minute.

2:28 I only just recently found out there wasn't a 'Top Gun II' film. Someone asked me if I had seen the new one and I said "I haven't even seen the original two." Thanks Konami.

I love the idea of a modern take on the Goonies II/Dr. Chaos formula. Seems like a great project for an indie developer.

Along with the Counselor's Corner blerb in Nintendo Power, Dr. Chaos was also name dropped in the film The Wizard. The game must have had its fans somewhere in the 1980's Nintendoverse.

Some NES games have this strange artstyle that's hard to describe, The Punisher is a good example, but I think "outsider art" hits the nail on the head.

"Shake the firmament of.." is an excellent expression

Dr. Chaos' title screen would've *_absolutely_* traumatized me as a kid. I couldn't handle the Statue of Liberty from Zombie Nation for Pete's sake! 😂

There is a lot of evidence that Dr Chaos was originally planned to be licensed on the American horror/comedy film "House". It includes many enemies that look like characters from the film. The alternate reality looks very much like an 80s platformer take on Vietnam. Just swap rescuing a son from the film with rescuing a brother in the game.

I guess I'd go for a Dr. Chaos remake. I gotta respect what they were going for even if they couldn't execute it. Superman on the other hand, pure kusoge that should have been sent to the Phantom Zone.

But but but Jeremy! I LIKED Superman! I mapped it out and everything, and solved it! Ok maybe it wasn't exactly top tier but it DID have some depth! I even 100%ed it, finding all the upgrades for each mission. You didn't mention that the japanese version had the full movie themes, and that the North American version had to replace a lot of music with music from Kemco's RPG Indora no Hikari. Also, Dr. Chaos took a lot of inspiration from the 1986 horror film "House".

I haven’t played Dr Chaos since 1991, and the main theme is still stuck in my head.

I understand Superman's faults, but I legitimately enjoyed it back in the day. Maybe it was just the fact that I could control my favorite superhero (at the time), but I know I liked it more than other stuff like Ghostbusters and Mickey Mousecapades. The fact that characters like Jimmy and Lois were talking to me was pretty cool -- I had never seen anything like that at the time. There's also something very dumb yet charming in his conversations with the Statue of Liberty and the fact that he takes the subway (alongside humans twice his height). I'm not rushing to go back to play it, but I'd still give it a go before a lot of NES games of its time.

As a kid I rented Superman and legit enjoyed it for being kind of weird and different compared to usual platformer barrage going on at the time. Of course I quickly forgot it once I discovered River City Ransom as it felt like a more complete concept and execution of a similar idea.

I remember renting Superman and being profoundly disappointed. Let's not forget the absurdity of him getting his marching orders from the Statue of Liberty!

There was nothing like that Fleischer Superman short. It was the first time I've ever seen superheroes when I was four years old and my aunt had a whole series of these Fleischer Superman shorts on VHS. It's so powerful and it makes me cry in awe whenever I see it today.

I like Dr. Chaos quite a bit. I dig the music and general atmosphere.

Gotta give Dr. Chaos this much though: Great cover art!

The only game I ever called a helpline for was Dr Chaos. I just needed to find the entrance to the first area. After that, it was pretty easy and I finished it in a day. I enjoyed it even if it wasn’t very good. Thanks for the review!

Hi Jeremy! I've been reading both GB Works vol. 1 and NES Works vol. 1. They are so well-written; I love how you dug deep in history to find info about the devs and such. Thanks for writing them!

Something to keep in mind... Superman was originally a famicom game. The famicom version is the definitive version. It's a little more enjoyable to play. It also had a strategy guide released. However both the game and the strategy guide is in Japanese. But if you go through the translations the game makes a little more sense. The soundtrack is simply awesome. So what I think happened was they ported a slightly stripped down version to the US on NES. That version is slightly stripped down. Does not have the original soundtrack. And god awful translations. Had the US version been a direct port, with the strategy guide, I think it would have been a more enjoyable game. I highly recommend the famicom version.

I've always had a bit of a soft spot for the NES Superman just because of how bonkers it is. I mean, Superman gets his orders from a talking Statue Of Liberty, without explanation. That's so weird, it would fit right in with silver age Supes.

"Drilling a hole to the world's biggest coprolite...." Anyone who can fit that word into a review deserves your Patreon money!

I love Dr Chaos. Granted I got it for my 6th birthday. I always speculated that the game was originally based on the horror movie House. (My mother didn’t really care what I watched) As it has the fat demon woman and the skeleton army guy. That and going through a window only to end up in a jungle. Mind you that was my 6 year old mind at work. It’s the game that gave me my first jump scare lol

Dr. Chaos apologist here. The game is actually based on the movie House (1985) but without the direct license. The bigger monsters are almost all based on monsters in that movie. The worldwide version's warp zones have been shortened from the FDS's version's. This causes the monsters to be more bunched together. Being open ended, this leads most players to finding a mid-game zone with a boss only vulnerable to grenades (that also hurt you until you get another power up) as their 2nd one. The biggest secret starting out is that there is a 3rd floor attic and basement to the house. They are not visible until you've been to them. All of the hidden areas in the adventure sections make sense. If you see a door you can't reach in the house, there's a West or East wall in the room next to it that you can punch a hole in. Ladders to the attic & basement are always hidden in North walls. Finally, every time you finish a warp zone, power ups respawn. Learn where the health & machine gun drops are and always have those topped off.

Superman NES is worth existing just for the adorable character art in the manual.

Love this series and channel. Brings back all the memories.

There always seems to be a curse in video games, where any title that contains animals that bare absolutely zero threat to you in real life as enemies is always a terrible game! :D But as for horror themed games, have you ever considered looking at Sweet Home for Halloween? Or just Horror themed NES titles in general for the day? (Also, a kid as school always insisted he not only saw saw Goonies II in theatres, but he also had a copy on VHS - So if Chris Willoughby ever reads this, you're full of s**t mate!)

i love how, even with the worst dreck in the NES library, you still find ways to be kind and considerate towards them in some ways. if i had been the designer of Dr. Chaos and i watched this video, i would still come away with a smile on my face.

Always love seeing new uploads. This channel got me to grab Bionic Commando, Ice Hockey and Rygar. Love the Ernest feature at the start too, your work is so rewatchable!

I really love the addition in recent videos to talking about the magazine coverage!

That random clip from "Ernest Saves Christmas" definitely made me laugh for sure! XD

Geez hearing that opening song theme of Dr Chaos gave me flash backs to Armake21.

My headcannon has Dr. Chaos as the inspiration for the Astron 6 "film" Laser Ghost 2: Return to Laser Cove. Lasers and scary monsters.

I picked up Dr. Chaos on a whim at a convention years back. I struggled with it immediately, but I couldn't shake the feeling I'd seen it somewhere before. A quick trip to my bookshelf revealed that, indeed, I first learned of this game through an old Consumer's Guide, er, guide. The tips inside got me a little further ahead, and I got a tiny thrill out of experiencing an old weird game by using an old weird strategy guide.

Dr. Chaos was one of my favorite games.

I loved Dr Chaos as a kid in part because Goonies II was a favorite of mine as a proto-Metroidvania. Granted, I also loved Golgo 13 both then and now, so my tastes have always been offbeat to say the least. My favorite bug that I managed to pull off was getting killed in the final boss fight, collapsing into a pile, yet having the collapsed corpse perform the end game sequence with his brother.

I love how level headed and thoughtful you are with most games, that when you get one you are this critical of, you know it's bad.

As a huge fan of Goonies 2, i really wanted to like Dr. Chaos. I agree with you, that there is something there

Dr. Chaos was frustrating to play (and I rented it from the local video store more than once trying to beat it), but that title screen and music will forever be etched on my brain as one of the more atmospheric things I had seen on the NES.

Honestly, a rom hack of Dr Chaos, as a resident evil demake is an idea i find oddly appealing.

You know I liked Superman. I played it as a kid and then went back and actually beat it in my early 20s. It was a little wonky, but I enjoyed it. I still remember the main title theme as well, that is often shat upon, but I think it is perfectly suitable.

Oh man that map of dr chaos would have kicked ass at the time

Superman is one of my favorite nes games. Not because it’s great, but because of the time I had with it. It was a game that really ignited my imagination as a small child.

Without fail, Dr. Chaos was always available each time I went to the local rental store. I never got quite desperate enough to give it a shot. Sometimes instincts serve you well.

Another note on Dr. Chaos ; The original FDS version was much shorter, albeit harder. All the action warp zones were only 4 screens long but it was also more difficult with frequent mini boss encounters kicking you outside of a room and more enemies crammed into each area. (also the "Smork" enemy could be found in the mansion hallway area) Also the FDS version utilized saving on disk vs. Dr. Chaos' password system.

watch ya vids weekly. straight forward and quality

4:11 Ah they aren't too bad... _The Pale Man_ appears, oh god.

My cousin owned the Superman game and we put a lot of time into it but could never figure out what the heck to do. I had forgotten all about it until this video. Thanks Jeremy for informing tonight's nightmares!

The way tree leaves move in Koneko Monogatari is strange and hypnotic?

I love learning how to play those shitty games I could never wrap my head around as a kid. It's so easy to learn about the gaming greats, but learning the backstop to those games you'd never think of is fascinating. Love this channel.

It’s funny how as Nintendo started developing a lack of third party software in about 2 generations and the Wii era Nintendo suddenly became entirely fine with shelves of micro games, the “this seal is a guarantee that Nintendo has personally approved the product” got reduced to “Official Nintendo Seal” I’ve always found even complete train wrecks of games to be fascinating in their own right (especially when there is the kernel of good intentions and not just a lazy third party cash in). Might as well have thrown in Nuclear man and done a Superman 4 tie in…. (Excellent work as always)

“Who would go on to make Pachinko Time!” And Konami would take inspiration

I kind of like Superman a bit? It's so weird! There's lots of other stuff, like the chibified (yet still gigantic) Statue of Liberty that gives you missions, the weird way the sprites lag behind the backgrounds when scrolling, and _especially_ the scene of Superman taking the subway between areas (behind silhouettes of other passengers that are for some reason much larger than he is). But then, I'm a big MST3K fan.... Also, the Japanese version managed to get the movie theme song for the title screen, which they couldn't get for the US release!

0:07 Awesome to see the great Jim Varney, though I’m not sure what he’s doing here. Bummer we never got Ernest goes to Camp of Hey Verne the video game.

Please, Dr. Chaos was my father’s name. Call me Michael

Someone I knew as a kid had that Superman game. I remember us trying to play it from time to time. We would randomly run around not knowing what to do, get killed, and then put in a better game.

Every time I think about Dr. Chaos, I remember Armake21's review of that game. Still funny after all these years.

Oh, that was a delightful giggle in finally recognizing one of these clips. Oh, right. I'm supposed to mention something about the games.

Oh, that game of Superman...the quintessence of Kusoge!

I definitely have a soft spot for Dr. Chaos. Had it as a kid and its title screen spooked me. Its gameplay setup is also pretty interesting when you get into it. That Superman though.. This is the first time I've seen it in action and yeah, it looks pretty janky (not to mention tedious).

Interesting failures. Now I want to play Kitten's story: Milo & Otis!!

It really says a lot that the best Superman game is STILL the arcade one, and even that is a 7/10 that I love just because I played it at Chuck E Cheese a lot as a kid

I expect I'm one of the very few people on the planet that actually likes Superman for the NES. I remember renting it as a kid and really digging the SD/chibi art style in the instruction manual, and the character sprites in the game. Even I wouldn't recommend this game to anyone though. It had the potential, but couldn't bring any of it to fruition. I'd kinda like to see a remake that addresses the game's balance and control issues.

I love everything about Dr Chaos except the execution. It's such a cool concept, it's very memorable, but the whole thing is kind of a tedious, shoddy mess.

I've always been intrigued by Dr. Chaos. I kinda get a resident evil vibe from it. I will have to give it a shot with low expectations so that way I won't be completely disappointed lol

lmao the sprites are cheetahmen tier in Dr. Chaos

Being alive in the day,. the goonies II design was maybe the only way people could think of. I remember when 3d was on the radar and looking at my NES controller thinking how tf would 3d work?

I remember playing Dr. Chaos on NES years ago, didn't know it came out on FDS which has better scrolling. also apparently, because they can't license the Superman theme (that the Japanese version has), the overworld theme of Indora no Hikari was used instead in the title screen of the US version of Superman. Anyway I can't wait for the G.I. Joe episode btw.

Speaking of cheap Dragon Quest clones, due to licensing issues the NES version of Superman had some of its BGM replaced with recycled tracks from Indora no Hikari, one of the blandest Dragon Quest clones ever created. Though not quite at the level of legendary kusoge like Ganso Saiyuuki or Jarvas. Thankfully it stayed in Japan you won't have to suffer through it for NES Works!

I liked Dr Chaos. Except for the lack of any instructions on how to find the ultra space sensor

Always good content. Always.

I'm glad everyone else remembers the chibi Statue of Liberty. Statue of Chiberty?

The US version of "Superman" used music from a Kemco RPG called "Indora no Hikari". The Japanese version had renditions of the iconic John Williams score.

I'd like a modern prequel of Dr. Chaos back when he was still Grad Student Chaos.

I was wondering when Superman would show up, lol - this and Ghostbusters were the two games I first got for my birthday with the NES+Power Pad set (along with that triple cart that it came with). At the time, I didn't have much to compare it to, so I like it to a point. Definitely clunky, though! That said, I'd kinda like to see that reworked, because there's a possibly half-way decent game skeleton hidden under all that kryptonite! 🤣

I had completely forgotten Dr. Chaos, but I remembered it as soon as I saw that bizarre half-melted, left-and-right twitching skeleton sprite. I rented this one, and I was initially very excited about it, because I'd loved Goonies II (though I never beat it back then). But yeah, Dr. Chaos is really hard to love. The house scenes control really poorly, and ammo is so scarce, and enemies respawn so frequently, that it's really a terrible chore to play those segments--which is weird, because they're almost supposed to be down time between the segments of searching the rooms and going into the actual dungeon-type areas. If they'd gone with a pure Blaster Master approach, where ammo is endless and you grow steadily more powerful so that enemies that are initially challenging become mere scenery, that would have worked; or if they'd gone with the survival horror approach of scarce resources but also few, impactful enemies, that might have been okay too. But instead it's this weird hybrid where you're so constantly harried by trivial enemies that the deeper progression elements of the game are essentially impossible to engage with. Squandered potential indeed!

I rented Dr Chaos as a kid from the local video store. I never figured out how to get to any of the actual content. I guess that means I never found the "special sensor". I knew there was something I was missing but I didn't have internet in 1988

Ernest inclusion is excellent

If a kid beat Dr. Chaos on a 3 day rental, how skilled a gamer would he/she be.

I picked up Dr. Chaos at a flea market and played it recently. It isnt "super bad". Its ambitious, as Jeremy says, and i had a good time with exploring it and find the secret walls and hidden items. Its not "great" and I only cleared about 6 bosses before getting bored, but its worth a look for a longer-play experience on NES.

I’m kind of sad that the most interesting thing about Superman NES didn’t get covered at all. The Famicom version illegally lifted John Williams’ music directly from the 1978 film, despite the fact that the score was owned by Columbia / Warner and not DC who licensed the game. Japan sort of just didn't care about chiptune rights. For the NES version, Kemco swapped in Hiroyuki Masuno's excellent, chill music from the Famicom-exclusive RPG Indora No Hikari. However, whoever did the swap job missed a bunch of tracks they didn’t recognize. The inscrutable Daily Planet music, for one example, is a direct rip of some weird incidental music from the Superman III film OST ("Saving the Factory / Acid Test," timestamp 1 :50) . Presumably, no one at Columbia / Warner ever noticed or cared, because this is a terrible game with a few fantastic original tunes bolted on to it. 
Source: mostly original research spurred by RU-vid comments, because I am the biggest Hiroyuki Masuno stan in the western hemisphere, and his tracks in this game always caused me to have far greater affection for the NES version than its gameplay merits.

Lol that intro use to scare me but it's bad ass now

Dr. Chaos is actually my #2 on my list of "games like Goonies II". In the #1 place, despite stark differences in theme, is Friday the 13th. But I guess you haven't gotten that far yet

I was pretty good at NES games and i can't remember exactly when I got Dr Chaos but I never made it past the first stage.

I, like many other children of the 80s, am still waiting for The Goonies II: The Movie.

I wanted Dr. Chaos so badly as a kid. I remember seeing it in Gamepro or Nintendo Power back in the day, and it looked like it could be just like one of my other favorite games of the time (Goonies 2). I've also always had kind of a soft spot for Kemko's Superman too, it was like a weird mix of Mighty Bomb Jack and Friday the 13th, but with a mission structure. I'd never recommend it to anyone, but I do kinda like it for some reason.

I asked for Dr. Chaos as a kid based solely on the box art and was profoundly disappointed.

I'd love a short side video examining how the failure of Japanese 8 bit micros in the west in part opened the door for the NES in the same way the 82/83 crash did.

Ahhh Superman, the game I asked my mom to get for me because I thought it was a port of Taito's arcade game but in a chibi form. Oh the horror of discovering it was not. What did I do? Played it and finished it, because money was spent on it.

>snare intensifies

16:38 Game Players was always there for us. Surely they knew not every kid was going to get the best games, and we still needed help with our bargain bin titles and weekend rentals.

My hats off to you sir !!! Going through more bad nes games than AVGN and Pat the nes Punk combined ....

That Howard Phillips fella was dirty I tells ya...He wielded too much power. I bet he pocketed enough money under the table to retire at 40 in Fiji.... He was responsible for ruining childhoods and wasting loads of parents' money

What we did not know and what we were willing to tolerate before the nigh overwhelming abundance of choice for gaming we have today. I actually remember Dr. Chaos fondly. Not playing it; that was left up to my now-ex-brother-in-law. That creepy music, those strange enemies, and my nine-year-old sensibilities. I remember trying to slog through some of this myself a couple years ago--it was miserable and I lasted about 10 minutes.

Superman for the NES makes Superman 64 look like Superman for the Atari 2600 by comparison :D

GOONIES II IS MY FAVORITE NES GAME!!!!!

@9:50 Anybody ever seen one of those Captain Commando Battery Powered Watches?

Why do the big skeleton monsters look like they're dancing? They must be some kind of boogie men.

DrChaos is obviously based off the House movie