The NES music was ruined for me after I watched a video about a bootleg games console which uses that as the menu music. The console even features a version of this game with the main character being replaced by Red from Angry Birds.
This was the first Amiga game I ever played. Came in the Amiga pack with Batman and F18 Interceptor. Was Christmas morning and my previous computer was a Zx Spectrum, so I was immediately blown away!
One of my all time favorite games and some of the best Bob Wakelin artwork alongside Bubble Bobble and Rainbow Islands. I must admit never seen the FM Towns version but it looks the nearest port to the actual arcade? I once found in a French arcade a free credit (world, old) that made the Holiday and Galvanized the appeal of this simple looking game....Simple it is not...How many people have completed it; without cheating? How many secret warps did you find; on your own; and when you get the laser spaceship to fly, you never want to land! Off to load up the arcade emulator...Thank you for your effort on this video...Amazing game.
People don't give the DS remake enough credit. It takes the original game and makes it even better in almost every way. The levels are much longer, the map has been moved to the bottom screen so it doesn't block any of the action on the top screen, the graphics look nice and clean and feature some nice parallax scrolling (For example, you can see more zoo animals in the background when you move from left to right), you can charge up your weapon, there are a few new weapons such as the ice arrow, you no longer die in one hit, there are a few sections that involve the touch screen, the bosses have been changed up slightly so you need a bit more strategy to beat them (At least one of them utilises both screens), the final boss is now fought in two phases instead of one, meaning you can now _attack him directly_ after popping his balloon, and the music has a bit more variety to it, with the main theme getting different remixes in each world and the final boss _finally_ getting his own theme as well as a new victory fanfare when you defeat him. The only downsides to the remake are that there are no Heaven levels to go to if you lose your last life in the later levels by getting hit by a projectile (Instead, there are "cloud" sections that appear normally within some levels), so you don't have a chance to revive yourself and avoid a Game Over, and the smoking kiwi was removed from the intro, but that's understandable and forgivable, since the game is technically aimed at kids and the sprite artists went to the effort to make _each and every kiwi_ distinct from one another in some way, instead of just a few of them as in the original. As much as I love the original arcade version, I have to go with the DS version as my personal favourite of the bunch for all the improvements it makes over the original game.
"the map has been moved to the bottom screen so it doesn't block any of the action on the top screen" Except that this top screen is too small. This is a step back, not a step forward and the other "features" neither.
Heaven is in the DS version. That's where I discovered heaven being in this game in the first place, then found out it was in the Arcade version later on because the first version I knew was the NES version.
Can't believe how good the Master System version looks! Almost as good as the Megadrive. Poor showing for my beloved C64 though - it makes Tiki look like a Tweety Bird :(
I like how the ZX Spectrum version used sprites which were scanned and then ripped straight from the arcade version. The port looked very high quality due to that. The Amiga and ST versions used the same technique and as a result look almost identical to the arcade version.
What a fantastical game this is. Played this on C64, Master system,Amiga,STe,Nes,Spectrum and just about every other Pal version. One time (and only once) my uncle was so frustrated with the C64 version he slapped the keyboard with both hands and it triggered infinite lifes. never could get it to work again. Great memorys and another great comparison.
I have compared various versions of this game before. And one of the most important things that people miss while comparing is that better versions have a map that actually shows where your target is. This is important as this game has both horizontal and vertical platforming at the same level. Also, you can choose to take the aerial route as well for easier completion of the level. And without the on-screen map, it becomes a chore. So, while the amiga and other versions might look good. They are simply inferior due to not having the map. I personally have chosen arcade and NDS versions as the definitive version of the game for my definitive retropie collection myself.
I understand choosing the arcade version, even though I find a map that doesn't have any real details on it rather useless. However DS? they jammed in a completely unnecessary touch control to break the flow.
The arcade music is in C, whereas the spectrum music is a little lower in Bb. Super interestingly. Thanks for compiling them all, I only knew the spectrum version when I was young, it's much harder than the arcade one.
Never got this back in the day. I think I got it confused with Rainbow Islands. Looking at the Nes version I would have enjoyed it. Music is best on that version. I also like to look of the FM Towns and Megadrive.
As a kid I didn’t understand the terms of cities and places, but after visiting NZ for about a month, I realized that Auckland is actually names in the game LOL!
This game, Bubble Bobble and Double Dragon were my favorite games in the Arcades back then. And the most frustating. I never ended any of them. I remember this I like the mounts, the level designs, the music.
In some versions of the game, there's an intro segment with a kiwi... smoking? In other version, they either cut that part out, removed the ciggarrete, or just removed the intro.
I'd say the Amiga and Master System versions of the game are my favourites. If this game hadn't been forgotten about, it could have been turned out for the Switch console.
DS port is perfect, except for the bottom screen elements with touch interaction which ruin the pace completely. Whomever did it should make a new redux version without it. All the assets are there.
Wow!! The music is in the ZC Spectrum port sounds great! It's so rare to have in game music with ZX Spectrum games I play. Especially. It ones that sound as good as that
Man.....this have been in my memory for so many years since I last played it in my old chunky dead NDS........ I never thought that it had a lot of other version! Pretty cool
the game is an absolute masterpiece of game design. My personal favourite is the Amiga version because it has a certain feel to it but obviously the arcade is the way to go
The Taito Legends Vol. 1 compilation contains the old revision of this game. Oh, and there's one more revision - World version with spikes scattered all over.
Huh, despite the many versions, I didn't actually know this game! It reminds me of the anti-KFC game. :P Unfortunately it wasn't released on any Game Boy consoles. Maybe I'd get the DS version, though!
Wow - I just purchased a NZS arcade pcb from Ebay & it seems to have a completely different start level to all the versions you've shown above. And the Eprom's are definitely original Taito. The one I have is hard as nails.. spikes everywhere on level 1! I wonder what it is?
My favorite version is the DS version My second favorite version is the Arcade version My least favorite version is either Commodore 64 or Amstrad CPC ZX Spectrum should probably technically be one of my least favorites as well based on gameplay (like Amstrad CPC) but the visuals look nice unlike Commodore 64 and Amstrad CPC) Let me actually rank them. 1. Nintendo DS 2. Arcade 3. Sega Master System 4. Sega Genesis/Master Drive 5. FM Towns 6. NES 7. Sharp X68000 8. Amiga 9. TurboGrafx-16 10. Atari ST 11. ZX Spectrum 12. Amstrad CPC 13. Commodore 64
Strange... are there multiple versions on the Amstrad CPC? Because I had that but I remember the first stage layout matching the Arcade World Prototype and the Mega Drive versions seen here
Differences I could tell just from this snippet - Graphics were Identical in both resolution and colour (guess that's not a difference), Amiga version had larger gameplay area, was a little smoother scrolling, Tune was the same but the Amiga had more bass (typical) but this is a preference thing so it's a wash. And for those ppl who like this game I'm sure it's a good port (certainly nothing wrong with it) but technically I think it could have had better scrolling and more colours on the Amiga. At least they did use the Amiga a little bit to improve it over the ST version.
@@jasonlee7816 the ST version is inferior to the Amiga version in every way. They were both written by the same company (Choice Software) who also did the Amstrad version.
I'd say compared to the arcade version only the FM Towns version nails it on all fronts, with the spectrum version being the least painful on the ears with the iconic music for the other versions. The DS version did what DS versions always did, tried to fix what wasn't broken and ended up being worse for it (Robocod is another pet peeve for me on that front) where it could have been the original with a nice new paint job.
Both FM towns and Sharp X68000 versions are the closest to the arcade hands down!!. also Impressed with the music of the NES Version, sounds almost better that the original.
i believe i got to world 7 or so of this game before my console froze. i didn't think about making a save until after the fact. this game is brutal, but incredibly fun and well made! i played the version included in the Taito Legends Collection on the PS3 as a kid! it's so cool to see stuff about this game still floating around!
Someone really needs to re-do the Amstrad version, like they did with R-Type, Whoever programmed the Amstrad version must have been very lazy. I'm not expecting it too look on par with the NES or Master System version but come on, the CPC was far more capable of what we see here.
Unfortunately the CPC's lot in life was to have quick dirty ports of Spectrum games. They either basically did nothing on the port or change the graphics so they were lower resolution and high colour but not optimized so it slows the game down.
tbh I always felt weird bc some of the enemies are people with boomerangs, and those are an aussie thing. Aboriginal Australians and NZ's indigenous Māori are very different people/cultures
Fun fact, in some versions, either the opening cutscene has been removed completely or skipped to the part where the kiwis are chased. Probably because of a subliminal message regarding that one of the kiwis is actually smoking.
Story: Casey And Her Twins Went To The Krill Grill To Eat And Drink Page 2: But Just 15 Minutes Later Page 3: Baby Wednesday Came And Was Ready To Something That No One Has Done Before Page 4: Because She's Turning These People To Leafy Guys And Her Next Victim Was At The Krill Grill Page 5: She Infected One Of The Drink With A Potion That Will Change People Into Leafy Guys She Sat Down On A Chair To Watch Page 6: The Chef Brought The Food And The Drinks To Casey And The Twins Page 7: Green Guy Drank One Of The Cups He Felt Confused The Drink Was Haunting Him Page 8: He Got Turned Into One Of Those Leafy Guys Page 9: Red Guy Started A Journey To Save Has Brother From Baby Wednesday
In the sega genesis/ mega drive 11:29 and Master System 14:48. Why is there a sign that says "Ki Wi" With a picture of a green bird and an arrow pointing where the ticks ran? What is this a troll?
NES version has banging remixed music by Follin bros. but looks very washed out. Master System version looks much better and the music stays more faithful to the arcade which suits better alongside the visual simplicity and charm of this game. PC Engine version looks rather sad in terms of colors and has grating sound, whose worst aspect is the fact that every weapons have the same sound FX. Mega Drive version is unique in that it's the sole home port based on the arcade prototype which has different levels and is more challenging. It also has very good graphics and sound and was an early Mega Drive title and I always had a soft spot for those. I remember the ST/Amiga ports being quite good but I'd have to play those again to really tell.
Honestly, even back in the day, I thought the C64 version should have been New Zealand Story "Special" as that Kiwi does does not look right, plus the music makes my ears bleed. Maybe thats what it was, the music caused it to deform in the egg to protect its hearing :D
Best 8-bit is Sega Master System and best 16-bit is Sega Megadrive. The Master System version is better than many of the 16-bit versions and only shows its limitations (sprite flicker and slowdown) when there are loads of sprites on the screen.
Otro video fenomenal de retrosutra. Este juego, con esa apariencia infantil que tiene, es de los más difíciles que he jugado en mi vida. Adictivo como pocos, es de la escuela del Rainbow Islands, otro que me sacaba de mis casillas. Tuve la versión de Atari ST (fenomenal conversión) y a punto estuve de lanzar el diskette por la ventana 😄. Muy divertido y desquiciante.
