An epoch making NES platformer? - Kiteretsu Dai-hyakka Famicom Review（キテレツ大百科ファミコン版評価）

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welcome to Saki Endo's Rubbish Heap, a game review channel focusing on retro games but some modern stuff and mostly games from Japan. The Rubbish Heap crew will tell you how accessible the games are to non Japanese speakers and for those learning the language the difficulty level.

[episode 038] Kiteretsu Daihyakka（キテレツ大百科ファミコン版評価）

Right... back on safer territory after last episode's shocking Gunbird revelations....

Kiteretsu Dai-hyakka is Epoch’s 2nd Famicom game and one with a bit of a reputation in Japan as a ‘kuso-ge’ or crappy game. It’s a platform game where you devise inventions to assist you in clearing stages, find your friends and fight bosses at intervals through some varied landscapes.

There’s a little more to it than meets the eye though - for one, Epoch was not only the first to market with a swappable game cartridge based system beating Nintendo’s Famicom (NES) by nearly two years, but also it’s a game that has a number of interesting mechanics….that it then either poorly uses or underutilises. There is much here that could have potentially made a good game for the system.

Such a shame…having beaten the game, Saki investigates whether this is a game worth persevering with or perhaps one that should be shown the anywhere door….

My thanks to Patreon member and good friend Sanxion (Tim) for lending the game to the Rubbish Heap for this episode's review.

#learnjapanese #famicom #retrogaming

[translation notes]

No translation notes are available for this game.

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[social media, game ratings explanation, notes]

Don't forget Saki is on THE social media, SpaceHey!
https://spacehey.com/profile?id=2731939
and now also on BlueSky!
https://bsky.app/profile/rubbishheap....

Review ratings and Japanese levels explained:
https://pastebin.com/82ftu6H2

Games featured: Kiteretsu Dai-hyakka - Developed and Published by Epoch on 1990-02-23 (February 23rd 1990) in Japan. Gameplay footage recorded via a real Nintendo Famicom HVC-001 from original game software.

[other links]

Future Saviors manga featuring Saki, Hisao, and Kaito: http://linktr.ee/futuresaviors

Vix in Japan YouTube (creator and artist of Saki Endo's Rubbish Heap): @vix_in_japan

Future Saviors manga channel: @future_saviors

The making of Saki Endo's Rubbish Heap:    • The Making of Saki Endo's Rubbish Heap  

[credits]

All artwork except the following is Copyright ©️2026 Saki Endo's Rubbish Heap / @vix_in_japan . Illustrated by hand and finished in Aseprite and Deluxe Paint on the Commodore Amiga. Edited in iMovie with some Keynote. NO AI USED FOR THE ARTWORK 👊 Created 100% by ‪@vix_in_japan‬ .

Famicom image: Evan Amos via Wikimedia Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
Cassette Vision image: Evan Amos via Wikimedia Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
MSX image: Doppelgangland via Wikimedia Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
PC-6000 image: Darklanlan via Wikimedia Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
Doraemon first manga volume image used under fair use for journalistic purposes.

Static video footage: freestockfootagearchive.com / ‪@FreeStockFootageArchive‬​