Wonderswan

MattBlah

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I've just picked up a Wonderswan again (I used to own one around 10 years ago) and thought I'd come see what games I should pick up.

I couldn't see another thread dedicated to the system so thought I'd start one. Are there many other fans of the system here?

Any cheap games that I should look out for to get me started?
 

pulstar

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I love my Wonderswan Crystal. Have you got a monochrome, colour or crystal? Rockman and Forte is good, same as the port of Golden Axe, Gunpey is a fun little puzzle game. Klonoa is pretty good. I liked the Guilty Gear's on the Wonderswan as well, but it is very hard to play without the Wondercoin (the original D-Pad is awful for most things). The problem is unless you like RPG or text heavy adventure games the Wonderswan is a pretty lacking console.
 

cdamm

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Judgement silversword.


The catch being I hope you like hunting for unicorns.
 

ChopstickSamurai

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I just picked myself up a Color not too long ago as well. All I have for it is Puyo Puyo so far. How are Crazy Climber and Cho Aniki? Those sounded like they would be up my alley.
 

xsq

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oh yeah... I've been wanting for a Crystalswan for quite some time... where did you pick up your unit? They tend to go for quite a lot of money on ebay, more than I am willing to drop atm.


Here's a very informative post Famicommander made over in the Worst Handheld thread:
For people asking about the Wonderswan/Color, there are actually quite a few good games that are completely playable for non-English speakers. Problem is, some are really expensive. But you could still import a WSC and a handful of great games for dirt cheap on eBay.

Golden Axe, Rock Man and Forte: Challenger from the Future, Gunpey, Gunpey EX, Space Invaders, Judgement Silversword, Guilty Gear Petit, Guilty Gear Petit 2, Pocket Fighter, Rhyme Rider Kerorican, Makai-Mura (WS exclusive Ghosts n Goblins), Digimon Frontier: Battle Spirit, Digimon Tamers: Battle Spirit, Final Lap Special, Mr Driller, Klonoa: Moonlight Museum, Rockman EXE WS, SD Gundam: Operation UC, Tetris, Ultraman, One Piece: Swan Colosseum, Kinnikuman Nisei: Dream Tag Match, Beatmania, Buffers Evolution, Crazy Climber, Digimon Adventure: Anode and Cathode Tamer Veedramon Version, Fire Pro Wrestling, Puyo Puyo, Puzzle Bobble ... Not all of those are great, but I own them all and they're all playable without Japanese knowledge (as long as you don't mind missing out on story segments in some games).

If you dig the Wonderswan Color I recommend tracking down a SwanCrystal. The screen is way, way better. Comparable in quality to the NGPC's, maybe better.
 

Pretty Amy

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Funny this just popped up, I just ordered a Crystal the other day.

I got my Color ~12 years ago off eBay. New for something like $35 shipped. I only ever got Final Fantasy IV. It's totally playable if you don't know Japanese so long as you already know the game like the back of your hand. I just kept a sheet of paper handy where I recorded which spells and items were in each slot. This was before the GBA port existed.

Looking forward to trying some new games. I really wish I knew Japanese so I could play more of the RPGs on the system.
 
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MattBlah

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I have a Wonderswan Color, but also a Crystal on the way. I'm looking forward to that arriving as I've never used one before.

Yeah, I can see that the language barrier is a big problem with a lot of the games, but most are quite cheap so it should be fun trying to figure some of them out. I currently only have two games, a One Piece board game that is pretty much impossible to play without knowing Japanese and a puzzle game called Flash or something with the word flash in at least. This is perfectly playable and a lot of fun.

Talking of Final Fantasy, managed to play through most of part 1 on my Wonderswan years ago, without knowing the game at all. I think I had to check guides a few times though.
 

[OCEAN]

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I bought all 3 versions of Wonderswan, loved to play it in its time. Coming from the original GameBoy, it was quite an impressive system (as the NGP in fact).

The original B&W version had some pretty good arcade ports and probably more action games than its successor, such as Beatmania (with amazing sound), Side Pocket and Pocket Fighter. The Tare Panda version of Gunpey was also great (even had its own themed Wonderswan design). I remember playing also Buffers Evolution, which is basically a runner.

On the color I absolutely loved One Piece Swan Colosseum, which is basically the predecessor of the Jump Superstars series for the DS. Even if you're not much into the series, I'd absolutely get that one. The MUSCLE (Kinnikuman) revival of the NES game is quite fun too.
 

GohanX

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How is the screen on the regular Color? Windy has some pretty cheap, might be time to get my feet wet.
 

pulstar

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The screen on the regular Wonderswan Colour is not bad, just the Swancrystal's are much better. If you can find a Wonderswan Colour cheap enough, it should be plenty good enough.
 

MattBlah

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I've never had a problem with the screen on the regular Wonderswan Color, in fact I find it much easier to look at than the gameboy or NGPC. I'd say it was comparable to the Gameboy pocket screen, but colour.

I am looking forward to seeing the difference when the crystal arrives in a few days, I'll post my impressions here when it does.
 

Electric Grave

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I got both crystal and the previous color model.

I only have a handful of games, I picked only action titles that play well.

Pocket Fighter
Rockman & Forte
Magical Drop
Makaimura
Buffer's Evolution
Guilty Gear Petit 1 & 2

...but the best game I have played on this thing is TEKKEN Card Challenge, it's all in Japanese but it's easy to figure out what's what, this game is so damn good!

I've always wanted to try Judgement Radiant Sword or whatever is the name to the Radiant Silvergun spin off.
 
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MattBlah

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My Swancrystal arrived :D £38 shipped with the two games, bargain!

Anyone have any idea what the game on the right is? It doesn't seem to have any English on it.

 

NeoSneth

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Rhyme Rider is still hard even without needing english. Needs damn near perfection with timing.
I finally scored Final Lap Special and it's a fantastic game. That one took me a long time to obtain.


There was some very recent news on a new wonderswan flashcart. http://www.flashmasta.com/
This will make Judgement Silversword and Dicing Knight finally something I can play on my Wonderswan Crystal.
 

xsq

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My Swancrystal arrived :D £38 shipped with the two games, bargain!
Good score indeed, that's about half of what I see them go for a lot of the time. Hope you find some more games for a decent price :)
 

pulstar

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I've always wanted to try Judgement Radiant Sword or whatever is the name to the Radiant Silvergun spin off.

It looks really nice, but it isn't really a Radiant Silvergun spin-off, more like an inspired-by. It was part of the WonderWitch coding competition in Japan and, if I remember rightly, the winner had their game published and that was Judgement Silversword. I'm sure Dicing Knight came from the same competition. Both very expensive games (and Dicing Knight is rare as well).
 

MattBlah

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Good score indeed, that's about half of what I see them go for a lot of the time. Hope you find some more games for a decent price :)

Thanks, I hope I can find some too. I have One Piece Battle Colosseum on the way, so that should keep me going for a while.

Flash Koibito-Kun is a lot of fun and very addictive, so I'd recommend that to anyone looking for a new game.

I'd love to get Judgment Silversword, but it's going for £300 on eBay!
 
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I have wanted one for quite a while now. How are you finding the console? Designed by the same chap who made the gameboy so it must be good! It's a shame it never made it across to the west So there's no English ports for the rpgs. Kins of want the one piece games anyway. And Definately rockman!
 

GohanX

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So, I kinda just bought a Wonderswan from Windy. Curse you Matt, this is the second thread that you started that made me spend money!
 

Electric Grave

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YES!

Doode! Get Tekken Card Challenge, no body knows about this game, I'm the only fucker that owns it. It is an awesome game though, I highly recommend it, it's heavy on Japanese but you don't really need to read it 'cause most of everything is governed by numbers. Maybe one day we can link up!
 

pulstar

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So, I kinda just bought a Wonderswan from Windy. Curse you Matt, this is the second thread that you started that made me spend money!

Good choice! What did you get? A mono, colour or crystal?
 

GohanX

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I got a blue color one with a copy of Gunpey and Wonder Stadium from Windy. I still need to pick up a gaijin friendly color game. I'm just kinda dipping my toes in, if I really like it I may go ahead and get a Crystal.
 

MattBlah

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Sorry Gohan, I promise not to start any new threads for a while :p

Good choice though, I'm doing the same really, taking it slowly and checking out a few games. No need to throw myself in at the deep end just yet.

I need to try Tekken Card Challenge, EG. I see it goes pretty cheaply on eBay.
 
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