Uploaded June 2026 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
A playthrough of LJN's 1992 license-based action game for the NES, Town & Country Surf Designs II: Thrilla's Surfari.
Thrilla's Surfari is the direct sequel to Atlus's youtu.be/QxmngfKrQUk, a hit 1988 NES extreme sports game starring T&C's goofy line-up of anthropomorphic mascots.
At first glance, this North American exclusive sequel appears to share a lot in common with Wood & Water Rage. Both games are comprised of levels based on surfing and skateboarding, and both feature a gorilla in sunglasses as the main character.
But the folks at Sculptured Software, recognizing that what had worked for a 1988 release would not fly four years later, created a more substantive take around the original's core design. W&WR's skateboarding obstacle course has been transformed into a series of large, multi-directional platforming gauntlets that take place in deserts, volcanos, and jungles. The surfing stages see the single wave of the first game replaced with a series of downhill river courses that resemble the slalom event in youtu.be/XhJmHkfJVGY.
It's a very different game, but like the W&WR, Thrilla's Surfari pays its dues to the image of the brand. Though you only get to play as the gorilla, the tuxedo cat, the masked native, and the cool guy all make appearances in the cutscenes that play between stages, and there are all sorts of gnarly boss dudes to fight. I'm a fan of the "hyper nasty rhino" with his wings, talons, and a second head for a butt.
The action moves smoothly, the graphics are bright and stylish, and though it's not nearly as catchy as W&WR's, the background music is suitably peppy. The controls are solid, which is appreciated given how difficult some of these stages can get, but they're more nuanced and less snappy than they were in the first game. I suppose that's a necessary consequence of having deeper mechanics, but it results in a game that demands a lot of memorization if you hope to make progress. That's not a bad thing, but I didn't find the gameplay as fun or endlessly replayable as Wood & Water Rage's.
I think its predecessor is a good lesson in how less can be more, but Thrilla's Surfari is a game that's satisfying to beat. I enjoyed it.
_____________
No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
NintendoComplete (nintendocomplete.com/) punches you in the face with in-depth reviews, screenshot archives, and music from classic 8-bit NES games!
A playthrough of LJN's 1992 license-based action game for the NES, Town & Country Surf Designs II: Thrilla's Surfari.
Thrilla's Surfari is the direct sequel to Atlus's youtu.be/QxmngfKrQUk, a hit 1988 NES extreme sports game starring T&C's goofy line-up of anthropomorphic mascots.
At first glance, this North American exclusive sequel appears to share a lot in common with Wood & Water Rage. Both games are comprised of levels based on surfing and skateboarding, and both feature a gorilla in sunglasses as the main character.
But the folks at Sculptured Software, recognizing that what had worked for a 1988 release would not fly four years later, created a more substantive take around the original's core design. W&WR's skateboarding obstacle course has been transformed into a series of large, multi-directional platforming gauntlets that take place in deserts, volcanos, and jungles. The surfing stages see the single wave of the first game replaced with a series of downhill river courses that resemble the slalom event in youtu.be/XhJmHkfJVGY.
It's a very different game, but like the W&WR, Thrilla's Surfari pays its dues to the image of the brand. Though you only get to play as the gorilla, the tuxedo cat, the masked native, and the cool guy all make appearances in the cutscenes that play between stages, and there are all sorts of gnarly boss dudes to fight. I'm a fan of the "hyper nasty rhino" with his wings, talons, and a second head for a butt.
The action moves smoothly, the graphics are bright and stylish, and though it's not nearly as catchy as W&WR's, the background music is suitably peppy. The controls are solid, which is appreciated given how difficult some of these stages can get, but they're more nuanced and less snappy than they were in the first game. I suppose that's a necessary consequence of having deeper mechanics, but it results in a game that demands a lot of memorization if you hope to make progress. That's not a bad thing, but I didn't find the gameplay as fun or endlessly replayable as Wood & Water Rage's.
I think its predecessor is a good lesson in how less can be more, but Thrilla's Surfari is a game that's satisfying to beat. I enjoyed it.
_____________
No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
NintendoComplete (nintendocomplete.com/) punches you in the face with in-depth reviews, screenshot archives, and music from classic 8-bit NES games!
![Ys (Famicom) Playthrough [English]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/D1oD7m8wjSg/mqdefault.jpg "Ys (Famicom) Playthrough [English]
Ys (Famicom) Playthrough [English]")
![Clock Tower (Wonderswan) Playthrough [English]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/E22mUzXe9cQ/mqdefault.jpg "Clock Tower (Wonderswan) Playthrough [English]
A playthrough of Naxats 1999 horror-adventure game for the Bandai Wonderswan, Clock Tower.
Clock Tower, Human Entertainments 1995 point-and-click horror adventure for the Super Famicom (https://youtu.be/hPfinlPAEiU), was followed up by a wide range of ports, remakes, sequels, and spin-offs over the years. Naxat and Kagas handheld adaptation of the original SNES title is arguably the most exotic and least known of these releases.
In this video, Im using a translation patch that was recently released by Team C.U.T.S. You can find the patch at https://archive.org/details/clock-tower-for-wonder-swan-english-v-1-1
The Wonderswan port is largely the same as the SNES version. The graphics are monochrome, most of the music was axed, the interface has been revamped for the lower-resolution screen, and a few clickable hotspots were removed, but the layout of the house remains the same, and the branching paths and multiple endings all made the leap intact.
The idea of having the complete Clock Tower experience in your pocket wouldve had a lot of appeal in the late 90s. The Wonderswans hardware was strong enough to make such a thing possible, but the end product unfortunately turned out to be something of a mixed bag. The lack of color suits the game, and the detailed backdrops and large sprites look great on the Wonderswan screen, but the game runs poorly. Everything already moves at a snails pace, but heavy slowdown rears its ugly head whenever anything but Jennifer is moving, and the slowdown causes the game to drop inputs, leading to some infuriatingly unfair moments toward the end. The Wonderswan couldve easily handled whats being asked of it here, but this version of Clock Tower strikes me as being an unoptimized mess of a quick-and-dirty port job.
As flawed as it is, I appreciate its novelty as a handheld point-and-click horror game. I only wish that they had made it as much fun to play as its console counterpart.
*This video was recorded with a shader to mimic the look of the original hardware.
No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
NintendoComplete (http://www.nintendocomplete.com/) punches you in the face with in-depth reviews, screenshot archives, and music from classic 8-bit NES games!")
![Final Fantasy II (SNES) Playthrough [2 of 2]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/E3IA8Zd3-gU/mqdefault.jpg "Final Fantasy II (SNES) Playthrough [2 of 2]
A playthrough of Squares 1991 role-playing game for the Super Nintendo, Final Fantasy II.
This is the second part of a two-part playthrough, picking up with the party preparing to head into the Sealed Cave in the underworld.
You can find the first part at https://youtu.be/zsPm6Tui7Ts
If youd like to skip to the fireworks, the scene that sets up the final battle begins at 4:41:47, and the epic twenty-minute long ending kicks off at 4:55:20.
Has any other JRPG endgame ever delivered a payoff to truly rival Final Fantasy IIs dynamite finale? I suppose its possible, but if such a spectacle exists, Ive not seen it.
No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
NintendoComplete (http://www.nintendocomplete.com/) punches you in the face with in-depth reviews, screenshot archives, and music from classic 8-bit NES games!")
