Uploaded June 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
A playthrough of GameTek's 1988 license-based game show game for NES, Wheel of Fortune.
I played three games in this video. The first is on difficulty level one. The second, at 12:09, is on level two. The third, at 23:05, is on level three.
Wheel of Fortune on the NES was an incredibly popular game, as you may have expected given the number sequels it received. It was the first of four games based on the franchise to be released on the NES between 1988 and 1992. It also happens to be GameTek's first published title, Rare's first (of eight!) gameshow adaptations for the system, and finally, the first license-based NES game show game released in North America. For a glittery version of Hangman, that's a lot of noteworthy trivia tidbits.
The gameplay is as faithful to the TV show as it possibly could be, and there are a ton of puzzles. The box claims over 1000, and since you'll only ever see four in any one game, the game will last a long time.
The graphics are fine - the neon pink wheel gives off peak 80s vibes, even if Vanna's skin is the color of baby food and her dress makes her look a professional castanet player - and the sound is pretty good. There's a crispy voice sample on the title screen, and even though the in-game music is limited, Dave Wise still somehow manages to find a funky groove to tap into for the little ditties and fanfares.
I loved Rare's Wheel of Fortune NES games as a kid, and they still hold a lot of their appeal now. Wheel of Fortune hasn't changed much since 1988, and the NES handled the concept just fine from the start.
_____________
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 GameTek's 1988 license-based game show game for NES, Wheel of Fortune.
I played three games in this video. The first is on difficulty level one. The second, at 12:09, is on level two. The third, at 23:05, is on level three.
Wheel of Fortune on the NES was an incredibly popular game, as you may have expected given the number sequels it received. It was the first of four games based on the franchise to be released on the NES between 1988 and 1992. It also happens to be GameTek's first published title, Rare's first (of eight!) gameshow adaptations for the system, and finally, the first license-based NES game show game released in North America. For a glittery version of Hangman, that's a lot of noteworthy trivia tidbits.
The gameplay is as faithful to the TV show as it possibly could be, and there are a ton of puzzles. The box claims over 1000, and since you'll only ever see four in any one game, the game will last a long time.
The graphics are fine - the neon pink wheel gives off peak 80s vibes, even if Vanna's skin is the color of baby food and her dress makes her look a professional castanet player - and the sound is pretty good. There's a crispy voice sample on the title screen, and even though the in-game music is limited, Dave Wise still somehow manages to find a funky groove to tap into for the little ditties and fanfares.
I loved Rare's Wheel of Fortune NES games as a kid, and they still hold a lot of their appeal now. Wheel of Fortune hasn't changed much since 1988, and the NES handled the concept just fine from the start.
_____________
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 V: Kefin, Lost Kingdom of Sand (SNES) Playthrough [English]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/xXT8GfaE1tQ/mqdefault.jpg "Ys V: Kefin, Lost Kingdom of Sand (SNES) Playthrough [English]
Ys V: Kefin, Lost Kingdom of Sand (SNES) Playthrough [English]")
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A playthrough of Konamis 1987 action-adventure game for the Nintendo Famicom, Dracula II: Noroi no Fuuin (ドラキュラⅡ呪いの封印, lit. Dracula II: The Seal of the Curse).
Dracula II: Noroi no Fuuin, released in the fall of 1987 for the Famicom Disk System, is the original Japanese version of Castlevania II: Simons Quest (https://youtu.be/HJ-wR_D48uE), which was localized and released for the NES in North America in 1988 and in PAL territories in 1990.
Simons Quest is my favorite game in the Castlevania series, and I wanted to do something special with it for this Halloween season. I havent tried any of the fan-made translation patches that are out there so I cant speak to their quality, but to give the game the royal treatment, I rolled up my sleeves and translated the entire thing myself. (Please note that this is not a game patch. All of the text was superimposed over the footage in a video editor.)
The official English version of the game regularly gets blasted for the quality of its translation, and while it does have its share of glaring errors and omissions, its more faithful to the original script than people give it credit for. I think what hampers it is how terse and literal it is, and how that tends to obscure important information. With this translation, I did my best to address those issues while staying true to the Japanese text. I hope you find it as interesting to watch as I did to work on.
The soundtrack in this version is also pretty neat. The music is the same, but the FDSs wavetable channel gives it a very different character to what we heard on the NES. I prefer the NES versions of the tunes - the sampled drums give them a lot of oomph - but the FDS music is very good in its own right.
(The loading screens are a bit of a pain, though!)
In this playthrough, I finished the game in seven days for the best ending, but I also included the normal and bad endings at end of the video, starting from 1:45:06. The endings were already in English, so Ive left them untouched.
I hope you guys enjoy the translation, and Id love to hear your thoughts on how this version compares to the NES game!
(And if you like Castlevania music, perhaps youd like to check out some of my arrangements done on original SNES hardware! You can find one of my SNES remixes of the town music at https://youtu.be/Yd4p2EX5WyM, and a compilation of several of my Castlevania SNES mixes at https://youtu.be/KQLqelPbwZc)
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!")
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Chrono Trigger (SNES) Playthrough [1 of 2] - NintendoComplete")
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Dragon Quest II (SNES) Playthrough [English]")
