023 · POPEYE
It's Miyamoto's dream come true as Popeye finally makes it to the NES! Also, we now have all the launch titles from the Famicom. For more NEStalgia as well as the show notes for this episode, head over to NEStalgia.com
Popeye is our first licensed game, and it is a Miyamoto itch finally scratched. Nintendo couldn't get the rights when Donkey Kong was being made (hence the King Kong swap), but by 1983 they had an arcade game. It was a Famicom launch title, yet it didn't reach the NES until 1986 as a straight port. The arcade original looks great. This one looks rushed.
What it gets right
- Music and sound. We agreed the music is polished and charming, and the intro is a faithful Popeye intro. The effects are low-pitched and a lot less grating than the usual NES chirping.
- Each stage has a gimmick. Punch the bag at the top and a bucket drops on Bluto for a 1,000-point bonus (the manual says it pays more when he's on a lower level). Punch a barrel and he gets stuck for a while. In the city stage you launch off a catapult, and Bluto uses it too.
- Bluto's AI is decent. He telegraphs his attacks, mixes bottles with jumps, and doesn't hunt you constantly. Grabbing the spinach, which looks like a shrub drifting around behind the stairs, makes him run off.
- Recognizable characters. The sprites are big and read as Bluto and Olive Oil, though Popeye looks too small next to Bluto.
Where it falls apart
- It is a collect-a-thon with no adventure. Hearts, then music notes, then the letters of HELP that build a ladder you never actually need to climb. Once you have them all, you win. We mostly ignored the extras and just collected our way through the first three stages.
- Little explanation. We had to piece together what the shrub was and why a ladder kept growing.
- Not much danger. The timer after the collectibles hit the water is so generous that we hung around the bottom of the screen anyway.
- The Sea Hag. Loop back to the first stage and she shows up dropping skulls that fall to your platform. Add bottles and an unpredictable Bluto and the difficulty jumps out of nowhere, nothing like the gradual ramp in the Donkey Kong ports. We didn't get far past the fourth round.
- Popeye doesn't feel like Popeye. He should be punching constantly and powered by spinach. Here the spinach is an afterthought. We also felt the game looks old-fashioned even for the NES.
Beyond the game
Japan got a sequel that never came here, an English-teaching game that reworks Popeye like Donkey Kong Jr. Math did, with Popeye punching numbers to form sentences. We also spent a while on the alternate history where Nintendo owns Popeye outright and Mario never exists.
The bottom line
Skip it. All four of us voted it off the Essential Games List. It is charming for its music and has a few clever ideas, but we agreed it belongs on a phone, and Mike wasn't sure it is worth recommending even to a Popeye fan. After Miyamoto's hot streak, this one reads like something he needed to get out of his system.
Written from our conversation in this episode.
Auto-generated transcript. Each paragraph starts with its timestamp. Speakers are not identified.
Popeye, now you're the king of spinach in a battle for Olive's Love.
And welcome to NEStalgia, a chronological exploration of every NES game released in North America. I'm Mike. I'm Sam. I'm Sean. And I'm Joe. I'm here too. I said that in like a denouement way. I forget. It hasn't happened in a while. Yeah. I'm not in the room with you, so it's fair. Yes, this is their way of knowing that, even though I think we alluded to the fact in the previous last week's episode, we said that Joe wouldn't be here for this one either.
So, for those of you now wondering where Joe is for some weird reason, he's not with us. I'll never tell. Yes. He's in Catalan. You'll never tell because he's on the search for Carmen Sandiego. I've made that joke only once before, so I'm allowed to make it at least one more time. That thing's in Chechnya this time. That's fair. So, guys, today we're talking about Popeye. It's our first licensed game.
Sean really wanted to include Kung Fu in that, but I can't because it's just an adaptation of a game, of a movie that gets a game. All right, Mike, we get it. It's very confusing.
Popeye, on the other hand, everybody knows Popeye. He's been around since like the 30s or 40s, and Miyamoto absolutely loves Popeye. I love it. It's very strange. We talked about this, Sean and I, on the Donkey Kong episodes, but Miyamoto has wanted to make Popeye ever since the original Donkey Kong. In fact, the original Donkey Kong game had Popeye in it, and then they were like, nah, this isn't kosher. You can't do this because Popeye is, Popeye, we don't have the rights to that, so you got to make something else. He goes, okay, what about King Kong? And they were like, couldn't see a lawsuit, but okay. It's better than nothing.
So there was that. They couldn't get the rights, but finally in 1983, he's able to get his vision to come true and see Popeye in a game for the arcade that only in 1986 comes to the NES. But I have to stress that it was a launch game for the Famicom. Wow. It's the final launch game of the Famicom for us to cover because the other two were Donkey Kong and Nung Yung Jr. See, that's interesting that they would just, I mean, I guess they were trying to put their best foot forward in America, but it's interesting that it was a launch title in Japan and didn't really come to America until after they had put out their launches for the NES.
Yeah. I did notice that too. And I wonder why that is, if it's just that maybe it was still popular in the arcades and they didn't want to make it available on a home route or if they just, I really can't tell you, but one thing that's to note is if you look at the arcade version of Popeye. Oh, it's a completely different looking game. It looks great. Yeah. And this game looks so rushed and we'll get into that in a minute, but it's just very interesting that like they couldn't polish it even more for the 1986 release on NES. They just decided to do a straight port with some, you know, English localization.
But before we talk about that, we got to talk about first impressions. So Sean, what's your first impression of Popeye? Um, so I go into every game blind and in the first one, in my first run through, I was completely confused as to what I was supposed to be doing. I was about to go to the manual, um, like a smart person, but decided I'd keep going.
I eventually got, um, got the gist of the rules and, um, I actually had a bit of fun playing this game. Great. Uh, Sam? Uh, so I did read the manual first before I played this one. And so I figured out what I was supposed to do, which I guess was helpful, but, uh, it didn't overwhelm me. I thought that the music was really good first off. Um, and it looked kind of nice sometimes, but that was, that was about it.
Okay. And, uh, Joe, I had a little bit of a, an interesting first impression. Uh, a lot of these NES games have, have like sounds when you move or, um, or just like a lot of crazy sounds and they get a little annoying. And my first impression of this one was that these sounds were kind of low pitch and a lot more pleasing to hear a lot less annoying and like grading.
Uh, yeah, I think, I think for sure to, you know, to your and Sam's point, the music in this game is really polished. And even that intro, like what a faithful intro to Popeye. Right. It's Popeye. Uh, and also I just kind of started, uh, I didn't know what to do at first either. So I was just like, I guess while I'm trying to figure it out, I'll collect these pedals that are dropping. And then after a while I was like, Oh, that's all I had to do is collect the pedals. So I figured it out.
All right. And so my first impression of this game is actually different than Sam's in the sense that I didn't feel like this was an NES game. Uh, it felt almost Atari 2600 like to me. It was very, um, you know, the stairs definitely the graphic of the stairs are right out of Atari 2600, but even just the limitations of like, well, you can't jump, you know, you can't punch Brutus unless you have the spinach thing.
Like I get that those are gameplay restrictions, but they just, it all felt very, um, old school, old school in that Atari 2600 sense that I just, I wasn't jiving with that. That's what I meant when I said it's very NES, just like as it's very old school gaming. That's just what I meant from that. Yeah. Gotcha. All right. So let's, uh, let's talk about the objective of the game real fast.
Your Popeye, uh, olive oil is kind of like in the top right of the stage, uh, for the most part. And she is either giving you, depending on the level, she's either giving you hearts to collect or she's giving you music notes or she's giving you a cries for help, a cry for help, a G L P. Uh, so you have to collect those as Popeye through, uh, going through the different platforms and stuff like that. So it is a platforming game all while avoiding obstacles like Brutus and, um, the beer bottles he throws. And if you can find the sea hag, if you play the game enough, she'll show up and start dropping skulls. The vulture. The vulture is there. There's a lot of, uh, different things.
Yeah. The vulture. It's like, I'm talking like the Spider-Man villain. The vulture shows up. I think the vulture had a name in the manual. I think it did too. And I know that all of the characters are actually in Popeye. Bluto. Yeah. Sorry. Not Brutus. I don't know why I said Brutus. Okay. I was going to ask you about that. Is it, is it Bluto? It's Bluto? It is. They do say Brutus too though in the manuals, but I'm seeing Bluto. Like that's how, that's what I knew at least. Like I always thought it was Pluto, but I probably just misheard it when I was a kid. No, Pluto is, yeah. Pluto's a dog. Well, I know, I know the other Pluto, but I've just. Which Goofy has no reaction to.
He's just like, yeah, that's normal. Yeah. I'm into that. Yeah. I also was going to ask on the back of the box, does it just call her Olive? Yeah. It just calls her Olive. Huh? Cause it's Olive Oil, right? Yeah. Olive Oil. Oil's her last name. Oil. Oh yeah. O-I-L. Yeah. Not O-I-L. It's a casual, it's a casual one. Yeah, they know her first name basis. Oh, okay. So it's, I always just assumed Olive Oil was her full first name. Alright, so before we go any further, because I, I, you know, like, we could go into like the fact that Sweet Pea's in this game too, but like, who cares, right? I don't even know what that is. Sweet Pea is the baby on the second, uh, second level that you can like touch for 500 points.
Oh, jeez. Um. So anyway, if it wasn't clear, this is like, you know, a collect-a-thon. Yeah. But without the, you know, adventure aspects of a collect-a-thon, you're just collecting the hearts, the music notes, or the screams for help. Yeah. But there, there's a couple, uh, there are some interactable, uh, elements to each level. Mm-hmm. Um, you can, uh, you can punch a barrel and have Bluto, uh, get stuck in it for a little bit, and then you can, you can collect all of the hearts that you desire. Um, or in the, uh, the city level, you can get onto a catapult and get some extra points that way, and also get to the top of the stage.
Um, they've got a little bit of, uh, of differences. Yeah. I like that there was something. Yeah. There was a different design in each stage, but also just a different, like, unique. Like a stick. Yeah, like a stick to it. Uh, but just having like one additional thing. Yeah, I know. Yeah. It wasn't really like enough to save this game. Exactly. You're still just getting, collecting things and that, and avoiding a guy. And that's it. One thing I would like to note though, in terms of the spinach power up, uh, is that there,
as I was not reading the manual, I would see this little shrub show up in the corner and it would just start changing levels. And I'm like, why is this shrub moving around? Yeah. I thought, yeah, I read the manual and I forgot about it because it doesn't really look like spinach. It doesn't also, it also looks like you can't interact with it because it's usually behind. Yeah. First thing that, uh, that Sam did to me was like, he, that thing popped up and I was like, what is that? And he punches it. I'm like, you can't. And then he's like turning purple. Yeah. I'm like, what's going on? And then I was like, that's the spinach.
Yeah. I thought they left it out of the NES port. Wow. I'll be honest. This is all completely new to me. I did. I saw, I saw that shrub going around. I thought you couldn't interact with it. I didn't even, I didn't even try to go over. You can't sit behind the stairs. Yeah. It doesn't look like you can. It doesn't look interact with it. The thing about the spinach is if you get the spinach, Brutus runs away from you and he can run faster than you can. I love how we're just going to continue to change. Brutus. We should. They're leaving it open ended. We might as well. Yeah. Mr. X. Yeah.
He, so he runs away from you when you get it, which is kind of fun, but also like I really want to punch him. Yeah. But you should use that time to get the collectibles instead.
Oh, and just for the record, the vulture's name is Bernard. Oh, of course it is. That's obvious. And some real Popeye fans going to be like, no, that's just what Nintendo calls him. His name is not Bernard. Why are you always so angry with the fans, man? No, no, no. I think it's actually, I think it's a fun thing that the fans and I have as a feud.
Everybody needs someone to hate. I might as well be the heel of the show. The imaginary curious fans. Yeah. Okay. So did anybody else feel that way about the graphics though for this game? Oh yeah. Like that game compared to every game we've seen so far? I mean, they're definitely still identifiable. Like they are. Oh yeah. Okay. Yeah. So it's not like he's blocks. I know, I know, I know. But they could, they could still just be like a bad silhouette. They had, they had a recognizable silhouette. Um, they're, they've got, they're pretty big sprites in terms of like at least Bluto Brutus and olive oil. They look like each other and they look like themselves.
Um, Popeye though, looks like he, um, like he, he had anemia for a while and like his, like he had scoliosis and got kind of short. He's always looked like that in the cartoons though too. A little bit. He looks too small. He looks just way too small compared to the rest of them. Compared to, yeah. Compared to Bluto. Like, uh, you know, Bluto takes up so much of the screen and there are times where he'll just like, just jump down. Yeah. He'll jump onto a platform, punch you.
And that's it. That got me a little angry, but go ahead. I guess sometimes he doesn't even jump down. Sometimes he just reaches down and hits you like reaches down to another level. Yeah. I got it. Sorry. Go ahead. Um, so I gotta say that even though sometimes the AI is frustrated, he's, it's frustrating to deal with him and jumping down and things. I do think that it's pretty good AI. Cause it's not like he's constantly hunting you down. Like they get, like he goes back and forth sometimes.
Sometimes he'll throw bottles at you. Sometimes he'll jump at you if he's near you. Um, and he telephones his attacks. Yeah. You do see him kind of like wind up for them, but you have to be paying attention. And I do want to disagree with you real fast on the, um, on the bottles because sometimes he'll throw four or five bottles. I'm like, Oh great. I just got punch him. No big deal. And then he'll just go right into throwing another set of four or five. And it's like, it's super.
Sometimes I have three times in a row. Like he would just take like one additional step and then be like, but we'll throw these bottles again. Like, I didn't even know that you could punch the bottles out of the air. I was like dodging the bottles. I was just running away from the bottles and going to the next game very hard on yourself. I know. I knew it. And I still didn't punch the bottles.
I don't know. I just, I'm not sure why. I tried to get points wherever possible. Cause again, I was thinking about your high score because I said, Oh, maybe I should change my way of thinking about how I play these games. Cause you know, just to run through it real fast, let's, let's just break it down level by level. If you guys don't mind. Yeah. All right. So we got level one. Uh, you're, you got potting. Popeye's house and olive oil house.
It's like, yeah, whatever. Yeah. And I thought what was interesting is in this first level, you see how many hearts you need to collect. Like each one fills up and then, uh, it tells you when you're done that you're, you know, like the end of the stage, that level, anybody feel like it was too easy, too hard for a first level. Any thoughts? I feel like it was fine. It was easy enough to give you the, like the opportunity to try and do the little, the cheeky little thing where you drop the barrel, the barrel on him.
Yeah. I thought that was like, you have to really time that Joe, did you try that? You know what? I'm as I'm listening to you guys, I'm thinking like, I didn't get a lot out of this game. Cause I, I just went to the levels and just collected the stuff and went on to the next level. And then after I was done, I was like, huh, I just collected a bunch of things. I didn't do anything with the really much of the interactables at all. I was just like, I'm collecting and I'm doing fine. So I just kept doing that. This is a really hard thing to do, but you, you basically hit a punching bag, uh, at the top of the stage and it knocks itself into the, the, what was it about? Like a bucket of water or something.
And if Brutus is perfectly in the center of the stage, it will fall on him and you'll get a thousand point bonus and he'll be like temporarily paralyzed. Actually in the, if you read the manual, you actually get more points if he's on the lower part of this, the lower level. Oh my goodness. Wow. I never even tried it on anything other than the tallest part. So the first thing I tried to do because it's harder to time it when he's, I guess they fit. That's what they figure. It's harder to time it when he's, uh, Oh, absolutely.
But I feel like you have to go all the way to the top of the screen to do this. He's going to jump up to you at that point. Yeah. But also all the hearts fall on the bottom of the screen. And so it's kind of, there's no real incentive to get up there and do it because then you're going to have to go down there anyway. Yeah. It would just be for the points.
But I feel like gameplay wise, there's no real incentive to go up there. So if you don't collect these hearts or whatever the current collectible is, they go all the way down to the bottom of the screen and then they land in the water, in which case they like, you know, a timer shows up and things get really intense. And it's like, you saw it before it's too late. But you felt like it's a, it's a pretty long timer, isn't it? I felt like it never really like, you know, when they would hit the bottom and it would like be alerting me, I would run down there and get it. But after a while I was like, wait, is it ever going to go away? I mean, how much time do I have?
Cause I feel like I never felt like I was actually really in danger of losing them. No, I completely agree that I was acting like very, even before they would even touch the ground, I would just hang out down there. Cause I was like, I can't miss these. Like I'm going to lose a life. But I agree that I will say that I do know that the timer does eventually run out and the, that will cost you a life, but it does take a lot of time. And you know, it's maybe a little too generous for an old Miyamoto standard, you know, like there's a guy who wanted to be hard in his video games. Does it cost you a life as soon as you lose one? As soon as you lose the one. Yep. Oh really? I didn't, I didn't realize that.
Um, that's kind of harsh. So maybe that makes sense that they gave it such a long timer, but I never actually tested it to be like, how much can I get away with? I was always like, it is, it is a while. It's pretty much like the whole duration of that, that, uh, sound effect that goes on during that, that part of the game. Yeah. So then we get to the second level. Now we're in the city and, uh, you have that seesaw that we were talking about to, uh,
what would you call it? Like a catapult more, right? Right. Yeah. You jump on it from a platform and then it, uh, you off the floating dude. Right. And sweet pea is in the right spot. Yeah. Sweet pea is on the right spot and you can touch the, like whatever he's on that floating thing and that'll give you additional points. And then you get back to the top of the stage, but this time you're collecting music notes. And I don't know, did it feel like there were less notes than hearts?
I mean, maybe it was just because they arranged them differently, but it definitely looks like it's a shorter level overall. Yeah. It just feels very fast. And I mean, like, I like that, you know, cry the, the song or whatever is, uh, is the thing that you have to collect. I thought that was neat. And that wasn't the hearts again.
Yeah. I didn't notice it was shorter, but one, one cool thing I noticed about the, the seesaw part is that Brutus slash Bluto slash Hector slash Donkey Kong. Donkey Kong. Yeah. He will also do that. Use that to get back to the top. Yeah. Oh yes. Yeah. I have seen him use it. Yes. Yeah. So I thought that was pretty neat too.
And, uh, then we move on to the third level, which is on a boat and, uh, the Bernard, the crow or vulture vulture. I don't know why I said crow. It's clearly not a crow. Everything could be anything we interpreted in this. Everything is open for interpretation. Joe around here.
Uh, he puts olive oil up on the top of the boat and then you have to collect her cries for help. Like, this is very dire. It was very strange. At first I was trying to figure out what it's spelled. I'm like, Oh, I'm trying to spell something over and over.
And then I just see these lines show up at the bottom and I'm like, am I, is my game glitching out? And then it turns out that it's a ladder. So at least now it's like, it's in the game. Um, what you're like, whatever you're trying to collect. I don't know how her cries for help turn into wooden planks, but, um, at least like they're having an effect on the game environment. I guess I thought that at first too, but then you kind of realize like, well, but the ladder being on the screen doesn't actually like, you don't even use the ladder at the end. So it's still just, you're just collect things. And once you're done, you win.
Could you, could you use that ladder? Like I tried to, I never was able to, I'm talking about the one in the middle of the stage. Really? I could not use it. I just mean to say that like at the end when you get the ladder, like you don't have to even climb the ladder and get to olive oil. It's just like, Oh, you got a ladder now you won. So it's like the same as the other levels, but now there's a visible ladder. Right. Whereas like the donkey Kong way to go about it would have been that you have to like reach olive oil, not just collect your cries for help.
Uh, and anybody else feel weird about the fact that like, there's no, you know, like it showed you how many hearts you needed. It showed you like the, the musical score and what you were collecting the notes. There's nothing. I think that may have been a decision to make it a little bit more tense. I don't know. Who knows when this level will end? Yeah. Exactly. And also it does each, each letter you collect does give another rung of the ladder.
So I guess that's what we mean. I was, but no, to be honest, I'm until Joe said that I wasn't putting that together and I never did in the game. Uh, so thank you for pointing that out, Joe, because I had no idea why that ladder was like changing forms. I was never associating it with the H-E-L-P letters. Right. Well, I, yeah, I didn't notice it the first time on that round either, which is why when I realized that I was like, well, it's kind of arbitrary in the end. I mean, other than the fact that you can actually climb it during the level.
So then, so then you beat the game essentially. And, uh, you go back to the first level cause it is just an arcade thing. And I thought like, oh, that's, there's not much to this game. But then, uh, the sea hag comes into the mix and she is like really tough. Yeah. Uh, I don't. She changes the game altogether. I couldn't, I couldn't get past like the fourth level because of it. I just stopped. Joe, did you get to the sea hag? Yeah. I got to the sea hag, but I didn't get past it.
Uh, like, I don't know if on another cycle around, if it then adds another enemy. I don't know, but it does not. I know that much. Uh, I was able to get to that part. Uh, like, uh, the not, what was it? The third cycle? The seventh round. Yeah. Right. And nothing extra is added. It just keeps getting harder, but like, wow, it doesn't get harder because even those, those skulls that she drops, they just seem to like, they seem to drop down to your level whenever. And even if you like are trying to pass them, they'll just drop down to your platform as you're getting there. So to dodge the skulls, the beer bottles and Bluto, like that's a lot. That's a lot of on a person.
Yeah. And after a while, Bluto starts to like become a lot less predictable of when he's going to like jump down. He just, he just does it. Yeah. And he makes this. I mean, like, because there aren't as many rules that your enemies have to follow, it kind of turns into a mess. Like it, it, it's a little, not just a little hectic, but because you can't even predict how the enemies work anymore. Uh, it, it's, it, it really takes away the fun. In, in Donkey Kong. Cause some of it comes down to luck. Yeah. In Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr. I thought that the difficulty scaled very well on the NES ports, that it was like,
naturally the second time you go at these levels are going to be harder, but they weren't impossible by any means. I'm not saying Popeye became an impossible game. That would be silly to say, cause if you're good at this game, you could definitely keep going for a while, but the difficulty for the average user ramps up considerably all of a sudden, almost out of nowhere. Yeah. Uh, just because of the introduction of so many different enemies.
And to Sean's point, the randomness in the AI with the, you know, the few options they have, but the, but the fact that their options are devastating just kind of like really makes the, you know, additional rounds of this game really hard to do. But I never was, I never like lost enough lives to not see it through and ending the first time around. Like the first phase, the first three levels of the game, I think are designed in a way to help like the average user get through them, uh, without much effort.
Okay. So since we're not fans of the animation or anything like that, I just think it's kind of important that we talk about the effect that this would have had if Popeye was the Donkey Kong game. Like if they got away with that, right? Let's say they had the license. Could you imagine what Nintendo would be like now that there might not be a Mario? There might not be a Donkey Kong.
Popeye is like their, their flagship brand, right? Like their main character. And they're like, they don't even have full ownership of this thing. Like we have to assume that the game industry is only the way it is today because they couldn't make that Popeye game. I mean, Oh, I mean, I never really thought about it that way. They may, I mean, Nintendo may not have even taken off like they did. I think that if you had Donkey Kong that same way, but it was like a characters. Yeah. It might've been even more popular than Donkey Kong.
Well, the, but then I don't, I don't know if they would have gone on to make more games with those characters. Like they would have just, Oh, what's their next game? Like there's our Popeye game. You know, I hear what you're saying. They would have been able to like go on and be like, all right, what's next with these characters? Like they did with the characters in Donkey Kong. Every game would be a battle. Yeah. Well, okay. Here's my, my little, uh, like alternate history take on it.
Um, I think that because of the way that we've talked about the way that Nintendo kind of designs their games where they have a mechanic in mind and they just base it around like a little block at first, they probably would have come up with super Mario brothers. I mean, yeah, super Mario brothers with or without Donkey Kong. It just may have been a different character. Super Popeye. Super. I mean, I don't know if it would have kept it with Popeye. I know. I am saying that the reason why I think they would have continued with Popeye is just because at this time, even though Nintendo has been around since 1880 something, we have
Popeye would have been like their first major success. Like you remember, Donkey Kong made them like a billion dollars, like, like a ton of money. Like the quarter, people underestimate that like, just cause the game cost you a quarter,
everyone in America and Japan and Europe is putting in quarters. Those games add up real fast and it's like, it's harmless. I'm just putting in a quarter, but everybody's doing it. You know? Yeah. They would have made so much money off of that that I don't think they would have said like, no, Popeye is not the answer. Let's make another game. Like they would have saying, I'm saying that like, maybe there'd be more Popeye games, but I think that those, uh, a game like super Mario brothers would still exist. Maybe it wouldn't be as popular. Maybe it wouldn't have had as much time put into it, but I think like the skeleton would still be there. I think it depends on if they made Popeye jump or not. Okay. Yeah. Joe.
Yeah. I mean, I think that if they were to, if they were to continue with Popeye, they would be like, well, we need to make, I feel like they would have felt tied to like the style of that game. Like we need to make this a Popeye game. So it has to feel like the last Popeye game. I don't know that they necessarily would have. And it's definitely fun to think about like, if they would have, if, if, if we just think about the idea of like, let's have Popeye replace Mario in history. And like, there would have just been this crazy like resurgence of Popeye. We'd have like Popeye Odyssey now, or you're just Popeye.
Yeah. There are already. Yeah, it's true. There are already like comparisons between Mario and Mickey mouse. And I just wonder like, you know, now you would have had two animation characters and be like, Oh, well Popeye and Mickey mouse. Like those are the two big things. It's like, you know, I'm glad we don't have to answer this question. Let me put it that way. I want to try one more time. Yeah. Okay. One more thing that makes them a huge amount of money in the eighties. And then people get sick of Popeye and then Nintendo folds. Yeah. And it's awful. Right. After they released the Popeye 64, it just doesn't work. It's called the actual console is called the Popeye 64. The Popeye 64.
And now one other question is something I'd maybe want to make like a regular question when the game is applicable is how would you guys improve this game? If you were the designer of this game, you know, knowing everything, you know, today. So not saying you're restrained to 1986 or 1983. I would, I would have it be more fun to punch things and have it be more punching focused. I think Popeye's got those big beefy arms and he's always punching bottles and a bird.
And, and spinach. A bird. And that's it. And skulls, I guess. But it's just, there's a lot of punching that he does. I feel like as his character that you don't get to do. I, I 100% agree with you that if we're assuming that like, and we're remembering that the Popeye cartoon is all about like, he eats his spinach and he has gigantic biceps. Right. It's like, how is that not like a huge part of the game that like Popeye feels really weak in this game? Yeah. Like he should be strong and you should, you know, like you, there should be other enemies that you're just constantly doing.
Like, yeah, I get that Brutus is in the way and stuff like that, but like Pluto should have been able to just been like a side character and you could just, you know, like as Popeye take out like other enemies. I think we're also, so if we want to make it a game that, that sort of fits the Popeye mold, I don't think we're the people to answer that because I don't think we know what Popeye is usually supposed to be about. So like, he usually uses violence as the last straw, right? Yeah. Maybe this should have been like a game in which you try to talk yourself out of dangerous situations.
I think. Or you have to get to the spinach. You have to get, isn't that how it usually, he's weak until he eats the spinach? Yeah, that's what I was going to say that like he, you would, the game would be more focused on like ramping up to being able to fight actually. Cause that's what every episode, I mean, from what I remember, that's how every episode went. So the spinach is almost like it's the catalyst of making him.
As opposed to being the afterthought that it is in this current form. Right. But I think if I were to take this game and just make tweaks to it, I think the biggest thing for me is those, those interactable like objects. I would make them more like necessary and prominent. So it doesn't feel like you're just collecting things. It's like, Oh, but, or at least more, not necessarily. It doesn't have to be necessary, but like more rewarding.
Cause like, I'm usually a guy who in a game like this, I don't usually focus much on score unless it's like the only goal. But if the goal is just to get to the end of the game, I don't really care about this thing that just ups my score. But if something helps me along, you know, get through a level, then I would be more likely to like look for that. Right. Okay. This game did get a sequel though. Oh, Super Mario Brothers. I've been, I've been holding out on this.
It was, it was a sequel that only when it came out in Japan, uh, did not come to the States. And it was an English teaching game, very much like Donkey Kong Jr. math. And by that, I mean like almost exactly like Donkey Kong Jr. math where it takes Donkey Kong Jr.'s arcade game and then just re imagines it as the math game. It did the same thing here with Popeye where Popeye is, you know, put it, punching the numbers in to form English sentences and teaching Japanese players English.
At least he's punching more things. Yeah. So that was the only other game in their education series that never came here. Of course, the Donkey Kong Jr. math is the only education series game in their black label, um, NES launch games. So just thought that I had to throw that out there because, you know, we know that one out of three people likes education series games. That's true. One out of four people.
Yeah. I would like to play it. I mean, I don't know how to play it because I don't know Japanese. But you know English, so you'll probably be really good. You might be able to play this one. You would like to play that. I would like to play that. I would like to try it. All right. Maybe we'll try and do a bonus episode sometime. Yeah, if we can track it down. Yeah, if we can track that down.
Famicom games are actually not that, they're a little cheaper actually. Because it depends on the game, of course. Okay. But there's an overabundance of those as opposed to like these earlier NES games. Like, they'll get Junior Math. It's like, good luck getting your hands on that cartridge. It's expensive. All right. So with that in mind, let's go right into the Essential Games List.
All right. It's the Essential Games List. And this time we're trying to figure out if Popeye is essential. So you got, you know, games on your PS4, your Nintendo Switch. And you're like, oh, what's going on with the NES? You know, is that game, are they still making games for that console? And they're not. But some fans are making games. That's not the point, okay? Nintendo made a game called Popeye in 1983.
And then very much rushed it to the Famicom in 1983. And then pushed it all the way to 1986 for the NES. But didn't fix anything. So we're going to go off those merits. You really want to play that game. We're going to go off merits and find out, like, is that game essential to the NES library? And I don't mean when it first came out. I don't mean at the end of the NES's lifespan. We're talking about 2018. That's what it is right now. Is it worth playing today? Joe? So this is another, like, simple arcade-type game. I feel like we've been seeing a lot of these since we started 1986.
Where it's a fun distraction, but it gets repetitive. I mean, there's still only three basic levels. There's, like, a pattern there where a lot of these arcade games just have three basic levels. And then you start over at level one where it's a little harder.
So, I mean, you know, it's kind of fun. But overall, eventually it starts to feel repetitive. So I say no, not essential. Sean? Yeah, I'll agree. I think that this game can be, like, it's great. I know that it's a mobile game now. I mean, it seems like it could be... Bandai Namco. Yeah. A mobile game. Yeah, yeah. I think that's... Same exact game, by the way, just nicer graphics. Yeah, I think that's where this game should live.
And that's coming from somebody that doesn't really like mobile games. But I did have a little bit of fun while I was playing this middling game. So, yeah, it's not essential. Sam? Yeah, I wasn't crazy about this game. I thought that it was... It's charming with the music and everything. But that's about all it has going for it, I think. I think that I just didn't really have too much of a fun time playing it. And, yeah. All right.
Yeah, and I'll agree. It's charming. I don't even know if, like, a Popeye fan needs to play this game. It's interesting because it's a Nintendo-made game that Miyamoto definitely wanted to make. But I'm going to mention that Miyamoto name again because we were talking about in the Mario Brothers episode how he's kind of on, like, a hot streak. And I think this is, like, a... It's a little bit of a dud considering how much he wanted to make this game. I think he could have done something a little more interesting. And I'm kind of glad that games like Mario Brothers and Super Mario Brothers, Donkey Kong, Legend of Zelda, those games continued to, like, push his, like, boundaries.
And that he wasn't able to just secure popular media that he already liked. And he had to kind of make up his own. Because it seems like that's where Miyamoto's strong points are at this point in his career. Is kind of being forced into certain boundaries and saying, like, Okay, give him what I have. Here's what I come up with. And those things are usually brilliant. I feel like this is something that Miyamoto had to get out of his system. Yeah, it's almost like, yeah. It's like, okay, well, I did Donkey Kong. But if I had to do it again...
Because essentially he wanted that Donkey Kong game to be Popeye. So now it's almost like he's just like, Well, if you're going to let me make a Popeye game, I guess it could go like this. And, you know, it's just... It's not that exciting to me. There's not enough there. The graphics are really wonky for NES games even. And for that reason, I just can't say that this is essential today. Again, I don't even know if I can recommend this to a Popeye fan. I don't know if there are other Popeye games out there. I know there's one on the Game Boy, but it might just be a port of this. So that's what I have to say about all that.
All right. And that's all the time we have for this episode of Nostalgia. Join us next time for Balloon Fight. And be sure to play it yourself if you can. For more Nostalgia, visit us at NostalgiaCast.com. That's N-E-S-T-A-L-G-I-A-Cast.com. And you know what? If you're listening to the show, why not subscribe wherever you can? If you're listening on the podcast app, just hit the subscribe button. If you're listening on the website, just come back. We upload episodes every Friday to make sure that you guys get your Nostalgia fill on a weekly basis. And if you do go to the website. Just check out if baseball's haunted. Sean said it, not me. But I did write that article, full disclosure.
And in fact, I wrote both articles that are currently on that. But I'm sure by the time of this recording, I've written at least one or two more. If I'm worth my salt. So with that in mind, I'm your host, Michael Esposito. I've been joined by Sean Tresman, Sam Smith, and Joe Castu. And you can find me on Twitter at Esposito Film. And I'll talk to you soon. Bye. Before the next person listens.
That felt like sometimes when I'm at work, because I don't answer the phone as much as I used to. It sounds like the times when I pick up the phone, I'm just like, hello? Hello? Instead of like, hello, what communications? This is Sean. I'm just like, hello?
When I answer the phone here, I can't do hello. I do like, what's up? What's going on? Why are you calling?
No one knows how it ends. Is it? How great is the music in this game? It's fun. It's pretty good. And then when things get in the water? Wait. Wait, wait, wait. Let's save it for the podcast. I don't want to make noises. You guys make the noise. Okay. This is my voice. This is my, this is my Mullen Brando voice. This is my Mullen Brando interrupting voice. Are you ready to climb ladders, jump landings, eat spinach, and punch out Brutus? You cannot do that unless you eat the spinach. There'll be instructions unclear. That's in there. You cannot do that. Sound like donkey. Yeah. You cannot do that. And welcome to NEStalgia. Today we're talking about...
All right, let's go. The day we don't give a shit. Okay, come on, Chris. You ready to record? We should do one of those. What? Okay. Are you recording? We should do one of those. I'm recording. Just like, don't give a fuck. You've been recording? We did those for Donkey Kong. I mean, I can't... I'm not recording you guys, so... Okay, well, yeah, record. Okay.
