First time I played this game on a pirated NES cartridge which I bought from one of the gift shops in my city. Back then, I only used to get money from my parents to buy NES cartridges on festival occasions (I didn’t know they were pirated back then. I didn’t know what piracy was). Well, we were not poor but we couldn’t afford to spend money on entertainment too often. So, yeah, after I got it, plugged it into my pirated SNES and I started it and found it had 3 other games; Jackal (quite famous), Saint Seiya Knights Of The Zodiac (which I have covered in another article here: https://ayushraj.cc/2020/01/22/end-of-an-era-and-saint-seiya-knights-of-the-zodiac/), there was a space game? and then there was this Sukeban Deka III but in the cartridge it was named ‘Pretty Girl Fighters’ and that was the reason I was not able to find it on the internet when I searched ‘Pretty Girl Fighters’ lol.
But today (7 March 2021) I searched for ‘Detective NES game’ because I was searching for another game I am not able to find for maybe 16 years but I will write about it when I finally find it. I scrolled down the Google images list and found the title screen of Sukeban Deka III.
When I saw the title I felt a strange set of emotions. First one was like, ‘Wait what? Really? After all these years and especially when I am not looking for it?’. Really, this game showed up out of the blue. But when I saw the title screen I knew I had to grab all the details about it. The most important one was of course, the name of the game. These guys have the details hosted and indexed in Google, thanks to them I was able to find it: https://www.gogofreegames.com/sukeban-deka-iii-nes-english-patch-download/ and then followed their link to get the translation of the game and came across these guys:https://www.romhacking.net/translations/2756/
Again thanks to them both that I was able to find this game. Finding this game was like revisiting my a part of my childhood which I really really wanted to revisit. Because back then I was never able to relax and enjoy my games, there was always the tension of schools and homework. I hated school. It made my entire childhood hell (But hey, it gave me ‘DEGREE’ and now I am able to make money and buy games so I guess its a poison you have to drink). But that is for another article lol.
So, I fired the game up this time on fceux and with a pirated ROM. And honestly, its difficult to describe how I felt. Those are some very precious pieces of emotions and I never want to let them fade. I cannot really describe them because putting them in words will make them seem less precious and significant than they are so I will leave it up to you to imagine how that felt. I believe our imagination is more powerful than words. So, right, I got into the first stage, didn’t apply the translation yet, and boy…it was the same game I had played back then. The game was buggy but still I enjoyed playing it again. ❤
There are three girls you can choose in this game. One fires a yoyo, another one fires origami cranes and the third one fires sticks I think? I was not able to comprehend what she was firing because of the pixel graphics. I believe pixel graphics give us more room to interpret the game in our own way (like a poem). But that is for another article again, lol.
I have reasons to say that it is a very early type of isometric game. You can’t really see the depth because the tiles look really flat and it looks like the characters are simply paper cutouts put on top of an isometric map. When you jump it feels weird and the hostile projectiles still hit you even if you try to jump out of their way. When you fire projectiles it doesn’t feel so weird. When I roamed about the stage I felt I was in Japan myself, lol. A little more pixelated and flatter Japan. The music is repetitive electronic music but it gives the game a really weird atmosphere which feels serene and gives the game a class of its own and hence the obscurity. Well, the obscurity might be because of the way the game plays. Its not for everyone honestly. You have to be really sensitive to feel what the game is actually about or what the game was actually meant to make you feel. If you are also really sensitive to emotions I suggest you try this game. Use fceux emulator on PC: https://fceux.com/web/home.html and get the ROM from here: https://www.retrostic.com/roms/nes/sukeban-deka-3-2115 and don’t forget the translation: https://www.romhacking.net/translations/2756/ it may be a pain to install though. And hey, I think you will feel the real game by playing it in Japanese itself. Part of the reason why I am learning Japanese these days. The other part of the reason why I am learning Japanese is…( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)…well, you know it.
Anyway, I was not able to find what to do in the game and just kept roaming around and having a look at the surroundings until my health went down to zero with all the three girls. And then it was game over. I am thinking of applying the translation and playing it again and I will try to clear the game a little further this time. I will keep you posted if I come across something really interesting in this game in the later stages.
Oh, and before I forget, when I got to know the name of the game I searched for the anime and manga and found them both! Names are important guys. The manga and anime are both available in English too (subbed anime). You can find them here if you want; anime: https://kissanimex.com/anime/5838-sukeban-deka and manga: https://mangahub.io/manga/sukeban-deka
I hope you enjoyed reading this article. Thank you for your time! 😊
Ayush Raj 