Famicom Mukashibanashi: Shin Onigashima - Zenpen

Nintendo R&D4 · Nintendo

Friday, September 4, 198739 years ago

Release

Friday, September 4, 1987

Player score

Awaiting reviews

Platform families

Not announced

Connected releases

Core game only

Game data from IGDB

Editorial overview

Inside Famicom Mukashibanashi: Shin Onigashima - Zenpen

What it is

Shin Onigashima is a two disk adventure game released on the Famicom Disk System. Despite being first-party software, it was never released outside of Japan.

A two-disk adventure game, Shin Onigashima (or to give it its full title "Famicom Mukashi Banashi: Shin Onigashima", or "Famicom Fairy Tales: New Oni Island" thereabouts) was released in two parts: The first on September 4th 1987 and the second on September 20 1987. The Game stops halfway through the story.

The game is depicted like other adventure games for the system, such as Portopia or Hokkaido Serial Murders, though with a far gentler fairy tale presentation rather than a gritty crime thriller. The game's story is based on popular centuries-old Japanese folklore, such as the story of Momotaro and tales depicting the demonic Oni and their mischief.

The original characters created for this game would be later referenced by future Nintendo products with retrospective elements, such as Captain Rainbow or the Super Smash Bros series (SSB Brawl even had a remixed version of Shin Onigashima's music for the Ice Climbers stage).

The premise

Once upon a time, there was an elderly couple living in Nagakushi village, a small village located far up in the mountains. The couple had no children, until one day, they were entrusted with the care of an infant boy and girl, as prophesied in a dream. The years went by, and when the two children were 8 years old, there was a terrible occurrence in the western capital. An evil dragon suddenly appeared in the city, turning humans into oni, ogres that suck away the souls of other humans. The oni advanced as far as Nagakushi village, stealing away the souls of the elderly couple. Fortunately the two children were left unharmed, and they set out on a quest to save their adopted parents, not realizing that this adventure would reveal the secret of their true origins...