Sequels were usually a good thing for a well-designed SNES game. This week’s Rom Hack Roundup features three sequels to North American games that never got translated to English, officially anyways. The translation patches are available to play these great games in English. You can check our always-present ROM patching tutorial for more info on getting started.

Pop’n TwinBee : Rainbow Bell Adventures

Developer: Konami
Released: 1994
Try If You Like: Super Mario World, Sonic the Hedgehog

Pop’n TwinBee is a colorful shooter you might remember for the SNES. It was a decent game with lovely graphics and some great music. Pop’n TwinBee: Rainbow Bell Adventures is an unorthodox sequel that trades in the vertical space shooter format for colorful Super Mario World-like platforming action. The game recalls Sonic the Hedgehog in some minor ways, there is a tendency for things to move faster than average and colorful multiparalax backgrounds that fill each stage. With three playable characters and multiple endings to hacks based on the original Japanese version (as opposed to the European one), this is a fun platformer to that will keep you entertained for quite some time.

Rockman and Forte

Developer: Capcom
Released: 1998
Try If You Like: Any of the Mega Man Games

Although it was released on Gameboy Advance in 2002 as Megaman and Bass, you can go back and play the original Rockman and Forte in all it’s SNES glory thanks to its translation patch. The game plays like a MegaMan X game but has some unique plot and gameplay elements not seen in that series. Set one year after Megaman 9, a new villian named King has stolen Dr Wiley’s evil robot blueprints from the robot museum intent on creating a robot-ruled utopia. Rockman (Megaman) sets out to stop it and his rival Forte (Bass) decides to proove that he is the stronger bad guy. Depending on the character you pick the plot develops differently and takes you through 8 new robot’s unique stages. Its definitely a must-play for fans of the NES and SNES Megaman games.

The Amazing Spider-Man: Lethal Foes

Developer: Capcom
Released: 1995
Try If You Like: Spider-Man Games, Double Dragon, Platformers In General

While a few of us might have good memories of Spider-Man NES and SNES games for nostalgic reasons, the truth is, most of the 16-bit generation Spider-Man games released in North America just really weren’t that good. How a Spider-Man game came out only in Japan (when most of the fan base is in North America) is a mystery but it probably goes back to the fact that most games were made in Japan in the 90s.

One of the most recent translations we’ve reviewed here, Spider-Man: Lethal Foes gets the formula right. The tight controls and good looking graphics make it a memorable play-through. Its one of the earliest Spider-Man games that has controls that really make you feel like you are in control of the agile web slinger and not just a standard platformer with a clunky Spider Man sprite. Lots of your favorite Spider-Man villians make an appearance and the awesome comic book bubble conversations add to the nostalgic feel.