Multicarts were all the rage with individuals who chose not to develop or release games legally back in the 1990s. Various development houses in Asia were pumping out multicarts faster than most people change their underwear (save for the hourly underoo shuffle held by a select few). Today, we're going to take a look at the New 4-in-1 Supergame. I'm not entirely certain who produced this one as there is no copyright information on the title screen (as is copyright was an issue), but it's easy to tell that there are four different games available to satisfy all gamer tastes.
First on the title screen, which is lovingly black with the inviting title "4 IN 1", is "Turtle 3". It is, as expected, a direct copy of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project, although they really drill the 3 part into you by imposing the number 3 smack-dab in the middle of the logo, even though there's clearly a more well-designed Roman numeral right there. Because this is a Konami game, the developer thought they could pull a fast one on us all by changing the copyright information to read "© Zonaxi 1992" instead. Nice try. The game plays exactly the same as its legal counterpart: a side-scrolling beat-'em-up starring the Ninja Turtles, played solo or with a fellow pizza-digging reptile buddy. The only other different I noted is that, on the character select screen, Mike's name has been changed to "Xize". Konami became Zonaxi and Mike became Xize. So... basically, someone changed all the Ks to Xs and the Ms to Zs. That was... useful.
Next up is "Power Ranger", although when you load it up, the ugly blue title screen has a giant 2 on it. The copyright year is 1996, but again, no company name graces it. You can tell you're getting a less-than-excellent game when not a single soul wants to claim ownership. After a brief cutscene featuring a rather frightening Rita Repulsa portrait and that of an unidentifiable old man, the Yellow Ranger springs into action in a very generic platformer where you have to collect coins to increase your powers. The game itself is somewhat difficult, augmented by the fact that your sprite is HUGE. The first level has you shooting snakes, spiders, and buff armored figures, followed by a boss fight with what looks to be a meditating Finster. At least he's doing something other than sculpting! Second level has Kimberly/the Pink Ranger, third level swaps in Billy, and so forth. For some reason, all Rangers use taco guns at the beginning of their stages. Also, there's no music in the cutscenes, but a high-pitched noise takes care of any ear damage you may have desired. Overall, it's an average effort, but still far more entertaining than the Power Rangers game for the Sega CD.
Oh yeah, and the Megazord and Dragonzord play air hockey together. So there's that.
The third game is, believe it or not, "FIFA 2006". That's right, you don't need a fancy PlayStation 2 or Xbox 360 to play the latest and greatest soccer tournament from way back in 2006! All you need is "FIFA-2006"... with a Roman numeral "III" on the title screen. Okay. Actually, this is just a hack of Tecmo World Cup Soccer, just with a modernized title. It plays exactly the same (soccer on the NES, a real treat); you choose your country and kick some balls against the CPU or a second player. It feels like you're really at a FIFA tournament! (That is, you'll want to leave early.)
The last game in the mix is "SUDUKING" (or "SUDO KING", if you're taking the title screen's word over a really sub-par select screen). This is essentially a version of Sudoku for your Famicom! Considering Sudoku never really took off until well after the NES lifespan, it's actually not all that terrible to get a game like this. You first select your difficulty level, and then set out to fill in the empty spaces on the board with whichever number belongs, using your incredible human powers of deduction. There aren't any frills to Sudo King, but if you are desperate for Sudoku on a retro console, this could be your ticket to Blissville.
New 4-in-1 Supergame isn't a terrible multicart by any means. Although they took a few liberties with title screens and copyright notifications, you still get a variety of game genres covered here, and the games ripped aren't entirely awful. Just having the more rare third Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game alone makes this quite a deal.
Here are a few screenshots just to whet your whistle for multicart madness:
