Milon's Secret Games
(images taken from Ruwaga's videos)
I recommend reading the first Milon article as I cover a bit of my history with the series. It can be read here: BS Milon.
For those that won't, I will summarize the Milon series briefly.
Milon's Secret Castle is a good NES game. The AVGN was wrong. Its sequel, DoReMi Fantasy is one of the best SNES platformers out there. The Milon series as a whole is one of my favourite game series. While the Satellaview games are lost or may not even exist, I have proof these games do. The games see you playing as Milon; some kid, as he runs around a castle. DoReMi has him collecting magical instruments to restore the world. There's a 3rd game in the series but it's not worth mentioning.
With that out of the way I can begin writing about the other lost Milon games.
In the early 2000s flip phones were everywhere. Regardless of if J2ME or BREW-based, everyone had one. Japan too was going through this craze, with all sorts of beautiful and aesthetic phones coming out of the nation.
There were games too, though very few actually saw circulation outside of Japan. Hell their phones were so local few models even made it out of the country. Japan really had their own thing going.
In fact, these games aren't that poorly documented in the west you would think they don't exist. I haven't found a single mention of them on any English source. The prevailing attitude is that Hudson never released any mobile Milon games.
Nothing on the Hudson Fandom-wiki, nada on Wikipedia, even the Milon fan pages I could find had no mention of these. Can't blame 'em though. Milon was never that big outside of Japan anyways. And we all know how poorly documented these systems are. Can't really blame anyone. There were three mobile Milon games released in this era. All of these games were released on the I-Mode service. To put it simply, it is like saying the games were released on Stadia; you need to get access, then pay to buy the game. I-Mode has been long shut down, though not for the same reasons Stadia failed.
I first heard of these games from a Youtuber named Ruwaga. Around the time I-Mode was shutting down he recorded a ton of videos showing off playthroughs of I-Mode games, browsing forums, showcasing the storefront and more. It's in these videos that he recorded footage of all 3 of these games, thus bringing them to a wider audience. He's since retired from making these videos but thanks to his work we have a much greater picture of how I-Mode worked. His videos will all be linked below.
The first game we'll look at is ミロンのほしぞらしゃぼん [localized to Milon's Starry Night].
Released in 2004, this game is most similar to the 3rd game,
Milon no Hoshizora Shabon: Puzzle Kumikyoku. Gameplay is very akin to Bubble Bobble / Bust-A-Move. You walk around the bottom as circles come down. Shoot ones of the same colour, get a bunch in a row, they get destroyed and you acquire points. It is a very arcade-y concept that works well on flip phones. I have no complaints.
Surprisingly this was the game I found the most references too. No idea why. From the articles I have read, the game cost about 3 bucks to purchase and that it most likely predates the NDS game, released on July 7, 2004. In addition to I-Mode the game was also available for EZWeb, a BREW-based service. This game is half-preserved too. As seen below the in the game's release page there was a flash demo you could play. I've been trying to see if I can get it to run but I have not been successful. If I do get it working I'll host it on my site. As far as I know it is identical to to the I-Mode game.
The second game is 大迷宮組曲 やり込 [localized to Great Labyrinth Suite, Redux]. You would think this is a remake of the NES game but no. This is something entirely different. It contains elements from the from the first game however takes a much different approach. Unlike the sprite-based previous ones this game features almost hand-drawn sprites leaning far harder into the cartoon-y angle than the others. Milon has way more hit points now as well as a younger appearance. Personally, this is the game I am most interested in.
You start off in the same castle as the NES game, but the doors are now entirely separate levels Milon must traverse. These levels are huge, as is the enemy variety and secrets. The whole Let's Play of this game on YouTube took him well over an hour. With the quality seen here it's a wonder this wasn't released on the Game Boy Advance. It would have worked perfectly. The sole review of the game I found even laments the fact this game is mobile only.
Of the three games this is the one I feel is most likely to get remade. Apparently, this is supposed to be a direct sequel to the 1986 game too, putting it square in the middle between this and DoReMi Fantasy.
Aside from a full playthrough of the game it is survived by its soundtrack as well. The LPer who did it also uploaded the soundtrack to YouTube.
Unfortunately I cannot find a release date for this game. The one blog post I found was released in 2013 and I really doubt that's when the game came out. I was unable to find anything in the videos that indicated a possible release date either. At most, I can assume it came out in the 2000s.
The third and final game is 迷宮組曲 ハドソン [localized to Hudson's Labyrinth Suite]. This is a full fledged 16-bit remake of the NES game.
It comes with a tutorial, more health, a fully redone orchestral MIDI soundtrack, smoother controls, a proper pause menu and more. Really, it's completely better than the NES game in every way. Did I mention all the sprites have been redone in a 16-bit style? The game is gorgeous. The bonus stage has been redone too giving it a much more vibrant appeal. Also Milon's blonde now. No idea why.
And for those purists you also have the option to play in the original 8-bit style, the original soundtrack intact. Really, it's outstanding what they have done. A generous YouTuber also took the time to rip and dump the soundtrack on YouTube as well.
If it was preserved and playable then I guarantee it would become the definitive way to play the first game. Never mind the awkwardness of mobile controls. Just rebind to a controller and it'll be much better than the NES game.
Thanks to an archived Hudson link I can see this game released sometime before 2011. From that same page I can also conclude the game was, in addition to I-Mode, released on EZWeb and Yahoo! Keitai.
Between this revelation and the knowledge the sequel was released on 2/3 services I feel confident in making the bold claim that all 3 games were released on all 3 services. Maybe this is just cope but it increases preservation chances substantially.
I have covered Yahoo! Keitai, EZWeb and I-Mode in the King's Field Article. I'm more knowledgeable in I-Mode but have a general idea how they worked. I'll re-tread it here. Just know that EZWeb and Keitai were functionally the same as I-Mode and face the same preservation challenges.
I-Mode was a game service where you could download and purchase games for your flip phone. It was a bit similar to what Stadia and even Google Play is these days. You log on, find the game, download/purchase and it will remotely be installed to your device.
Only, unlike Google Play, I-Mode made is near impossible to actually get the damn games off.
So couldn't I just get import a Japanese flip phone get it on my Wi-Fi and just access and buy? No. They went to ridiculous lengths to make sure nobody outside of Japan could get it.
Accessing the storefront was impossible. First of all, the server was set up to reject all connections outside of Japan. Even with a VPN it would still reject the connection based off the device you were using. From there most hit a roadblock. Well, can I user-agent switch and spoof my way in? Theoretically yes, though while many tried, none were successful.
In the final days of I-Mode I do know people were trying to get in, but nobody pulled it off. I tried myself, to no success. It's likely the server vetted the connection looking for a mobile phone and number to ensure you were who you said you were. I didn't have any Japanese SIM's lying around and have no idea how to even go about spoofing that kind of connection.
At the time I was also informed you needed a Japanese address to access the storefront too. There were people with Japanese flip phones that tried to access via VPN, but they weren't successful either. There were only two cases in which someone gained access and documented it: The people over at the GPS and a single YouTube user (who I will cover later).
It's honestly baffling to see the level of protection it had, especially for it's time. Even nowadays, Steam, EGS, GOG, none of those storefronts have that level of protection. Hell, with the Google Play Store you have external frontends like the Aurora Store. And even then, ripping an APK off a device is trivial. No such thing existed for I-Mode. It was I-Mode or take your money elsewhere. None of these places had this level of protection. All for what? A bunch of video games?
Like most I-Mode games these are not preserved. However, the chance of recovering them is a little higher than most Japanese mobile games. The games (possibly) survive in two forms.
First, the YouTuber I mentioned earlier may still have them on his phone. Of course, without dumping tools it is unlikely they will ever get recovered. And that is assuming he even decides to dump them. Hopefully he does, but until the encryption is cracked or exploit found there is little than can get done.
The second lead is the GPS. They managed to get someone to actually buy a ton of stuff from the I-Mode store in its last days. I am in possession of a possible list of what they purchased but I couldn't find any of these games on it. I recall someone saying that Hudson had long pulled their games from those shelves so alas it may not have been recovered. I don't know for sure though and only time will tell.
Here is where I would usually talk about how to play the game if recovered but I already covered that in the King's Field article. I will write this.
At the time of writing, I-Mode emulation is not possible. Aside from loose SDKs and leaked simulators there is only one project actually working on I-Mode emulation.
SquirrelJME. However, the developer has stated her intention is to get most J2ME apps working before tackling I-Mode. A few opcodes and barebones lines of code have been added but nothing to seriously support I-Mode yet. SquirrelJME itself is a fascinating project and it has huge potential to bring J2ME gaming to a whole new generation of people. So, uh, shoutout to her!
It is possible that J2ME-Loader will one day support I-Mode, but I haven't seen any indication of that. I figure not much will happen as a whole until a method is found to dump I-Mode games. (or maybe it will? It's hard to speculate what will come first.)
Personally, I'm just grateful we have videos of these otherwise lost games. And hey, extracting sprites from the video and just remaking the whole thing in Godot isn't completely out of the question either.
But until then, at least I can watch gameplay of them....
Brief
- Title:ミロンのほしぞらしゃぼん / Milon's Starry Night
- Year: 2004-07-07
- Platform(s): I-Mode, EZWeb, Yahoo! Keitai (speculated)
- Developer(s): Hudson Soft
- Publisher: Hudson Soft
- Playable-If-Recovered: not currently, emulator planned
- Title: 大迷宮組曲 やり込 / Great Labyrinth Suit Redux
- Year: ≤2013 (speculated)
- Platform(s): I-Mode, EZWeb (speculated), Yahoo! Keitai (speculated)
- Developer(s): Hudson Soft
- Publisher: Hudson Soft
- Playable-If-Recovered: not currently, emulator planned
- Title: 迷宮組曲 ハドソン / Hudson's Labyrinth Suite
- Year: ≤2011 (speculated)
- Platform(s): I-Mode, EZWeb, Yahoo! Keitai
- Developer(s): Hudson Soft
- Publisher: Hudson Soft
- Playable-If-Recovered: not currently, emulator planned
Evidence Dump
