Active Enterprises

American Sammy

Atlus

BanDai

Camerica

Enix

Gametek

Hot-B

Hudson Soft

Imagesoft (Sony/CSG)

IREM

Jaleco

Konami

LJN

Mindscape

Seta

T*HQ

Tecmo Inc.

Tradewest

Wisdom Tree

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Index

Hot-B

By: Bubblun

Say hello to another one of the small publishers for the NES. Their output is a measly 4 games:

Black Bass

Blue Marlin

Palamedes

Shingen the Ruler

Notables: Not too much you can say about a company with this tiny of an output. Palamedes is a great overlooked puzzle game that shares a lot of traits with Bust-a-Move.  I've seen screenshots of the arcade version with a Taito logo so its possible they were responsible for making it in the first place. Shingen the Ruler is a terrible strategy game that plays like every one of Koei's terrible strategy games about people from ancient China you could give two shits about.  The most peculiar thing about Shingen the Ruler and Palamedes is that they have some of the instructions for the game printed on the label art.  Perhaps this was done with rental stores in mind.  Black Bass and Blue Marlin are the only fishing games on the NES in the U.S. and also have a huge cult following.

Status: I was shocked to find Hot-B still to be in business for being such a tiny operation to start out with.  It looks like they are milking their Black Bass and Blue Marlin titles for all they are worth and have released several more games in the series for PlayStation.  Their most recent release (Runabout 2 for PSX) was in late Summer 2000, so I'm unsure if they still are actively in business.

Best Titles: I get some enjoyment from Blue Marlin occasionally so I guess I'd recommend it. Palamedes is excellent.

Popularity of Games: Below average

Rarity of Games: Average

Overall Rating: C+