Pseudo_Intellectual (66362) on 8/12/2012 6:31 PM · Permalink · Report

http://retrojrpg.thefannish.org/?p=524 discusses the differences a bit.

Game Guesser (28) on 8/13/2012 5:21 PM · edited · Permalink · Report

ah, thanks for pointing this out. I see stuff like this on Mobygames occasionally but I always forget to make note of it/point it out here. I also came to the conclusion that the two games are not related when I was looking at Magic Candle stuff a few weeks ago - at the very least, the NES game is so radically different from the other games that it should have a separate entry, even if it is found to be some weird reinterpretation of the original.

Unfortunately, there seems to be little concrete information out there on the NES game, at least in English. Doesn't seem to be much in Japanese either..

{I just noticed that Sammy's corporate history page (English version) lists Japan Software Technology as a subsidiary that was formed for game development. It seems they were merged back into the company the same year the game was released.}

Looking around Google with マジックキャンドル FC and machine translation....
This review seems to indicate the game box claims the game is derived from an overseas computer game. If we could find the back, it might help verify things. Of course, the machine translation (or the review itself) might be incorrect.

The apparently relevant text:
パッケージによると、もともとは海外のパソコンゲームの移植のようで、海外でのゲームの賞か何かを受賞したらしいことが書かれていたんですが。

There doesn't seem to be a playthrough of the game on nicovideo.
It looks like this might remain a mystery until someone who knows Japanese can clear things up for us. But the game definitely needs a separate entry.