Back in December 2000, Somari began a Famicom game collection with the 1986 title Mobile Suit Z Gundam: Hot Scramble. And now, as of this spring, the YouTuber finally owns all 1,053 games for the consoles.
What makes Somari’s collection so interesting is that it’s not just a collection of games, but also their boxes and instruction manuals. That certainly has made completion harder.
The total time to finish this collection is twenty years and three months, with Somari acquiring the last title, 1990's Snow Bros., on March 11 of this year. The game cost her a cool 72,500 yen ($665). The most expensive Famicom game Somari has purchased is Battle Rush at 250,000 yen ($2,290), followed by Mobile Suit Z Gundam: Hot Scramble for 120,960 yen ($1,108) and Exciting Boxing for 101,990 yen ($935).
According to Livedoor News, the hardest Famicom game to find was the math educational title Sansu 5・6-nen: Keisan Game. It’s not hard to find in cartridge-only form, but incredibly difficult with its full packaging.
The full collection was even introduced this week on Japanese morning TV.
“When I was in junior high, I experienced lots of awful things I don’t want to remember,” Somari said in an emotional speech. “At that time, I was helped so much by the Famicom.”
This YouTuber clearly has a deep emotional attachment to the console and its games, which makes this collection resonate so much more than just some kind of shopping feat.
Somari added that there are still rare versions of the games left to collect, such as the Namco hard case versions, as well as the non-retail Famicom games. What’s more, Somari also hopes to start collecting Famicom Disk System games.