It's that time again. 26 quick reviews from 26 quick plays, this time for the Game Boy.
For those who don't know the guidelines, here they are:
-I pick one game for each letter, A-Z. It needs to be a game I've never played before, though for this set I allowed myself to choose Game Boy ports of games I played on other systems (to see how they compare)
-I play each game for no longer than 10 minutes.
-I give a score and a sentence or two about the game.
Here they are, and remember, before you bitch, I only played 10 minutes. The idea is to get an initial impression, not a comprehensive review.
Note that these are all Game Boy, not Game Boy Color or anything else.
--
Avenging Spirit - 10/10
Wow. I think I was just blown away by the concept alone. You're a ghost who posesses your enemies, takes over their bodies, and uses them to kill other enemies. Everything else about the game is average to above average, but just overall it was a TON of fun taking over a kung fu chick, leaping over a wall, then posessing the robot on the other side and taking everything out with death missiles. Seriously, try this one.
Battletoads - 8.5/10
Much, much better than I thought it would be, and probably better than the NES version. It was hard but I didn't play long enough to figure out if it was unfair, and the second level, which was sort of a "turbo tunnel" level, had a side-scrolling shooter aspect, which was nice. My biggest problem: What the hell is up with the eagle? He went from hard-ass commander...to this:
Castlevania Legends - 7/10
Honestly, I was more frustrated by this game than anything else. I almost ragequit when I jumped off a rope into death (of course, if I climbed down the rope, there was the next area), and I fell into a trap twice before I realized it was a trap. Oh, and there's traps. Still, it's Castlevania, and while it was irritating, it did leave me wanting to play more when 10 minutes was up.
Duck Tales 2 - 9.5/10
It was Duck Tales, with some pretty interesting things added in like X-ray specs and some cane powerups. Seemed to play a bit slowly, but otherwise it was good stuff.
Earthworm Jim - 8/10
I am absolutely amazed that they were able to actually shrink down EWJ into a game boy cart mostly intact. I only got through the first level, but with one exception, everything was there. They also threw in Andy Asteroids, which I could have done without to be honest. It's also hard to control, since you tap B to whip and hold it to shoot. Still, very impressive.
The Fidgetts - 4/10
Looks like an interesting puzzle game, Lost Vikings style, where you control two mice. Has potential. What's killing the score is two things. First, one mouse is completely helpless and seems to have nothing to bring to the table. Second, the time limit they put on you seems absolutely impossible to beat..and yes, I did entirely figure the level out. It's just not possible to do what you need to do.
Gauntlet II - 8/10
It's Gauntlet II, with all the treasure hunting, two-player mode, and Elf Shot The Food. So if you're a fan of Gauntlet, this is good for you. Two serious complaints, though: A lot of sloooooooooowdown, and no music at all.
Hammerin' Harry - Ghost Building Company - 8.5/10
A lot of fun. Had the joy of bashing the crap out of ghosts and a lot of Japanese silliness. Not much else to say.
Ishido - Inc/10
THIS GAME MAKES NO SENSE! Not scoring it because I couldn't figure it out. I think it was a puzzle game, but it may have been some Mahjong thing
Jelly Boy - 4/10
Another game with an impossible time limit, this time a platformer where you can apparently take on different forms. But can I really add more than what this picture says?
...did they even think that one through at all?
Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters - 10/10
Holy shit. It's like they took every single complaint I had about Kid Icarus, and went and fixed it. No more death by pressing down. You can scroll back, and the levels are completely open to explore. The treasure room game is fair now. You can gain health by killing enemies. The only minor nitpick is the size of the screen, but that's just because it's Game Boy. On top of that, it keeps everything that was good about the original. Why, why, why couldn't this have made it to the NES?
Little Indian, Big City - 1/10
Ugh. I think this game was made by someone who maybe, one time, heard a description of a native American. Anyone want to tell me what tribe lived in the jungle and fired blowdarts? Anyways, this game is awful, but I'm not sure if I can fault it, it appears to be a prototype since I can't leave the first level. From what I understand, it's based on a movie, and it was awful too.
Megaman: Dr. Wily's Revenge - 6/10
This was such a disappointment. Hearing the butchered music almost made me cry, and it's one of the few times I ever noticed lousy sound effects. It's good to know they made much, much better Game Boy Megaman games later on, but honestly, this one was mostly just frustrating and made me want to play the NES one. Still, it was only lousy in comparison.
Ninja Boy - 5/10
"Ninja Boy" my ass, this is a Game Boy version of Kung Fu Heroes. And it's about as fun. Take that for what it's worth, whether or not you like Kung Fu Heroes. Personally, I consider it a game where 1-ups are punishment.
Oddworld Adventures - 4.5/10
Looks sort of like a Prince of Persia thing. Probably could really use the manual, though the game does try and walk you through stuff. It was able to interest me for 10 minutes, but I was just getting stuck...and the graphics, sound, and controls were all horrible.
Parasol Stars - 9/10
A traditional Taito-style game, you're armed with little umbrellas that you can use to snag enemies and throw them at other enemies to clear the stage. More fun than I'm making it sound. And it even gives Steinway pianos a product placement. Neat.
Q Billion - 7/10
One of the many happy fun puzzle games that came out on Game Boy, this one was one of those push-and-match types. It was fun, but nothing special.
Road Rash - Inc/10
All I remember was some ear-raping music, a note about the next stage, some stuff by some other person, and it crashes. So I grabbed another R game
Robocop - 7.5/10
An interesting side scrolling shooter. It sayd Robocop had a limit on ammo, but the number never went down, so I just shot the heck out of everything. Only one life, but it gets bonus points for trying to replicate the "shoot the rapist in the dick through the woman's skirt" scene. That didn't work for me, though. Maybe I just missed.
The Simpsons: Escape from Camp Deadly - 6.5/10
Your standard NES-era Simpsons game: clunky controls, semi-clever twists thrown in, and fun for at least 10 minutes, but probably would get boring fast. Sadly one of the better Simpsons games from the era. Nice to see Lisa do some stuff.
Titus the Fox: To Marrakech and Back - 1/10
Bet you didn't know Titus had a mascot platformer, did you? Well, it's awful. The music was horrifying, the gameplay boring as hell, and all it seemed to be was a bunch of excuses to show off the titular fox mascot in various poses. I've played bad platformers, but usually those are just "fuck it!" throw-togethers. This seemed doubly bad because it looks like they tried, and it still managed to be very bad.
Universal Solider - 6/10
Not a bad run and gun, just not a very good one. I suppose for a licensed game, it's good. Kind of wish we could get a little invincibility time when hit, but meh.
Vegas Stakes - 7/10
If you're into that sort of thing, it's a halfway decent casino game. Seven Card Stud was a nice touch, and it had the full array of bets for roulette and craps. So yeah.
World Heroes 2: Jet - 7/10
I expected a horrorshow. What I got was a fairly playable port, most of the moves I remembered seemed intact. Of course, that assumes you want to play World Heroes 2 in the first place. There were very, very long load times too.
Xenon 2: Megablast - 1/10
I'm not a fan of space shooters in general, but they've never actually bored me. This one bored me. The screen scrolls way too slow, the enemies are bland and boring, and so on, and so on. Some of the shooters on Action 52 are better than this thing, and no, that's not hyperbole.
Yogi Bear's Goldrush - 5/10
Boring platformer. I wish I could find another complaint about it, but that's pretty much it. You walk, you jump, you collect pic-a-nic baskets. Yay.
Zoop - 3/10
A puzzle game. I think you needed to smash bricks of one color with a like color as they closed in on you. I don't know, I didn't figure it out. All I know is I didn't have fun with it.
--
There you are.
