Ultima Rune of Virtue 2 was a 2004 insert credit game that was asserted as the best thing ever. I thought then and think now it was probably cool but unplayable by my standards.
Will try to make some time for Race Drivin’
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Keep an ear out for the major key remix of a castlevania song in this one.
I’m seeing some good titles on that list!
93 was another great year for the Game Boy.
Man on and off over the years I’ve been trying to remember that random game some ICers were talking up as a a very good Link’s Awakening-esque game and yeah, this is it. Thanks!
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It’s kinda like the midpoint between a zelda game and like, Tower of Druaga or Dragonslayer. It’s extremely weird.
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Burning Paper is an action game that doesn’t let you directly attack your enemies.
Each stage features your character at the top
with six pieces of paper between you and your enemies.
You can burn off strips from the paper.
If falling paper hits an enemy it knocks down that enemy.
If you aren’t careful you can run out of paper to burn.
By the end of a stage you often won’t have much paper left.
Boss fights kinda suck, you just shoot them directly.
but beating a boss gets you a permanent power up that improves your little guy.
It gets more complicated as it goes. After a few stages it gets more complicated than what I’ve described.
Each stage introduces new enemy types and new mechanics, and it gets pretty chaotic as you progress.
Burning Paper is one of my favorite Game Boy games.
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I love this game!! Its weird!!!
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I played a good hour or so of a Spanish translation for Last Bible II. It’s a Megami Tensei game so there are many elements I’m familiar with. I haven’t spent a significant amount of time in any MegaTen game released before Nocturne, so I can’t comment on what elements are innovative for the series. What surprised me was how the setting was more of a generic fantasy world than what I’ve seen before.
My character was raised by beasts so he is much better at talking to them than other humans. This means I can chat up beasts and add them to my team. The conversations are a little dull and repetitive though. Monsters usually ask me if I like killing beasts, if I want something from them, or if I’m honest. It’s a roll of the dice to see how they respond.
Battles had been boring for most of my time with the game until I made it to the first boss. Until I faced him, I usually just hit auto and let my party bash on whoever was in front of me. I only had a fire spell and only two people out five in my party had any magic at all. When I started fighting the boss, I realized that most of my party could only do 1 point of damage while he could kill my guys in one hit. This is when I learned that I can order of my guys to essentially sacrifice himself to prevent someone else form getting hit. It was a nail biting back and forth of sacrificing my non-magic users to protect the two who could cast fire. I liked how balanced it felt in the end.
The dialogue is about as charming as any other JRPG, so while I get a decent baseline of enjoyment out of it, I probably won’t play much more.
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Right after I posted about Last Bible II, I decided to try and figure out Kirby’s Pinball Land. Even though it has more boards, I think it doesn’t quite surpass Revenge of the Gator. Most of the boards feel extremely similar and they’re all nearly symmetrical. This is the first non-platforming Kirby game, so it sets an important precedent.
Kirby can’t absorb abilities, so together with the monotonous board design, it all feels a bit flat. Also, this is a pinball game that has a pseudo-ending, a final boss fight against Dedede. I’m kind of charmed by that sort of structure, but at the same time, it’s really frustrating in practice. In order to complete a level, I have to climb up a series of boards. They all have the same size and pit placement. They also follow similar patterns for progression. There are about five boards that I must push Kirby up to in order to face the boss of that stage. Problem is, it’s quite easy to fall down one pit, then another, and another. Once I fall down a pit, progress resets on whatever upper boards I was working on. It’s a war of attrition. Eventually, I just started to use save states so I could see everything else.
The coolest part of this for me are the bonus games. They aren’t easy to get to, but they bring variety that the rest of the boards are missing. One bonus game has me kicking Kirby’s into a soccer goal, another has me sending food up to another Kirby, the third let’s me play pinball Breakout. These bonus games also give huge multipliers. If I was score chasing with anybody, I would definitely make this the sole focus of my energy.
I actually went and played a real pinball game, Fireball, yesterday so that might be coloring my opinion. It had a spinning rubber mat in the middle of the board that would swing my boys around in wild directions. There was a Galaga-esque capture and rescue mechanic as well. Now that’s good pinball.
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Darkwing Duck is a Mega Man game.
Mega Man has been replaced with this handsome gent,
Walks like Mega Man, shoots like Mega Man
Pressing up blocks with his cape.
Darkwing can hang underneath platforms, and onto hooks, etc.
The game uses this a lot, and it works.
There are boss fights against the Darkwing Duck villians and they’re all fun.
It’s the best Mega Man game on the Game Boy even if it isn’t called Mega Man.
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I got the real rumble cart of this so I should…try it?
Rumble cart, you say? That sounds like reason enough to try. It’s fun to play if you just want to plunge and flip for fifteen minutes. I would resist the urge to make any progress in it though.
I tried and am delighted with Saigo no Nindou: Ninja Spirit.
It’s Ninja Spirit.
Ninja Spirit is originally an arcade game, better known for the PC Engine port.
It’s an action game. You play a ninja who can jump the full height of the screen.
Power-ups create shadow copies of your ninja.
This version doesn’t cut any scenes, bosses or set-pieces, yet shortens everything so that the entire game is only about 10 minutes (about half the original length).
It has a Game Boy mode and an arcade mode, which are effectively very easy and very hard modes.
This is a good port. It’s fun.
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i never knew about this port, it looks really impressive!
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It’s Bits! The same British studio behind the R-Type ports! I’m glad to see this lives up to their reputation. It’s a shame that most of their other releases are fast-developed, property-based shovelware.
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Continually delighted with this palette. I gotta mess with mine a little bit it is off.
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It’s so funny to me that it just so happens to match Darkwing Duck perfectly
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Shame there isn’t an English translation of Aa Harimanada.
Seems like a rad Sumo wrestling game.
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Just one more round.
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The sprite work on that is so good. There’s so much tension in each stance.
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