Final Fantasy Legend (Game Boy, 1989)

 

The original SaGa 1 that started it all. One of my favorite Game Boy games. Top ten for sure. It'd almost be tops for RPGs, except that the second one improves on it quite a bit. This version may not have rad Wonderswan colors, but it does make things a lot easier during the insane endgame. So it might actually be a better choice for somebody new to the series.

Revising the posts for this before I go on to FFL2.

Originally Posted December 2022

Gremlins 2: The New Batch (Game Boy, 1990)

 

The last game from the Game Boy Player's Guide that I had on my list of things to check out (where it has been for, no joke, 30 years). Always kinda knew this would be the last thing I played from the guide, for whatever reason. I've got kind of an unusual link with this one, which I'll get into in a moment here. Also this is THE WORST GODDAMN GAME EVER.

R-Type (Game Boy, 1991)

 

Another Game Boy Player's Guide game, and one I'm surprised I never posted about already. I actually got this game as a kid, one of the ten or so Game Boy games I ever owned. Unfortunately, out of those ten-ish, this was probably the one I got the least out of. I think I played it a grand total of maybe 2-3 hours at the most, and was pretty much done with it in one day. It's a very short game and doesn't pose any particular challenge, especially compared to other games in this series. Still, it's worth a look.

The R-Type series, from Irem, was sorta the Ross Perot of the shooter universe circa the 1990s. Not as popular or well-known as Gradius and not as beloved by the hardcore as the vertical Compile games. It has a number of innovations that set it apart from (and even surpass at times) the Gradius games.

Castlevania Adventure (Game Boy, 1989)

 

The next Castlevania I wanted to cover...also happens to be the next Game Boy Player's Guide game, so I can take out two things with one stone. Unfortunately this one is broadly considered to be the worst game in the series, at least out of the 2D games.

There are 10 more Castlevania games I want to check out. I've gotta save some for Halloween of course but I'm doing a few before that because it's always a good time for Castlevania.

The Hunt for Red October (Game Boy, 1991)

 

Another game from the Game Boy Player's Guide. This one has Sean Connery! ...on the box!

Solar Striker (Game Boy, 1990)

 

Basically the Space Megaforce of the Game Boy, this is a vertical shoot 'em up that plays very well for the system it inhabits. It's yet another game from the Game Boy Player's Guide, which I'm pretty close to playing / covering everything from at this point. Also, little-known factoid: This game was directly produced by Gunpei Yokoi and developed by a Nintendo studio. You don't see many Nintendo space shooters flying around.

Fortified Zone (Game Boy, 1991)

 

Another of the Game Boy Player's Guide games that I wanted to check out for a long time. Man, that Game Boy guide sold me on games so well that I'm still checking out stuff from it 30 years later.

This is a decent, if very short, game from Jaleco. Looked cool in the guide but wasn't expecting much, got a pleasant surprise.

Batman (Game Boy, 1989)

This is another of those "could have been the first game I ever owned", like Terminator 2 or Mega Man III on the Game Boy. It's a surprisingly good game and I would have probably loved it if I'd gotten it back then. I was a little obsessed with it for a time thanks to the Game Boy Player's Guide, which made every game it covered look great.

Cosmo Tank (Game Boy, 1990)

Next I'm taking a look at an interesting Atlus game from 1990 that is remembered fondly by the few people that knew about it back then. This is a fun game with great music, and it has the boost of being featured in the Game Boy Player's Guide. To segue to Halloween, the next couple of posts will have a Bug Hunt theme.

The Game Boy Player's Guide (Plus NP Review #24)

Today I'm looking at a true blast from the past.

Super Mario Land (Game Boy, 1989)

 

It's March 4th, you know what that means. Time to march forth with Impromptu Mario Week! What awaits in this impromptu week of Mario? Tune in to find out. First up, the Game Boy classic that punched well above its weight. This is something I wanted to play as a kid, but didn't get around to it until I was an adult. Actually played the second one way before I played this one. While the second is objectively a much better game, I kind of preferred this one for its elegant simplicity and lack of gimmicks. Not being tired of the Mario format yet is probably a large factor in this.

That box art is tremendous, too. So colorful and action-packed. If I'd seen this in a store as a kid, I no doubt would have begged my way into getting it. Instead, Kirby's Dream Land was the lucky winner of the first game choice...mainly because Caldor didn't have this game. Let's get to it.

Double Dragon (Game Boy, 1990)

Is that two dragons, or one dragon with two heads? Maybe one with a head at each end?

Operation C (Game Boy, 1991)

This is the Game Boy spinoff of Contra, and like most Game Boy spinoffs from that era, it's very scaled-down in comparison to its NES counterparts. While those games had 8 or 9 stages, this one has 5. Said stages are shorter, too. That said, it's pretty damn fun. PUSH START KEY!

Gargoyle's Quest (Game Boy, 1990)

Also Known As Red Arremer: Makai-Mura Gaiden, Gargoyle's Quest is a side-story to the legendary Ghouls n' Ghosts series from the late 80's and early 90's. That series was best known for having nightmarish difficulty, even at a time when high difficulty was the norm. In any case, there was one particularly nasty foe, a red gargoyle, which I talked about in the last post quite a bit. This recurring foe, named Firebrand, ended up getting his own series. Gargoyle's Quest is where it all begins. No word on if Arthur shows up in this game to make Firebrand's life miserable, but it'd certainly be karma.

Grindhouse Double Feature: Nemesis and Nemesis 2 (Game Boy, 1991)

Today I'm looking at another pair of portable games. Nemesis was a Game Boy version of Gradius, not unlike how Operation C is a Game Boy version of Contra. Konami likes to do that.

It isn't a straight port, but rather its own similar-yet-different game. It also got a hard-as-hell sequel in the same year, but only in Japan and Europe.