goin’ down the alleyway

i rather enjoy game boy games in all their greeny grayscale glory, but since i never had one growing up there are so many that i’ve never played. i took a step back to the white plastic brick’s earliest days with alleyway which was actually one of the launch titles, way back in 1989. (that reminds me, a lot of places commemorated the game boy’s 20th anniversary with retrospectives. you can find gamespite’s series of articles here.)

alleyway seems to get universally panned and dismissed as a decidedly inferior clone of arkanoid which came out in the arcades in 1986 and on the NES a year later. in many ways this game seems like a huge step back as it doesn’t feature any powerups whatsoever, or even much level variety: each level repeats 3 times (with variations due to moving blocks). there are eight of these trios of levels, and each group is followed by a bonus board featuring a mario character, ending in a showdown against the king of the koopas, bowser himself. the game does get somewhat harder since the ball travels noticeably faster in later stages, but for the most part there’s not a whole lot to keep your attention. the sprites are small and undistinguished (much like its fellow launch title super mario land which i reviewed last year). even the physics seem a little stiff: according to wikipedia “the ball will only travel at 15°, 30° or 45° angles”. this leads to some extremely repetitive patterns, although “the ball cannot be locked in an infinite loop of ricochets. … the ball will travel at a slightly raised or lowered angle depending on its current trajectory, and will break out of the loop.” the game also includes different speeds for your paddle (faster if you hold the A button and slower if you hold the B button).

despite all of these shortcomings (i seem to say that phrase a lot), eventually i rewound my mind to the game boy’s early days and began to enjoy the game for what it is instead of what it isn’t. as a launch title it definitely had major limitations, but it provides enough entertainment and challenge to make it worth playing, and the mario cameos and variations within each set of levels provide just enough personality to distinguish it from similar games. i found it interesting to compare this not to arkanoid, but to atari’s arcade classic breakout from 1976 (which in turn was directly influenced by that granddaddy of them all pong from 1972). this video of the atari 2600 version of breakout made me think of alleyway as coming before arkanoid instead of after, which it didn’t, but given the technical limitations of games for the game boy at launch the comparison to breakout seems a bit fairer. in any case i’m looking forward to trying out more old-skool game boy games sooner than later.

psst. want some cheap alleyway links?
- gamefaqs has GIFs of all the levels
- text of the manual at world-of-nintendo.com
- this fan review at retrogamer.net will make you want to play the game. this review at meanmachinesmag.co.uk will do just the opposite.
- video of the less-than-thrilling ending
- yup, this is another one from nintendo R&D1
- the game had a cursory mention in nintendo’s game boy player’s guide, receiving scores of: graphics and sound: 3.3, play control: 3.9, challenge: 3.3, and theme and fun: 3.2. i’ve archived the scan here.
- the game also got a brief mention in nintendo power #9. scan archived here.
- the official nintendo page (in japanese) doesn’t have much info, but here’s the google translation if you’re interested.
- bit of trivia, also according to wikipedia: “Years later, the game’s designer Gunpei Yokoi would reuse much of Alleyway’s source code (such as paddle behavior and adapted physics engine) for the Game Boy game Kirby’s Block Ball while working with Shigeru Miyamoto’s team.”

wario’s secret castle

finally played through pretty much all the levels in wario land II for game boy (which was also released a bit later as a colorized version for game boy color). i really wanted to like this game more than i did, because i had quite enjoyed the first two wario land games i had played (as recounted here and here). the first sequel, on the virtual boy, was extremely similar to the original wario land game, but this game offers a new twist. here wario, perhaps due to his brute strength, somehow acquires invincibility, and instead of hats his rasputin-like powers come from his ability to transcend death and other ailments. when he gets struck by a hammer, he becomes a spring; when he gets squished by a heavy weight he becomes as thin as paper; and during the course of his adventure he also survives getting burned and frozen and even eating too much cake. the powers aren’t really anything new and they’re generally underused, but the looney-tunes-cartoon-like aesthetic (carried over into the sound effects and music) is entertaining, and in his third solo outing wario is still a fun, greedy-yet-somehow-also-lovable, character.

so what was the problem? unfortunately, the game suffers from one huge design choice that i just couldn’t accept, which follows directly from the fact that wario is invincible. since nothing can hurt him, instead of losing life when wario gets hit by an enemy, most of the time he loses coins. this works out fairly well because each level includes two simple mini-games that cost coins to play and yield the game’s two types of useless collectibles. so the more money you have the easier it is to collect everything in the game. all that is fine and good, but the problem comes when, instead of losing money when you make a mistake, the game punishes you by forcing you into an area where you have to backtrack to where you just were. this particularly happens during boss fights (where in general you can’t get hit once, because otherwise you have to schlep your way back to the boss room), although it happens in other places as well where in other games there would have been a certain amount of “try and die” gameplay. this backtracking happens all too often and makes the game quite annoying and dully repetitive at times. i’m surprised the game seems to have gotten such a good reception given this huge limitation in the game design.

the other main problem is that many of the stages have “secrets”, such as the previously mentioned useless collectibles and also a handful of alternate exits and also just secret stashes of coins. some of the “secrets” are a simple matter of picking the right power to apply to the situation, but some of them are just trying wario’s various powers at every dead end in hopes of uncovering a hidden room. this reminded me far too much of the complaints people had about milon’s secret castle, and at many times finding the secrets in this game felt even more arbitrary (and tedious) than in that one.

all in all this was one of the more-disappointing first-party games i’ve played by my beloved nintendo. apparently WL3 is very similar to this one, and i’m sorely tempted to skip it. i played a bit of WL4 and it also feels pretty similar, so i may have to make an exception to my usual OCD habit of playing games sequentially and instead skip forward to other entries in the series. we’ll see.

wario’s secret links:
- good FAQ at gamefaqs.com
- nice history of wario (and waluigi) at kombo.com: part 1 and part 2.
- recent article at gamespite.net
- entry at wikipedia
- endings at vgmuseum.com
- PDF of manual at replacementdocs.com

tetris attacked — on the go

just a quick post. i know i said i was going to cut down on the sequels, but i had some games already in the pipeline to finish, one of which was the game boy version of tetris attack. i had played and thoroughly enjoyed the SNES version and was looking forward to trying out the various iterations the game has gone through since its original release in 1996.

puzzle games tend not to vary much, and the original game boy version of tetris attack has even less reason to as (according to the game’s page at wikipedia) it was released pretty much simultaneously with the SNES version. in terms of the trappings and modes the games are pretty much the same. the biggest difference is the size of the well [alert! alert! geek speak ahead. skip to the next paragraph to avoid!]: in the SNES version the well is 6 blocks across and 12 high, whereas in the GB version it’s 6 across and only 9 high. this definitely changes the rhythm of the game, and working your chains vertically becomes less feasible. the difference in the well size will probably require you to adjust your strategy if you were reliant on working in the middle of your stack to make chains like i was. also, perhaps as a way to compensate for the limitations on making chains, it feels like the game handles garbage blocks a bit differently than the SNES version. as in the SNES version, making a line next to a garbage block causes all the garbage blocks to turn into regular blocks, but in the GB version there seems to be a significantly bigger pause while the garbage blocks are popping; this makes it easier to rearrange blocks below the garbage blocks and set up chains based on what the garbage blocks have turned into. this change helps make the game more balanced overall, although it also makes it easier to rebound from getting a lot of garbage blocks. since i haven’t played the SNES version in a while i may be mistaken on that, but that was my impression.

since i hadn’t played any version of the game in a while i had a good time just getting back into it. even though i’d played the SNES version a fair amount i’m still far from being a chain master, so there was definitely plenty of worthwhile time spent just improving my tetris attack/panel de pon skillz. i cleared the regular mode on the hardest difficulty, which was rather on the easy side, before proceeding to the “vs COM” mode. on the hardest normal setting this was definitely more of a challenge, but the game gives you infinite continues so it doesn’t take too much effort. after beating bowser the game challenges you to beat bowser without any losses in the first 7 stages (in which you battle your “friends”, e.g. lakitu or poochy, who have supposedly been put under a spell) and with less than 7 continues in the final four stages (i.e. you can use each of the “friends” you’ve accrued as a continue). this is also more of a challenge and definitely kept me coming back for more.

all in all this was a nice portable alternative version to the SNES version. the graphics, music, and sound make the transition pretty much intact, and although the gameplay ends up having slight variations, it’s still the tetris attack you know and love and it’s very much worth checking out. especially if you’re a geek like me who gets into the minute differences between versions of the same game! lucky for me there are still plenty of iterations of the series to check out in the future. hahaha.

another attack of tetris attack links!
- linked to this before, but still worth noting: nice general PdP fansite
- themushroomkingdom.net has a comparison of the SNES tetris attack to the original, japanese-only panel de pon
- passwords at IGN
- entry at gaming.wikia.com with info on all the characters

balloon fightin’ kid to the rescue!

i’d played and quite enjoyed the classic balloon fight a while back, and at that time i’d already set my sights on playing through the only sequel the game ever got, which was balloon kid for the original game boy.

i have a big soft spot for early game boy games, which, being black and white and on a tiny screen, feel even more primitive than the original NES games. although not a classic for the ages, balloon kid is a nice alternative to the usual generic platformer. it doesn’t deviate much from the ballon trip mode of the original and your main goal is still to avoid hazards by using the game’s unique flying mechanics, although occasionally as the protagonist, alice, you’ll have to drop your balloons in order to do a bit of basic platforming or simplistic boss fighting.

i agree with this review at nintendojo that it’ll probably take you at least a few playthroughs before you get to the end of the game (which features a somewhat twisted epilogue), perhaps a bit more if you never played balloon fight. but finishing each stage perfectly by nabbing every single balloon would be much, much trickier. the last stage was a lot of fun due to the increased difficulty, and it made me think that a follow-up game, while not likely, would be more than welcome. the graphics are basic but have character, although the control felt fractionally looser to me than the original, especially when comparing the balloon trip mode that was included to complement the main modes of both games, but not enough to detract at all. all in all this is a thoroughly amiable game and due to its mechanics is more unique than the average generic platformer, and an enjoyable way to while away a few hours, especially for fans of the original balloon fight.

balloonin’ links:
- balloon kid didn’t get a lot of attention when it came out, but it was mentioned in nintendo power v. 16 (i’ve archived a scan here). it also received a blurb in the game boy nintendo player’s guide (scan archived here).
- official japanese site of the GBC remake including screenshots and unique official artwork. apparently along with color the game included a save function, map screen, and stage select screen.
- comparison of balloon kid and its reskin hello kitty world at youtube
- entry at wikipedia
- in IGN’s “smash it up!” character-prediction feature that lucas m. thompson wrote for IGN in the weeks leading up to the release of brawl, he claimed that balloon fighter was included in beta versions of smash bros. melee, but i find it hard to believe such information would have been leaked and he doesn’t cite a source. he mentioned both balloon fighter and alice as suggestions for the series. it would be pretty friggin’ awesome if either of them actually made it into future installments of the series, although coming up with a moveset that worked would be quite a challenge.

donkey kong landed

still on my sequels kick, so i played through the game boy game donkey kong land. i’d played and enjoyed donkey kong country last year and was in the mood for another mindless platformer.

DKL was released just about 6 months after DKC, and i was fully expecting DKL to be just a portable, fairly watered-down version of the original as many other game boy games are, such as operation c (a contra game), and ninja gaiden: shadow which i’ve previously reviewed. but i was surprised to find that the game actually has more than a few unique elements. true, there are a host of levels that are strongly tied to the original game, including jungle, snow, cave, and water levels. but there are entire sections that are completely new and feature some entirely unique game mechanics, including ship, cloud, and city levels. the ship levels seem to be a preview of the ship levels in donkey kong country 2 which would be released another 6 months later. needless to say, these additions were a welcome surprise and really made the game so much more worthwhile than i expected.

the graphics, of course, take a hit and there are some problems with the rendering of the sprites, but for the most part they do a good job and there aren’t any problems that are too distracting. despite the downgrade in graphics, in general the gameplay holds up. although the levels that are based on DKC levels feel like retreads more often than not, the secrets are much better integrated and less arbitrary. the map also now updates to show which levels are fully completed, although i was surprised you don’t have to get all four of the “KONG” letters in the levels for the stage to be marked completed. the biggest complaint that this reviewer at nintendojo had is that to save you have to find all four “KONG” letters in a level. it was rather annoying to not be able to save when you wanted to, but it ended up giving me an incentive to revisit earlier (and easier) levels that i’d previously completed but hadn’t found all the secrets in. i also disagreed with his complaint that the sky level where you have to jump to change the direction of the platform was annoying; it didn’t take too long to get used to it, and besides there was a similar mechanic in the classic SMB3.

so all in all this was a surprisingly decent little game boy game. it still amazes me how much developers were able to do on such a limited platform. the game’s a bit on the short side and definitely easier than the original, but it’s fun and has enough challenges and new elements to keep you interested and has definitely left me looking forward to seeing what surprises are in store for donkey kong country 2.

DK and diddy’s banana-colored links:
- entry at wikipedia
- text of the instruction manual
- a complete FAQ at gamefaqs

i-s-z-t-j-l-o spells tetris

what is there to say about tetris that hasn’t already been said? even though i’ve become a big fan of such successors as puyo puyo and panel de pon in more recent years, the original tetris is every bit as great almost 20 years since it appeared on the original game boy. although its descendants have become full of such added bells ‘n whistles as chains and items, the original is so beautifully pure, elegant, and classic. like my recent revisit of the classic game galaga i had a great time revisiting tetris and just being reminded of how perfect it is and enjoying how much the gameplay still holds up.

in terms of specific thoughts, this time around i was really struck with how tetris provides such different aspects of gameplay within such a simple framework. previously i’d been mostly focused on the satisfaction that you get in neatly fitting pieces together, much like the satisfaction one gets when filling in a sudoku grid. this time i found myself noticing how there are other emotional triggers as well. at the center is the constant feeling of gambling, where you’re constantly having to decide if you can afford to wait for the long piece to get a much higher score by clearing four lines at once. there’s also the strategy involved in always keeping a backup plan in case the piece you’re waiting for just isn’t coming. i also found myself personifying the pieces in a way i hadn’t really thought of much before, with the “s” and “z” shapes soon taking on the roles as my nemeses, and the “t” and the “i” pieces becoming my saviors.

another thing i noticed more this time around was how different the gameplay becomes when you’re focused on high scores versus when you’re focused on just surviving (e.g. at the later speedier levels and in the “game b”, garbage-clear mode), and i was also surprised at how much getting a great score in the game is based on the luck of the pieces that you get. this seems particularly apparent to me in the most difficult “game b” mode, level 9 height 5. i’d be fairly surprised if there are tetris masters who can beat that level every single time. but i also felt this way in the regular mode, b/c you only have a finite amount of time to score the maximum number of points you can before you hit level 20, where you have to be pretty fleet of finger to stay alive.

as a completist it will def. be interesting to me to see the variations, sometimes minute, in other versions of the game (e.g. size of the well, the differences in the frequencies of each particular piece, the speed the pieces drop), but it’ll be tough for anything to even come close to challenging the place the classic original game boy version holds in my, and i’m sure many others’, little gaming heart. (awww.)

tons of tetr-links:
- the entry at wikipedia has a lot of interesting info, including the controversy over the copyright, the “tetris effect”, and some info on the mathematical probabilities of being unable to win at tetris
- list of tetris variants, which includes another of the creator’s games, hatris, which in this video just looks wretched.
- tetris doesn’t really need a FAQ, but here’s one from IGN that includes info on the scoring system. the FAQ doesn’t seem completely accurate, though, w/ regard to the diff. endings you get in endless mode. there’s a comment on this youtube video that mentions there are diff. rockets for 100-150k, 150-200k, and 200k+ points, and i’m pretty sure s/he’s correct.
- tetris mastery video clips to make you feel inadequate at racketboy.com, including some guy’s video of game b level 9 height 5 in the hard (i.e. heart) mode. that guy’s skills will amaze you. the same guy also has a great half hour-long video getting the maximum number of points (999,999). yes, my choice in heroes is unbelievably dorky.
- great tetris comic you’ve prob. already seen at perry bible fellowship

mediocre mario landed

i took a break from a long game to play one of the few mario games i’ve never really touched, namely that game boy classic super mario land. the game is pretty noteworthy for being one of the first game boy titles, and in that light it’s def. worthy of respect. but from a modern-day perspective the game is really pretty average in almost every way.

the game makes decent use of the mario universe, with items including the power-up mushroom, starman, and fire flower (the latter providing a slightly diff. ability) making their appearance, along with variations on classic characters including goombas, koopas, and piranha plants. but aside from the mario trappings the gameplay is pretty uninspired all around, perhaps unsurprising given the fact that mario master miyamoto didn’t work on the title. there are no secret areas aside from underground coin rooms like the ones that appeared in the original mario bros., and the stages just don’t have anything we haven’t seen in hundreds of other platformers, with the exception of two fairly dull anomalous shooter-like stages in which mario pilots a submarine and an airplane. the gameplay is also hampered by the small sprites, which means landing on enemies often requires pixel-perfect accuracy. at the time of its release, though, it must have been great for players to get to revisit the classic original super mario bros. gameplay and esp. to take it on the go. the second playthrough, which features many more enemies, is much more entertaining, but it still doesn’t hide the fact that the game is easily among the least compelling of the entire series.

the one great contribution to the mario universe that the game did provide though is the introduction of princess daisy, who although virtually a visual twin of princess peach with colors swapped has much more personality and instead of being a maiden-in-distress is much more of a tomboy and provides a nice partner for luigi. she’s been a favorite in the various mario sports and party titles she’s appeared in, and it was nice to see her debut (albeit completely generic and characterless) in what was otherwise a fairly forgettable game.

reading back over my review it does seem unusually harsh, but i suppose this is in large part to the high standards the mario series maintains in general. fortunately the team did a much better job with the wholly enjoyable super mario land 2 (which i played and reviewed a while back). so with that one finished, i think this means i pretty much just have two more games in the main mario series to beat, which are the most recent two, new super mario bros. and mario galaxy. and i’m def. looking forward to spending more time with both.

mario land links:
- PDF of manual at replacementdocs.com
- music from the third world of mario land reworked for brawl
- a good walkthrough at gamefaqs.com
- maps at vgmaps.com
- entry at mariowiki.com
- entry at wikipedia

operation C complete

it’s been ages since i’d played a contra game, but since the original NES classic was one of my favorite games of the era i was eager to get back into the series. i happened to start off with operation C, the first game boy contra release, which came out after the NES contra sequel, super C.

the game is a contra game through and through, so there’s not a whole lot to say. it’s made easier than most of the other games in the series thanks to a level select code, and the introduction of the homing gun makes the game a breeze for as long as you can manage to keep it. i didn’t mind the lack of 2 player co-op, but i wasn’t too into the substitution of the pseudo-3D levels of the original with two top-down view levels (a change that was apparently introduced in super C). but other than that this was typical run ‘n gun contra bliss. graphics and music, all heavily indebted to the original NES game, are all great. i’m definitely going to have to tackle super C next, although i played through the demo of the fairly recent release of contra 4 on the DS (thanks to the wii’s nintendo channel) and it looks fantastic. but i got spoiled with op C’s level select, so whatever contra game i play next will be more of a challenge.

two links are all you need to accompish your mission!
- entry at wikipedia
- a nice history of the contra series up to 2002

wario landed

zipped through the first wario land game (for the original game boy) this week. as you may know, the game is sub-titled “super mario land 3″ but has pretty much nothing to do w/ super mario land 2 (which i reviewed a year ago here). wario land features the newly-minted nemesis from that game in the starring role, and although it’s a fairly typical platformer, it’s a breath of fresh air from the regular mario series. instead of jumping on enemies as with mario, here wario uses brute force to charge into them and flip them over. powerups are provided in the form of three hats, a dragon hat (which enables you to shoot fire), a bull hat (increases charge ability and speed), and a jet hat (for flying).

the gameplay, as you’d expect, is tight, and there are several moments of brilliance scattered throughout. there’s also an increased emphasis on exploring, more so than in super mario world (1990) or mario land 2 (1992), which is enjoyable. this game (from 1994) has 15 treasures hidden among its 40 levels which really adds to the gameplay in a way that collecting dinosaur coins in mario world didn’t, along with a handful of second exits. the different endings, dependent on how many coins and treasures you have, do a good job providing additional motivation to not just rush through each level. all of this along with entertaining enemies and graphics and good music make this one worth playing, despite its only mild difficulty. like sml2, wario land was also developed by nintendo’s R&D1. i’ve inadvertently played a lot of their games, so i’m going to have to work my way through the rest of them. and yes i def. have wario land 2 lined up for next year.

la la la, la la la la la links:
- text from the instruction booklet, where you’ll learn the crucial info that up+A jumps will allow you to jump higher
- good walkthrough at IGN
- page at wikipedia
- screenshots of the six endings

mario picrossed

mario’s picross is a somewhat rare game that i’ve been playing for a while. the game is divided into three groups of 64 puzzles (for you folks at home keeping track, that is indeed a total of 192 puzzles), and i was well on my way to finishing the first group when i lost my GBA on a flight through ohio. so if anyone out there found one a few months ago, that was MINE.

anyway, after having to track down another copy of the game, i finally finished the first group and will be taking a break from it for a while. although released in 1995, nowadays the game is most often compared to the now more famous sudoku, although unlike sudoku this game requires a smidge of math. like sudoku, once you figure out the logic behind the puzzles each new puzzle is fairly mindless to complete, but it does provide a good diversion for long plane rides. overall i’d say the game is marginally more entertaining then sudoku: there’s something uniquely fun about uncovering the picture one square at a time, which in this version of the game is nicely set up under the conceit of mario as archeologist, armed with a chisel and working away at a piece of stone.

after several iterations that were not released in the US, nintendo’s picross series has gotten a lot more attention recently with the release of picross DS which apparently includes puzzles from mario’s picross and also has the added features of downloadable content and the ability for you to create your own puzzles to exchange with others. i’m going to be working my way through this original version for a while, but no doubt i’ll wind up with my own copy of the DS version at some point. here’s the link to ign’s review of picross DS if you’re interested.

all in all a solid title and, depending on your need to be an obsessive completist, worth playing as a retro B&W game boy title, otherwise you’re definitely going to be fine skipping to the DS version. there’s a complete FAQ for mario’s picross at IGN, although you prob. won’t need it.