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#1: Legend of Zelda (NES)
#2: Super Mario (And Wario) Land (GB)
#3: Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest (NES)

Curious about what this is? Here’s the explainer!

What’s the game this month?




As picked by you, the players! From Sunsoft, the makers of games like Blaster Master, Porky Pig's Haunted Holiday, and more importantly to this game, Gimmick!
I don't know much about this game either. While it isn't a port of Gimmick it looks sort of similar? Definitely the same type of cute character designs. It's a platformer and you can change into other guys. Hopefully there's no BLACK HOLE.


I wanted an excuse to post BLACK HOLE.

Just beat the game! It's pretty short, only about 20-40 minutes long (so nowhere near as big a commitment as Castlevania lol). It's pretty cute! I really like the soundtrack; it was made by a whole studio and three other people, and coded by two others and it shows! Bangers all around. The gameplay is pretty fun too; while I haven't played Gimmick! I've heard it's pretty similar to that. It reminded me a lot of Kirby, with the protagonist and the powerups and whatnot (I liked that you could turn into stuff on the fly, that was pretty interesting! Though I didn't use either of the readily available ones too much admittedly). A lot of the bosses were pretty easy, although one was a bit weird with how to beat it (it's in world 3), though just messing around a bit helped me find what I needed to do.
Also if you're having trouble on the final boss (since it is kind of tough!) I found a pretty easy method to beat it: I probably missed some stuff if Gimmick! is anything to consider in terms of the levels lol. Also I wish this game was a little bit longer, there's some fun ideas that they could have explored but didn't end up exploring. Overall though, for the most part, a very cute and interesting game!
(Also not sure if the Japanese version has any differences but I might end up playing that one too, considering how short the game is)

Also be warned level 2 has some uh. kind of racist stuff in the beginning of it

Played the entirety of the game this evening. Really short, but still took me around 1.5 hours even with abusing save states.

Very very cute game, but there just isn't much to it. The enemies are mostly ignore-able, which is fine, but makes the game sort of dull in my opinion. The fish transform is useful in exactly one world for any significant amount of time and otherwise not needed, and I could literally not find a practical way to use the helicopter transform. The power up transforms are on a time limit, and it's pretty short. You have to run to try to bring them to boss rooms or useful screens.

Some of the boss fights are just mean, especially for a game that almost refuses to challenge you before them. I could find no way to beat two of them without using cheesy tactics. This is probably a skill issue, I admit I'm not very good at these games in general, but with no continues it's pretty harsh to get reset to the beginning and have to go through every world again just to get back to where you were. I don't know if there are extra lives in this game, I didn't find any. Having extra lives you could pick up to avoid a game over would make the bosses feel less out of place in a game that otherwise feels easy breezy.

The entire appeal of this game to me is in the design and music. The music is fun, the characters are adorable, the opening cut scene and ending cut scene are nice. Loved the kitty cats but that's my highest praise for this game.

I was pretty excited to play this game, was one of those games i think i saw at a GDQ or something and was like "oh that's cool" and then immediately forgot about it for however many years.

honestly, with how short it is and how it's pretty easy to get into, i 100% recommend playing it just like when you have some downtime and want to play a little thing. it's got a lot of stuff crammed into it, great music, awesome backgrounds, controls well, cool enemies (seconding the kinda racism warning from VentusVulture about the start of world 2).

i used save states a bit in my playthrough, vast majority of them at the end fight, it is kinda tricky. the rest of the game is pretty light although a couple other bosses might need them too.

some more specific observations in the spoiler:

Well this was certainly a video game, I guess. It was a good way to spend 20-something minutes with nothing really better to do, if I had to say something. Only real complaints are that there doesn't seem to be a way to gain lives, and if you get a Game Over it will start you back at the beginning which is super-duper annoying. Besides that, not much to say here. Not bad. FINAL SCORE:
3/5 Dodo Points
At least it wasn't "Castlevania 2."

https://www.gematsu.com/2023/04/trip-wo ... -boy-color



We definitely had EVERYTHING to do with this.

forgot to take screen-shots but this game was a fun one! I sucked at the boss fights but it was very charming and I'll take any excuse to play a sun soft game.

Two things!

First, unlike Castlevania 2 I will probably actually beat this one! Later than I would have liked, but oh well.

Second! No poll this month! But it's for a very special reason! Next month is...

MEGA MAN MAY



Next month is FREAK'S CHOICE, of any NES and/or Game Boy Mega Man game! However many you like!

LETS FUCKING GO