Philosoraptor

Mario Golf is also done. Same thing as Mario Golf; you only get "End" after beating Mario in the Peach's Castle tournament, but you also get credits after winning the Links Club tournament. I feel like shot aiming, especially putting, isn't precise enough. Also, the way the game displays where the ball will go if putted straight is best thought of as a guesstimate; somewhat regularly, putts that should go in based off of the guide missed left or right on straight greens. It also has the "you can't trust that the default aim for putts is actually straight in" mechanic that a lot of old golf games seem to have, too. However, I think that this game is significantly better about aiming than most old golf games, FWIW. Overall, it's a really worthwhile golf experience. All the mechanics and information you need to succeed is here, and the --five-- courses you can play are all fun and impressive, especially Peach's Castle. Of the two games, I think Mario Tennis is the better one, albeit only slightly. I will probably be returning to Mario Golf more, though, because the 1P content is more replayable to me.

It actually says "つんタ モのよ," but it's highly stylized. Rookie mistake. Hmm. I think the biggest difference is the difficulty. However, other games on the list must be beat at certain difficulties or higher, and we could easily apply the same criteria here to make the experience of Nekketsu Koukou Soccer-Bu: World Cup Hen and Nintendo World Cup similar. Luckily, I also own Nintendo World Cup. I played a chunk of a match with each team, and here is what I found: Teams that are better, significantly better, or OP, and make the game easier than Nekketsu Koukou Soccer-Bu: World Cup Hen: Germany Argentina Brazil Italy Spain Mexico USSR Holland Teams that are comparable to the team you have to use in Nekketsu Koukou Soccer-Bu: World Cup Hen: England USA Teams that are worse and make the game harder than Nekketsu Koukou Soccer-Bu: World Cup Hen: Japan Cameroon France So, in the future, I'd recommend requiring that the game be beaten with England, USA, Japan, France, or, for masochists, Cameroon. Since @Bucket beat Nintendo World Cup earlier this year, I'm happy to take the number of points awarded for a second completion.

Mario Tennis is done. You only get "The End" after beating Mario, but you also get credits after winning the tournament. Not a lot to complain about here. The only things I can think of are that the action in general seems a little slow, and only the final opponent of the tournament actually lobbed my character consistently, making serve and volley play a massive hack. I didn't drop a game until the second round of the tournament. It is a very fun game, and I appreciate how much Mario Tennis goodness they shoved into this cart.

I beat the Japanese version of Nintendo World Cup, Nekketsu Koukou Soccer-Bu: World Cup Hen (DMG-NCJ). All the text in this game is in Japanese. There appear to be some differences between the two versions. The biggest difference is that Nintendo World Cup allows you to choose your team, making the game possibly a little harder if you choose the worst team (Cameroon) and significantly easier if you choose a better team. In Nekketsu Koukou Soccer-Bu: World Cup Hen, you can only play as Japan, which is one of the worst teams. The amount of time in each match is also different, with four minute halves in Nintendo World Cup but only two-and-a-half minute halves in Nekketsu Koukou Soccer-Bu: World Cup Hen, making a playthrough a bit over an hour without any losses. Gameplay-wise, it seems like there aren't any noticeable differences. Since you're stuck with Japan in Nekketsu Koukou Soccer-Bu: World Cup Hen, Argentina and Germany, the two best teams and the last two opponents, are brutal. Everyone on those teams are twice as fast as your players, even usually overpowered Kunio, and no amount of knocking them down will get them to stay down. They are relentless in chasing you and the ball down, and they will fire super shots at your goal if they get enough time and close enough. The shorter match length also plays a decent factor here, as ties give you the game over screen in both versions and overcoming deficits against such a punishing AI is difficult. I had to resort to stalling using headers after scoring a goal to beat both of them 1-0. Overall, if you like Nintendo World Cup, this version is just as good.

Pokemon Card GB2: GRdan Sanjou has an English translation. I liked it better that the first game for some of the reasons you outlined, but they're both fantastic. FYI, there is an official free-to-play, online Pokemon TCG game for PC that has a rudimentary story mode to teach you the basics, but then lets you play other humans. It's updated frequently to reflect new card sets and rules. However, I think the oldest cards in the game are HG/SS era cards, which are from early 2010 and later. If you buy physical Pokemon cards, you get a code to get a free pack of the same cards in the game. If you bought a promo box, it also comes with a promo code that allows you to get the promo cards in the game. Pokemon also sometimes sends out codes in official emails. Packs can also be earned in game, and you can trade cards or packs to other players for other cards or packs. I wouldn't say it's perfect, but it's good fun and a cheaper way to play than buying decks of physical cards, typically. I'm not sure if they will ever make a new game as long as this game is up and running.

The Japanese exclusive, Painter Momopie (DMG-PEJ), is done. All of the text in this game is in English. I'm going to start this by saying this is a very, very pricey game. Way too pricey. I usually don't mention price, but since this is both an import game and a "hidden gem" according to some people, I feel like that's something that has to be mentioned. So, to start, I like this game. It's unique. Gameplay is a mixture of Pac-Man and the Wedding Peach game I just played; just like Wedding Peach, the goal is to step on/clean every tile on each floor while avoiding or being chased by enemies Pac-Man style. The major differentiator between Painter Momopie and those other games is that the main character has magic that can speed her up, defeat most enemies, or even allow her to walk through walls, among other things. You have a certain amount of MP each stage and spells also cost certain amounts of MP to cast. You get more spells as you clear more stages. Standard stuff. There are 33 stages in total, but the real number of unique mazes is far less. Most mazes are reused to get a higher stage count. Stages are large for a maze game at around 2x2 GB screens each. A playthrough takes an hour or less, depending on how many continues you need (you're given five), and the game can be difficult if you don't use your magic wisely. There isn't much to complain about in Painter Momopie. I guess not being able to cast spells while moving can be bothersome, and it's not quite as polished as Pac-Man, but it's well executed and controls are responsive. My biggest gripe is the stage repetition, mostly because the game seems stuck between two genres. It's not a pure score attack game like Pac-Man, as there is an ending and the score isn't displayed on the HUD. You have to pause to see the score, and, upon completion or game over, there is no high-score "leaderboard." Additionally, each floor is not unique, unlike Mole Mania or even Wedding Peach, and the whole game is rather short, making it not really a puzzle game either. Edit: I slept on it, and I'd also like to mention that enemy AI and difficulty also doesn't increase as you get further in the game. They don't get new tactics and they don't get faster, they might just spawn a little quicker. So, once you get to stage 15, there aren't really any surprises until the final level. Overall, it's absolutely a good game, but I don't think the experience matches the price it demands. It's not amazing. It's not life changing. But it's certainly better than average and an interesting take on the maze genre.

Ninja Gaiden Shadow is done. This is the first Ninja Gaiden game I've ever beaten. I feel like the movement could be a bit smoother and the bosses could have a couple more patterns, but it's a really good game. Also, another game with another damn elevator. I might avoid platformers to ENSURE I don't see another one for a few days. ...Just looked it up. Natsume developed this game. Apparently this was originally planned to be a GB adaptation of Shadow of the Ninja. I was wondering where all the Nintendo hard enemy placements and bosses were, and I guess that explains why it isn't here. Edit: I've also attempted to beat Kirby's Pinball Land several times over the past month, but I think I'm going to shelve it for the rest of this year. I really don't like it. I've beaten four pinball games this year between the NES and GB threads and played most of the other NES ones, and I think this is my least favorite one. Maybe it's the simple, scrunched play fields with cheap enemy and obstacle placement or that it feels like they couldn't figure out the right ratio between Kirby elements and pinball elements, but it frustrates me to no end. What's worse is HAL knows how to make good pinball games. Revenge of the 'Gator is an absolutely fantastic pinball game. Am disappoint.

I was worried about that. All three FFL games are actually SaGa games in disguise. I'll hope that II and III will be better for you or Koifish. I've been meaning to buy SolarStriker for years and just never got to it. It seems like a pretty good game.

Operation C is done to make it 2 games on 2/22/2022. What's with Konami and elevators? Thanks, Konami, I hate them. This game is just as impressive as Kid Dracula. When Konami gets it right, they really made some of the best games on the console.

2 is my favorite number, so in celebration of Tuesday, 2/22/2022, I beat a childhood favorite, Donkey Kong. Love it. Still love it. I found it easier than I did as a kid, but it's just as fun as I remember.

Kid Dracula is done. I ended up playing my Japanese copy, Akumajou Special: Boku Dracula-Kun, and patching it to the NTSC version because I like English and I'm a cheap-ass sometimes. This game is so great that it stands up to the Famicom version, IMO. I honestly wasn't expecting the FC and GB versions to have so many differences, since the Japanese artwork on the carts is the same. It's mind-blowing that Konami managed to put something like this on the GB and have it run with no slowdown and have no control issues. Absolutely phenomenal.

The Japanese exclusive Ultraman Chou Toushi Gekiden (DMG-QUJ) is done. It is typically in Japanese, but a full translation is available, and it's a pretty good one to boot. I beat it on Normal difficulty. There are also Easy and Hard difficulties. Ultraman is an enigma to me. I have a lot of games with Ultraman in them thanks to the Compati Heroes series of games, but I wouldn't say I'm knowledgeable about the series, characters, or plot. I'm more of a Gundam fan at heart. This game apparently follows a 1993 manga with the same name; there is a training arc, a tournament arc, and a final boss fight all within the 30 minutes it takes to beat the game. I'd liken it to experiencing a sped-up, re-skinned season of DBZ, even though Ultraman is 20 years older. Gameplay is a mish mash of genres. There are 1v1 fights, SHMUP levels, and platforming levels, all of which are executed competently but are pretty basic. Ultraman has a standard punch that can be charged longer for various other attacks, regardless of stage genre. Controls work well and are responsive. The graphics were pretty good, too. Overall, I'd say this is a good game, and a much better entry in the Ultraman series than the abysmal SNES game.

Haha! I don't plan on playing the Legends games this year. I'm not a big traditional RPG guy, especially pre-PS1 era. I'll be curious to hear what you think of them. On that note, what did you think of FF Adventure?

Another Japanese exclusive, Final Reverse (DMG-FIJ) is done. What little text in this game is completely in English. This is an interesting one. I don't know of another game like it. So, it's kind of a SHMUP, but it's also kind of a 1v1 fighting game. Each "fight" has two rounds. The first is a 30-second preliminary round, where you draw a track with your spaceship, adding twists and curves to the line while the opponent does the same. Your spaceship must stay on this line. If you die in this round, you are not penalized, but whatever portion of the line you didn't draw is filled in with a straight line to the other end of the screen. The second is a deathmatch, and you switch lines. So if you were able to draw a bullcrap line, the computer gets stuck with it (and vise versa), like so: Included are 10 ships that either are slow and hit harder or faster and have weaker shots. Maybe there are other variants, but those seem to be the major differences. There are power-ups, but the rounds are so short that they're rarely useful, at least against the computer. The game also has both horizontal and vertical fields of play: There are also four modes included in this game: 1P Mode - Each side gets five different ships. Battles are fought 1v1 on a non-scrolling screen until one side has no more ships left. There are five different levels on this mode, and you get credits for beating any level on this mode. Scroll Mode - Each side gets five different ships, and the stages are slightly larger and scroll (like, maybe 1x2 Game Boy screens worth of scroll). Battles are fought 1v1 until one side has no more ships left. There are five different levels on this mode, and you get credits for beating any level on this mode. 1 VS 1 Mode - Each side gets one ship, and it's a winner-take-all battle. There are five different levels on this mode, and you only get the "wining the championship" screen for beating any level on this mode. 2P 1 VS 1 Mode - I didn't play this but I assume this is probably the most fun mode on the cart, and that's saying something. I assume it works the same as the 1 VS 1 mode. Modes where you get five ships take about ten minutes to complete, and modes where you get one ship take about two minutes to complete. If you manage to kill every enemy in a five-ship mode with your first ship, you get this screen, too: A major caveat, I do love SHMUPS, so my final thoughts on this game may be a bit biased because of that. I love this game. Rarely do we get SHMUPs where you're fighting another player, and this one is way ahead of it's time. I'm not aware of another one until Shippuu Mahou Daisakusen: Kingdom-Grandprix on the Saturn, which came out over six years later. It is rather simple, but charming. The controls are good, the idea is unique, and I ended up beating every level on every 1P mode. With a similarly skilled friend, I bet it would be even more fun. Is it going to stand toe-to-toe with the best on the console? No, because it's a bit lacking for content. But it is at least good if not great. And above all, it's fun.

Another Japanese exclusive, Magic Knight Rayearth 2nd: The Missing Colors (DMG-AR2J), is done. It's also known as "Mahou Kishi Rayearth 2nd: the Missing Colors." This game is only in Japanese, but a "99% complete" translation patch exists. I only came across one untranslated sentence, but it appears some text couldn't fit in space provided in the screens, so there are several truncations and hyphenations. This is a very, very bare-bones, straightforward traditional RPG. How bare bones? There is no item shop in the game and no equipment either. After visiting the only town at the beginning of the game, you visit three dungeons to retrieve the missing colors. You're led straight to the first dungeon from the town. After it's done, you go straight from the first to the second and from the second to the third. No side quests, no shenanigans, no superfluous items, and no grinding. Just boom bam bang done. The whole thing takes about five hours to beat on a first playthrough. Random battles are balanced well, with there not being too many or too few. You get your last spell at level 20, and I arrived at the final boss at level 21 without ever having to grind. Since there are only four locales, the world map is tiny. Maybe 3X3 Game Boy screens big. Dungeon floors are similarly small, with the last and largest maybe being 3X3 screens. So, there's no really getting lost here. Aside from a few standout puzzles, like a Kanji-related puzzle, expect to be mostly pushing blocks, pulling levels, opening doors with keys, and navigating very basic and short mazes to reach your destination. Random battles do not take place in most puzzle areas, which is nice. Enemies and bosses aren't difficult, status effects heal after battle, you have a healer in your party from the get-go, and MP potions drop frequently, meaning that the game can be cruised through. It's very much a beginner-friendly RPG. Battles are standard-fare. Your choices are attack, magic, defend, item, and run. You can press one button to have all your party members perform a basic attack, which expedites most of the menuing you have to do. The writing is fine. I don't know how true the translation is to the original script, but I could definitely see some personality showing here and there that reflected what I saw in Magic Knight Rayearth for the Saturn. You get what you'd expect from a middle-of-the-pack NES RPG. Overall, it's a relaxing RPG that doesn't do anything to differentiate itself, but what it does do is basic, yet solid.

The Japanese exclusive, Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon (DMG-AQJ), is done. Typically, this game is only in Japanese, but a partially completed translation patch exists. Some screens, like the pause screen, aren't translated, and there are a few errors with text overlapping other text. However, the main story text is all translated, and you can play the game from start to finish in mostly English. This is an action game set in several scenes, including around town, in the high school, and in a gym. I haven't seen an episode of Sailor Moon since Toonami aired it, but I recognized several characters and the plot didn't seem too far-fetched from what I remember. Gameplay-wise, you talk to some people, find out something is amiss, and then play a standard sidescrolling bit to get to the boss of each level. There are four levels in the game. Character sprites are huge and take up about half the screen. Enemies can run at you, drop from above, fly over you, or float in and attack you at crap angles. Boss patterns aren't complicated, but can be easy or difficult depending on whether you found the compact in the sidescrolling bit. You can take four hits before you lose it, but as long as you have it, you have a ranged attack. Otherwise, you have to resort to punting everything. This game does have one notable feature; by pressing down on the D-pad and crying, walls in the background break and cause power-ups to appear. They actually have a dedicated button for crying. The game has an annoying habit of eating inputs rather regularly: probably somewhere between 5-10% of inputs didn't seem to register. However, it's not game breaking, and the controls are otherwise responsive enough. It's another game that takes about 30 minutes to an hour, depending on how lost you get when you're searching for NPCs to progress the story. Overall, meh.

The Japanese exclusive Wedding Peach: Jamapii Panic (DMG-AWPJ) is done. This game is entirely in Japanese, and doesn't have a translation. I buy weird games. I can't read Japanese and have never heard of Wedding Peach, but the devs spent a LOT of time on the protagonists' cutscenes, so I can guess that there are three magical girls (a la Sailor Moon) that lost the items that allow them to transform (...also a la Sailor Moon). They also sometimes appear in wedding dresses for some reason. I guess they had to be different from Sailor Moon somehow. So, anyway, you're this thing: And you basically play 10 levels of a Qix-meets Pac-Man maze/puzzle game where you stretch your tail, try to touch as many floor tiles as possible, and then touch your tail again to complete a loop and start a combo/chain. The level ends when you have stepped on and scored each tile in the stage. If you include a floor tile that was previously scored, it breaks your chain, so you want to go for the biggest chain possible at the beginning. There are four respawning enemies in each stage that can chase you, but you also have screen-clearing bombs for some reason. The mazes are less and less open as you progress. After you recover all the lost items, the final level is a "boss fight" against this '90s anime character: I miss the '90s anime art style. The whole game takes about 30-45 minutes to beat, and it's an easy 1cc. Surprisingly, it's well executed, and I wish there were more levels in this game. Sadly, I paid more for After Burst than I did this game, and I'm disappointed in past me because of that. It's actually decent-to-good. I can't recommend going out of your way to import it, but if you end up with a copy, you could do a LOT worse.

The Japanese exclusive, After Burst (DMG-ABA), is done. It is in full English, including this unsatisfying ending screen: Not every robot is created equal. The goal of the game is to destroy a lunar-module-looking thing on every stage aside from the boss stages on 10, 20, and 30. At the end of every fifth stage, you get a password. Your robot is equipped with a loopy-ass jump like in Super Mario Land 2 and a gun that must be charged to shoot. At full power, it shoots straight, but any less than full power results in the bullet falling in front of your robot at various distances, depending on how long it was charged. This is regularly used to take out ground-based targets. You can fire anywhere from parallel to the ground to straight up in the sky, including many angles in between. That's all well and good, but this game has a major problem: unresponsive controls. Quick taps that would otherwise be used to position your robot aren't recognized. Jumps and shots are delayed by about a quarter second. I don't know if this was on purpose to make it feel like you're in a giant, lumbering robot, but they succeeded. It also suffers from inexplicable slowdown. If you have three or more enemies on the screen, or if it's one of the rare levels that is larger than one screen and has to scroll, you get massive amounts of slowdown just by charging your gun. We're talking one second on the in-game timer suddenly takes two levels of bad. I honestly don't know why, either. The screen isn't any busier than your average GB game. Bosses are some of the easiest levels of the game, even the final one. Levels seem half-baked, but were probably that way because of the slowdown. Overall, I'd recommend avoiding After Burst.

The 30 "Going Up" puzzles in Kwirk are done. Interesting game. Definitely a good one. I wish the Going Up mode was longer and delved a bit deeper in the mechanics it establishes, but maybe that's what the "Heading Out" mode is for. I'll have to try it later.

For whatever reason, stages with stacked enemies like 80 were easier for me. Although 80 might be the hardest one. It's the "push these rocks, climb these ladders, and run through this sand in a very, VERY specific pattern" stages, like stage 77, that gave me the most trouble. It's certainly a game worth beating as a milestone! I'll be excited to see you beat it! You bet! I figured you'd be OK with functionally identical or maybe one minor difference like Catrap/Pitman, but Soccer/Football International is a different story. I also figured the longer write-ups for Japanese games might help you or others in the thread determine scoring, completion requirements, or whether they're worth importing/emulating.

Catrap is done. I played the Japanese version, Pitman (DMG-PMA). Aside from stage 60 being slightly larger in Pitman, there are no differences. Pitman is also completely in English. I started Boxxle earlier this year and got about halfway through before I put it down (someone else feel free to beat this). As the stages grew larger, they ended up being a few minutes of figuring out the puzzle and five or more additional minutes of pushing the remaining boxes where they needed to be. You screw up? Start over. You pause? Start over, because bad UI. Ugh. Catrap/Pitman's puzzles are just as good, if not better, and all the levels can be beaten within a minute. It has great controls, a rewind function, a password function, and a level editor that outputs your levels as passwords if you want to share them with friends or revisit them. Overall, it's a great game, and easily in the conversation of best puzzle games on the GB, IMO.

I thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiink Zoop is done. @Splain, I beat levels 1-9, which are all the selectable levels in Level Mode. However, the back of the box says there are 99 levels. I assume that's more of a "level 29 kill screen in Tetris" sort of boast, but let me know if you think I need to do more or if what I've done is sufficient. The highest score in the first screenshot is for levels 1-7, and the third, fourth, and fifth high score cover levels 8 and 9. Other versions don't have new backgrounds after level 10, but all of them look the same on the GB ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. I've owned this since I was a kid, and I've always been indifferent towards it. It doesn't make me mad like Daedalian Opus, but I wouldn't consider it super fun either. Of all the puzzle games out there, it certainly is one of them.

Tetris Attack is done. I played the vs. Com mode in the Japanese version, Yossy no Panepon (DMG-AYLJ) on Normal difficulty. I couldn't find any mention of gameplay differences between Yossy no Panepon and Tetris Attack.

Another Japanese exclusive, the vertically-scrolling SHMUP Taiyou no Yuusha Fighbird GB (DMG-TYJ), is done. Maybe the easiest SHMUP I've ever played. I beat it on the hardest difficulty without dying on my very first attempt. It helps that the game gives you eight hits before you die, all the levels have lots health restoring items, and you quickly get two absolute steamrollers for attacks that are quickly rechargeable. One fires a bunch of bullets forward and covers about half the screen, and the other fires bullets in a fan pattern easily hitting anything on the sides of the screen. With only a couple enemies or a large boss on screen, you can also spam your attack to cause slowdown and make the game even easier.

The Japanese exclusive Battle Dodge Ball (DMG-D6J) is done. Heeeeey! Who doesn't like Gundams, Kamen Rider, Ultraman, and dodgeball? Nobody. That's who. This is the best of the three dodge ball games I've played on the GB. What really wins it is how solid the mechanics are. Minimal flicker and serviceable controls alone make it a better game than the other two, but it also has a good camera and perspective as well. While there isn't a lot of flash to this version, Battle Dodge Ball makes up for it by having variety. All six teams have different courts with different gimmicks, such as low and high gravity, slippery floor, and so on. The main mode also mixes RPG elements; win or lose, you get points to level up your character's attributes (shot, movement speed, defense, jump, power, and special throw). Leveling up your secondary teammate also levels up their dopplegangers around the opposing court. By the end, you have enough points to max out one of your teammates, but the other will be severely underleveled. However, you can't really over-level to beat teams due to good power scaling and the very short window you have to catch an incoming dodgeball. I didn't time it precisely, but we're talking maybe something like five frames. However, it could be a bit more or less than that. Anyway, not a lot of time is the point. So you have to both level up and think up better strategies to win. For example, I ended up moving out of the way of dodgeballs thrown downward at me from a distance to avoid having to catch the ball. There also aren't continues or anything. You just try again. Dodgeball games are short, but to beat the game, you have to beat each team 10 times, which equates to 50 wins. It probably took me 6 hours to beat, including losses. I think any more than that, it would have started to get tedious.