The Super Game Boy came out in 1994 and finally the world of Game Boy was opened up from its black and white monochrome prison, into a world of colour, well kinda. With the Super Game Boy, you were still limited to only 4 different colours on screen at once, still it was better then nothing. So why am I talking about the Super Game Boy when I should be talking about what is the most amazing Game Boy platformer ever made? Well the 2 seem to stick in my mind together. I think that’s because when the Super Game Boy came out, this game was pushed as a killer app for it. At least that’s how I recall it being in issues of NMS. Another thing I recall about this game is that I had no interest in it at all. When I looked at the pictures of it, I scoffed at it for being nothing more then just a portable version of the original arcade Donkey Kong. So I never got the game I had more important things to play like Secret of Mana, Illusion of Time, Ghostbusters 2 and so on. I had no time for some boring old remake of an old game. Man I so want to go back and hit the 12 year old me on the back of the head, I was a stupid kid sometimes.
 


I could review this game in 8 words. This Game is amazing, go buy it now. And that would be that, there isn’t honestly anything else I need to say, its as simple as that. Its an amazing game and everyone needs to play this just to understand why it is. I don’t know why it took me 15 years to finally get around to playing. Maybe it has part to do with the fact that Donkey Kong is not one of my fav Nintendo characters. I was never too big on the Donkey Kong Country games, and I dunno barring the Game & Watch games I had never played a lot of games with the Big Ape. This game got a pretty big spread in NMS when it came out, its not like I didn’t know this game was good, I just didn’t think it was for me (again I was a stupid kid). Fast Forward a few years and I was looking online for information regarding a PC game I had played once called VGA Trek. It was an awesome little Star Trek Sim I had played when I got a PC and I enjoyed it, was trying to find any info on it. I found a Youtube review of it by a guy called Frankomatic, I liked his style so I subscribed to him. And thought nothing of it. A few months later he started doing a Long Play series for Donkey Kong, I watched one and was hooked from there, I had to get the game.
 


I picked the game up a few months back when the Game Boy’s 20th birthday was upon us. From the first moment I put this in my Game Boy I was not able to take it out or put it down. I was transfixed by this little gem of a game. So enough about me and unto the game. The game itself takes the core elements of what made the original Donkey Kong an amazing game and builds upon it. In the original you had only 4 levels to move Mario around in, this time you have over 101 levels spread over 9 different worlds. Each world has its own themes ranging from in the City, on a Mountain, Ice level to even a level set on the outside of a Jumbo Jet (which is amazing). Each new set of stages brings in a new element into the game to make things fresh. The Ice stages as you would assume make things all slippery. The stages on the Jet are awesome in that now you have to deal with wind which moves you around and really makes you think hard about your jumps (think about Tornado Mans stage in Mega Man 9).
 


Each area is broken up into a block of 4 levels at the end of the 4th level you have a quick showdown with DK which will usually see you just trying to reach the top of the screen with Pauline almost in your reach only to have DK grab her and go off to the next level. After every 4 stages you’ll be greeted with a nice little animation that will be introducing a new gameplay element, such as the above mentioned windy stages or a new enemy who will try and impede your progress across the stage such as Donkey Kong Jnr or that you can do a handstand to do a really high jump and so on. As the game goes on it will keep mixing up the various elements making it so each stage feels fresh and new. At the end of every area you have a battle against DK which involves you using the Barrels he hurls at you as a weapon to be thrown back to him after you’ve hit him the required 3 times off he goes with Pauline and the chase continues.
 


The goal to pass each stage is to grab a key located somewhere in the stage and then carry the key to a door on screen that will give you access to the next stage. Once you pick up the key its yours to carry around and you can throw it as a weapon should any of DK’s minions try and stop you. However when you let go of the key you will only have a few seconds to go and pick it up again before it vanishes back to where it came from. This brings about some very interesting puzzles such as ones that require you to throw the key onto a conveyor belt where it will go under some spikes that will kill you if you touch it, so you have to hurry from one side of the screen to the other and grab the key on the other side of the screen before it vanishes. The level design in the game  is without a doubt the best I have seen in any 2d platformer, every level is well thought out and feels unique while not feeling repetitive at all. But its not just all good level design thats makes a good platformer, oh no the controls are incredibly tight and just what you expect from something from the house of Mario. Mario feels like a cross between the way he played in Super Mario Bros 2 and Donkey Kong. Not too stiff but just fluid enough. The game looks amazing on the original Game Boy, but honestly if you want the best effect you need to play it on one of the later Game Boy systems or even the Super Game Boy. Its one of those original Game Boy games that if you plugged into a Super Game Boy it would get colourized, to a degree anyway. Man if only this had gotten a GBC remake, all the more colours to flesh out the game, wow. This is Shigeru Miyamoto at his god damn finest. Donkey Kong on the Game Boy is 2d platforming puzzle solving action at its finest, there is simply put no better game in the genre then this.



Part of me is annoyed I overlooked this when it came out, its an amazing little game. Looking back now I think I would of not picked this up due to maybe paying more attention to Donkey Kong Country and at the time this looked like a step back. But this game holds up a lot more now over its Super Nintendo counter part. Sometimes its good to miss out on the great games when they come out. Had I played this when it came out I don’t think I would have had the joy of discovering it now. And to be honest I don’t think at the age of 12 I would have been ready to play this game, I was not the more calmer gamer I am now days. I needed action and adventure and excitement, I need games like Street Fighter, Zelda, Wolfenstien and so on. But I’m older now and my tastes have matured and I can truly enjoy this game for what it, one of the greatest handheld games ever made. If you’ve not played this game before, check it out, you can pick up a copy rather cheaply on ebay, you will be in for a truly amazing experience. I dunno what I’m gonna do for the next game, maybe something RPG related, oh well see ya next time.

There is no hiding the fact that I'm a Nintendo fanboy. The first ever Non Nintendo video game console I ever owned was an Atari 2600 and I only got that about 5 years ago. Up until getting my 360 earlier this year I never had a new Non Nintendo console or handheld. And in my youth I was a die hard fanboy. I despised the Mega Drive, looked down on the Game Gear, I would refuse to buy game mags that had anything non Nintendo in them. So I've not had a lot of contact with non Nintendo systems, hence I guess why most of the posts in this series are going to be about Game Boy games. But a few weeks back I finally got around to getting my hands on one handheld system I've always wanted, that being the Neo Geo Pocket Color. An amazing little system that even though it seemed to do everything right, just couldn't survive against the juggernaut that was the Game Boy. 



So when I got my NGPC I was aware of a lot of games for it, such as the SNK vs Capcom games, Metal Slug, Fatal Fury and so on. But the first game I had to have was also part of one of my all time fav fighting series, Samurai Shodown! 2. I dunno what it is about the Sam Sho games but I just love them. It’s not like I'm any good at them, still that could go for any fighting game series I guess. So yeah I've always had a fondness for the Sam Sho games, ever since I saw the original in the arcades way back in the early 90's (*sigh* arcades :( ). I played the arcade one a few times I was amazed at the large sprites and stunned by the animation. Plus the fact one of the characters had a dog that he used to attack with was great. So years went by I eventually picked up the SNES version of the game and loved that. Got both 1 & 2 when they came out on the Wii VC loved them. So yeah when I got a Neo Geo Pocket Color it was a very easy choice as to what game to get first.
 


One of the things that amazed when I first got my hands on a NGPC I was immediately impressed by the little clicky d-pad stick, right away I could understand why this system was soo renowned for its 2d fighters. I got Samurai Shodown! 2 thinking it was nothing more then a port of Sam Sho 2 from the arcade albeit simplified for a handheld system, yay for being wrong I guess. The game is more a conversion of Sam Sho 64 Warriors Rage from the arcade and the gameplay was far from simplified.  The game is amazingly deep for a handheld fighter and feels like a full on Sam Sho game that fits right in your pocket. Like most of the Sam Sho games the gameplay is more about getting single strikes in over button mashing (I guess that’s why I suck at them then :P) The controls are fluid and as I said before that damn clicky stick is just designed for fighting games, SNK really knew what they were doing when they made the system.
 


The game looks amazing, granted the colour pallet is abit lacking with most characters only consisting of one shade of colour and then black and white. But the animations are so fluid looking, well ahead of anything I’ve seen on the GBC barring maybe Shantae (do want). The backgrounds however look awesome so rich and full of colour. Music seems a little below par of what the Game Boy was pumping out at the time and sound effects are what you would expect from an 8bit fighting game. However as any fighting game fan knows the main strength of any fighting game comes down to how well the thing plays.
 

 
As I said prior to this the only Sam Sho games I had played were 1 & 2. In those I would usually stick with playing either Galford or Nakoruru main reason being they have their little animal helpers and I just think its awesome being able to have them attack for you. So I chuck in the game into my NGPC and head straight for Nakoruru and then proceed to get my arse kicked by the first guy. Yay for sucking. OK restart head to options and put the difficulty down to easy and still get my arsed handed to me, maybe its time for a different strategy. Looking at the new characters I see one who takes my fancy, that being Rimururu (who I swear I had no idea she was Nakorur’s sister) who after playing around with for a little grew to my liking. Plus she has like Ice powers and that’s just awesome. I wouldn’t say I owned the game with her but I sure as hell did a lot better then with her sister. The controls for the game are amazing. That little clicky stick makes it soo easy to pull off moves and combos, plus it also makes an oh so satisfying sound when ever you move, just like a proper arcade stick. I’d love to say I’ve played a lot of this game as I do love the Sam Sho games, or maybe it’s more that I want to love them just cause I love the setting and the feel. But alas me being me, I get way to frustrated, give up and go play some Fatal Fury cause it’s nice and easy.


 
I think I’m really gonna need to play this a lot to get my head around it, this is an awesome game and I don’t think I’ve given it enough time to give it justice. It just sucks that I’m the kind of gamer who gets frustrated easily and will stop playing if I hit a brick wall and go pick up something else. I guess like the rest of the Samurai Shodown games this is not a game your gonna be able to just pick up and play and be the best player in the world. You need to take your time with it and learn its ins and outs. At this point I would say if you’ve got a Neo Geo Pocket Color and don’t have this game get it, but I’m guessing most people with a Neo Geo Pocket Color have it already so I don’t have to. It’s an awesome game and hopefully later down the road I’ll be able to post more about it and do the game some justice. Anyway that’s it for now next time checking into the Hotel is not only the best 2d platformer on the Game Boy, but maybe the best 2d platformer ever made.
 

For the most part I’ve always enjoyed Star Wars games, I’d be hard pushed to find one that I have played that I didn’t enjoy (well maybe the Rebel Assault games), hell I even loved Shadows of the Empire on N64 which seems to get an unfair amount of hate these days. But there is one Star Wars game that I love more then any of the others (well any of the others that aren’t called X-Wing or Tie Fighter that is) and that game is a little game that came out very early on in the DS’s life a game that I’m sure most people looked over for 2 reasons, 1 being it was a movie tie in and the other being that the game looked like nothing more then a quick and dirty port of the Game Boy Advance game, however in this case that’s not a bad thing, let me explain.

I’m sure a lot of you will recall back when the DS came out a lot of developers did not know what to do with it so what they would do was make a quick port of a GBA game that they had just released and add in a few touch based mini games (for more information see The Urbz, Robotz [god I’m other games with Z at the end] among others), it was stupid and lazy as hell & was not the right way to showcase the DS to the world, for the most part that is, enter Star Wars Episode 3 for the DS. The main game itself was presented as a 2d side scrolling beat ‘em up much in the same vein as say a Turtles in Time (The good one, not that abomination that came out on XBLA a few weeks back). Instead of playing as one of four Pre Adult Mutant Turtles with Ninja powers and weapons, you could play as one of two Young Adult Jedi Masters with Lightsabers and Force Powers, and that my friends alone would be worth the price of entry.

I’d say I’ve played my fair share of 2d brawlers over the years, from Spider-Man & Venom to the aforementioned Turtles in Time on the SNES or some Double Dragon or Battletoads on the Game Boy and of course the amazing Castle Crashers on XBLA. As awesome as all of those games are they still don’t hold a candle to Star Wars Ep 3 on DS, it’s a freaken amazing little brawler. The controls are so tight and you have complete control of your Jedi you can attack in front of you, behind you (which looks amazing as you see your Jedi thrusting his Lightsaber behind him into whatever was sneaking up behind) or you can use your Lightsaber to block oncoming fire and shot it back at whatever was shooting you in the first place. On top of that you also have the Force powers which include things like being able to move enemies around, stun them, choke them and so on. And the game is by no means a short one; you have 2 choices of characters being Anakin and Obi Wan each with 9 levels that branch of into their own distinct levels ultimately leading to a final showdown between the 2 ala the movie. The game more or less stays true to the movie albeit the usual liberties most movie based games take (oh the end of level boss is a giant Droid Tank). The main mission is the same on the DS and GBA, just as amazing on each, however it was the addition of one awesome feature that really made the DS game oh so much more then just a GBA port.

As I said at the begging barring the amazing X-Wing games this is my fav Star Wars game. There is just something about Space flight sims set in the Star Wars Universe I love. Be it the Rogue Squadron games, X-Wing games, hell even the short levels in the old 8bit/16bit Star Wars games that put you in the cockpit and shot down a few Ties I loved. So guess how over the moon I was when I heard that this game on DS would have a full Space Flight battle mode somewhat reminiscent of the Rogue Squadron games. Hell not just somewhat reminiscent, if they had made Rogue Squadron for the DS, this is exactly what it would of looked like. They could of gone down the road Star Fox had gone down a year or so later and had the touch screen do all the control as you’d think flying would require a hell of a lot more precise controls then what a D-Pad and a few face buttons could offer but you, thank god they did not. It controls like magic and feels just right and if you get the controls right everything else will fall into place. When I first saw the screen shots of the Flight mode, I was not impressed and to be honest they look like ass, but my god when you see them in motion your jaw will just drop, soo fluid, so smooth, it was just looked well damn.

It’s a shame they did not build the whole game around this. You can tell it’s only really been added in to make this something more for the DS over the GBA version. That doesn’t make it bad or half arsed though. You’re getting a full experience with this. When you select multiplayer mode you can either do WiFi play or Skirmish (no online play alas). Skirmish is fun but it’s just playing against bots still that can keep you busy for hours. Multiplayer is single card play which meant I had to get a friend of mine to pick up a copy of the game so we could duel it out. When I got this game, the DS had only been out a few months and a friend and I were really looking forward to the system, every time a new game with Multiplayer would come out, we’d get it and just spend ages playing together. The amount of time we poured into playing this and Polarium against each other in those early days was awesome. It got to a point were we would do 10 min dog fights and not even get a single kill on each other, man we loved playing this game against each other. It’s a real shame that there was no WiFi connection when this came out, man I think that even to this day I would be playing people online with it if I could. Why no one has gone back to this and made a fully fledged game out of it with online play is well beyond me.

I guess this game was very lucky that it came out very early on in the DS’s lifespan. It would have been in the first 2 or so months of the systems launch down here and there wasn’t a hell of a lot else to get for it. I was just hungry for new games to get so I would get any I could. Had this come out 6 months later I would not of picked up, it’s a rather under the radar game and I guess most people didn’t even give it a look in due to it being a movie tie in. But I’m glad I did, its still to this day one of my fav games on the system. Heck I still chuck it in from time and again trying to beat Anakins mode on Master difficulty (I’ll beat you yet Mace Windu). I will still remember those times when my friend and myself would just spend hours playing multi against each other, locked in epic dog fights and ending in a draw after 10 mins of trying to out fly each other. I’ll agree that this is not a game that really shows off the DS’s potential, but at the time that’s not what I needed, I had Pac Pix, Polarium and Wario Ware, this was a good and fun game and sometimes that’s all you need. If you see this around lying unwanted and unloved in some bargain bin, pick it up, give it a look, I can assure you, you won’t be disappointed.

Pictures Source:IGN

 
You know how there are those games you love a hell of a lot but are just baffled when you see people hating on them or are surprised that a game is just not getting the love it deserves. And no I’m not talking about the Okami’s, Pyshconauts or Beyond Good & Evils of the world. I mean the other games, the ones you love but it seems no one else in the world seems to. That’s what I’m like with this game, Godzilla Destroy All Monster Melee..

I’m abit of a Godzilla nut, true I haven’t seen all of his films but for the most part the ones I’ve seen I’ve loved plus I have several Godzilla plushies guarding my video game horde from all oncomers. Its only been in the last few years that’s I’ve gotten into the G-Man. Up until the early 2000’s the only Godzilla film I’d seen was that abomination that was made in the US (though I do recall liking the cartoon series it spawned). In Australia we have a multi-culture TV station called SBS, it used to be the channel that would show all the random Japanese movies like Weatherwoman, The Killer Condom, Guitar Wolf, Gamera and Godzilla as well as your frenchie artsy crap (well its not all crap, City of Lost Children is amazing). Anyway I was up late one night and low and behold what movie was showing but Godzilla vs MechaGodzilla, I was hooked and then saw that next week they were showing Godzilla vs Destroyah and from there I was hooked on Godzilla.

Fast forward a year or 2 later, I’d just gotten my Gamecube and some friends were coming over to crash at my place after a Warhammer tourney, we stopped by the local video store to pick up some DVDs and I spied sitting in the rental area for Cube games Godzilla Destroy All Monster Melee. Yeah I had to get that out for the night. Instead of getting a good night sleep getting us ready for the next day of Warhammer action we stayed up just playing Godzilla. I’ll be the first to admit this game is kinda stupid, but its soo stupid its awesome. The whole idea of the game is to choose one of  12 monsters and start duking it out across a sprawling city. You’ll have buildings to destroy or just pick up and hurl at the other monsters. Add in the fact that this game is up to 4 players and absolute bedlam can ensure sometimes.

I’ll admit its not the greatest game in the world. There is a lot wrong with it, the controls are kinda sluggish, walking around the city can be a pain sometimes cause your trapped behind a building or one of those stupid little tanks will freeze you. But my lord there is nothing more fun then picking up a building and hurling it at another monster just as he is about to give you a face full of atomic breath. Oh how about playing as Rhodan and picking up your rival monster and then spinning them around several times before throwing them to the other side of the arena. Or how about the fact that one of the power ups in the game calls in an Air strike, but no its not some sort of aircraft doing the attacking, its god damn freaken Mothra, that my friends is awesome. And its just made all the more better when playing with friends.

It kinda annoys me I've not had a chance to play the follow up games, Godzilla Saves the Earth never made its way to Gamecube and the stuff I've heard about Unleashed don't make me too interested in the game. Then again I heard a lot of bad stuff about this game so who knows it may be worth a look in. Next to the likes of Smash Bros Melee and Soul Calibur 2 this is one of my fav fighting games on the Game Cube. Sure its not the best fighting game in the world, its broken as all hell and no way are the characters balanced but I still love it. Its over the top, its ridiculous and its just simply put amazing. Granted I very much doubt I would see this on anyones top 10 list, but that still doesn't stop it from being an amazing game. If you've got a Wii and a few Gamecube controllers check it out, invite some friends over, turn your brains off for the evening and just have some fun.

Go my army, attack

I’m not a huge fan of the GTA games, up until the amazing GTA Chinatown Wars on DS the only other one I had really played was the first one on PC which I thought that was a fantastic little game, so much fun just mucking around smashing into cars and so on. Just due to not really having that good of a PC or a Playstation I never really kept up with the series until the recent GTA Chinatown Wars. So I guess I’m not the worlds foremost expert on all things GTA but as I said I did really enjoy the first one and maybe that’s why I enjoyed the DS one so much due to it being a return to the series roots. Chinatown Wars was not the first portable GTA , that honor goes to GTA on the Game Boy Color.
 


I was really really looking forward to this game, yay for high expectations being crushed. Honestly out of all the games I’ve got on Game Boy this would def have to be up there as the one I hate the most. As I said I really enjoyed the first game on PC, it was an amazingly fun a new title unlike anything I had played at that stage. The Game Boy version while it looks like they were trying to do the right thing and just give us the same experience as the PC they have fallen way way short. The game is pretty much a complete port of the PC experience and in that lies the problem. Instead of trying to custom make the game for the Game Boy they've just crammed the whole of Liberty City from the PC original into the game which sounds awesome, what sucks is the fact that the city is almost deserted. I swear I’ve gone for 5 mins sometimes walking around just trying to find a car to steal so I can drive around city. I think its great that they managed to bring the full cities into the game and its an amazing effort on Rockstars behalf. But just because you can do something doesn't mean you should.



The key with bringing any game from the console or PC to a handheld system is that you need to play to the systems strengths. Its kind of the same problem a lot of developers faced when the PSP came out. Hell even when the DS came out Nintendo did it with Super Mario 64 DS, sure Super Mario 64 was and is an amazing game, but its not suited to the handheld format that well unlike say New Super Mario Bros. With GTA what they should of done is instead of giving us the full city to play around in is maybe make things smaller, divide the city up into small chunks. With a smaller city you can have the same amount of stuff going on in the game world but as there is less space for it all to be happening in the world seems busier with more people and cars around and not looking like the city has been deserted. Hell even when you get your wanted rating up you can still drive around for a few mins without even seeing a police car. And half the fun of GTA games and I guess most sandbox games is just mucking around and try to cause as much mayhem as possible, not really possible in this game when it takes forever just to find a car to steal or people to kill.



Despite the lack of a people and cars in the game its pretty faithful to the original, all the missions are there, Liberty City is just like they are in the original so if you know the maps you'll know where to go and how to get there. The graphics are nice and it does look good. Music flat out sucks, if anyone ever whines about the music in Chinatown Wars being bad, I dare you to play this without ripping off your ears. Thats the one good thing about it being soo hard to find a car is that you can set it so the music on plays when your driving around. As soon as you get in a car be prepared to listen to some awful tune just play over and over and over again. At least each car has its own music unfortunately they all suck just as much. Controls aren't that great either. A button moves you forward be it on foot or in a car. I can understand that being the case while driving around, but its just retarded when your on foot. And yes I know it was the same for movement in the original PC version. Stealing cars is annoying as well in that to do so when you finally find a car you need to walk up to it, and then press A & Select at the same time. Sometimes you'll get the car, sometimes you'll just stand in front of it look like a twat. All up the controls feel clunky and outdated.



Its a shame that this game seems to have fallen well short. Its a great effort on Rockstars behalf that they managed to do what they did with the game and that is to cram all of Liberty City almost tile for tile into the a Game Boy cart. But its just not worth the cost of the game world being almost barren of life. I would of rather had a small world with lots going on over a large game world with very little happening. Thats just me though. I was really disappointed when I got this game, as I said I was really looking forward to it as I loved the original on PC and the idea of playing a GTA game on the go just made me so happy, its just a shame I had to wait 10 years until the amazing GTA Chinatown Wars for my dreams to finally come true. Oh well enough of that, next week time for something finally Non Game Boy, so I'll see you then, peace out.

In my early years as a gamer I was not into SHMUPs at all, its not that I did not like them, its just they did not interest me. The only ones I can remember playing was Xenon II on Game Boy (more on that later), Apadyia on my Nan's Amiga (awesome little SHMUP btw) & Parodius on the SNES and that was god damn awesome (I heart Parodius). It wasn't really until this gen that I started getting into them when I decided to get myself a Hori stick for my Wii. I don't know why I got myself a Hori stick for my Wii, at the time I didn't have any fighters unlike now where I've got heaps thanks to the Virtual Console and Tatsunoko vs Capcom, Anyway so I have this thing and I think well I had better use it and for some reason it just seems right in my mind to be playing SHMUPs with a stick so I got a few off the VC and from there my interest was piqued. I stumbled across SHMUPS.com while I was looking for new SHMUPs to check out. Had a look in their review section and found a little game called Aerostar for the Game Boy. I was in an ebaying Game Boy games mode so I tracked it down and picked it up.




Aerostar is an interesting little SHMUP, quiet unlike any I’ve played before. As in many SHMUPs you play a little ship taking on the whole might of whomever you are fighting against, nothing ground breaking there. What it does that’s different is in the way you move around the screen. See with most aircraft in SHMUPs you have full movement of the screen, not in Aerostarr. No in Aerostarr it seems when they built your little star fighter they forgot to make it actually you know fly. It seems you can only move along the road, maybe your trying to build up speed to take off but just can’t get enough, I dunno. You can “Jump” your little ship up so you can land on other parts of the road, its also good for dodging oncoming ships but other then that your limited to the road.



I guess being stuck on a certain path in a SHMUP is not a big deal, I mean Dino Riki did it on the NES, the main difference is that it made sense in that game, you’re a little caveman dude hurling bones at oncoming enemies. But in Aerostar, you’re a Starship it makes no sense at all for you to be stuck on the road. Still as stupid as that game mechanic is, it does make for a rather fun little game that sets it out from the pack. It means you have less room to move in and can get yourself in trouble rather easily if you dodge in the wrong direction. Also in some of the later levels jump from platform to platform becomes tricky as the road becomes smaller and you have stuff flying at your from all sides. Other then that little twist most of the game plays out as you would expect a SHMUP to play, one little ship vs hordes of oncoming foes, a range of power up of which the spread is the most useful (when is it not) screen filling end of level bosses, bullets flying everywhere what more could you want in a SHMUP.



Overall, this isn't a bad little game. It controls well, the graphics are what you would expect of a 1991 Game Boy game, there is a little slow down when too much is going on, but I wouldn't have a SHMUP any other way, the music is awesome (I'm really starting to love these Game Boy tunes as of late) I wish I had of played this when I was younger, its a good little game, nothing overly special about it, but its not like it does anything wrong and I certainly got a kick out of playing it now. Since I got this I've gotten a lot more into SHMUPs with stuff like Ikaruga, more Parodius games (Gokujyou Parodius is like my fav SHMUP of all time right now), Space Invaders Extreme and so on. I wouldn't say I'm a SHMUP nut but its a genre I've come to enjoy and if you enjoy good SHMUPs, I say check this little gem out, you won't be disappointed. Next week its time to have a look at one of the worlds largest gaming franchises making its Game Boy debut, see you then.