20 Game Boy games in 20 Days* Day 14

*days may or may not be concurrent

Pinball, it almost seems to be a relic of another times these days. I didn't play a lot of Pinball when I was younger, a few cabinets stick out fondly in my memory such as the Doctor Who one (which I would kill someone for, want that thing soooo much) and a few others that were hanging around at the movie theater for me to play. So yeah my experience with Pinball cabinets is rather limited, so I guess most of my experience with all things pinball related would have to come from the video game world. And when I think of Pinball games, one game comes to my mind first and foremost.



One of the most awesome about HAL games is that they always seem to have a certain degree of charm. Take a look back at Ghostbusters II from Day 2, they could of just made another bland game based off the Ghostbusters license like most of the Ghostbusters games that came before it. But no they added their own little flair and made a fun little game out of it. Same with Revenge of the Gator, they could of just made another boring old Pinball game and I probably wouldn't of blamed them, it was the first year of the Game Boy and I don't think you could of expected that much. But no instead of giving us just a bare bones Pinball game they gave us this game that is just oozing in the usual charm that HAL brings to their games.



Its funny playing this now, cause I swear I played the hell out of it when I was younger, but I'm still discovering secret tables and screens I never remember seeing. Then again maybe cause I'm getting older its just old age setting in and I don't remember stuff good anymore. As you start the game you do have access to all the screens its just getting to them. Some of them you need to go through a gator who is opening its mouth hit a door on the next screen and then land in a hole to get to the next. End of the day this is just a really good handheld pinball game wrapped up in an awesome Alligator skin. The gators don't really add or subtract from the gameplay, but they are a nice little addition that add that little bit of polish you find in most HAL games. The gameplay for the most part I guess is you standard Pinball play. Right flipper & left flipper, thats it. No Bumping in this game but its not something you notice. I don't know how spot on the pinball physics are and I don't really care, its a fun game and just works soo well on the Game Boy.



Special props really do need to go out to the music in the game, its really well done and catchy sounding. Funny story with the music, when I was in high school had to do a project in Music class (or was it English, I dunno) had to make a mock Radio program. Myself being the video game geek I am did a video game show. All it was, was just me more or less reading articles from the current issue of NMS I think with me adding bits and pieces here and there. What I did so I could have background music was I had Revenge of the Gators intro screen music playing in the background from the Game Boy. Man what I would give to still have a copy of that tape, would be soo awesome listening to now. The music in the game is frighteningly catchy, can still hum the main theme to this day.



I really wish I could go on about how good the game is, but at the end of the day all I really want to say is this game is freaken awesome and a must play for any fan of the Game Boy. I’m sure this game got a lots of love back in the day and it rightly deserves it. Next to Tetris I would have to say this is easily one of the best titles that came out for the Game Boy in its launch year. One can only hope HAL might decide to grace us with a remake on DSiWare or something sooner or later, its been too long since the Gators have had their Revenge.