Games in this post:
-Spanky's Quest-
-Thunder Spirits-
-Super Ninja Boy-
-Battle Commander: Hachibushu Shura no Heihou-
-SimEarth: The Living Planet-
-Miracle Piano Teaching System-
Another hiatus... sigh. Anyway we've finally reached the end of 1991, although it's going out with a whimper rather than a bang. There are a couple of pleasant surprises here, but nothing too memorable to end out the year.
Spanky's Quest - I was never more scared to find out what a game was about
Developer: Natsume
Publisher: Natsume
Released:
(JP) 12/27/1991
(US) July, 1992
Spanky's quest... what a horribly named game. You know it's bad when the best you are hoping for is something Little Rascals themed. What the game is actually about is a monkey with a backpack full of sporting goods going up against an army of anthropomorphic fruit. You control the titular monkey through a series of puzzle platforming levels, blowing bubbles and then bouncing them on your head to upgrade them, and then popping them into a variety of balls to take out baddies while looking for keys. Once you've found enough keys you can open the exit to the next level. The premise is as absurd as it sounds, but the gameplay is surprisingly solid. Spanky gives more than a few nods to the classic Bubble Bobble, and the influences are put to good use. The levels have various tricks in them and are satisfying to clear. Bosses are big and it's fun to figure out how to beat them. The power-ups in the game are interesting, although there could be more of them. My only real gripes are that the environments tend to be repetitive, a common issue with games of this type, and there are quite a few unforgiving jumps in the game that seem to be near pixel perfect in completing them. If this was a skill-based platformer it would be fine, but the platforming isn't high on Spanky's priority list. Overall though, Spanky's quest is a pretty good puzzle platformer for it's time, and holds up pretty well since it's in a genre that doesn't rest too much on graphics or flash.
More info, and buying options:
My Grade: B
Worth Playing Today: Yes
Thunder Spirits - Lost in a storm of competition
Developer: Toshiba
Publisher: Seika
Released:
(JP) 12/27/1991
(US) June, 1992
First off, this game doesn't really do anything wrong. Thunder Spirits is a side scrolling shmup that plays it very safe. It doesn't try anything too risky, and ends up getting lost in the shuffle of all the other, better, shooters available at the time. It's got OK graphics, OK enemies, OK weapons, and OK levels. The only thing new it brings to the table is a system where you keep all the weapons you find, only losing the one you were using when your ship blew up. It's a unique idea, but I usually ended up sticking with one weapon rather than trying to use a variety. The only glaring downside is that the sound effects are some of the worst I've heard from the genre up to this point. They definitely don't live up to the Thunder in the name.
More info, and buying options:
My Grade: C
Worth Playing Today: No
Super Ninja Boy - Because teenage ninjas would be too cliche
Developer:
Culture Brain
Publisher:
Culture Brain
Released:
12/28/1991(JP)
April, 1993(US)
Super Ninja boy is a jack of all trades kind of RPG. It does a lot of things decently but nothing really well. The over-world map is big, but there are too many dead ends. The platforming and battles are nicely designed but the controls are too loose. Enemies are colorful but there's not a lot of variety. The game certainly tries to put together a lot of different mechanics though, so it ends up being greater than the sum of its parts. Normal battles are done in a side-scrolling brawler style, while boss fights are done in a traditional turn based RPG screen. New abilities are gained through training course platforming levels. As much as I like traditional JRPGs, I think this game would have been better served as a side-scrolling action RPG similar to Legend of the Mystical Ninja or River City Ransom. The battles are certainly the highlight, with the map exploration feeling tedious and frustrating due to the lack of clear direction.
More info, and buying options:
My Grade: C
Worth Playing Today: No
Battle Commander: Hachibushu Shura no Heihou - They really must have thought America would hate gundam
Developer:
Arc System Works
Publisher: Banpresto
Released:
12/29/1991 (JP)
Battle Commander: Hachibushu Shura no Heihou is a Japanese only strategy game that looks similar to a fire emblem title, only featuring the "Super-Deformed" style Gundam characters. Seems like a lot of early games that didn't make the transition to North America had multi-level deep menu systems so that a guy trying to archive SNES games later would have no way to do anything productive.
More info:
My Grade: N/A
Worth Playing Today: N/A
SimEarth: The Living Planet - Literally watching the grass grow.
Developer: Tomcat
Publisher: FCI (US)
Imagineer (JP)
Released:
12/29/1991(JP)
Feb., 1993(US)
In SimEarth, players are tasked with overseeing the development of an entire planet, rather than just one city. You have just about any option you can think of at your disposal in order to make your planet flourish. You can alter the atmosphere, the terrain, the water cycle, reproductive rate, and other things. The problem is, none of this is accomplished in a fun way. You adjust a bunch of sliders, start changing terrain around, and then you don't have enough energy to do anything. You wait... and wait... and wait... until you can finally do something, and then the waiting begins again. There are different scenarios with individual goals, but the problem is that you really need to complete what's needed with your initial energy reserves, then wait eons of game time and hours of real time to see if it worked. This isn't helped by the bland graphics and music. To be fair, it's a port of a PC game, and probably played better on PC since gamers could then play something on their SNES while waiting for their energy to build up.
More info, and buying options:
My Grade: D
Worth Playing Today: No
Miracle Piano Teaching System - Rock Band before it was cool
Developer:
Software Toolworks
Publisher:
Software Toolworks
Rel: Dec, 1991(US)
Miracle Piano Teaching System was a piano teaching game that came with a keyboard peripheral. There isn't any way to emulate the keyboard, and copies are on the expensive side but do exist. Games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band popularized music games in more modern times, but back in 1991, this was a one-of-a-kind experience. I obviously don't know how well it worked or the depth of content, but I have to give Software Toolworks credit for innovating on what was then a very young console.
More info, and buying options:
My Grade: N/A
Worth Playing Today: If it worked then it would probably work now
