Turtles, and hamsters, and gators. Oh, my!
There were three Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles games for the Game Boy, and while each were generally side scrolling beat-‘em-ups, they had significant differences. The first was flat 2D, the second added more depth, and the third featured Metroid elements. It is the second game in particular that I’d like to see come to Virtual Console. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Back from the Sewers, like all of the other TMNT brawlers of the era, was developed by Konami. TMNT was very popular in the early ‘90s, but the games were well made, not just cash-ins.
In the game, you could choose from any of the four turtles, Michaelangelo, Leonardo, Donatello, and Raphael, each wielding their own weapons, which had different range abilities. At the end of each stage, you could switch turtles. Rather than dying when defeated, the turtles are captured, and the end of each world provides a chance to save one of them (or a pizza-eating bonus stage if all are free). Due to this setup, life meters are not refilled at the end of each stage, so a bit of strategy is needed to keep the turtles alive.
In TMNT II, the turtles traversed a variety of levels from sewers and cityscapes to airships and the Technodrome. The series’ standard villains, Bebop and Rocksteady, Baxter Stockman, General Traag, and of course, Shredder and Krang, all made an appearance. Additionally, there were several more interesting gameplay areas aside from the beat-‘em-up landscape, including skateboarding.
Back from the Sewers was a significant improvement over the game released just the previous year. One of the coolest features was that the game included voice samples, which seemed amazing given the technology of the time. I played "Cowabunga" and "Pizza Time" on the sound test screen over and over. The music in general, such as the track based on the TV show’s theme, was well done and full of melody and percussion. The graphics were arguably better than its NES counterparts.
Unlike most franchises, Kirby got his start on the Game Boy. Besides the Dream Land games, Kirby saw a number of spin-off releases on the handheld – Kirby’s Pinball Land, Kirby’s Blockball, Kirby’s Star Stacker, and Kirby’s Tilt ‘n Tumble. I’d love to see all of these games return, and the last one could even be suited for Virtual Console thanks to the motion sensors built into the 3DS, but the game I’d like to see return most is Kirby’s Star Stacker.
Star Stacker is a falling block puzzle game featuring 2 x 1 blocks made up of stars and Kirby’s animal buddies from Dream Land 2. In Star Stacker, players must match the animal buddies either vertically or horizontally to clear them. Any star blocks that come in between the animals will also be destroyed. This mechanic can be used creatively to trigger long chains of destruction. Meanwhile, blocks rise from the ground as in Puzzle League. It’s a simple game that gets intense in later levels, once stone blocks and bombs are introduced.
Star Stacker also featured simple, but catchy tunes that can lodge themselves in your head. As any good action puzzle game, a two-player mode is included; hopefully, Virtual Console will support that feature.
The Game Boy had many good action puzzle games, but further development of Star Stacker, so far, has been spurned in favor of repeated re-releases of Dr. Mario. There was a Super Famicom version of Star Stacker, but so far, it hasn’t made it out of Japan, in either cartridge or Virtual Console form.
Finally, I’d like to see Revenge of the Gator return. Coming from HAL Laboratory years before Kirby was created, near the launch of the Game Boy, Revenge of the Gator is a comical pinball game. From the very beginning, you can see it’s a bit out of the ordinary, with the reptiles coming on stage in a Vaudeville performance. Every aspect of the game is dominated by these wide-eyed gators, and players must do everything they can to keep their balls from falling down into the big gator’s mouth.
The stages are a bit simple by today’s standards, and the main stage is highly reminiscent of Pinball for the NES, but it paved the way for later games such as Kirby’s Pinball Land. Despite being an early title, it’s still an engaging experience. There are several levels situated above the main stage and there are a number of bonus areas that feature slightly altered gameplay, such as block busting levels, a stage where you feed a gator fish, and winged gator hatcheries. There was even a competitive two-player mode that I never had a chance to try.