Those of you who read that write-up probably got the feeling that I'm sort of "on the fence" when it comes to Astro Rabby, which was developed by a company called Cyclone System and published by another known as IGS.
Actually, that's not completely accurate, as I definitely like Astro Rabby more than I hate it. In fact, the only part of this overhead action game is its between-worlds bonus rounds, which are hair-pullingly confounding.
Other than those few misfires, though, Astro Rabby's actually pretty fun--although I'm sure some will find it a bit archaic.
That I mostly enjoy this Jumping Flash-esque effort is a very good thing, of course, as if I didn't, I probably wouldn't own a copy of it--which would be a crying shame, as its outer box (pictured above) is pretty darn great, don't you think?
(Full disclosure: I actually bought Astro Rabby before I played it for even a single moment--and mainly because of its awesome box art.)
The rest of Astro Rabby's packaging is worth noting, too, if you ask me. OK, so its cartridge label (above) is only so-so, but its instruction manual more than makes up for it, as you'll see in a second.
Don't worry, the cover of Astro Rabby's manual isn't its high point--although I personally think its use of dark gray, white and various shades of pink is surprisingly appealing.
Now we're getting somewhere, right? Yes, the back of Astro Rabby's instruction booklet definitely is a looker--or at least the illustration that's featured on it is one.
The inside pages of this manual are no different, with a number of nice drawings included throughout (some of which are highlighted in the "Story" page photo above).
I'll scan the entirety of this sucker soon and share all of them in an upcoming installment of my long-lived "Manual Stimulation" series. In the meantime, though, have any of you played Astro Rabby--even via emulation? If so, what do you think of it?
See also: previous 'Another Year of the GameBoy' posts
