Manual Stimulation: Moguranya (aka Mole Mania, GameBoy)

As you may have guessed from my many "Year of the GameBoy" posts, as well as a good number of my "Nice Package!" write-ups, I now own a lot of Japanese GameBoy games.

For me, a big part of the joy of owning Japanese GameBoy games--complete ones, especially--is being able to flip through their instruction manuals.







Something I've learned while paging through my many Japanese GameBoy game manuals is that the ones Nintendo packed inside its own "silver box" releases are a bit disappointing.

Moguranya's manual, highlighted here, is one example. A few others (which have yet to be featured in "Manual Stimulation" posts but will be soon enough) are GameBoy Donkey Kong and Hoshi no Kirby.

None of these GameBoy manuals are terrible, or even close to it. They're all colorful and feature some nice screenshots and illustrations. Still, they feel ... lacking.







Like, it's hard for me to go from the Bubble Bobble, Burning Paper, Ghostbusters 2, and Snow Bros. Jr. manuals to the ones I just mentioned and think, "yeah, these are an improvement."

The only "silver box" Japanese GameBoy manual I can think of that impresses me the way the above-mentioned booklets do is the one Nintendo produced for Kaeru no Tame ni Kane wa Naru (aka For the Frog the Bell Tolls).

Even it could be better, though--in my opinion, of course.







As for the Moguranya (aka Mole Mania) instruction booklet showcased here, like I said, it's very nice overall. I like the pops of color and cute little design elements (especially the paw-print stamps that accompany each page's header).

The illustrations that are found here and there are lovely, too, of course. Unfortunately, there are only a handful, and a couple of them are re-used.

Taken as a whole, though, it's hard to label Moguranya's manual a dud. I'd find it a lot more impressive, though, if Nintendo's artists and designers had seen fit to fill it with even a few more adorable illustrations.







Thankfully, Moguranya's gameplay more than makes up for its somewhat meh-tastic instruction manual, so I'm not going to beat myself up for buying a complete copy of it anytime soon.

If you'd like to see what this game's outer box and cartridge look like, by the way, you can do so in this post of mine. It also includes a couple of photos of GameBoy Donkey Kong's box and manual.

See also: previous 'Manual Stimulation' posts

If Nintendo put me in charge of a GameBoy Classic Edition, here are the 30 games it would include

Word on the street is Nintendo may be prepping a GameBoy Classic Edition--or "GameBoy mini," as many on the Internet like to call it--to complement its recent NES and SNES plug-and-play consoles.

Given the success the company found with those miniaturized systems, a similarly compact re-envisioning of its first handheld wouldn't exactly be a surprise.

What would be a surprise (or at least it would be to me): if Nintendo filled the memory of this as-of-now-imaginary GameBoy Classic Edition with worthwhile games.

After all, while the NES-inspired product featured a number of veritable classics, it also included some head-scratchers like Pac-Man. More surprising were the titles its omitted, like the first Dragon Quest (or Dragon Warrior, for old folks like me), Duck Tales and Bionic Commando.

Would I do a better job of cramming a GameBoy Classic Edition or GameBoy mini full of must-play games? I'd like to think so.

Admittedly, the brass at Nintendo probably would put the kibosh on a number of the carts I'd push for, but I won't let that keep me from discussing them in this post.

Alleyway--Most people pooh-pooh this "launch window" release as an antiquated bore, but I've always enjoyed it. Plus, even with its issues, I think it would be a perfect pick-up-and-play-when-you-only-have-a-few-spare-minutes title for a product like this.

Amazing Penguin--I have to imagine a lot of folks who owned a GameBoy in the late 1980s and early 1990s aren't aware of this game's existence. That's too bad, as Amazing Penguin's gameplay--equal portions Pac-Man, Pengo and Qix--sets it apart from all the humdrum puzzlers and platformers that flooded store shelves during the system's reign.

Balloon Kid--This Balloon Fight spinoff is a tough cookie and a painfully short experience, but it deserves a spot here due to its unique gameplay (it's a side-scrolling platformer in which its main character is nearly always floating beneath a balloon) and its female protagonist.

Bubble Bobble Part 2--None of Taito's handheld Bubble Bobble titles hold a candle to the arcade original, but that doesn't mean they're all stinkers. Part 2 (Bubble Bobble Junior in Japan) is the best of the bunch by far, with adorable sprites and sprawling stages.

BurgerTime Deluxe--I've long loved the original BurgerTime game, but there's no question it's often brutal. Thankfully, this GameBoy sequel is miles more accessible. It also looks great and features a surprisingly ear-pleasing soundtrack. Bonus: the Japanese BurgerTime Deluxe packaging and instruction manual are splendid, too.

Catrap--Yet another often-overlooked game that really should be played by everyone who comes within a foot of a GameBoy system. Not only are its cat-eared protagonists (you can switch between the girl or boy at the beginning of every stage) cute as can be, but the time-bending, brain-melting, puzzler-platformer action at its core is completely brilliant, too.

Dig Dug--You just know that should a GameBoy Classic Edition ever be made, Nintendo's more likely to include Namco's portable, black-and-white Pac-Man port instead of this one. Which would be a shame, as the puzzle-heavy "New Dig Dug" mode included here (and not found anywhere else) is a breath of fresh air.

Donkey Kong--This may well be the best game ever made for Nintendo's first portable console. If you've never played it, it takes the arcade original's straightforward barrel-jumping action and transforms it into the puzzler-platformer to beat all puzzler-platformers--and that includes the many Mario vs. Donkey Kong titles that followed in this 1994 release's footsteps.

Dr. Mario--Truth be told, I've never been a huge Dr. Mario fan. I know a lot of folks like it, though, so that's why I'm including it here. I also think it's a good counterpoint to the far less flashy Tetris.

Final Fantasy Adventure--It would be easy to give this game's slot to another thanks to the presence of Link's Awakening (see below), but I'd campaign against that tactic for a couple of reasons. For starters, not everyone loves Link or Zelda. Also, Final Fantasy Adventure's ARPG gameplay is different enough from its aforementioned competitor's to be worth a go even if you're a Zelda veteran.

Final Fantasy Legend II--Purists probably would prefer to include the first Final Fantasy Legend title here, but I think its sequel is the better, more interesting, game. Either title should be seen as a welcome addition to this line-up, though, as it's decidedly lacking in traditional RPGs.

Gargoyle's Quest--This was one of my most-cherished cartridges back when I first owned a GameBoy thanks to how it combines exploring an RPG-ish overworld with conquering side-scrolling action stages. And it was among the hardest to let go of when I stupidly sold my system and collection of GameBoy cartridges a number of years after I bought them.

Let's chat about (and check out a few photos of) two great Miyamoto-made GameBoy titles: Mogurānya and Donkey Kong

I know I've filled a lot of posts with words about (and photos of) some of the more obscure additions to the Japanese GameBoy catalog as of late, but I'm also interested in this iconic handheld's more common titles, too.

Two cases in point can be found in this very post.

The first is the once-little-known game known as Mogurānya in Japan and Mole Mania elsewhere.

In case you're among those who've still yet to hear about it, it's a cute little action game that was made by Nintendo EAD--led by the legendary Shigeru Miyamoto--and Pax Softnica, a for-hire development house that also helped produce Balloon Kid, Mother and Mother 2 (aka EarthBound), among other classic titles.

Anyway, I've been meaning to pick up a copy of the Japanese version of this game, which was first released in that region in 1996 and elsewhere the following year, for some time now, but I only got around to it a month ago.

I actually prefer this game's North American box art to the Japanese box art seen in the photo above, but I went with the latter option anyway because, as I'm sure you've guessed, I'm on a bit of a Japanese GameBoy kick at the moment.

The back of Mogurānya's box is even less interesting than its front, if you ask me, although I do like this odd little illustration that's found in its upper-right corner.

The game's cart label, on the other hand, is a completely different story. Just look at that adorable piece of art--how can you not love it?

As for the second "case in point" that I alluded to earlier, Donkey Kong, well, what else can be said about it? After all, most folks consider it a classic, must-have GameBoy title--and, personally, I consider it one of my all-time favorite portable games.

I also consider its box art, above, to be among the cream of the crop when it comes to Nintendo's first handheld system. 

Speaking of which, I've always wondered if this release's official name is GameBoy Donkey Kong. I mean, isn't that kind of what the cover art implies? Or did the designers at Nintendo of Japan just decide to slap a big GameBoy logo above the Donkey Kong logo for some added oomph--even though a smaller version of the same logo appears in the box's upper-right corner?

I didn't snap and share any photos of this game's cartridge, by the way, because the label art's just a cropped version of the cover art.

So, I nabbed a shot of one of the manual's pages instead, as some of them feature a nice mixture of illustrations and sprites, like the example above.

I've always had a soft spot for that ladybug "enemy," by the way. How about you? Do you have any favorite enemies--or other aspects--when it comes to the GameBoy version of Donkey Kong, or even when it comes to the aforementioned Mole Mania?

See also: 'Lucky Monkey? More like lucky me ...'