Manual Stimulation: Gunpey (WonderSwan)

Considering how much I usually love portable puzzle games, I am disappointingly inexperienced with and uneducated about Gunpey.

On the one hand, I can understand it. Gunpey isn't the most interesting looking puzzler around--despite being one that's played with the WonderSwan turned sideways, in so-called "portrait mode."

On the other hand, I can't understand it, as the game was made by the esteemed Gunpei Yokoi.





Not that he made it himself, of course. He made it with a number of former Nintendo colleagues who helped him start a company called Koto.

At any rate, their maiden release hit Japanese store shelves alongside the original WonderSwan model on March 4, 1999.





Unfortunately, Gunpey's status as an early WonderSwan release is reflected in its rather ho-hum instruction manual, scans of which can be seen throughout this post.

This manual also reflects what I said earlier about Gunpey being far from an eye-popping puzzle game.

How so? Well, most of the acreage here is covered in text. The rest is covered in black-and-white screenshots. A pop of color can be seen now and then, but that's about it.





Which is strange, as Gunpey stars a small handful of mascot-y characters that could've livened things up a little--or a lot.

Instead, the designers who worked on the Gunpey manual ignored them almost completely.

Oh, well. At least a number of screenshots included here showcase them. (Click on and zoom in on the scans immediately above and below to see what I mean.)





What else is there to say about the Gunpey instruction booklet? Not much, if you ask me.

A bit more can be said about Gunpey the game, though. For example, although it began life on the WonderSwan, it eventually made its way to the WonderSwan Color, the original PlayStation, the PlayStation Portable, and the Nintendo DS as well.

Also, a few months after the original iteration released, a version featuring San-X's Tarepanda character released for the WonderSwan, too.





Finally, some of you might like to hear how Gunpey is played. The gist: you move line fragments vertically along a grid in order to create a single horizontal line that stretches from the left edge of the WonderSwan screen to its right edge.

Like I said earlier, hardly the most thrilling of premises for a puzzle game.

Still, my limited time with it has been enjoyable enough, so if you have a WonderSwan and you're itching to play a puzzler on it, you could do worse than pick up a copy of Gunpey.

See also: 'Manual Stimulation' posts about other WonderSwan games, including Crazy Climber, Lode Runner, and Engacho!

My favorite games of 2018: Black Bird (Switch) and Sushi Striker (3DS)

I know what at least a few of you are thinking right now: you put more than 100 hours into Octopath Traveler and published numerous posts about it, but didn't pick it as your favorite game of 2018?

Nope, I didn't.

Which isn't to suggest I disliked Octopath Traveler. On the contrary, I loved it. Sure, a few aspects annoyed me here and there, but those flaws did little to keep me from thoroughly enjoying its sprawling adventure. (Read my write-up, "10 things I adore about Octopath Traveler," for more on that particular subject.)

As much as that SaGa-esque RPG delighted me, though, it wasn't one of my two favorite games of this year. That honor belongs to Black Bird for Switch and Sushi Striker for the 3DS.

What's so special about this pair of titles? Here are a few thoughts:

Fabulous Black Bird fan art by @croppar

Black Bird

This Onion Games release doesn't provide the most appealing of first impressions. Before you've actually played it, it looks like little more than a "dark" Fantasy Zone rip-off that costs $20. Thankfully, Black Bird is far more than a simple clone of Sega's classic looped-level shoot 'em up.

First, there are the bullet-hell elements. These are most obvious during the game's four boss fights, but they're woven into the stages that precede them, too.

Illustration counting down to Black Bird's release,
by @momenko774

Also, there's its score-attack focus. In other words, the point while playing Black Bird isn't to finish its small handful of levels. Rather, the point is to improve your high score and climb the worldwide leaderboard.

To accomplish that, you have to wrap your head around and come to grips the game's many systems--bombs, combos, collectible gems, and more.

Finally, there's Black Bird's soundtrack. It deserves all the praise that can be heaped upon it simply for being so sonically impressive and interesting. (One minute it's marvelously vaudevillian, the other it's otherworldly operatic à la "that scene" in The Fifth Element.) That's not all it brings to the table, though. In addition, it times the introduction of most enemies to the backing tunes in a way that's reminiscent of--if not as interactive as--ASCII's Otocky for the Famicom.

Curious to learn more about why I love Black Bird so much? Check out this post of mine. Also, if you need some help conquering this curious shmup, scroll through my "10 Black Bird tips, tricks, and tactics" write-up. And maybe this one, too: "How to beat Black Bird's final boss in 'True' mode"

Sushi Striker's protagonists, by @meshi3

Sushi Striker

I guess you could say it took me a while to warm up to this indieszero-developed title.

Actually, I was gaga over it after Nintendo unveiled it during E3 2017. After playing the demo the company made available via the Switch eShop early this year, though, my interest in Sushi Striker nearly fell off a cliff. It felt far too frantic for my liking. And it seemed to lack the kind of surprising depth and strategy I usually look for in puzzlers.

Still, I wanted to support its release, so I kept my pre-order for the physical 3DS version of the game.

After putting a couple of hours into the cartridge that made its way to my doorstep in mid-June, I was glad I did. For starters, the final product quickly proved to be a lot less superficial and straightforward than the demo suggested would be the case.

Celia, possibly my favorite Sushi Striker character,
by @carmeladansen

Also, a few of the components I wasn't sure about while playing the demo's three measly stages--the characters, the cutscenes, and the soundtrack being prime examples--displayed their true, eye-popping colors in Sushi Striker's full form.

To learn more about this game's many positive attributes, read my post, "Five reasons I've fallen head over heels in love with Nintendo's Sushi Striker."

Not in a reading mood? Maybe this'll sway you to at least consider picking up a copy of Sushi Striker sometime soon: I devoted more than 51 hours to the 3DS iteration before tearing myself away from it. (And after finishing its lengthy story mode.)

Oh, and I enjoyed the experience so much I bought it for my Switch, too.

So there you have it: my absolute favorite games of 2018. That's not to say I hated every other title I played this year. In fact, I liked a handful of them nearly as much as this pair. Which ones am I talking about here? I'll spill the beans in my next write-up.

In the meantime, what were your favorite games of 2018? Tell me all about them in the comments section below.

Five things I don't love about Sushi Striker

If you read my last post, you know what I love about Sushi Striker.

As much as I adore this recently released 3DS and Switch game, though, it's not perfect.

In fact, a handful of its components could be called honest-to-goodness turn-offs. They're not so terrible you should pass on the game, of course--I still put more than 51 hours into it, after all--but they're definitely occasional sources of annoyance.

So, which components am I talking about here? Keep reading for all the not-so-gory details.

Sushi Striker does a horrible job of explaining how things work--I don't know if some of this information was "lost in localization" or if it wasn't included in the Japanese version either. Whatever the case may be, Sushi Striker drops the ball--or maybe I should say plate--when it comes to educating players about many of its rules and gameplay quirks. It's nothing a little trial and error, not to mention a few trips to an FAQ, can't fix, but it's a bit frustrating all the same--especially after you become aware of just how much text has been stuffed into this fast-paced puzzler.

It also doesn't make it clear which "Sushi Sprites" you can and can't recruit at any point in time--This is a big deal because not only are these adorable (at least at first) Pokémon-esque creatures one of the highlights of Sushi Striker, but they're also often the key to your success. The reason: they provide you with various abilities that can give you a leg up against your sushi-slinging opponents. To get these cuties to switch sides and join your campaign against the evil "Empire," though, you have to impress them in battle. I like that take on the "gotta catch 'em all" shtick a lot, actually, but I also find one aspect of it irksome. You see, it's not unusual to come across Sushi Sprites early on that you can't recruit until later in the story. Sushi Striker never tells you that, though, so unless you scan the web for this information, you may waste a lot of time trying to woo creatures that aren't, well, woo-able.

You have to put a good number of hours into the game before you unlock local or online battles--Get this: I had to play Sushi Striker for between five and 10 hours (sorry, I can't remember the exact amount of time) before I unlocked the ability to engage in local battles. Then I had to play another five to 10 hours to unlock the ability to engage in online battles. So, basically, it takes as many as 20 hours to open up a pair of modes that should be available right from the start--in my opinion, at least. On a related note: I have to imagine this is the main reason it's so difficult to find strangers to duel while playing the 3DS version of Sushi Striker.

It's nearly impossible to find a stranger to battle on line in the 3DS version--This may be the worst offender of them all. At least you can search the internet for help with the rest of the stumbling blocks mentioned here. There's nothing you can do about the lack of other players looking to take part in online battles. In the 50-plus hours I've spent with Sushi Striker so far, I've successfully completed exactly two such battles--and both were against the same person. Admittedly, they were laggy as hell and as such not a whole lot of fun, but I'd still pop into the "Arena" (where these matches take place) now and then if finding a competitor weren't such a pain.

Some of the star requirements are completely ridiculous--When you first start your way through Sushi Striker, it's easy to be fooled into thinking it's going to be a rather straightforward and superficial adventure. Match plates, stack them, and throw them at your opponent--bada-bing, bada-boom! In reality, there's a lot more to the game than that. For example, you're given stars if you meet certain conditions, like, "use five skills or more and win." Collect enough of them and you're granted access to secret areas that provide you with the best (or at least rarest) Sushi Sprites around. The thing is, some of these requirements are ridiculous. Oh, well, nothing worth having comes easy, as the saying goes.

Five reasons I've fallen head over heels in love with Nintendo's Sushi Striker

When Nintendo unveiled Sushi Striker this time last year, I was certain it would be my cup of tea.

I mean, it was a puzzler, it featured a selection of (cartoonishly) beefy dudes, and it was being made for the 3DS--if that's not the recipe for my kind of game, I don't know what is.

My interest in Sushi Striker plummeted, however, after I played through the demo that hit the Switch eShop a couple of months ago. Not because I thought it sucked, mind you; in fact, I loved many aspects of it, including its colorful art, spirited soundtrack, and wacky (if sometimes longwinded) cutscenes.

So what didn't I love about it? Its too-frantic gameplay.



Although I've been a fan of puzzle games since I broke in my GameBoy with the freebie classic-to-be Tetris, I've never really enjoyed ones that demand Shazam-esque reflexes. I usually prefer puzzlers that allow players to contemplate their next move at least a little bit.

As such, Sushi Striker and I got off on the wrong foot thanks to the at-first frenzied action at the heart of its demo.

I say "at first" here because while I found the demo's sushi-matching gameplay loop too hectic early on, I actually grew kind of comfortable with it after putting some time into the full game. (Yes, I bought the 3DS version even though the Switch demo disappointed me.)

In fact, I grew so comfortable with it that I played Sushi Striker almost nonstop after it arrived on my doorstep. And not only that, but I played it right through to the end--a journey that took me just over 50 hours.

What prompted this out-of-nowhere turnaround? Here are five reasons:



1. Sushi Striker's cutscenes are surprisingly enjoyable--And that's saying something, as a ton of them have been crammed into this game. In fact, you encounter one after nearly every round. Most are mercifully short, but a bunch of brief interludes could still prove annoying--or worse--if they were pointless or handled poorly, right? Thankfully, I doubt many would describe Sushi Striker's intermissions as anything even close to boring. They're so goofy that all but the most stone-hearted are sure to grin while watching them. (Don't worry, gloomy Gusses, they're skippable.)

2. It's got a wonderfully goofy cast of characters--This is another reason I had a hard time hating Sushi Striker's seemingly endless cutscenes. Every one features at least a single character who gives new meaning to the word colorful. There's the brawny, tan, and tattooed General Kodiak, his pinheaded (but still impressively buff) minions, your hapless rival Kojiro, the "soosh"-loving hipster Rio (he even has the black-framed glasses to prove it), and a slew of others. All of them have personality to spare, so even if they start to get on your nerves a bit, you'll probably do as I did and continue to guiltily enjoy them rather than race ahead to your next skirmish.



3. The sushi-flinging action at its core eventually becomes deliriously instinctual--There's no question this game's sushi battles are frantic at the start. Everything moves so fast that early on you're more likely to find them frustrating than fun. Thankfully, those negative vibes slowly fade into the background after you successfully finish a handful of stages--or at least that was the case for me. By the time you advance to Sushi Striker's second or third area, you'll be wondering how you ever found it so overwhelming. At a certain point, you move your stylus (if you're playing the 3DS version) to match, stack, and toss sushi plates almost on instinct. That's when the game hits its stride and shows just how exhilarating it can be once you get the hang of it.

4. It's pretty deep, too--Not only is Sushi Striker's gameplay delightfully frenetic, it's also surprisingly deep. At first, it's difficult to think beyond matching like-colored plates from the four conveyor-belt lanes in front of you. If you want to beat the best opponents in the game, though, or if you want to access its many hidden areas (most of which reward you with special "Sushi Sprite" companions when conquered), you have to bone up on things like the jubilee meter, the helpful skills provided by the aforementioned Sushi Sprites, the lane-drive gears that let you alter the speed of your conveyor belts, and more. It's a lot to take in, admittedly, and the game doesn't do a great job of explaining most of it to you, but you've got to wrap your head around it if you're to have any hope of reaching Sushi Striker's credit roll.



5. The soundtrack complements all of the sushi-matching perfectly--That's not to say it sounds like something you'd hear in a sushi restaurant. It sure puts you in the mood to sling some plates of Japan's national dish (or maybe not) at the evildoers who get in your way, though. As you might expect, the tunes here are the definition of upbeat. However, they're not as syrupy sweet as most of the songs that support puzzlers these days. This is due, in large part, to the crunchy electric guitar riffs woven into nearly every track. Combined with the plucky piano runs and techno-y blips and blops (technical terms, for the unaware) that pop up nearly as often, they make every Sushi Striker encounter a breathtaking blast.

Have any of you played Sushi Striker? If so, what do you think of it? Share your thoughts in the comments section of this post.

I think I'm going to back another Kickstarter (for a musical puzzler called Bit Band)

You may remember the post of mine from mid-October in which I declared my interest in a Kickstarter that, if successful, would bring the curious Order Land! (for Steam, Switch and Xbox One) to the West in early 2018.

Sadly, developer and publisher Poisoft pulled the plug on the campaign on Nov. 1. It's vowed to try again after retooling its appeal, but who knows when that'll happen or if it'll succeed during its second go-round.

Why am I bringing that up here? Because it was the first Kickstarter I actually attempted to back. Which means that if I back the one highlighted here, for a musical puzzler called Bit Band, it would be my second such attempt.

What's so great about this crowd-funding effort that I'm willing to throw some of my hard-earned money at it? I'm mostly into Bit Band's aesthetic, to be perfectly frank. I know some are over the whole "chunky sprite" retro look, but it's done so well here that I can't help but be impressed by it.



Don't get me wrong, I'm also pretty keen on Bit Band's gameplay. The developers describe it as being like "Tetris meets Rock Band," and I'd say that's pretty apt based on the gameplay displayed in the trailer above.

The only thing giving me pause at this point is that I'm not thrilled the project page mentions a "goal for the Nintendo Switch console," but then never explains it further. That bothers me because I'm not interested in backing the campaign, only to receive a Steam key in return.

Gavin Reed, who's handling Bit Band's art, animation, music, and game design, told me on Twitter the other day that a Switch version is this Kickstarter's first stretch goal. That makes me feel a bit better, but not entirely.

Anyway, despite my misgivings, I'll probably toss some money at this campaign before it ends on Dec. 8. If you'd like to do the same, or if you'd simply like to learn more about Bit Band, visit kickstarter.com.

Welcome to WonderSwan World: Tane wo Maku Tori

This Bandai-published WonderSwan game was one of the first I picked up--along with Engacho!--when I began collecting for this GameBoy competitor back in 2012.

Not that I was able to play it at that time. I didn't buy a WonderSwan system, a translucent black Color model, until three years later. (Here is the post I published about that momentous event, in case you're curious. And if you'd like to learn more about the WonderSwan Color hardware, check out this "Welcome to WonderSwan World" write-up.)

So what do I think of Tane wo Maku Tori now that I've spent some time with it? I like it--quite a lot, actually.

As for why that is, here are the main reasons:

* Tane wo Maku Tori is a puzzle game, a genre which the WonderSwan handles better than almost any other.
* To play it, you hold your WonderSwan system of choice sideways, in portrait or "TATE" mode. (Any title that allows this earns bonus points from me.)
* This 1999 release features an appealingly high-contrast aesthetic.
* It also offers up an eclectic soundtrack that veers from morosely moody to buoyantly blippy.

Tane wo Maku Tori's gameplay is noteworthy, too, although not always in the most positive way, if I'm allowed to be honest.

On the surface, at least, the puzzling action presented here is refreshingly unique. Your goal: to guide water droplets from the top of the WonderSwan's screen to a seed or seeds that are waiting at the bottom.

You do this to help the game's protagonist, the crow seen in the first screenshot above, fill his hometown with flowers before his migratory friend returns from the south. (That description was provided by shinjuforest.blogspot.com, by the way.)

As for how you guide the above-mentioned droplets from one end of the screen to the other, that's not so easily explained. The gist, though, is each water drop can take one of four paths down to the seeds scattered on the ground, with the paths in question represented by bamboo stalks, vines, construction girders and more. To complicate matters, these "vessels" are joined at various points.

Those connectors--tree branches, additional beams and the like--are all you control while playing Tane wo Maku Tori. Using the WonderSwan's left-most set of face buttons, you press up or down to move the "connecting bits" in that same direction, while pressing left or right changes which section of connectors are under your control.

So, you move the branches and beams and whatnot up and down to enable the water drops to land one of the seeds below.

Early on, that's all you have to worry about while playing Tane wo Maku Tori. After a few levels, however, enemies--in the form of water-loving bugs and slugs and other creepy-crawlies--throw a wrench into the works by joining the fray.

That's where things get a little messy, or at least that's where they tend to get messy for me. Trying to corral droplets while also keeping them clear of roaming baddies quickly becomes a real challenge--to the point that Tane wo Maku Tori often feels a bit too frantic for its own good.

Still, I'm glad it exists, as its many quirks allow it to stand out in the WonderSwan's dense field of puzzle games. Also, it's a puzzler that stars a sad crow; it would be kind of hard not to like such a thing, wouldn't you agree?

Have any of you played Tane wo Maku Tori? If so, share your own feelings about it in the comments section of this post. And feel free to share any advice or tips you may have with me there, too--I'm all ears!

See also: previous 'Welcome to WonderSwan World' posts and photos of Tane wo Maku Tori's lovely packaging

Five more overlooked Japanese GameBoy games you need to play as soon as possible

Late last year, I published a post about five overlooked Japanese GameBoy games I thought all interested parties should play as soon as humanly possible.

The titles highlighted in the write-up were Astro Rabby, Burning Paper, Noobow, Painter Momopie and Taiyou no Tenshi Marlowe: Ohanabatake wa Dai-Panic, in case anyone would like a refresher.

At the time, I had no intention of following up that article. A couple of weeks ago, though, it struck me that I'd left more than a few sadly ignored GameBoy cartridges out of my original offering.

Will I ever publish a third? I'm not planning to, but who knows. There's no question there are more Japanese GameBoy carts that deserve to have the spotlight turned their way, so if I can corral five of them I may just push forward with yet another "overlooked Japanese GameBoy games" post.

In the meantime, I'd highly recommend you do whatever you need to do to check out the following:

Banishing Racer--I'm not so sure this game can be called "overlooked" at this point, especially among collectors. Still, I have a feeling your average Joe or Jane who only has a passing interest in Nintendo's first handheld system is completely unaware of Banishing Racer's existence, so I'd say it's as deserving of a mention here as any other Japanese GameBoy cartridge.

As for why I think those Janes and Joes should play this Jaleco-made offering, my main reason is it's a side-scrolling platformer that stars an adorable anthropomorphic car. Also, it sports a breezy soundtrack that's surprisingly easy on the ears.

Unfortunately, Banishing Racer is short (just five worlds with three stages in each) and tends toward being cheaply difficult, but controlling a car with googly eyes--which may or may not be "related" to the vehicle at the heart of another great Jaleco game, City Connection--far outweighs both of those negatives in my humble opinion.

Before you run off and try to hunt down a copy of Banishing Racer thanks to all the gushing I've done here, know that even loose carts can go for astronomical amounts these days.

Cave Noire--Oh, Konami. Once upon a time, you produced some absolutely wonderful games--like this one, in fact. Not that you bothered to bring Cave Noire to Australia, Europe, North America or any other region outside of Japan.

Of course, it's hard to blame the powers that be at Konami for giving the thumbs down to a localization of this portable roguelike. After all, the genre wasn't all that popular among console gamers in the early 1990s. (Cave Noire hit Japanese store shelves in 1991.) Thankfully, GameBoy systems were and continue to be region-free, so anyone who wants to put this curious title through its paces is free to do so.

As for what they'll encounter after booting it up: that would be a dungeon-crawling RPG that takes some interesting liberties with the pattern laid down by genre-maker Rogue. You see, Cave Noire is divided into four distinct dungeons. Each of these claustrophobic chambers focuses on a different victory condition: one tasks you with collecting a certain amount of money, one demands you save a certain number of trapped fairies and so on and so forth.

That combined with the bite-sized nature of the game's dungeons as well as its eye-pleasing visuals (which remind of Final Fantasy Adventure, aka Seiken Densetsu) and similarly adroit audio propels Cave Noire into must-play territory even if you don't know a lick of the language.

Kitchen Panic--Full disclosure: this Coconuts Japan-published (in 1991) game is the least impressive of all the ones highlighted in this post. Thankfully, you also should be able to pick up a copy of Kitchen Panic for less money than you'd have to pay to buy any of the other titles mentioned here.

As for why Kitchen Panic fails to thrill as much as, say, Cave Noire or Peetan, that would be because it's basically an arcade-y action game that doesn't provide a whole lot of depth. That's not to say it's not fun. If you're in the mood for a nice little Mario Bros.-esque score-attack game that sports cute backdrops and sprites (mostly of various insects), Kitchen Panic is as good an option as any that were produced for the GameBoy during its long life.

One last comment before I shut my trap and move on to the next overlooked Japanese GameBoy title: if you suffer from entomophobia you'll want to treat Kitchen Panic like the plague, as killing creepy-crawlies is the focus of this Bits Laboratory-made cartridge.

I'm stoked about the unveiling of Sushi Striker (3DS), and not simply because some of its characters are beefy studs

What's Sushi Striker, you ask? A sushi-themed puzzler that's being developed for the 3DS by indieszero (of Electroplankton, Retro Game Challenge and Theatrhythm: Final Fantasy fame).

Nintendo revealed it a couple of days ago during E3 2017 and at the same time mentioned it will release sometime in 2018.

Unfortunately, it's not yet known if Sushi Striker (full title--Sushi Striker: The Way of Sushido) will be sold via retail or if it'll be relegated to the 3DS eShop.

What is known, beyond the aforementioned facts, about this "conveyor belt sushi puzzle action" game (that's Nintendo's official description of it) is that it's stuffed to the gills with musclebound studs.

Don't believe me? Feast your thirsty eyes on the following:

I don't know about you, but the last guy is the most visually appealing to yours truly.

Not into men? No worries. The game also features a bevy of attractive women--as is made abundantly clear in Sushi Striker's first trailer.

Does any of the above have you salivating over the 2018 release of this yummy-looking (in more ways than one) puzzle game? Chat about it with me and others in the comments section of this post.

See also: 'The best 3DS eShop games you've never played (or, 10 overlooked 3DS eShop games you need to try as soon as possible)'

Anyone looking for a few #PuzzleGameMonth recommendations?

Although platformers and RPGs continue to be my favorite types of games, I'm pretty much always up for playing a good puzzler.

The five brain-busters below fit that bill and more. As such, I think any one of them would be worth playing as part of Anne Lee's latest "community game-along" that's devoted to the puzzle genre. (For more information on this month-long event, go to chic-pixel.com.)

I've spent a good amount of time with all of these games, by the way, so rest assured they have my personal seal of approval (should such a thing hold sway over you, of course).

Moai-kun (Famicom)

Guru Logi Champ (GameBoy Advance)--I've mentioned this Compile-made title a couple of times in the past. (Most notably, in my recent post about overlooked GameBoy Advance games you need to play as soon as possible.) To be honest, though, I feel like I should've written about it more, as it's easily one of the best puzzlers to be published for Nintendo's GameBoy successor. What's so great about it? For starters, it offers up a unique twist on Picross' gameplay. Also, it's wonderfully colorful and features a cast of characters that's as cute as it is silly. The cherry on top of all this puzzling goodness: Guru Logi Champ's box, cartridge label and instruction manual knock it out of the park, too.

Loopop Cube: Lup Salad (PlayStation)--Although Guru Logi Champ is at least somewhat of a known quantity thanks to its Compile connection, this similarly impressive PlayStation release from Datam Polystar continues to fly under the radar. Not that Loopop Cube and the above-mentioned GBA game are at all alike. This Japan-only title combines light platforming action with the gameplay of a match-three puzzler. Add to that its cute-as-a-button aesthetic (mirrored in Loopop Cube's packaging) and some catchy background tunes, and you've got an import that should have a much higher profile than it currently does. By the way, if you're not in the mood for buying and playing Japanese PSone games, you can pick up Loopop Cube: Lup Salad for the DS or PSP, too.

Magical Puzzle Popils (Game Gear)--Of all the puzzle games showcased here, this Tengen-developed and -published one is my favorite. Like Loopop Cube, Magical Puzzle Popils (released outside Japan as Popils: The Blockbusting Challenge) is one part platformer and one part puzzler. You don't match blocks in the latter, though; instead, you do whatever's needed to get the "hero" protagonist to the princess who's marooned somewhere on each and every stage. Usually that means punching or kicking blocks out of your way, but sometimes it also means climbing or descending a ladder. Don't worry, it's a lot more fun than I've made it sound here. Plus, it looks great--similar to Bubble Bobble, actually, which makes sense, as the same man (Fukio Mitsuji) headed up both games--and sports a stellar, earworm-worthy soundtrack. (Bonus: virtually flip through Magical Puzzle Popil's instruction manual.)

Onore no Shinzuru Michi wo Yuke (PSP)

Moai-kun (Famicom)--I know, I know. I just slobbered over this Konami cart in my most recent "Manual Stimulation" post. What can I say? I've got Moai-kun on the brain. Also, if any Famicom puzzler is worth mentioning in a write-up such as this, Moai-kun is it. This Japan-only release from 1990 isn't the prettiest puzzle game to see the light of day on Nintendo's first real console, but I'd argue it's the most interesting. Once again, the focus here is on hopping to and from platforms, destroying blocks (using your noggin, à la PC Genjin) and rescuing loved ones. Don't worry if you'd like to try Loopop Cube, Magical Puzzle Popils and Moai-kun, by the way. Although all three are puzzler-platformers, they provide different enough experiences that you won't feel like you're playing the same game.

Onore no Shinzuru Michi wo Yuke (PSP)--I'd include this PSP title, made by Silicon Studio and published (only in Japan, naturally) by From Software, even if it were a total dud. That's because its cover illustration, right, is among the best produced for Sony's first portable system. Also, its Ukiyo-e art style is beyond gorgeous. Thankfully, Onore no Shinzuru Michi wo Yuke's gameplay is just as captivating as its more superficial components. Explaining why that is would take too many words, so I'm going to suggest you check out hardcoregaming101.net if you're curious to know more. Just know that if you've still got a PSP and you're at all into games that try their best to overheat your brain, you'll get your money's worth out of Onore no Shinzuru Michi wo Yuke.

See also: my trio of #PlatforMonth recommendation posts

Manual Stimulation: Moai-kun (Famicom)

Three years ago, I declared--in this post--Moai-kun's box art to be among my favorites as far as Nintendo's Famicom is concerned.

Well, now I'm declaring this Konami-made puzzler's instruction manual to be among my favorites as well.

This time, though, I'm going to go a step further and say that the booklet showcased in the scans below is one of my all-time favorite game manuals, period.



Some of you likely will feel the same way about it once you finish perusing this post. Hell, I'll bet at least a few of you will feel that way about it after taking in the front and back covers of Moai-kun's manual.





One of the best things about this how-to pamphlet, if you ask me, is that every single page of it features an illustration or some other piece of art.





The pops of color and the additional elements that keep each two-page spread from being anything even approaching boring only add to the appeal of this Moai-kun instruction booklet.

Welcome to WonderSwan World: Engacho!

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My 10 Most Influential Games: The 7th Guest (PC)

It probably seems strange to call a game I've never mentioned here before one of my "most influential." (And by influential, I mean it was influential in shaping my current taste in video games.) The fact is, though, that The 7th Guest absolutely blew my mind back when I played through it on my family's PC as a teen.

If this is the first you're hearing of The 7th Guest, it's an adventure game set in a haunted mansion. To progress through its surprisingly adult story, players have to solve various logic puzzles.

Really, The 7th Guest is like a horror-tinged precursor to the Professor Layton series, although Level-5's games offer up many more brain-teasers than the Trilobyte-developed title discussed in this post.

Anyway, besides all of the above, The 7th Guest caused a stir when it was released in 1993 because it took up two CDs (unheard of at the time) and was chock-full of both live-action video clips and pre-rendered 3D graphics.

As much as my younger self loved this game's flashiness, the aspects that most impressed me, and kept me and my mom--a mystery and puzzle buff herself--coming back to it until we reached its ending, were its creepy backstory and its many tough-as-nails puzzles.

I'd never encountered the former in a game before I started The 7th Guest, while the latter opened my mind to the fact that digital puzzles (you know, as opposed to physical ones found in books and newspapers) could involve more than just letters, words or random shapes and blobs.

Of course, I'd also never encountered 3D graphics and live-action video clips in a game before I started The 7th Guest, so I guess I shouldn't discount how much those components impacted and influenced my taste in video games moving forward.

Certainly, The 7th Guest helped solidify my interest in adventure and puzzle games. Previously, I viewed both genres as something akin to second-class citizens and preferred to spend my precious free time with platformers and RPGs.

It also opened my eyes to the fact that games don't have to be depicted in a limited number of ways to be appealing or engaging. Until The 7th Guest came around, I pretty much equated games with pixels. I also generally thought of them as being two-dimensional affairs.

The idea of a game made up of three-dimensional graphics and video clips didn't sit all that well with me back then--thanks in large part to the fact that the few existing efforts I was aware of didn't seem to offer any real gameplay or even graphical improvements over the status quo.

That mostly changed after my mom and I dumped countless hours into The 7th Guest. Not entirely, mind you, as it wasn't until I'd spent some serious time with the Saturn's, PlayStation's and Nintendo 64's libraries that I fully got behind the notion that games with pre-rendered or pre-recorded visuals could be something other than crap.

Still, the "interactive movie" that is The 7th Guest started me down the path toward accepting non-traditional video games, and for that I'll always be grateful.

I'll also forever be grateful that it brought my mom and I together in a way that's rarely happened in either of our lives. Other than the time I helped her figure out how to play Tetris DS (and tried to help her play New Super Mario Bros.), we've played just one game together--The 7th Guest. And that's an experience I'll never forget.

Note: I was inspired to begin this series after reading through Rachel Simone Weil's similar one over at nobadmemories.com. Rachel's write-ups focus on the games that prompted her to start making her own. I'm obviously not a developer, so my posts will focus on the 10 titles that sucked me into this hobby and shaped my interests in it.

Shall We Do It? (Boxlife and The Starship Damrey plus Kirby: Planet Robobot and Poochy & Yoshi's Woolly World demos)

Although I've spent more time with Dragon Quest VII in the last couple of weeks than I've spent with the games discussed here, I'm going to save my comments about the former for my inevitable review of it. (Yes, this means I'm that close to finishing Dragon Quest VII's main campaign--thanks to putting more than 25 hours into it since 2017 started.)

Plus, I think I've said more than enough about my Dragon Quest VII playthrough up to this point. And then there's the fact that I've had so much fun with all of the games named in this post's headline that I'd rather write about them instead.

Boxlife--Who could've thought that a game about putting together boxes would wind up being fun? Besides the folks at skip Ltd., the makers of Boxlife (Hacolife in Japan), I mean.

Actually, let me step back a bit and revise my comment about this DSiWare (don't worry, you can still buy it from every region's 3DS eShop) title being fun. A more accurate way to describe it would be "enjoyably frantic," or maybe, "challenging--sometimes in a way that makes you chuckle, and sometimes in a way that makes you want to crush your DSi or 3DS system beneath the heel of a heavy boot."

OK, so, yes, Boxlife occasionally will cause you to lose your cool, but the good news here is you'll usually walk away from those occasions feeling like whatever mistakes you made during your last round were your fault, not the fault of "cheap" artificial intelligence.

At any rate, my advice to anyone who buys Boxlife after reading this write-up: stick with it. The game's "factory mode," especially, may drive you batty at first, but spend some time with its "R&D mode" and things eventually will click. That's when Boxlife's brilliance really hits you and makes you happy you dropped $4.99 (or whatever it costs in your neck of the woods) on it.

Kirby: Planet Robobot demo--It's been a while since I played a Kirby game. In fact, I think the last one I properly put through its paces was Kirby's Return to Dream Land for the Wii. I intended to follow up that experience by buying the pink puff's first 3DS offering (Triple Deluxe), but for whatever reason I never got around to it. When a demo was made available for that title's sequel, though, I decided I had to try it.

Now that I have, I'm itching to give the full game a go. Why? For starters, Planet Robobot focuses on what every Kirby game since the first (that would be 1992's Dream Land for GameBoy) has focused on: having fun. And by that, of course, I mean having a blast inhaling enemies and then taking on and using their special abilities against other foes. Planet Robobot also is a real looker, with candy-coated visuals that are as likely as the title's gameplay to bring a smile to your face.

Most importantly, though, this effort positively differentiates itself from past entries in the series by tossing something decidedly new at players: colorful mech suits that Kirby can pilot. Without fail, they're overpowered, but that's surely the point. Regardless, it's a blast climbing into one and then basically having your way with the rest of that part of the stage, and I look forward to finding out how they impact the overall adventure this time around.

The Starship Damrey--Although I've thoroughly enjoyed all of the Guild series games I've played so far (and that includes Aero Porter, Attack of the Friday Monsters!, Crimson Shroud and Weapon Shop de Omasse), I spent a long time dragging my feet in regard to The Starship Damrey.

I ignored it for a few reasons, of course, with one being that I've never been a big fan of games that have to be played from a first-person perspective and another being that a few folks told me The Starship Damrey was short and not worth my while. I'm glad I pushed aside both roadblocks late last year and bought this digital title while it was on sale, because the two hours I've devoted to it in the last week or so have been beyond intriguing.

If you don't know much about The Starship Damrey, the gist is that basically plops you into a seemingly abandoned spaceship and then tasks you with figuring out why you're there and what's happened to your crewmates. Oh, and you do this using a handful of robots that are placed around said ship, as you're unable to get out of the bed you wake up in at the start of the game.

Anyway, I have no idea how close I am to figuring out the mystery at the heart of The Starship Damrey (I just passed the two-hour mark last night), but even if I accomplish that feat in the next hour, I know I'll walk away from the game feeling I got more than my money's worth with it.

Poochy & Yoshi's Woolly World demo--I've been of two minds about this 3DS port of Good-Feel's undeniably adorable Wii U platformer since it was first revealed last fall.

At first, I was thrilled I'd finally be able to give it a go (as I don't own a Wii U and I loved the developer's similarly crafty Kirby's Epic Yarn) while on the go. Later, my enthusiasm faltered when I decided Poochy & Yoshi's Woolly World's visuals were far less impressive than I initially imagined them to be.

Well, things took a turn back toward "OK, I'm buying this sucker ASAP" after I played the game's demo--a few times over, at that--over the weekend. When seen on an actual 3DS screen, Poochy & Yoshi's Woolly World looks almost shockingly good. More importantly, it feels shockingly good, too, and that's true whether you experience it on an original 3DS or a New 3DS. (I played through the demo twice using both systems. )

If you're a frame-rate snob, you'll want to make sure you own a New 3DS, but rest assured you'll still have a blast with it if you only have access to an OG system.

See also: 'Are we f$%kin' there yet? (or, more thoughts on Dragon Quest VII after spending 40-plus hours with the 3DS remake)'