For the fourth game of Christmas, the UPS man brought to me ...

... a complete-in-box copy of Nintendo's Balloon Kid.

Educational aside: This GameBoy-based sequel-of-sorts to the Famicom/NES classic, Balloon Fight, was released throughout North America in 1990 and throughout Europe in 1991. For some unknown reason, it never received a proper, packaged release in Japan, although a colorized version of the game--called Balloon Fight GB--was released via the company's Nintendo Power service in 2000. 

For more information on Balloon Kid--which was produced, in part, by Gunpei Yokoi and Yoshio Sakamoto (Hirokazu "Hip" Tanaka composed the game's perky soundtrack)--read these blog posts. 

See also: Previous '12 Games of Christmas' posts

Let's Play: 'Which Box Art is Better?' (Rhythm Heaven Fever edition)

I've been looking for a reason to publish a post about Rhythm Heaven Fever ever since I read (a few days ago) that the game was going to be released in North America on February 13 with a so-low-everyone-who-owns-a-Wii-had-better-buy-it-or-I'll-scream price tag of $29.99. (Pre-order it here. Don't worry, I did so on Tuesday.)

Well, Nintendo of America gave me that reason on Wednesday night, when it unveiled this wacky Wii game's official North American box art.

Is it possible for a piece of box art to induce a seizure? I wouldn't have thought so before I saw Rhythm Heaven Fever's cover (above), but now I'm not so sure. Regardless, it's certainly busy, isn't it? And colorful. Both of which make sense, I guess, based on what I've seen of and read about this crazy music game.

Anyway, moving along. We can't play "Which Box Art is Better?" without comparing the cover above to its European or Japanese counterparts, can we? Unfortunately, the game isn't due to be released in Europe until the second quarter of next year, so no box art is available for that region yet. Thankfully, it was released in Japan--as Minna no Rhythm Tengoku, or Everybody's Rhythm Heaven--long ago (on July 21, to be exact). Here is that version's less-cluttered cover:

I'll be honest: I initially hated the North American art. Like I said earlier, it's really busy--almost too busy, in my opinion. Also, I'm not a fan of mixing fonts, and seeing that bubbly "Fever" butting up against the angular "Rhythm Heaven" sort of makes me want to slam my head into the nearest wall. Oh, and that band of screenshots and text along the bottom? I tend to despise that tactic, too.

All that said, I actually think I prefer the North American cover to the Japanese one. Don't get me wrong, I love the latter art's simplicity, as well as that lovely rainbow banding, but it's a bit barren, isn't it? Also, those three little ... things beneath the logo seem out of place to me. I'd rather see more of them or none of them, you know what I mean?

Do you guys and gals have a preference for one version's box art over the other? Also, will you be buying a copy of this game when it's released in your neck of the woods?

See also: Previous 'Which Box Art is Better?' posts

For the third game of Christmas, the UPS man brought to me ...

... a boxed copy of Nintendo's Clu Clu Land.

Note that I didn't describe this as a "complete in box" copy of this Famicom/NES classic. That's because the plastic tray that's supposed to cradle the cartridge (and protect the box) wasn't included. Oh, well.

Regardless, I quite like Clu Clu Land's box art. To tell you the truth, that's the main reason I picked up the copy seen in the photos above and below, as I'm not much of a fan of the game at this point.

I'm also a bit of a sucker for banana-yellow Famicom carts, it seems, as not only do I salivate over the one that contains Clu Clu Land's code, but I also salivate over the ones produced for the Famicom version of Super Mario Bros. and the GameBoy Advance version of Kid Icarus.

Fore more photos of yellow (as well as red, orange, blue and white) Famicom carts, check out this Flickr set.

See also: Previous '12 Games of Christmas' posts

For the second game of Christmas, the UPS man brought to me ...

... NEC Avenue's PC Engine port of Fantasy Zone.

This version of Sega's surreal, pastel-filled shmup was released in 1988, by the way. It isn't an arcade-perfect port, but it's close enough that only the most anal Fantasy Zone fans would turn up their noses at it.

You may remember me saying recently (in this 'Second Chances' post) that I haven't always been a fan of this game. Well, my opinion of it has changed enough over the last few months that the complete-in-box copy of it seen above was one of the first things I purchased after my birthday.

Now if I could just get past the third or fourth stage.

Anyway, for anyone interested: Another photo or two of my copy of Fantasy Zone can be seen in my Flickr photostream. (Also, click on the ones above to take a closer look at them.)

See also: Previous '12 Games of Christmas' posts

For the first game of Christmas, the UPS man brought to me ...

... Kirby's Return to Dream Land!

Full disclosure: I actually received this game as a birthday gift. Of course, I mentioned in yesterday's post that all of the games included in this series were acquired between Thanksgiving and Christmas, so I guess there's no reason for me to apologize.

Anyway, its packaging is pretty spiffy, don't you think?



I've already beaten the game's main campaign, by the way, although that isn't really much of an accomplishment given its overall lack of difficulty. Of course, Kirby games generally aren't about presenting players with overtly challenging enemies and levels, are they?

No, Kirby games are all about having fun--or at least they are in my experience--and I certainly had a blast playing through this one. (My favorite part: Obtaining and using Kirby's screen-filling super abilities.)

Have any of you played Kirby's Return to Dream Land yet? If so, what did you think of it?

See also: 'The 12 Games of Christmas'