In March 1995, the previously white now turned pink sucking fluff ball named Kirby dreamed up a much improved Land installment for the Game Boy: Kirby’s Dream Land 2. It would be the third Kirby Game Boy game, but the second mainline game since 1993’s Kirby’s Pinball Land is one of the many spin-offs. In-between the Dream Land releases, the most important other entry is the NES console one titled Kirby’s Adventure, where the copy ability was conceived by Kirby’s father Masahiro Saku...| Game Boy on Jefklak's Codex
Two years after the latest Game Boy installment, Back from the Sewers, Konami gave the TMNT franchise yet another try—third time’s a charm, as they say. For Radical Rescue, in my opinion, the statement holds true. The first game, Fall of the Foot Clan, didn’t have any meat to the bone, that was corrected with the second installment, although the visual representation of the Turtles themselves could be called questionable. This time around, the beat ’em up genre evolved into a real Met...| Game Boy on Jefklak's Codex
Masahiro Sakurai, the now legendary game designer responsible for the Smash Bros series, debuted with a very simple platforming game for casual players—a cheery and happy game, starring a certain round fluff ball called Kirby. Kirby was still white in 1992’s Game Boy cover, although that would change to the pink we are used to know in successive titles. The premise of the game is very simple: it’s a pick up and play game consisting of just five stages and its lifespan is even shorter th...| Game Boy on Jefklak's Codex
Barely a year after the adequate but far from impressive Tiny Toon Adventures: Babs’ Big Break, Konami takes a shot to redeem itself with Montana’s Movie Madness. The formula does not change: it’s a 2D platformer based on the Tiny Toon license Konami hopes will still lay golden eggs, it’s still very short, and it’s still a meagre MBC1 128 KB cartridge that in 1993, four years after the Japanese Game Boy launch, really feels like we as consumer are being ripped off. As a result, Tiny...| Game Boy on Jefklak's Codex
Every cartoon show of the early nineties had to have multiple game conversions, including the 1990 Tiny Toon Adventure series that was supposed to become the next big Looney Tunes thing—except that it didn’t. No matter, though, as in the 1992 Game Boy game Babs’ Big Break, Babs tries to become a famous actress but ends up being kidnapped (surprise…) by the greedy Montana Max. It’s up to Babs’ friends to traverse four stages and get her out of there. The words “four stages” mig...| Game Boy on Jefklak's Codex
After the giant failure of Castlevania: The Adventure, Konami still had the guts to continue its handheld Castlevania line in 1991, by going back to the drawing board and fixing nany of The Adventure’s shortcomings. A design document from the Castlevania Anniversary Collection revealed that the team aimed to improve the following things: The player should move much faster; Attacking while on a rope should be possible; More level and enemy variation is needed; Sub-weapons should be present. ...| Game Boy on Jefklak's Codex
In 1989, The Nintendo’s handheld Game Boy made its debut in Japan, suddenly creating a demand for bite-sized adventures that could work on the go. Konami decided to translate their 1987 NES Castlevania franchise to the new platform, but in doing so, both the Belmonts and the vampires lost their iconic characteristics. In short, the game is one of the worst platformers I’ve ever played on the Game Boy. I don’t even think it’s worth devoting a review to this shitty Castlevania entry—a...| Game Boy on Jefklak's Codex
It only took Konami one year to go from an average Turtles entry point to this awesome second installment subtitled Back From the Sewers. I replayed this a year ago and while doing it again to collect screenshots for this article, I forgot how great this actually is, and what a quantum leap in presentation, gameplay, and sound this is, compared to Fall of the Foot Clan! Where to even begin? Select one of four Turtles to fight through six stages. Perhaps it’s best to start with the bad parts...| Game Boy on Jefklak's Codex
The release of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge last month made my inner child very happy. That child still remembers fondly the old TNMT (typing Teenage Mutant… is getting old) Game Boy games, and although I never owned the first one back then, I reckoned I’d start there: Konami’s 1990 release and first attempt to draw some ninja shells in a petite resolution devoid of color. How will these Turtles now be recognized? By their weapon, of course! Fall of the Foot Clan i...| Game Boy on Jefklak's Codex
Without my wife picking up the Alfred Chicken Game Boy cart—because the sticker on it contained a funny chicken apparently being abducted by aliens—I wouldn’t be typing this. It turns out that Alfred Chicken has quite a history in Europe and was very popular on, among other platforms, the Amiga and the (S)NES. Yet the chicken hatched first on the Game Boy in 1993, in two different forms, according to Wikipedia: Two revisions exist; the monochrome original, and a Super Game Boy version w...| Game Boy on Jefklak's Codex
I’ve always been more of a Warner Bros fan than a Hanna Barbera one: Bugs and co. is, to me, a lot more recognizable than say The Flintstones or Scooby-Do. Or, for that matter, a slightly more obscure anthropomorphic bear with a green hat and a tie: Yogi Bear. I don’t have a history with the character(s) and have barely seen one or two episodes on screen when I was little. When approaching this game, I realize this can be either a very good or a very bad thing, as I won’t be viewing thi...| Game Boy on Jefklak's Codex
As yet another licensed platformer and watered-down port from the Genesis/MegaDrive original, I was a bit skeptic. Even though Looney Tunes was okay, it wasn’t great, and my low expectations turned out to be right: this game downright stinks. The review could end here, but since I already spent €12 too much on the game, I might just as well have a bit of fun by ranting here. As soon as you boot up the game, you’re greeted with a cheerful 8-bit interpretation of the Tom & Jerry main them...| Game Boy on Jefklak's Codex
In 1988, a weird movie was conceived that blended silly toons with investigative drama, as somehow the not-real bunny Roger was accused of cold-blooded murder, and needed a very-real toon-hating private detective to help him out. As is usually the case with cinematic success, it had to be franchised into several video games. This is Who Framed Roger Rabbit on the Game Boy. Licensed games should be approached with caution, but Roger Rabbit starts out strong: instead of yet another watered-down...| Game Boy on Jefklak's Codex
Super Mario Land: Mario's Weird World Tour. Somehow, I never managed to beat the first installment of the Mario Land series when I was younger. My sister got the game bundled with her Game Boy, while I got the traditional Tetris and later on bought myself straight into Mario Land 2: Six Golden Coins—which was and still is awesome on all accounts. The cover art boasts a compelling message: Via Jefklak's Codex| jefklakscodex.com
The Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle 2 a.k.a Mickey Mouse?!. Just when you thought that Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle couldn’t get any worse, Kemco proves us wrong by releasing its successor. Via Jefklak's Codex| jefklakscodex.com
The Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle: Jumpless Bunnies. Also known as the quintessential Game Boy earworm of my childhood, Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle is a very strange puzzle platformer from Kemco released not far from Nintendo’s first true mass-market handheld’s debut. Via Jefklak's Codex| jefklakscodex.com
Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3. After the events in Super Mario Land 2 (SML2) where Mario kicked out a fat intruder called Wario, the aggressor hatched a big plan for revenge: why not steal heaps of money to build a castle yourself? Via Jefklak's Codex| jefklakscodex.com
Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins. The second Game Boy Mario Land installment is criminally underappreciated and that has to stop. I’m here to tell you that you owe it to yourself to breeze through this strange non-Mushroom Kingdom where everything you know about Mario is turned upside-down. Via Jefklak's Codex| jefklakscodex.com
Looney Tunes: Variety in Tune Land. The name of the game, Looney Tunes, might confuse people, since it’s simply named after the popular cartoon show that began its highly successful renaissance in the late eighties. By the early nineties, there was no way to avoid Looney Tunes merchandising—including the obligatory Game Boy carts. While some games, such as Sylvester & Tweety, involve a specific character or two of the Looney Tunes cast, this game involves a more diverse set—albeit still...| jefklakscodex.com