Rainbow Islands: The Story of Bubble Bobble 2 is possibly Japanese game developer Taito‘s finest hour. On any system.
Tag Archives: cartoon
Shantae, Game Boy Color
Shantae is a great little platform adventure game, made for the Nintendo Game Boy Color by WayForward Technologies and published by Capcom in 2002.
The main character is a female, half-genie swashbuckler, called Shantae, and is up against the pirate Risky Boots and her band of cack-handed shipmates.
Kururin Squash!, GameCube
I only discovered this marvellous game recently, on the back of posting screenshots of its predecessor on here. But I’m extremely glad I did, because Kururin Squash! is a fantastic update of the same game mechanics that made Kuru Kuru Kururin so compelling to play: guiding a spinning stick around a series of mad, twisting mazes.
Kururin Paradise, Game Boy Advance
Fantastic 2002, Japan-only sequel to Kuru Kuru Kururin, developed by Eighting and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy Advance.
Kuru Kuru Kururin, Game Boy Advance
Kuru Kuru Kururin is a weirdly-named but wonderful (and original) Game Boy Advance game, developed by Eighting and first published by Nintendo in 2001.
The idea is that you have to control a spinning stick, and take it around a series of increasingly twisting and torturous courses, without touching the sides, or hitting other hazards. And do it against a time limit. It’s one of those games with a simple premise, but offers quite a tough and interesting challenge.
Drill Dozer, Game Boy Advance
Drill Dozer is a fun, side-scrolling “drill ’em up” where you take control of a small tank with a drill on the front, which allows you to dig your way through the landscape and bump off your enemies. You can upgrade the drill as you play, which then requires the learning of new control techniques – using a kind of gear type system. It’s all quite clever and original.
APB, Arcade
Atari Games‘ 1987 arcade hit APB (All Points Bulletin) is a humorous, fun, overhead driving game where the object is to chase down and ‘catch’ perpetrators in the act of breaking the law, and eventually pulling over targets who have had APBs called on them.
Sabre Wulf, ZX Spectrum
Ultimate Play The Game‘s iconic seventh release for the ZX Spectrum was first released in 1984.
Sabre Wulf is a colourful maze/action game, and was the first game to feature the lead character Sabreman.
PaRappa the Rapper 2, PlayStation 2
Ingenious rhythm game sequel starring everyone’s favourite rapping dog.
Wizkid, PC
Wizkid is also subtitled “The Story of Wizball II”, which is interesting, although it doesn’t really look or feel like a sequel to Wizball at all to me.