Showing posts with label puzzleplatformer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label puzzleplatformer. Show all posts

1.26.2010

Bug's Bunny: Crazy Castle 3

story | gameplay | thoughts |
level structure | controls | options

BASIC INFO:
Title ....... Bug's Bunny: Crazy Castle 3 (North America, Europe, Japan); Soreike! Kid: Go! Go! Kid (Japan)
Players ..... 1
Genre ....... platform
Sub-genre ... puzzle platformer
Platform .... Game Boy (1999, Japan), Game Boy Color (1999)


Clever alt text here.STORY:
Bugs Bunny is searching through Old Castle for a great treasure he read about in a book. His friends are under a spell and are trying to stop him.


GAMEPLAY:
You can examine the entire level when the game is paused.Your goal in Bugs Bunny: Crazy Castle 3 is to clear all 61 stages of the Old Castle. To clear a stage, you must collect the 8 keys scattered about, then proceed to the locked door which leads to the next stage.

Simple enough, but there are other characters from the Looney Tunes universe wandering around on screen, and a touch from them is fatal. Furthermore, many will actively attempt to stop your quest...with varying degrees of effectiveness. It is easy enough to avoid the ones who walk very slowly back and forth across a platform. On the other hand, others will chase you throughout the stage, unless you disable them.

In the end, the blame is pinned on the puddy tat.You can disable your enemies/friends. Or, more accurately, you can blow up, crush, and shoot them with the various items you find laying about (bombs, anvils, and very lethal cork pop guns). Use these items well, and your pursuers will be destroyed with a comic puff of air, leaving you to explore the area at a slightly more leisurely pace.

As levels become progressively more complex, you can often simply outrun your enemies, using the many stairs, ladders, pipes, vines, ropes, trampolines, and other such whatnot to get around the level. But where's the fun in that?

Complete level, receive password.The game doesn't save your progress, but it does give you passwords. A password saves not just the level you are on, but it also seems to save the number of lives you've earned. Continues in the game are infinite. Additionally, you earn a life every time you complete a stage successfully, find 1ups in stages, and earn 1ups by collecting carrot icons.


THOUGHTS:
Thou must.I've heard a lot of praise for the Crazy Castle series, and I have fond memories of Kemco's Bugs Bunny Birthday Blowout for the NES -- a straightforward and simple action-based platformer that I played with my brothers. This game seemed like a winner: I'm a fan of puzzle platformers, I'd had a good experience with the developer making a similar game, and retro gamers agreed it was a good game from a good series. I was happy to get a copy.

I was incredibly disappointed the first time I played it. I played the first 2 levels and was, well, bored. I set the game aside down and didn't come back to it again for months.

The B stands for 'Boring'.I did come back to the game, fortunately. I'm not going to lie, the first 5 stages are terrible -- perhaps less so if you are inexperienced with the genre. But after slogging through those first 5 dull stages, the game starts to get interesting. The levels expand in size and scope, giving you room to decide how you want to solve them. New puzzle elements are often brought into play, and a new set of enemies are introduced in each world (although they differ only in appearance).

The last levels are huge, sprawling affairs that seem downright overwhelming in scope. However, as you play, a solution falls into place little by little. Finally solving one of these gigantic puzzles gives an intense feeling of satisfaction.


This castle is old.LEVEL STRUCTURE:
[world NAME] [stage #]

There are 4 worlds (the Garden, the Hall, the Basement, and the Treasury) that have 15 stages each. Upon completing the 60th stage, you proceed to the final, 61st stage.


CONTROLS:
D-pad .... move left or right (left or right); use doors, stairs, vines, pipes, ladders, and so on (up or down)
select ... nothing
start .... pause, unpause
A ........ use items, use switches
B ........ use items


OPTIONS:
None.


EXTRA NOTES:
Based on the Looney Tunes cartoon show.

There are 7 Crazy Castle titles and 1 compilation (to my knowledge, the FDS/NES, Game Boy, and Mobile games under the title "Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle" are not ports but actually different games). Two of the Crazy Castle titles are, in Japan, Mickey Mouse titles, which has its own series (5 releases total).

The Crazy Castle titles are as follows:
The Mickey Mouse titles are:


Wikipedia thinks that The Bugs Bunny Birthday Blowout (1990 FDS/NES) and Mickey's Dangerous Chase (1991-3 GB) are also part of the Crazy Castle series.

Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , ,

1.25.2010

Cyraid

story | gameplay | my thoughts
level structure | controls | options

BASIC INFO:
Title ....... Cyraid (North America); Bakuretsu Senshi Warrior (Japan)
Players ..... 1-2
Genre ....... platform
Subgenre .... puzzle platformer
Platform .... Game Boy (1)


Dunno what's up with the space theme.STORY:
Natasia has been kidnapped. Save her, Warrior and/or Fighter!


GAMEPLAY:
Cyraid is a platformer with heavy puzzle elements. Each stage is presented on a single screen and each screen is filled with monsters, ladders, and various kinds of blocks. Each stage has about 6 blocks (give or take) that are labeled E.

By simultaneously pressing A and the D-pad, you can kick. Given the correct circumstances, you can use kicking to modify everything on the screen. You can destroy blocks, kill enemies, and kick around ladders. Your goal on each stage is to use your elite kicking skills to reach and open all of the E blocks and collect (or destroy) the capsules that drop out from them.

Every couple minutes, a large, ball-shaped monster appears from some fixed spot on the wall. Any blocks you have destroyed have a chance of reappearing as it stomps about shaking the screen. This can be useful if you find that you have destroyed a block you need to reach a certain area. However, if you are standing on the same spot a block reappears in, you will die instantly.

Destroying blocks sometimes reveals extra lives and powerups. An x-shaped power-up stacks to give you useful abilities like speed and jumping. This allows you to take shortcuts on stages and finish them up more quickly, but you'll lose them if you die.

The final level of each world features a boss. Boss levels remind me of fighting Bowser in Super Mario Bros., in that you must dodge the attacks of the boss monster in order to reach a button that destroys the monster.


THOUGHTS:
I love this game. I'm not sure I can explain why in any satisfying way. It's hard to get past the "OmigoshCyraidSQUEE!"

Ultimately, it comes down to the following combination of facts:
[1] I love puzzle games
[2] Cyraid is a puzzle game
[3] I find Cyraid to be challenging, but not brutally hard

I especially appreciate that Cyraid is an action puzzler. It supports different play styles, which I'll often cycle through. You can be the gamer who sits at the beginning of the stage, not moving until you've planned out every move--and when you get tired of that, next stage you can pick the nearest E-block to open and think on the move. Either way, you'll probably die due to something unforeseen, but you'll be better prepared for the next time you try the stage!

As you progress in the game, you'll accumulate useful power-ups like jumping and speed. You'll pass through levels with these power-ups, not knowing how to beat them otherwise. Learning how to complete levels with power-ups is challenging in its own right, but learning how to do so without power-ups is also quite fun. While perhaps not everyone interested in Cyraid will be interested in this "hard mode," many of us who are drawn to Cyraid will also be drawn to such a challenge.

The simple looks of Cyraid are perfect for its nature. The graphics accomplish what they need to. The visuals aren't very detailed, and perhaps you can't tell what an enemy is supposed to be...but, if you are at all familiar with video games, you know it's an enemy and will hurt you if you touch it. Furthermore, each sprite is distinct from the other, and nothing is so distracting that you will get startled and make a stupid mistake.


LEVEL STRUCTURE:
[world #] [stage #]

There are 4 worlds. World 1 has 8 stages, world 2 has 21 stages, and world 3 has 27 stages. I do not know how many stages world 4 has. Sometimes stages can be skipped. You can start at the beginning of any world by using a password: DRAGON (2), SLAYER (3), or RUGGER (4).


CONTROLS:
D-pad ...................... move your cursor; move your character
select ..................... ??
start ...................... pause
A .......................... shoot lasers (only if you have "-5-" at the top of your screen AND at least one black bar)
B .......................... jump (if you have "-4-" or "-5-" at the top of your screen)
A + D-pad simultaneously .... kick stuff
select + B simultaneously ... lose a life and start the level over


OPTIONS:
None.


CREDITS:
on title screen:
    CYRAID™
    ©1990 EPOCH CO., LTD.
    PRESENTED BY NEXOFT
    LICENSED BY NINTENDO

Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)