July Together Retro: Nintendo Virtual Boy Exclusives

[Exhuminator]

Hey, for anyone that ordered glasses, what did you end up getting?

I ordered Nvidia brand ones a few years ago for this purpose:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004HN2U7W/

I got that specific pair because they fit over my prescription glasses.
I see mixed reviews, but they work well enough for me.

-

Jack Bros - initial takeaway was pretty mixed. I'll at least give it another go before the month is up.

I'm glad you played it. I beat it last year myself and had a good time. I can understand how it could be not fun to someone else though. I thought the maze/key rush premise was fun, I liked the OST, the multi-tier stage layouts used the 3D effect well, and the plot was cute. I used Jack Skelton to beat the game btw.

-

I'm planning to beat at least two VB games this week. Might even hit one up today. There's four I'm actually interested in. Which isn't too shabby considering how few VB games there are.

[Exhuminator]

Might even hit one up today.

And so I did, finished this over my lunch break:



Short and weird, but worth playing. Review here.

[dunpeal2064]

Nice, I was hoping someone else would play through that. Its a rather neat game, seems our experiences just about lined up. Its weird to find a game mostly average in its score, but still well worth playing, but Innsmouth is exactly that. I don't think anyone that sat down with it for this month's theme would leave disappointed.


I decided to try Jack Bros again today, and had a little more success with it.

PRO TIP: Don't play as the first character. I assumed he would be the most balanced, but he is terrible. Even if you perfect the first areas, you'll barely beat the boss within the time limit unless you use all your bombs. Don't let the rapid fire sway you!

Jack Skelton and his little knife have proved much more capable. Yeah, the range is short, but it can fire just as rapidly, and appears to do about 5x as much damage per hit.

Also, because my mapping was weird, I hadn't realized the game basically plays like a twin stick shooter, where each direction on the D-Pad fires in that direction. (The Navi-like tutorial fairy tells you this... on like Stage 4). This made the game a lot more fun to play.

I have a password save near the end of the game, and should be able to polish it off soon. I'm glad I stuck with it, since a lot of the frustration was due to user error, and I'm having a nice time now. (I still don't think the Timer=Health thing is good design, as dying without knowing it just sucks, but playing with a character that isn't garbage makes this more of an annoyance than an actual issue.)

[Sarge]

Dude, that helps a ton. I'm going to give that a shot, because Jack Bros. seems really cool. I'll have to make sure I've got the second d-pad mapped correctly.

[ESauced]

Which Virtual Boy games use the second d-pad?

[dunpeal2064]

From what I've played so far, Vertical Force used it to swap between options, Red Alarm used it for quick dashes in the direction, Innsmouth used it for aiming the crosshair, and Jack Bros used it for shooting.

[alienjesus]

From what I've played so far, Vertical Force used it to swap between options, Red Alarm used it for quick dashes in the direction, Innsmouth used it for aiming the crosshair, and Jack Bros used it for shooting.

Teleroboxer uses it to determine which type of punch your right hand does.

[lordb0rb4]

Man, that is awesome!
Hope you enjoy the game.

[Exhuminator]

I've finished another VB game:



It's 1995's Space Squash. Did you know this game got an English fan translation?



Windjammers + Super Glove Ball + Arkanoid = Space Squash

This was a pretty fun sports game, definitely in the upper tier of the VB's library.
My review's here.

I plan to finish Virtual Boy Wario Land next, then I'll be done with this TR. I hope some others join in before the end of the month.

[Exhuminator]

And today I finished...



1995's Virtual Boy Wario Land.

Wario's games are always B-tier compared to Mario's, but this one was above average for its series.
The review's here.

-

And I'm all done with this TR folks.

These are the VB games I beat:

Insmouse No Yakata
Space Squash
Virtual Boy Wario Land

Thanks for the VB TR Dsh, it was...



...informative and unique.

See you all in next month's TR; Orgy of the Furries.