July Together Retro: Nintendo Virtual Boy Exclusives

[lordb0rb4]

Today a played and beat Mario's Tennis and enjoyed more than i firstly anticipated, it takes a bit to get used to the distance of the ball but once you get the grip it is fun and challenging.



Played a bit more of Wario as well and beat this boss:

Nice little game guys, make sure you all give it a go.Short and sweet.

[Sarge]

From what I played of Red Alarm last night, I might argue that you need the 3D; those wireframe graphics can be hard to parse otherwise.

[dunpeal2064]

Alright, first VB game in the bag, Vertical Force.

It turns out, in my little test run to see how the glasses worked, I was nearly done with the game. Its technically 5 levels long, but only 3 of them are "full length" (Maybe 3 minutes long?), Stage 4 is a little half stage, and Stage 5 is just the final bosses.

The game is alright. Moving between planes is fun, particularly when doing so to dodge around big boss attacks or stage obstacles. The weapon system (Wide, Laser, Shield) seems a little weak, as the game isn't mean enough to make shield ever worth, so you just do the typical "Wide Stages, Laser Bosses" thing. Weapons only power up twice, and never really feel awesome to use, but they suffice. You do get to carry over your current weapon level when you switch, so thats neat.

The biggest standout for the game (Other than the 3D stuff) are the pods, which you pick up as little powerups. There are a few different kinds, though they all seemed to do nearly the same thing, which is home directly to enemies and mow them down, even on different planes. You can also carry multiples of these, so once you lose one, you just swap to another. They have a life bar, and can be detonated as a smart bomb. These little things are neat, but are also way too strong. Taking just one pod into the final boss skips like half of his phases, two pretty much gives you the fight for free.

I think Vertical Force's highlights are its bosses, which are rather impressive in size/sprite detail at times, and can have some neat attacks. The last boss in particular is quite fun to fight, and is a multiform mecha/ship thing that looks rad. Its stages, for the most part, are pretty bland. Difficulty balance is terrible, as you can pretty much sleep through the first 3 stages, and then stage 4 just tries to steal your credit. Luckily its only like 50 seconds long, and a pod mixed with plane swapping can avoid the nonsense it suddenly throws at you. I got a pretty big Compile vibe/influence from this game, which isn't so good for me, but might be cool for others.

I liked Vertical Force enough to play through it twice, once for the clear, and a 2nd time to snag the pretty easy 1cc. I doubt I'll return to it, but I'm glad I played it at least. Feels like a 5/10 game, but its short and competent enough to be worth checking out imo, if you like the genre.

[BoneSnapDeez]

I'm maybe a third of the way through Virtual Boy Wario Land. Dank game. I like it.

I finished the original GB Wario Land immediately before playing this one,and I already like the VB installment way more.

[dunpeal2064]

I finished the original GB Wario Land immediately before playing this one,and I already like the VB installment way more.

I think I'm around the same point (Stage 6), and I'd agree that it pretty quickly surpasses the first game. VB Wario Land keeps throwing cool new ideas out there every level so far. I also recall hearing that this game only really used 3D for the plane switching, but its done quite a bit with it. Heck, even Wario's sprite is in a few planes, let alone the enemies and bosses that make use of both, and some cool sceneries that seem to have a good 5+ layers.

[alienjesus]

I'm ready to get going!

[alienjesus]

Double posting, sorry!

So I just sat down and played Vertical Force.

Let me tell you something about Vertical Force that I didn't know until today - it has infinite continues.

And so I pushed on through and beat it. It was pretty good, but it's let down by how Easy difficulty is too easy, yet normal difficulty bosses are just complete bullet sponges that take way, way, way too long to beat.

I quite liked it overall, but it's not really an experience that you couldn't have on another system (as is the unfortunate case with most of the VB library).

[dunpeal2064]

D normal difficulty bosses are just complete bullet sponges that take way, way, way too long to beat.

Yeah, I assume they did this to try to balance having a pod against them. Sadly it didn't work well, since with a pod they still die too fast, and without one (And especially with powered down weapons, and hits power you down) the bosses take forever.

[alienjesus]

D normal difficulty bosses are just complete bullet sponges that take way, way, way too long to beat.

Yeah, I assume they did this to try to balance having a pod against them. Sadly it didn't work well, since with a pod they still die too fast, and without one (And especially with powered down weapons, and hits power you down) the bosses take forever.

I fought most of them with a pod and powered up and they massively overcompensated - it takes like 10 minutes to kill the stage 4 boss.

[lordb0rb4]

I'm ready to get going!

You're killing me AJ, nice selection man, i'm going to try the SHUMP as well, as soon as i'm done with Wario.