Open Sesame!

With my older devises failing, I'm trying to save up for a new computer to 1) Continue running this blog cuz I won't write whole entries on my cell, and 2) Update my Chromatic and ModRetro games so I'm not stuck with any game-breaking glitches.  So I'm finishing the games I've already started to kill time till the big day comes.

Coincidentally, all the games mentioned each have a password system that lets the player pick up where they've left off.  In that regard, it's better to play on the R36S, which creates save states on the fly and likely has all these games emulated.

Sabrina: The Animated Series--Zapped! (GBC)

I was sure I mentioned this game once before but after so much time and so many unfinished drafts, not so much.  But just in case: Zapped! is one of 2 GBC titles based on the cartoon and developed by WayForward, the company behind personal favorite Shantae.  When Zapped! was rereleased by ModRetro, I tried it out on my R36S before I found the original cartridge for dirt-cheap.

The adventure begins when Sabrina's latest magical oopsie tranforms the entire student body into animals, and now she must sidescroll from school to the beach to the zoo to change them back.  Picking up power-ups to navigate each level, the player can switch from Sabrina to Salem the Cat to get to those hard-to-reach spots.   Short, easy to pick up, and having that colorful Shantae aesthetic, Zapped! is a welcome distraction from the rest of my backlog.

Wario Land II (GBC)

Having a backlit metal Game Boy like my Chromatic was the perfect excuse to dig my old cartridges out of storage, like this one.  Though already having Wario Land I-III on my 3DS and elsewhere, I love holding a physical product in my hands.  With that said, WLII comes in a black cartridge, meaning it's backwards compatible with the original Game Boy.  And because of that, I couldn't play on the Chromatic without first deleting the save data created while playing on the Game Boy.  Still with me?

Moving on, this is actually the first game in the series I've played up to the final level.  If I wasn't stuck searching for 4 specific baddies and beating them, I'm now stuck on the final boss, Captain Syrup (above), who drops enemies and bombs from above.  And the flames shooting up from the floor and sending me flying out of the room isn't helping.  Eventually, I did win.  What sucked the fun out it was that several secret levels were available to players who acquired pieces of a puzzle through minigames, which I failed to do.  And I'm not replaying the whole thing anytime soon.

Disney's Donald Duck: Goin' Quackers (GBC)

Developed by Ubisoft and Disney Interactive for multiple consoles, the Game Boy Color port marks my first unboxing of a game for that platform (if you don't count the Chromatic bundle).  Got it brand-new from eBay for cheap, still shrink-wrapped in its original, squished up box.

From the pic above you've got the game cart (sans the game case), the box, the instruction manual, a postcard with a survey from Ubisoft and a precautions booklet.  Though already having several ModRetro originals and Limited Run repro carts mint in box, opening this felt like digging up a time capsule whose contents come together to tell a story about a bygone era.  Had I dug up my original Game Boy Color and played some 90's tracks on YouTube, the vibe would've been perfect.

About the game: When Daisy is abducted by an evil wizard, Donald (left) runs all over the place chasing both with help from resident inventor Gyro (right).

An 8-bit port of a 3D game for PC and home consoles, of course Goin' Quackers was gonna have downgraded graphics and sound on the GBC, though I've seen and heard better on the same platform.  And I still haven't wrapped my head around the gameplay.  Apparently, the more Donald gets hit by enemies, the madder he gets, the stronger he becomes.  But get hit one time too many and you die.  Go figure.  I'll get back to this one in the foreseeable future.

Sabrina: The Animated Series--Spooked! (GBC)

That other game developed by WayForward for the same platform using the same IP, there's not much setting this apart from Zapped!  By comparison Spooked! feels like an unfinished version of the latter.  Instead of turning animals back to people, now you must search every corner of every level to recover the 3 gems needed to advance.  And if you lose a life, you lose said gems along with any power-ups.  That and I've missed every other jump in my time playing the game.  On the R36S, this is where those save states really come in handy.  In the end, I beat the game after a few sessions and I enjoyed it almost as much as Zapped!  This concludes my latest gaming blog.

Join me next time as I crack open another title that I've had my heart set on for a good long while.  If you've made to this point, thank you for reading and I hope you have a great day.  Till next time, stay safe.