Donkey Kong Country (GBA) Retro Review

I must be in a monkey kind of mood this month, specifically with Nintendo's grand gorilla, the mighty Donkey Kong! Earlier this month we took a look at the updated HD remaster of Donkey Kong Country Returns on the Nintendo Switch. Now, we're going further back in time with the OG Donkey Kong Country, except this time the Game Boy Advance version. How does it shape up? Let's find out with the SuperPhillip Central review!

Jungle Hi-Jinks in the palm of your hand.

1994 saw a wonderful partnership between Nintendo and Rareware blossom fully into something truly beautiful with their collaboration and the birth of Donkey Kong Country. It was an exciting time for platforming fans, and the rendered visuals of the game and sophisticated (and damn terrific) music helped set the Super Nintendo apart from its fierce competition at the time. Rare was on a tear back then, coming out with two sequels the following two years, and the quality was arguably even greater. 

In some ways it still blows my mind that today we get console-quality games in handheld/portable form, so you can bet it was earth-shattering to me that a home console game like Donkey Kong Country could be ported to a tiny handheld like the Game Boy Advance. Nowadays, we wouldn't get anywhere as near as many concessions as this version of the game has, but back in the day, it was really neat... in theory. That said, after finally playing the Game Boy Advance port of Donkey Kong Country, no doubt there are better examples of Super Nintendo games that successfully made the transition to handheld form. Though certainly not for a lack of trying.

Donkey Kong Country's Game Boy Advance port immediately brings something new to the table upon starting a new save file--that of an opening. The Super Nintendo original's story was limited to that of reading it in the instruction manual (I miss those), but in the GBA version, we see that Donkey Kong asks his main man--er... monkey, Diddy, to watch over his banana hoard while he takes a nap. King K. Rool's Kremling army shortly enters into the cavern where the hoard is located and promptly takes Diddy down, pilfering the potassium-rich goodies in the process. 

Cranky Kong, who by the by, has lost a lot of his fun, snarky bite when compared to the SNES original, wakes Donkey Kong up, reveals what has transpired, and sees DK shoving off to locate his bananas all over DK Isle. 

The opening does give some added context to the game, but even still, the Game Boy Advance saw its games include instruction manuals where the game's story and background could have easily been displayed regardless. The added story elements don't end with the opening, as there are dialogue scenes post-boss battles, too. These aren't very worthwhile either and do best in just slowing down the pacing of the game. 

Immediately getting into some jungle hi-jinks within the first level of the game.

Regardless, the tried and true gameplay of Donkey Kong Country is here and accounted for. You play as Donkey Kong and quite quickly save Diddy Kong from inside a DK Barrel. Said special barrels will bring back either DK or Diddy into the fold. Since it's one-hit KOs for each character, if both characters are together, it's essentially like the original Super Mario Bros., where taking damage loses a power-up, or in DKC's case, either DK or Diddy. If another hit is taken (in SMB's terms, you're hit as small Mario, or in DKC's terms, you're hit by your lonesome without your platforming partner), a life is lost and you have to continue from either the start of the level or a checkpoint barrel.

These Kremlings certainly know how to hop to it.

Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong can tag each other in, changing which character the player currently controls. This has its use cases. For example, Donkey Kong is much heavier than Diddy Kong, so while DK may not be as agile or quick on his feet, his weighty presence does allow him to defeat enemies that Diddy simply bounces off of or would require throwing a barrel at them to beat. 

While many games house poor swimming stages, I enjoy them within the Donkey Kong Country series.

Another difference is in how the characters hold barrels. DK holds them over his head, whereas Diddy holds them directly in front. This might seem like a negligible difference, but it's important when trying to carry a barrel through a horde of enemies. If enemies are overhead, DK's held barrel will most likely burst open, defeating the enemy, but also losing the barrel, of course. 

I mention this part because levels house plentiful secrets in the form of bonus areas. Many of these bonus areas can only be accessed through throwing or running a barrel into a special wall, blasting it open, allowing DK and Diddy to enter inside. New to the Game Boy Advance version is that of intros to the bonus stages, briefly detailing the goal of each bonus stage, such as collecting prizes in the form of bananas, reaching the exit, etc. Barrel cannons that launch DK and Diddy to bonus areas have the letter "B" on them, much like the SNES sequels have, a change compared to the OG DKC on the same platform.

DK rolls out the steel barrel for this Kremling. What a gracious host!

There is also an incentive to collect the four K-O-N-G letters in each level. Unlike the SNES original, these are tracked in the level list accessed from the pause menu. You can also see how many bonus areas are in each level and how many you've discovered. Doing these tasks in all levels unlocks artwork in the gallery. You also unlock new artwork by finding blue camera collectibles in levels and from defeating enemies in certain ways, such as beating the strongest normal Kremling, Krusha, while riding Rambi the Rhino, for instance. There are over 50 unique pieces of artwork, so this adds some longevity and added replay value to the game.

K-O-N-G letters: Not just for 1-ups anymore!

Another new aspect to Donkey Kong Country's Game Boy Advance port, and related to the aforementioned artwork in the gallery, is that of mini-games. Both Funky Kong and Candy Kong host their respective games. Whereas Funky Kong's locations on the world map still grant the ability to fly between already-played worlds, Candy Kong's stall is all about her mini-game, as saving can be done any time on the map. This is of course helpful for portable play, where you can play a level and then put your game down for a bit for some bite-sized fun when possible. 

Funky's mini-game involve moving your Kong along Enguarde the Swordfish as you fish up specific catches in the water within a time limit. Fishing up the wrong catch takes time away from the clock, while fishing up the same catch in batches is how to succeed. Meanwhile, Candy Kong's mini-game has you pressing buttons in time to the music, and if you genuinely lack a satisfactory level of rhythm like I do, you can just watch the proper button or D-pad direction move along the screen and press it when it enters the target range. Successfully completing each mini-game in each world unlocks new artwork for the gallery as well. Cranky Kong also sets up his cabin in each world, and he basically serves a similar role like the Super Nintendo original, providing hints, though this time to not just bonus stage locations but how to obtain new artwork images as well.

Are we in the groove, or did we all just step in some Kremling poop?

While all these bonuses and new additions are indeed nice, an issue, though, and the Elle the Elephant in the room is that the game is massively compromised on the Game Boy Advance hardware and watered down in presentation, which was arguably one of the most impressive aspects of the Super Nintendo original when it launched in 1994. What you have is somewhere graphically between the Super Nintendo original and the Game Boy Color port, with the Game Boy Advance version coming in much closer to the GBC port than anything else. The level of detail is nowhere near its SNES brethren, which is understandable since the GBA is not exactly a portable SNES in tech, but where things get super disappointing is with the soundtrack. The Game Boy Advance's weak soundchip does little justice to the original SNES music. It's a pale imitation in some aspects.

The visual and audio experience on DKC's GBA port is definitely a downgrade.

Furthermore, there is a gameplay issue that was not in the Super Nintendo version either. In the SNES version, the camera was generally locked to certain parts of levels. In the Game Boy Advance version, the camera focuses on DK and Diddy, meaning that when they jump, the camera follows them. This means that if you make a high leap, you basically have initiated a blind jump, as the camera scrolls up and doesn't show where you're about to land until it's close to too late. This was not a problem in the Super Nintendo original, so it makes for some cheap moments where death by pit happen more than I would have liked and more than the developer probably intended with the Game Boy Advance version.

Not going to let this monkey make a monkey out of Diddy! 
Well, technically, Diddy IS a monkey, but still! You know what I mean!

Otherwise, this is a very similar game to the Super Nintendo version, offering the familiar fun gameplay and superb level design brimming with secrets, iterating on mechanics, gimmicks, and concepts, and bringing with it a usually fair challenge, as well. Yes, the start of the fourth world in the game, Gorilla Glacier, remains an incredible spike in difficulty that quickly resolves itself and settles back down, but overall, the difficulty curve is otherwise gentle. This is still a challenging platformer, but not to the level of say, Donkey Kong Country Returns on the Wii, the 3DS, and recently the HD version on the Switch. 

If you've played the original Donkey Kong Country countless times through the years like I have, and you want a different take on the original DKC, then the Game Boy Advance port of Donkey Kong Country is worthwhile and serviceable enough. The new additions in the form of new story elements, increased replay value through collecting all of the gallery images in the game, and some of quality of life changes don't exactly make up for the lackluster implementation of the presentation or the camera issues, but it does make for a fresh take on Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong's first adventure together. Back in 1994 it was the beginning of a beautiful new direction for Donkey Kong, both to look at and obviously to play, and the Game Boy Advance doesn't do a horrible job at emulating that; it just doesn't exactly do a great job either.

[SPC Says: C+] 

Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3 (GBA, NSO) Retro Review

We're continuing our Mario retro review theme from a few weeks ago with a look at one of Mario's greatest 2D adventures turned portable on the Game Boy Advance. It also received a release on Nintendo Switch Online's Expansion Pass. I'm talking about Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3. 

The Mushroom Kingdom cast takes stage once more for a riveting encore performance.

In what must be one of the more absurd naming conventions in gaming history, the Super Mario Advance series saw its fourth entry--this time featuring the third Super Mario Bros. game in all of its remade Super Mario All-Stars glory--with Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3. Of course, Super Mario Bros. 2 was Super Mario Advance, while Super Mario World (aka Super Mario Bros. 4 in Japan) was Super Mario Advance 2, and the completely different series, Yoshi's Island, was Super Mario Advance 3, because Nintendo makes no sense sometimes. Just like calling the Wii successor the Wii U, or calling a revised Nintendo 3DS the NEW Nintendo 3DS XL.

Anyway, mini rant over. Super Mario Advance 4 isn't just the original Super Mario Bros. 3 with the Super Nintendo-style visuals from Super Mario All-Stars. Even still, it'd be a pretty sweet package, if not a bit bare content-wise. In addition to the main game, there is of course Mario Bros., a mainstay of the Super Mario Advance line, but more interestingly, Nintendo added power-ups and even MORE interestingly, never-before-seen levels that could be added to the game via the e-Reader peripheral for the Game Boy Advance original version. The Nintendo Switch Online version comes with them already available in a separate menu. More on those levels later.

Every great platforming adventure has to start somewhere.
Super Mario Bros. 3 begins here in Grass Land's first level.

As for the base Super Mario Bros. 3 game, it's just as fantastic as it's always been. It presents players with over 80 levels of platforming nirvana. The game begins with the easy and breezy Grass Land that helps players find and establish their footing as well as their running and jumping groove. It features simple-enough courses with minimal bottomless pits, not-so-tricky enemy positions, and coins and power-ups aplenty.

World 2, Desert Land, immediately turns up the heat in more ways than one.

From there, the game gets increasingly more complex with worlds with multiple more levels to them on their individual maps. Some of these can be avoided, but in order to get that much-desired "World Complete", you do have to beat every level on a given world's map. Mario and/or Luigi will see themselves braving dangerous deserts (with one infamous level home to a particularly angry Sun), diving into the ocean depths, facing enemies and obstacles of giant proportions, taking a trip to the skies above, chilling out in an ice world, finding their way through a pipe maze, all before reaching the kingdom of Bowser himself in hopes of rescuing Princess Peach. 

Giant Land will have you wondering what Bowser feeds his troops here! Aren't you all big!

Levels include basic left-to-right courses, but also some vertical ones, as well as auto-scrolling courses too, particularly the auto-scrolling airships that round out almost every world save for the last. The levels in general are usually short affairs, able to be run through within a minute or so each, if you're keeping a good pace. This is a positive aspect, as there are no checkpoints in levels, meaning that if you make a costly mistake in a level, you start from the beginning of it. The brevity of levels means that you won't have to make up too much progress with each attempt, and with some of these levels, especially later levels, you'll be making a LOT of attempts.

These auto-scrolling levels, especially in the final world, can make anyone can-"tank"-erous!

Super Mario Bros. 3 is a challenging game. It's by no means "NES Hard", a term coined by fans and players of the era, but it's also not a cakewalk either. With the Super Mario Advance 4 version, niceties like save anywhere, being able to stockpile more power-ups and items in your inventory to use on the map (collected from Toad Houses, Hammer Bros (or some variant of Bro) battles, and other methods from each world's map), and the ability to revisit worlds make for a less frustrating, less agonizing experience.

Mario's "nope-ing" out of being here faster than you can say that enemy's name!

Speaking of challenging levels, perhaps the most intriguing part of the Super Mario Bros. 3 and Mario Bros. package (the latter of which has been in every Super Mario Advance game prior, so it's really well-trodden territory at this point) is that of e-Reader bonus content. Think of it as DLC via scannable cards courtesy of an old Game Boy Advance peripheral--you guessed it, the e-Reader. Thankfully, the recently released Nintendo Switch Online version of the game arrived with the major part of the e-Reader's functionality--new levels made specifically for Super Mario Advance 4--already included. 

It's difficult to speak the importance of all-new 2D Mario levels for when this game originally released. The last full 2D Mario game released prior to the Super Mario Advance series and this fourth installment was Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins waaaay back in 1992. Note: I'm talking about a game with a fully playable Mario, so my apologies to Yoshi's Island, even though one can make a very well presented argument of the contrary. That said, until Super Mario Advance 4, all entries in the Advance series featured no new levels at all, so this was a pretty big deal in many ways. We wouldn't get a new 2D Mario until New Super Mario Bros., which was event unto itself, but I digress there!

The over 30 unique levels featured as essentially bonus DLC to Super Mario Advance 4 are quite extensive and elaborate levels. They're also some of the most difficult in Mario series history. Much like Super Mario Bros. 3's base levels, these e-Reader ones feature no checkpoints, which can make them more frustrating to tackle. This is especially so if you're searching high and low for Advance Coins in each level, or in some levels, the super-hidden, hard-to-reach e-Reader Coins. 

Either way, levels basically take everything from past Super Mario Advance games. Some levels feature plucking up vegetables from the ground or digging into sand a la Super Mario Bros. 2 (aka the original Super Mario Advance), while others feature power-ups like Super Mario Advance 2: Super Mario World's Cape Feather, enemies like Bumptys of Super Mario World 2: Super Mario Advance 3 fame, and even some challenges grabbed straight from Super Mario Bros. 3, only made harder--like a battle with TWO Boom-Booms as opposed to the usual one. 

Hey! You're in the wrong game! ..Aren't you? I guess the rulebook is thrown out of the window in these e-Reader levels!

Super Mario Advance 4 has a similar presentation to that of the Super Mario All-Stars version back on the Super Nintendo. Essentially the visuals were taken almost 1:1 directly from that compilation, much like Super Mario Advance's version of Super Mario Bros. 2. There are some added effects as well as some missing ones, too. The major difference is that of sound. If you're not a stranger to the GBA hardware, particularly that sound chip, then you are familiar with how tinny the monaural sound and music can be. The music is lesser quality than the Super Nintendo version of Super Mario Bros. 3, but serviceable yet as always, suitably catchy as well. Like past Super Mario Advance games, Nintendo laid it thick on the voice clips, so be ready to hear "Just what I needed" from Mario a few hundred times throughout your adventures together.

One of the lovely but perilous world maps Mario/Luigi will find themselves venturing along.

Overall, Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3 unquestionably had the most love and care put into it by virtue of the endearingly made bonus levels originally an e-Reader exclusive. Now, with an NSO Expansion subscription, one need not track down packs of cards hoping to get something good out of them. As stated earlier, instead they're all within the game as is. With tight controls that one would expect from the Super Mario series, over 100 levels to enjoy (and curse towards, at times, admittedly), and one of Mario's finest adventures in handheld form, Super Mario Bros. 3 shines like the portly plumber racing through a level with a Starman--colorful and brightly, making Super Mario Advance 4 a fantastic package for any SMB3 or platforming fan in general.

[SPC Says: A]

Bomberman Tournament (GBA) Retro Review

As we approach Christmas, SuperPhillip Central is filling your stocking with a bunch of new reviews! Last night we took a look at the lightning quick FAST Racing Neo. Today, it seems this month of Game Boy Advance retro reviews continues with a fallen gaming icon, Bomberman. Here's my review of the retro wonder, Bomberman Tournament.

A short fuse, but a satisfying blast

It's a common saying and sentiment that you don't know what you've got until it's gone. That's no truer than with Hudson Soft and its Bomberman franchise. Many of us certainly took for granted the series and how it might not always be there for us to enjoy. I mean, the series saw regular releases on a variety of platforms, often with more than one game on a given console or handheld. Now, Konami owns Bomberman, and the publisher has not done much to bring the White Bomber back into the gaming sphere. Thus, the only recourse is to play past Bomberman games, and that's exactly why I took my Game Boy Advance out of storage and played the very first Bomberman game to hit the system, Bomberman Tournament. Not just offering the traditional bomb-and-get-blasted multiplayer mayhem the series is well known for, but also a single player quest mode, Bomberman Tournament delivers explosive action in portable form.

The main attraction to Bomberman games is the multiplayer mode, and it is present and accounted for in Bomberman Tournament. If you possess a series of link cables, you can link up to four Game Boy Advances together to play Bomberman Tournament's bounty of multiplayer goodness. With eight arenas to choose from, you can bomb one another in an arena infested with killer landmines, an arena set on the moon containing portals that warp players across the map, or take one another out in a standard arena with no frills. You can play with just one cartridge between all players, but it's recommended that everyone involved in your bombing bonanza has a cartridge because of the otherwise nasty load times.

This moon map is full of portals to warp players around its reaches.

For those who don't know of the entertainment that the multiplayer of the Bomberman series delivers, it's all in how simple it is. You have four combatants on opposite corners of a small arena. Through planting bombs and destroying objects, you gain power-ups like being able to set more than one bomb at a time, extra firepower, or the ability to kick or throw bombs. The goal of a multiplayer match is to trap your opponent so they have no choice but to be obliterated by the blast radius of a given bomb. The last player standing wins the round.

Of course, if you lack multiple friends who own Game Boy Advances and link cables, you can always play Battle Mode with computer opponents, selecting one of three difficulty levels for them. The choices don't end there with rounds either, offering the ability to choose how long each round is, if there is a tiebreak rule involved, whether bombed players can seek revenge on living ones, and much more.

If the Battle Mode doesn't appeal to you as a solo player, you can always try out the Quest Mode, a single player excursion lasting about a dozen hours or so. What you get is a nice combination of Legend of Zelda field, dungeon, and town exploration, as well as some Pokemon-inspired monster collecting and battling.

Occasionally, Bomberman enjoys the country life.

The story is as follows: Bomberman is sent to planet Phantarion with information that it is under attack by the nefarious Brain Bomber. Along the way he'll encounter enemies both large and small, friendly faces, new power-ups to claim, dungeons rife with peril and puzzles, and multiple bosses to defeat.

Quest Mode's real drawback is something that is mitigated after the first couple of hours. You see, at the beginning of the mode, you have but three hearts to work with and an unimpressive number of bombs and firepower. This makes dying very easy, and since there is no auto-save feature in Bomberman Tournament, if you aren't saving every couple of minutes, you can lose a lot of progress. This is because losing all your health results in a game over, forcing you to restart from the last point you saved at.

Furthermore, enemies move around a lot. When you have just one bomb you can place on the map at a given time with such a low blast radius, it can be hard to take them out quickly. In fact, it can be maddening trying to defeat the simplest of foes at the beginning of the game.

Taking care of weeds can be a menial job, but someone's got to do it.

Still, Quest Mode is an engaging experience. You get items and ability-granting karabon monsters to make progress on planet Phantarion. The latter not only allows you to do things like dive underwater, cross small gaps, and see in the dark, but karabons can also be used in battle. While these battles are nowhere near as deep as what you'd find in Pokemon (you select a karabon and three attack strategies before the battle even begins, and luck needs to be on your side), they are an enjoyable part of the Bomberman Tournament experience. Collecting all 25 is a fun task, as not all of the karabons are necessary to beat the game.

The main event: Pommy versus Dorako!
Let's get ready to RUMMMBBLLE!

When you're not traveling around the fields of Bomberman Tournament's Quest Mode, you'll be entering one of many puzzle-filled dungeons. These feel very much like The Legend of Zelda, complete with one screen-wide rooms, simple puzzles to solve such as hitting or bombing buttons to open locked doors, acquiring maps, finding treasure, and beating the boss at the end of the dungeon to acquire a heart to add to Bomberman's health.

Bomberman Tournament is a vibrant game with impressive character sprites and pleasant looking environments and objects. The amount of detail in the sprites is quite good, delivering a nice game to the eyes. The music is generally bright and cheery when you'd expect it to be, and suitably foreboding for boss fights and dungeons. What you have with Bomberman Tournament is a pleasing presentation package that does the Game Boy Advance hardware well.

Bomberman Tournament is a pleasure to look at as it's easy on the eyes.

If you're looking for a lesser-known Bomberman game that released close to the Game Boy Advance's launch, then Bomberman Tournament is a good pick. While the Quest Mode is slow to start off before things pick up, it's well worth trying out. The multiplayer mode is as big of a blast as any other in a Bomberman game. While Bomberman Tournament won't blow your mind, this game is certainly no dud.

[SPC Says: B-]

Banjo Pilot (GBA) Retro Review

Banjo Pilot has a storied history to it, but is all that work that Rare put into the game make for one worth playing? That's what I intend to find out with my Banjo Pilot retro review. 

(The attached images provided come from Nintendo World Report.)

Banjo and friends take flight in what was a long-awaited Game Boy Advance racer.

More than a decade ago, UK based developer Rare was working on multiple projects for a little handheld from Nintendo known as the Game Boy Advance. When Nintendo decided not to buy the founders of Rare, the Stamper brothers' shares of Rare, Microsoft purchased the company. Rare still had several unreleased projects for the GBA, including games like Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge and a racing game featuring Diddy Kong and his friends, Diddy Kong Pilot. 

Because Rare no longer had the rights to the Donkey Kong characters or franchise, and because Microsoft had no competition with Nintendo's handhelds, Diddy Kong Pilot was retooled for several years as Banjo Pilot. The game finally came out in 2005, many years after it was originally announced, and the end result is something that is content-rich but suffers from a few tailspins. 

Banjo and Klungo jockey for first place in Spiral Mountain,
the first track of the very first Grand Prix.

Banjo Pilot forgoes the typical karts that are so popular in games of the arcade racing style, and instead it takes to the sky with every character racing in miniature airplanes. Starting off, Banjo, Kazooie, Mumbo Jumbo, and Jinjo are unlocked to race as. Through completing cups, new racers are available to purchase with pages delivered back to Cheato, earned through finishing races. 

The starting roster is a bit bare, but unlocking characters
is a fast and fun process.

As a racing game of this type usually has, there are sixteen tracks total in Banjo Pilot. These range from trips to worlds from Banjo-Kazooie, Banjo-Tooie, and even Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge, the bear and bird's first arrival on the Game Boy Advance. Tracks range from familiar locales like Spiral Mountain, Treasure Trove Cove, Freezeey Peak, Gobi's Valley, Witchyworld, and more. However, despite the different venues of the tracks, all of them pretty much sport the same obstacles, such as trees on the track (or a rare camel instead) and boost rings that give a jolt of speed to whoever flies through them.

I remember traversing that pillar in the background
in Banjo-Kazooie's Treasure Trove Cove!

Flight really doesn't change too much in the way races play out. There is the occasional aforementioned boost ring that is at a different height than the last, requiring moving upward, but for the most part, it's a basic novelty and nothing more. Since you can fly, you might wonder how you're forced to stay on the track since this is a Mode 7 game, there are no walls on the tracks to prevent going off course. That said, merely flying over a section of ground that isn't the track will slow you down immensely, eventually causing you to crash. 

Freezeey Peak looks as frigid as ever in Banjo Pilot.

Items are a traditional part of kart racers and games of that genre's ilk, and Banjo Pilot really does nothing to separate itself from the pack here. There are a pair of shoes that give a temporary speed boost when used, a golden feather that serves as invincibility for a limited time, fire red homing eggs, ice eggs that leave a frozen ice cube in the air that will significantly slow down anyone that collides into it, among other items. For items on your trail, you can utilize an ice egg to block the attack, or you can opt to make like Peppy Hare and do a barrel roll. Though this takes a proper amount of timing to get down. Doing it correctly will result in a boost.

While the tracks, flight gimmick, and items are not much to get excited about, Banjo Pilot houses a large amount of modes to keep players soaring the (un)friendly skies. There are four different Grand Prix modes that can be unlocked. Generally, each one consists of four races with the winning racer being the one who earns the most points by the end. After a set of four races and a successful win, you are engaged in an aerial dogfight along a linear path with a boss character. The first combatant to empty the other's health gauge is the winner. 

Alongside the Grand Prix mode is a mode called Jiggy Challenge, where you're tasked with collecting six golden jigsaw pieces sprinkled along each track as well as needing to beat an AI racer at the same time. With 32 tracks to do so, 16 standard tracks and 16 reversed, this is a mode that will take some time to complete, but the reward (the best character in the game) is well worth it.

The skies are quite crowded in Jolly Roger's Bay.

Banjo Pilot looks wonderfully colorful and has impressive Mode 7 graphics. The backgrounds are the true highlight of the game, offering such a diverse amount of eye candy in such brilliant detail. The music is no doubt a byproduct of the game when it was known as Diddy Kong Pilot, most notably so when you hear the character select music. It has plenty of chimp oohs and eeks to it. 

Thus, you have a game that might not be the most innovative or one with physics that are the greatest on the platform, but you have a content-rich racer that will last solo gamers a good while, at least more than similar games on the Game Boy Advance. While there are some frustrations like annoying rubber-band AI and repetitive track design, Banjo Pilot can be considered a good prospect for fans of arcade racing. It may not have been worth the five year wait, but at least Banjo and friends didn't receive a crash landing.

[SPC Says: C+]

Drill Dozer (GBA) Retro Review

Yesterday we took a look at a Game Boy Advance launch game. Today, we take a look at a Game Boy Advance game that released at the end of its life, Drill Dozer. Including a rumble feature right in the game cartridge, this atypical 2D platformer is definitely worth a look. Learn why with my review.

Drill, Jill baby, drill!

In 2004, the Nintendo DS launched in most territories. That gave the Game Boy Advance, Nintendo's previous handheld, a brief four years on the market to itself. That meant that many games released after the DS's launch were overlooked, especially Drill Dozer, a game released more than a year after the DS and one developed by Game Freak, the developer behind the Pokemon games. This also meant that many overlooked Drill Dozer when it launched on the Game Boy Advance. It's my duty, then, here today, to explain why it was such a shame that Drill Dozer slipped through the cracks into obscurity on the GBA and in gaming in general.

Drill Dozer stars Jill, who has been made the temporary boss of a gang of bandits known as the Red Dozers after her father, Doug, was incapacitated by the rival Skullkers gang. The gang also stole a Red Diamond, a gift that was given to Jill by her dead mother. It's up to Jill and the Red Dozers to get the diamond back, and along the way they meet an eccentric cast of characters, multiple other diamonds, and multiple areas of drilling fun.

It'll take more than a robot with a scorpion tail to stop Jill.

Drill Dozer is an atypical 2D platformer. While it utilizes the basic jumping of a traditional platformer, the foundation of the gameplay comes from the machine Jill rides around in, the titular Drill Dozer. With the L and R buttons, you can turn on the drill, utilizing Jill's drill in a myriad of ways. Each level has Jill starting with a relatively weak drill that can't be used for too long at one time. As you come across new gears found in drill boxes, you can not only drill longer, but your drill can shift gears. Doing this can make the drill bore through more powerful objects that it otherwise wouldn't be able to drill through. The drill can also be used to defend against enemy bullets.

Jill's Drill Dozer isn't the best jumper,
but it gets the job done.

A lot of platforming and traversal is done using Jill's drill as well. The R button drills forward while the L button drills backwards. Utilizing these in tandem is just one way Drill Dozer tasks players with getting through the game. In one level, Metal City, there are wall cleaners that once drilled into with one shoulder button, you use the opposite shoulder button to be launched high into the air. Special yellow jelly blocks are also an interact-able object that Jill needs to use her drill on to progress in the game.

Jill can shift gears up to three times once both
red gears in a level have been acquired.

Like the wall cleaners of Metal City, drilling into the jelly blocks with one shoulder button and then using the opposite button shoots Jill's Drill Dozer backwards, at a slightly higher arc. There are plenty of instances where Jill must use multiple jelly blocks one after the other to reach a higher platform within the game. Shifting into second or third gear while drilled into a jelly block makes it so Jill is launched farther horizontally, great for getting across pits and chasms.

Outside of typical levels on land, there are a duo of levels that have Jill taking to the sky and the sunken depths. Here, the principles of drilling are a bit of different. In water, using the drill moves Jill forward through the water in the direction she is facing. What's more difficult is Drill Dozer's way of handling flight. Drilling raises Jill upwards, and it's important to shift gears when possible to keep rising up. Additionally, you can hold the L and R buttons together to remain stationary and hover horizontally. The controls are a bit tricky to get a handle on, and the boss of the flight level demands proficient precision and handling of the flight controls, making for a very frustrating first few goes at the boss.

On some occasions. Jill will have to defeat all
enemies in order to move on.

Of course, it's not just environmental objects that Jill's drill needs to be used on to get through Drill Dozer's over fifteen levels. There are a number of different enemies and bosses that the drill is to be used on to beat these crafty foes. One boss in the Kuru Ruins requires Jill to drill the boss' arm, and when the arm moves over the boss' head, Jill needs to disconnect from the arm and land on the head to do damage to the boss.

This boss left itself open to an attack in its torso.

Drill Dozer consists of usually two levels per area of the game with six areas total. Levels are generally lengthy affairs, which may seem counter-intuitive for a handheld game, but the luxury here is that you can save and continue or save and quit at any time. This allows you to continue from the current room you last saved at. Drill Dozer also asks if you'd like to save your game data after each level has been completed, so there's no worry about forgetting to save in one of the game's three save files.

Aside from being able to save, between levels you can check Jill's Drill Dozer's equipment, buy upgrades at the shop, and check out treasures collected. The shop upgrades consist of more health energy for Jill's machine, stronger drills to bore through things like titanium boxes, and maps that unlock secret levels within the game. These levels are the most challenging of Drill Dozer, requiring you to have keen knowledge and ability with how to use Jill's drill to its greatest potential. There are a profusion of challenging platforming sections that will test even the greatest Drill Dozer expert.

In each level there are treasure chests to be found. Most of these cannot be reached before the game is completed, as the drill required to reach the areas they are located in do not unlock until after Drill Dozer is initially beaten. There are over thirty treasures to collect, and through nabbing them, your bandit ranking increases. Starting off as a lowly thief, you can reach milestones like safecracker and more with the more treasure you grab your mitts on.

Two tanks? Talk about an unfair fight!

Drill Dozer's cartridge is a bit bigger than every other Game Boy Advance game pak. That's because it houses a rumble device that lets loose each time Jill drills into something. This effect might seem gimmicky, but it adds some strength and power to Jill's drilling. It feels quite nice. Not too strong, but not too weak as for the player who feels the rumble to not notice it.

The presentation of Drill Dozer is quite pleasant. This late release GBA game features beautiful 2D backgrounds and character sprites. The backgrounds are dripping with detail, while the sprites are articulated well. The music is capable enough, but for the most part, there's only about one or two songs that have stuck with me after playing.

Overall, Drill Dozer is an innovative platformer that had the misfortune of releasing after the Nintendo DS launch, making it overlooked by many who had moved on to Nintendo's dual screened system. That's quite the shame, as Drill Dozer is more than competent as a platformer and deserves attention. The game is a taste of Game Freak when they're not busy building Pokemon games, and it's a very delicious taste, for sure.

[SPC Says: B]

Konami Krazy Racers (GBA, Wii U VC) Retro Review

SuperPhillip Central's first review of the month is one that happens early this month instead of midway through like November. It's of the retro variety, and it's for a fun genre that I really enjoy, the kart racer. It's Konami Krazy Racers, and I thank goodness that the developers didn't call the game Konami Krazy Kart for acronym reasons.

So krazy of a kart racer that Konami needed to spell it with a "K"

Kart racers are my preferred racing experience. I love the arcade nature of it with goofy characters, crazy power-ups and items, and fantastical tracks to race on. I missed out on a notable kart racer at the Game Boy Advance's launch back in 2001, Konami Krazy Racers. Not only is it a competent kart racer, but it is also a nice look back at when Konami was still running on a cylinders as a gaming company and not the loathed-by-many one it is today.

As the title suggests, Konami Krazy Racers features an assortment of characters from Konami's various franchises. For instance, there is Goemon from the Legend of the Mystical Ninja franchise, Gray Fox from Metal Gear Solid, Dracula from Castlevania, and even Power Pro-kun from the MLB Power Pros series. The total number of characters in the game is 12 with four of those being unlockable through acquiring hidden diamonds on three of the races, and one unlocked through time trials on two of the game's tracks. Each character has its own attributes such as top speed, acceleration, and weight to consider when choosing a character that fits best with a given player's play style.

Go, go Goemon!

Along with the Konami characters that are featured in the game, the tracks also have a Konami theme too. There are tracks that take place in Dracula's Magma Castle, tracks that are full of Metal Gear Solid cardboard boxes to dodge, an MLB Power Pros-based track that has players driving around a large baseball diamond, and much more. The tracks consist of many twists and turns, jumps, hazards, and obstacles to avoid if you want to claim the first place prize.

Take flight with these oncoming jump pads.

Konami Krazy Racers plays really similarly to the original Super Mario Kart as well as the Game Boy Advance's own Mario Kart: Super Circuit. Mode 7 graphics are used to simulate three-dimensional racing, and this looks really good for an early GBA title, sporting a draw distance that allows you to prepare for oncoming obstacles, hazards and turns, as well as neat effects like reflections of racers and items on reflective surfaces of track.

The reflection of racers on the track is a nice touch.

The controls are also quite similar to the games that inspired Konami Krazy Racers with a button to accelerate, brake and reverse, bunny hop to leap over small chasms and to help with turning, as well as an item button. Controls are tight and feel excellently done. You never really feel that you're about to lose control, or at least when you make a driving error, it's your own mistake and not that of the game's.

Seventh place? This racer better make a squeeze play!

Any kooky kart racing game needs a steady supply of items to keep itself feeling interesting and fresh. Konami Krazy Racers has these, such as blue missiles that fire thrice in the direction the user is facing, a barrier that protects the user against items used by others, and a scooper drill that drills a hole in the ground, making anyone who passes over it fall into it. These item archetypes are again similar to what is found in Mario Kart, but if the kart isn't broke, why fix it?

There are four cups of four tracks each in Konami Krazy Racers. Progression is done by competing in a cup, getting first place, and then unlocking and passing a license test in order to unlock more cups and races. License tests consist of a variety of up to four challenges that need to be cleared in order to pass the test. Players start at the C class, and through completing tests after finishing up cups, they move on to B class, A class, and S class tests respectively. Such trials include beating the time of a given track, winning a one-on-one race with an AI opponent, or the occasional odd race-the-track backwards to beat a time while avoiding the other seven racers driving the opposite direction.

Dracula's castle can be viewed in the distance, set against a full moon.

There aren't multiple difficulties of races that need to be completed in Konami Krazy Racers like there are in the Mario Kart series. Instead, players can just pick the difficulty they'd like and stick with it throughout the game. This makes the process of clearing cups and passing license tests a short one. Sure, there are four hidden characters to unlock as touched on before, and there is a battle mode that pits players against three AI opponents, something that Mario Kart: Super Circuit lacks. However, doing everything there is in Konami Krazy Racers is not a long process, so unless you wish to just do races for the joy of it, there isn't much to the game to keep you playing for a lengthy time.

Konami Krazy Racers is a successful kart racer because it's a blast to play, doesn't suffer from too much in the way of a rubber-band AI, and has a colorful assortment to fun tracks to race on. The excitement might end prematurely, but if you're a fan of kooky kart racers, then Konami Krazy Racers is a solid one to go krazy over.

[SPC Says: B-]

Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge (GBA) Retro Review

Merry Christmas, everyone! For this special day, I have a new retro review of a game series that screams "Christmas!" to me. Each Banjo-Kazooie release I have received was around Christmas time, so that's why when Christmas and gaming are mentioned, I think of Banjo-Kazooie. This retro review is for the under-appreciated Game Boy Advance entry in the series, Grunty's Revenge.

Get Jiggy With It on the Small Screen

It was a big blow for Nintendo gamers when the news that Rareware, makers of such fantastic titles as the Donkey Kong Country, Diddy Kong Racing, Jet Force Gemini, Killer Instinct, and Conker franchises were bought out by Microsoft of all companies. However, even after Microsoft's purchase of the company, Rare still was able to create games for Nintendo's handhelds, specifically the Game Boy Advance. This was due to Microsoft not having a dog in the portable fight. Regardless, THQ went on to publish all of Rare's GBA efforts. The first finished project that came out of the publishing deal was Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge, a portable entry that played similarly to the series' entries on the Nintendo 64. What it amounts to is a fun diversion for a short while... a very short while.

After the events of the original Banjo-Kazooie, Gruntilda the witch is stuck under a gigantic boulder near Banjo and Kazooie's home. Her faithful henchman Klungo comes up with a mechanized body that ol' Grunty can transfer her ghost into. The newly mobile Mecha-Grunty drops by Banjo's house and nabs Kazooie, taking her approximately two decades in the past, as a plan to make it so Banjo and Kazooie will never meet. Thus, that means the dynamic duo will never have the opportunity to defeat Grunty in the events of the original Banjo-Kazooie. However, local shaman Mumbo Jumbo uses his mystical powers to send Banjo back in time in order to put a stop to the green witch's mischievous plot.

For Banjo especially, home is where the honeycomb is.

Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge's progression is just like the Nintendo 64 titles. That is to say that through collecting Jiggies, golden puzzle pieces scattered throughout the game's various worlds, you unlock new areas to explore. The game contains five major worlds and one hub world, which connects everything together. This hub world is an old version of Spiral Mountain, one that was around during the construction of Gruntilda's evil lair.

The main difference between Grunty's Revenge and the N64 releases that preceded it is that this Game Boy Advance entry is played in an overhead perspective. Obviously it's due to the technical limitations of the GBA hardware, but at the same time the general feel of the N64 Banjo-Kazooie games is retained.

Foes new and familiar call
Grunty's Revenge home.

It's massively fun and engaging to explore the relatively large worlds, such as Cliff Farm and Breegull Beach, for Jiggies and musical notes. The latter allows the bear and bird to meet up with Bozzeye, a relative of Bottles the Mole, who teaches the pair new moves as long as they have acquired enough notes. Pretty much all of these moves come from the console games. These include Banjo's roll attack, the Flap Flip that allows Banjo and Kazooie to reach high platforms, and the Talon Trot that enables the duo not only to move faster but to walk on otherwise steep and slippery slopes. That's just to name a few of the many moves able to be learned.

Use the Talon Trot to go faster than normal...

...Or use it to climb steep slopes.

Like Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie before it, Grunty's Revenge offers different platforming and puzzle-related challenges to acquire the ten Jiggies that rest in each of the game's worlds. Some have you participating in mini-games, such as sliding down a spiral slide, collecting eggs, or fishing for special salmon. Others require your platforming abilities to be strong, although it can be a little problematic telling what platforms you can and can't reach due to the overhead angle of the game. None of these missed jumps due to not being able to totally discern jump height and distance cost me any lives, but they can be troublesome all the same.

It wouldn't be a Rare game without a
"fetch me this many thingamajigs" mission.

To assist Banjo and Kazooie in this time traveling adventure, Mumbo Jumbo, as long as he is paid with a silver Mumbo token, will change Banjo into a variety of transformations. From a mouse to a candle, these transformations allow Banjo into otherwise inaccessible areas. However, these also are usually only good for a Jiggy or two. It would have been nice to see each transformation's usefulness extend further from only one or two roles.

Banjo's usually not this forward with robots...

Perhaps the biggest issue with Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge is how quickly the whole adventure is over. I managed to play through the game to 100% completion in less than five hours my first go-around, and that amount of time understandably shrunk the second time through. Still, if the words "short and sweet" could be applied to anything, they would apply really well to Grunty's Revenge.

What is also sweet in Banjo and Kazooie's handheld outing is how great the visuals look. Don't be fooled by the enlarged screens of this review, which stretch out the resolution beyond what you'd see on the Game Boy Advance. Grunty's Revenge is a great looker, and its prerendered visual style is a major part of that. The music and sound effects feel like they were plucked directly from the N64 games, albeit with lower sound quality, and that is a tremendous accomplishment all in all.

My, what big hands you have!

Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge may not be the longest platformer out there, and it certainly has its fair share of flaws. However, if you can't get enough of the brave bear and sassy bird, then definitely look into their pocket-sized adventure.

[SPC Says: 7.25/10]