I would not have guessed that 100 posts would only stretch to the middle of 1992 when I started this series. It’s going to be a long one.
The usual reminder: Scores are out of 5 and reflect only how worth playing a game is today. Most games get 1s. Exceptionally bad games get 0s.
Famista 2 (Namco) (July 30th)
Just like the Higashio Osamu game a few days ago, this is a baseball sequel that doesn’t change much. It adds stadium selection, an all-star mode, and presumably updates rosters. Everything else looked pretty much the same.
Atwiki’s post on it gives it credit for a variety of small balance improvements, but criticizes it for comparing poorly with the console versions. It also calls out an excess of slow-moving players and the ball speed. Nobody else is talking about it, which is hardly shocking for a baseball game that’s over three decades out of date.
Rating: 1.
Hammerin Harry: Ghost Building Company (Tamtex/Irem) (July 31st)
I went with the PAL title for this game because the Japanese title, interestingly, is just Daiku no Gen-san: Ghost Building Company, which is basically the same thing. The first part is “Mr. Gen the Carpenter”. At any rate, it’s a sequel to an arcade beat ’em up where you play as a carpenter who beats enemies up with his hammer. The enemies are mostly horror tropes like guys with hockey masks and, of course, ghosts. It’s got great music and graphics, plus you can find upgrades that temporarily give you a big mace instead of a hammer. It’d be one of the easiest recommendations for a while except for the fact that ol’ Harry can barely move. He can jump just fine, but seems to be trying to set the record for slowest Game Boy character. Alas.
Atwiki considers it a good game and doesn’t even mention the slowness. They criticize it for unexciting bonus stages and a sharp difficulty curve. Other sources do mention the movement, but it’s clearly fondly remembered in general. European critics gave it a 77% average per MobyGames, with reviews mostly pretty close to that mark. The game did not release in North American for some reason. As odd as that seems, it’s true of most of the rest of the series as well.
Rating: 3. Seems like a good game if you can get past the movement.
Penta Dragon (Japan Art Media/Yanoman) (July 31st)
A game that looks like it should be a JRPG from everything you see before gameplay begins, but is actually a sort of ARPG/shmup hybrid. It’d be a really neat idea if not for taking place in an endless maze of extremely same-y rooms and enemies. Movement, graphics, and music are all great. None of that can save it from getting boring when you’ve seen the same room for the 30th time.
I found very little about it. That’s probably because a lot of Japanese blogs are working off of copies they bought from used game stores and this title is apparently noted for being unusually expensive. Most results are either resale sites or Youtube videos, which do have decent view counts.
How expensive is unusually expensive, you ask? Suruga has a pristine copy for 160,000 yen, which at the time of writing is the equivalent of just over $1,000. Even a water damaged box recently sold for around $300. There are suspiciously cheaper copies on Mercari, but in general it seems like quite a commitment to obtain this game.
Rating: 2. Interesting idea, but the gameplay isn’t quite there.
Leave a Reply