July 3-20 1990 was another one with only three Game Boy games, but they’re all at least somewhat worthwhile. I had to split this month into weird blocks of time in order to not have either one giant post or a normal post and a tiny one.
Pipe Dream (Bullet Proof Software) (July 3)
It’s Pipe Dream, which has since spawned a million minigames in other titles. There’s not much to say about it that isn’t obvious. I’m guessing this would have been a great game to play on the subway, and reviews from the time were mostly very positive, although the overall average is dragged down by a handful of low scores.
Rating: 3. It gets points for being a well-designed game, but there’s not much reason to play it on GB anymore.
Shisen-Sho: Match-Mania (Tamtex/Irem) (July 13)
Shisen-sho is a Japanese mahjong solitaire variant where tiles must be matched by drawing up to three lines (ie, rook movement with up to two 90 degree turns) that don’t cross any other pieces in play. That means that you need to start by either matching adjacent pieces or pieces that both touch the border, but each match you make creates new spaces you can move through in order to make more matches. The game ends when either you clear the board or can’t make any further moves, and this version featured 50 different boards.
MobyGames has one positive review from a German outlet. I can only find resellers talking about it in Japan, so it’s another forgotten GB game there. Still, it has nice music and seems like it’d be fun if you like the physical game.
Rating: 2
Double Dragon (Technos) (1990)
A port of Double Dragon. I was fully convinced that this couldn’t possibly have worked, and the music definitely takes a hit, but otherwise it’s a remarkably good port. It controls well, looks incredible for its time, and even has a multiplayer versus mode. Critical reviews were very positive. It’s actually the best-rated version of Double Dragon on any system going by the reviews that MobyGames tracks. That said, it could not overcome the low scores Japanese critics seemed determined to give GB games. It managed to break 20/30 from Family Computer, but earned the usual 27/40 from Famitsu.
Rating: 4. Not my kind of game, but it’s worth playing just to see what they accomplished in 1990.
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