The Game Boy games of November 30th, 1990, were all at least a little bit original, but I don’t like any of them. This is a rare block of games without any Japanese exclusives, although it is still one where none of the games released in PAL.
Battle Bull (Jorudan/SETA)
Another puzzle/action game about killing enemies with rocks. This time you’re a tank and need to push the solid color rocks into respawning enemies, which will eventually result in clearing the level if you beat enough enemies before the timer runs out. There are apparently 48 levels and you can buy upgrades to your tank in between maps. The upgrades show up as minor changes to the sprite of your tank shown in the shop menu, so that’s cool.
Contemporary Western reviews were mostly poor, but one German outlet gave it an 86%. I did not find any scored Japanese reviews, but it has a decent number of short writeups and walkthroughs available.
Rating: 2.
Go! Go! Tank (Copya System)
The action/puzzle game train continues with this one about placing blocks so a Lemming-like tank can move through a level. You control an airplane and need to use your hook to pick up blocks and move them around in order to make sure the tank never hits a bump of more than one unit. If it does, it will take damage.
Enemies apparently show up later and it had two player co-op, but I found the controls really annoying. Any difficulty came entirely from the challenge of moving the plane where you want it rather than from planning the tank’s path. It got scores mostly around 80% with a couple that were significantly lower.
Rating: 1
Square Deal (Hect)
This was Cadillac II in Japan. It’s the sequel to an NES game that only released there, and it’s basically Tetris with poker cards. You need to form winning hands in the grid and you’re chasing high scores or something. It’s really not for me. MobyGames has three reviews, coming in at 80%, 75%, and 30%. Japanese players seem to have enjoyed the bunny girls who show up between levels.
Rating: 2. I have to give it a little bit for originality, but I have no desire to play it.
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