PAL was still in the midst of a two month gap in any releases at all, so the dateless Game Boy game debuts of June 1991 were once again all North American.
Bo Jackson: Two Games in One (Equilibirum/THQ)
If anything can be called the Iron Law of Video Games, it’s that anything claiming to be multiple games in one is either The Orange Box or shit. And so it will come as no surprise that Bo Jackson: Two Games in One, which notably does not include Portal, is shit. It does feature the best looking graphics for batting and pitching of any game so far, and notably uses different camera angles for each side, but creating that appears to have used all of the game’s development resources. The baseball mode feels genuinely awful to play thanks to pitches being so slow that the game must be taking place on the Moon. That would certainly explain why everyone runs so slowly.
You’ve probably already noticed that the football mode looks somewhat worse than the baseball mode, but baseball actually looks like that when the ball is in play as well. Everyone also runs stupidly slowly in football, and while it did feature a play designer that other football games lacked, it also expects you to make passes to players who are completely offscreen. There’s no way to know who you’re throwing to or whether they’ll be able to catch it, so this is basically a crapshoot.
Oddly, every review on MobyGames is from European outlets even though this obviously was only released in the US. The French and German reviewers hated it, but the two British magazines gave it generous scores in the 70s for, among other things, being ‘playable’, so it averaged out to 57%.
Rating: 1.
Caesars Palace (Magnin & Associates/Arcadia Systems)
I had always assumed the casino was called “Caesar’s Palace”, but apparently it’s a plural and not a possessive. Who knew? Anyway, the game is just one of the standard 90s casino games. You can play video poker, slots, and some card games. There is nothing interesting here.
It received a 63% average from 11 critics, making it better than the Game Gear and NES versions by a large margin. Or so it appears at first glance. It turns out that the NES and Game Gear reviews are largely from at least 15 years after this was released, and are predictably brutal. The Game Boy looks better because its reviews are nearly all contemporary. I also have to mention that the Official Nintendo Magazine gave it a 68% with a review blurb that is effectively an ad for the real casino.
Rating: 1
Skate or Die: Tour de Thrash (Realtime Associates/EA)
This still has very little to do with the arcade Skate or Die. It has half-pipe mode that gives you three minutes to score points with confusing controls and then just endlessly resets. I got the third place high score by just letting the game play itself for three minutes.
The other mode has you racing down a long half-pipe in proto-3D. Obstacles or other racers occasionally get in the way, and you just need to get down as quickly as possible to complete races in a handful of cities. It’s better, but still more of a minigame than a full product. Critic reviews came in at 56%.
Rating: 1.
Sneaky Snakes (Rare/Tradewest)
This is apparently a sequel to Snake, Rattle & Roll, although it doesn’t play much like it. This is the standard Game Boy platformer, albeit with far smoother motion than basically any other so far. The goal is to eat enemies until you get big enough to trigger the scale at the end of each level. Eating an enemy gives you an extra snake segment, but taking damage reduces your length, so you have to be careful. Each level also must be completed within 99 seconds. David Wise did the music for the original game and may have worked on this as well (the music is good), but I didn’t see credits listed in my brief search.
It scored a 71% with critics. Most liked the game in general, but found that it got repetitive after a few levels. Because this was 1991, one also suggested you could get it after being bored with Tetris. Because if this game isn’t similar to Tetris, what possibly could be?
Rating: 2
Tail’Gator (Natsume)
This bizarrely-named game is also unusual for releasing first in NA despite being made by a Japanese developer. The people listed in the credits are all Japanese, so I assume this was because they self-published in NA and worked with VAP in Japan. Whatever the reason for its release schedule, this is yet another platformer. It’s only notable for having the world’s saddest jump height when you’re in the water and for all attacks being performed with your tail.
Contemporary reviews were neutral-to-poor, but the MobyGames average is pulled up slightly to a 68% by a glowing 90% review from 2025. So while it doesn’t seem to have had much impact in 1991, it apparently still has some fans today.
Rating: 1. I really hate the jumping.
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