The Game Boy games of June 21st, 1991, were Jungle Wars and Choplifter II. It’s a small one today because the next window includes Seiken Densetsu and I’d rather not make that one have five games.
Jungle Wars (Atelier Double/Pony Canyon)
Most games from this duo have been public domain tabletop games, but this time it’s an original JRPG. You play as the titular Jungle Boy and end up needing to protect the jungle from an evil poaching group. Notably, this is the first Game Boy game to feature something resembling a tutorial, at least that I’ve noticed: you’re prevented from leaving the first room until following directions to inspect a treasure chest and equip some pants you find there. It also allows saving at any time outside of battle, which was quite rare at this time on any system.
The game received a remarkable 30/40 from Famitsu, one point higher than Tetris and, I think, their highest score of any Game Boy game so far. Family Computer readers came in at a 21.6/30, which was nearly a record there as well. I also found an atwiki review that gave it a ‘good game’ rating (higher praise than it sounds) while citing the story, enemy variation, creative design, and music as strong points. The criticisms were relatively minor outside of a high encounter rate and overly powerful final boss. The atwiki review hypothesizes that the game is legally difficult to distribute since both companies stopped making games decades ago, which may explain why it has not been re-released and why it is all but completely missing from the English internet. It received a SNES sequel with similarly strong reviews in 1993 as well as an anime.
Rating: I didn’t play much of it, but it has to be a 5. I’ll be coming back to this one.
Choplifter II (Beam/Victor)
If you’re wondering what happened to the first Choplifter, it was a 1983 Apple II game. This very delayed sequel has you flying a helicopter through enemy territory in order to rescue hostages. Touching basically anything, including birds, results in losing a life, and there are all sorts of ground emplacements and tanks that will try to shoot you down. It features surprisingly realistic physics. Your helicopter has momentum and requires maneuvering to turn around, bullets have drop off, and the angle of your shots change based on the tilt of your helicopter. It has an excellent 83% average from 11 reviews on MobyGames thanks to that depth, but the complex controls also make it pretty hard to play without the manual.
Despite seemingly releasing first in Japan, the game is by an Australian developer. The Japanese debut is also surprising because the first game was not received particularly well. It was notable enough to get a Wikipedia page, but only received a 14.31/30 from Family Computer readers on Famicom, and none of the sequels get more than a passing mention. I could only find informational and resale sites talking about this version.
Rating: 3. I have to give it some points for the stellar reviews, but the Game Boy isn’t really the ideal platform for a helicopter game anymore.
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