It’s just two games today because the next block of releases was four games on July 17th. I write these intros before playing any of the games, and I am not optimistic about what’s ahead of me today.
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.
Urusei Yatsura: Miss Tomobiki o Sagase! (KID/Yanoman) (July 3rd)
A 3D dungeon crawler with an incredibly long intro that has the slowest text boxes in the world. Unlike Chibi Maruko-chan 3, there is actually a game here, but I really hope the impossibly slow text is not becoming a trend. This is based on a manga that’s apparently pretty well known and you definitely need to have read it to get anything out of the game. It’s very heavy on references and is basically just a simple dungeon crawler with silly enemies if you’re not getting the jokes.
I didn’t find any scored coverage of it, but there were plenty of playthrough articles and videos from Japan. I have to assume it had a decent number of fans back in the day if people are still watching videos about it today. One playthrough noted that the encounter rate is too high, and that’s all I’ve got for opinions on it.
Rating: 1. There are other games in this genre that don’t make you wait for so much text.
Magical Taruru-kun 2: Rivar Zone Panic (Tom Create/Bandai) (July 10th)
An odd game that combines a sort of sliding block puzzle-like overworld with a fairly standard platforming game. I did not understand what was going on in the puzzle part, and it seems to be a common sentiment among Japanese players that it’s confusing. The platforming game has decent music and fun enemy graphics. At one point a car appeared from off screen so quickly that it would have been impossible to react to. I was ready to criticize the game for unfair enemy placement, but then the car stopped right in front of me without doing damage. It definitely deserves credit for a clever parody of how other games are designed on this system.
I didn’t find contemporary reviews, but Retroboy and Gamesoft both liked it with the caveat I already mentioned about the puzzle segments. The game is short and not particularly innovative as a platformer, but it was praised for getting the difficulty level right. Anyone who decides to try it should be aware that Magical Taruru-kun 2 for the SNES is a completely different game, as are the at least two other titles with this license released in 1992. It was a busy year for Taruru.
Rating: 2. A point for the car.
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