GamerEscape

A few months ago, the company ModRetro released the Chromatic, an FPGA-based system made exclusively to play Game Boy and Game Boy Color games. Alongside this, ModRetro has also began creating a line of games – both original and rereleases of classic titles – compatible with both the Chromatic and original Game Boy systems.

While we will have a full review of the Chromatic system coming soon, today we’re looking at two of ModRetro’s latest game releases. Both of these are part of the “Classics Collection,” rereleases of games originally available for Game Boy back in the day. Interestingly, they are both rather obscure picks: a platformer originally only released in European regions adapted to different licenses in Austrailia and the US, and a late-life shmup originally from Sunsoft.

Baby T-Rex

As mentioned, this game was actually released as four separate titles: the original Baby T-Rex in European countries, Agro Soar in Australia, Bamse in Sweden, and We’re Back! A Dinosaur’s Story in North America. All versions changed up the story and characters, but kept the same core gameplay and design. The version here for Chromatic is the original Baby T-Rex European release.

The game puts you in control of a totally radical skateboarding dinosaur, trapped in a prehistoric world by a wizard. You’ll be navigating through a series of platforming levels, speeding and skating your way around pitfalls and killing enemies with the various rocks and gems you pick up on the way. The game is dripping in 90s cheese, having been released during the height of the early-90s “mascot character with attitude” era of gaming.

Original developers Beam Software were obviously chasing after the hype of Sonic the Hedgehog with this one. I could feel it right away in the first two “worlds” of the game. The first area, “Jungle,” is a nature-themed area with lots of inclines to sprint down and through. The second, “Crystal Caves,” takes place in an underground-themed area and suddenly slows the game’s pace down to precision platforming. Sound familiar? Things break from that Sonic familiarity after that, but the similarities of the first two areas were just too obvious to ignore.

Baby T-Rex is also retro in that “crank up the difficulty to increase playtime” kind of way. If you know what you’re doing, you can finish up the entire game in under an hour. That’s not likely to happen on your first playthrough, though, as you can expect to be taking hits and falling into pits that suddenly show up on screen. That’s always been the downside of big-sprite Game Boy games – there’s just not enough screen real estate to give you enough view of a level to plan an approach.

Fortunately, Baby T-Rex is relatively fair with its difficulty. Collectables will often guide you toward where to jump, as well as hint when to jump to avoid an enemy poised to run at you from off screen. You’re also able to take five hits or so before death, and one-ups aren’t too difficult to come by. This sprinkle of guidance helps to keep frustration levels low.

Generally, Baby T-Rex is a competent platformer, but it doesn’t really do anything all that interesting. It demands you to learn each stage if you want to survive to the end, but gives enough hints in the environment that it doesn’t become overly frustrating. If you’re insterested in obscure early 90s platformers, it may be worth a shot, but there’s much better available out there in the Game Boy library.

~ Final Score: 6/10 ~

Project S-11

Second up is a shmup original released by Sunsoft for the Game Boy Color in 2001: Project S-11. Aliens are invading, and you’re tasked with delivering military docs to a base so they don’t get intercepted by the enemy. Aiding you in this is “Project S-11,” a top-secret battle jet.

Project S-11 is a pretty classic, straightforward vertical shmup. You got a set of lives, a stock of screen-clearing bombs, and a basic pea shooter to start. Clear out the waves of enemies, pick up power-ups to strengthen your weaponry, and beat the boss at the end of each stage. There’s five weapons you can pick up, ranging from a spread shot to a flamethrower, which gets stronger the more of the same weapon you collect. Honestly, there isn’t much unique here.

That isn’t to say, though, that basic is bad. Project S-11 nails the staples of a vertical shmup, and I have very little to complain about when it comes to the base gameplay. It’s a bit slow with not having too many enemies and projectiles on screen at once, but I’d chalk that up to the limitations of the Game Boy Color over anything else. If anything, I’m impressed at how clear and easy it is to keep track of everything on such a small screen – doubly so considering the HUD takes up about a fifth of it.

Now, I’m no pro at shmups, but I’ve played more than my fair share (especially when I started getting into collection for the PC Engine/Turbografx sometime back, that system is infamously a shmup-lover’s dream). I want to note that when I say that Project S-11 is…rather easy. This is (thankfully) not a one-hit-kill kind of game; your ship has a life bar that allows you to take multiple hits. But even with this, during my playthrough, I rarely saw said life bar dip below half, let along losing a life altogether.

Much like Baby T-Rex, Project S-11 only has about a runtime of about an hour. However, in this case, you’ll likely be clearing it in your first sitting, unless you’re incredibly new to the genre. If you’re a one-and-done kind of gamer, this title will be a tough sell. If you like to replay games and chase high scores, though, you’ll likely get more out of this.

I can’t say I’m intimately familiar with the overall shmup library of the Game Boy, but Project S-11 is perfectly competent and serviceable. If you’re looking to kill an hour with a game that looks decently impressive for the hardware, or a newbie to the genre looking to get their feet wet, you could do worse than picking this one up.

~ Final Score: 7/10 ~

Review copies provided by ModRetro for Chromatic/Game Boy. Box images taken by reviewer. Game screenshots sourced from ModRetro’s website.