Hello Kitty World: The Kitten Before She was a Star

by: Aron Deppert

Hello Kitty World (which was released in the US as Balloon Kid for the GameBoy) was released in 1992 for the Famicom as a joint effort between Sanrio and Character Soft. In localizing it as Balloon Kid, there were no major changes outside of changing the protagonist from Hello Kitty and colorizing/improving the graphics.



Hello Kitty World's title screen

In the Famicom version, you play Hello Kitty, who for some reason has two balloons tied to her butt. The balloons give Hello Kitty enough weightlessness so that by simply flapping her arms, she can soar through the air. You flap your arms by tapping A and use the control pad to collect balloons placed throughout the level, all the while avoiding the vast amount of enemies that want nothing more than to pop your butt balloons. When a balloon has been ruptured, you can land somewhere safe and inflate new ones by tapping down on the control pad repeatedly. It’s important to keep balloons inflated, because otherwise you won’t be able to clear some of the larger gaps that you need to reach the end of each level. Many of the enemies (mostly birds) fly in the air, but there are grounded enemies that can make trouble for you. The most bothersome ground enemies were the weird campfire thingies that hopped viciously at my Hello Kitty, trying to singe her little whiskers.



99 red love balloons...

Each level has an entrance to a bonus area (the door is marked with a Strawberry) where you can collect more balloons that float out of pipes that look like they were hijacked from the Mushroom Kingdom. Since I can’t read Japanese, I have a hard time telling you what the balloons you collect do, other than contribute to your score at the end of every level. Also, 1-ups float out of the pipe if you can collect all the balloons without letting one hit the ceiling. The 1-ups were very valuable to me, because I found myself watching Hello Kitty’s balloonless butt fall to her death quite often. Luckily, the game seems to have a sort of unannounced checkpoint system in place so you don’t have to start over at the beginning of the level each time you die.

The boss battles were quite easy, and only involved bouncing on some crazed, indistinguishable animal’s head three times. You can’t be holding balloons when you jump though, or you won’t be heavy enough to do any damage. The graphics were very bright and colorful. Some of the enemies seem out of scale compared to Hello Kitty – they’re so small they make her seem like a giant. The backgrounds while flat and not very detailed, are cute and appropriate for this type of title.

The music was catchy, cheerful, but repetitive. The song you hear when you watch the cut scene after completing a level is particularly triumphant-sounding. The controls were pretty straight-forward: use the directional pad to move, A to fly, B to release your balloons (which is necessary to make it through some portions of the levels). When you’re on the ground, A makes you jump.

Overall, Hello Kitty world would be great to play in an arcade for ten minutes, but I can’t see why anyone would ever want to own it at home. Each level was essentially the same, only with more enemies and a faster scrolling speed. Hello Kitty World is nothing more than a quick time-waster at best.


I dug this up off of my personal blog. It was originally written in 2007, and I revised and refreshed it to make it better for my current skill level.

Image Credit: Screenshots

Revoking my Gamer Card: First Impressons of A Link to the Past

by: Scott Thompson
Originally posted on Scott's 1UP blog

I have done some horrible things in my life. Things so shocking and gut wrenching that merely hinting at them here makes me flush. Forget the closet; I rent an entire floor to skeletons of all shapes and sizes. Amidst all my secrets, one can be seen towering above the others with ease. I have wrestled with the guilt for far too long. Hoping to relinquish some of the burden on my very soul, I have decided to unleash this dark secret upon the world. Let it weigh on you if it means some peace within myself...

I have never played The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. Oh, what horror becomes you at such news?

Theatrics aside, it is undeniably true that I have never played this certifiable classic. Why, you ask? I can't really say for sure. Growing up, I played other SNES gems such as Super Metroid and EarthBound, but for whatever reason my younger self simply skipped over the Zelda series entirely. I remained blissfully ignorant of Hyrule's plight until my 13th birthday when I received Ocarina of Time.

Since that moment, I have remained on the frontlines defending that mystical land from Ganon's quest for power and destruction, playing each subsequent entry in the series. I learned to appreciate Majora's Mask; fell in love with Toon Link; eventually trusted the crafty Midna. Link's battle through the Dark World, however, remained untold to me; until now. Several hours in, with the Master Sword gripped firmly in my hands, I reflect on what has been an entirely enjoyable and eye opening experience.

Having tried (futilely) to play the original Legend of Zelda several times, I was immediately enamored with it's SNES predecessor which thankfully provided small guidance to the player, as well as a handy world map. The game even opened with a small sequence that could be considered a training exercise before opening up the land of Hyrule to the player. A Link to the Past treads the line between the vagueness of the original and the hand-holding of more modern day games incredibly well.

The world map accessible in The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

However, knowing where to go is only half the battle. Where A Link to the Past may be a little more guided than its progenitor, it certainly makes up for it in difficulty. Enemies are unrelenting and, annoyingly, reappearing. It's rare for me to retain more than half my hearts when traveling a small distance over the world map. Worse yet, hearts are a precious commodity rarely found in the wild and limitedly placed in the various dungeons.

At this point, my only disappointment is in the boss battles themselves. Unlike Ocarina of Time and the games following, A Link to the Past simply has you swiping your sword as much as you can until the boss is dead, rather than having to cleverly use the special item picked up in that dungeon. I am admittedly early in the game though, so hopefully this will change in due time.

Boss(s) battle in the first dungeon

Most interesting to me is how much this game has influenced the sequels since its release. Well, maybe influence is putting it too lightly. Most of the games in the series are direct copies of A Link to the Past. Find the three shiny things, pick up a new item in each dungeon, get the Master Sword, try to defeat Ganon, collect 6 or 7 other shiny things and then try again. Oh, and make sure to travel to some alternate version of Hyrule. Reductive as this statement may be, there is no denying some truth here.

It is at once enjoyable and frustrating to play A Link to the Past this far after its release. On one hand, it is unbelievable to think that it was 18 years ago that Nintendo created THE Zelda formula by which all the other games would be designed. It is nearly flawless in every way. On the other hand, it is disappointing to see that the company has been afraid to stray too far from its own proven recipe for success (with the exception of Majora's Mask and, to some extent, Phantom Hourglass). Here's hoping that Spirit Tracks will inject some much needed life into the Zelda series which, while fun, is growing worryingly stagnant.

Zombies Ate My Neighbors: Tacky, Yet Satisfying

by: Aron Deppert
In 1993, LucasArts and Konami teamed up to release Zombies Ate My Neighbors, a run-and-gun survival horror game that came out on SNES and Genesis. In it, you run around and try to save people from zombies, werewolves, vampires, aliens, tiny killer babies, and giant killer babies—the list goes on and on. You can collect a vast array of weaponry, including exploding cans of soda and popsicles, but your main weapon is either a squirt gun or a ray gun (it’s hard to tell visually, and the game never says otherwise). You can also get a lot of different power-ups and diversions for the bad guys chasing you. The goal is to collect each of the townsfolk before a baddie gets to them. Once the final person is safe, a magical door appears out of thin air to allow you safe passage out of the current level.

Zombies Ate My Neighbors plays a little bit like Metal Slug, with eight directions you can travel in instead of four. It was a little overwhelming my first time playing it, (10 years ago…haha) and when I picked it up again today, it was no different. The first level seems to be designed to lull you into a false sense of security before plunging you head-first into the proceeding 50-something levels of carnage. By level 3, you are being chased by psycho axe murderers with hockey masks on. They are so strong, not even your bazooka-like weapon can put them down for good. The only way to make it through was to freeze them with a fire extinguisher (realistic!) and then run around like an idiot, grabbing up your “neighbors” left and right. I did make it through however, and only lost two people in the process.


F minus? Oh really? I let the zombies have her.

Despite the game being very difficult (the axe-wielding midgets were impervious to everything, I could only pass them by distracting them with the clown punching bag decoys) it was still a good time. I got very tense and excited, and ended up yelling a few words I wouldn’t even say in front of my own mother. The only thing that could have improved the game was if there was actually some sort of story – anything to let you know just why exactly all these monsters were on a rampage. This genre of game isn’t exactly demanding on plot, but this was looser than a Remero flick. Zombies Ate My Neighbors is a fun and nostalgic title that is worth picking up if you get the opportunity.

The Game Over screen: a sight seen a little too frequently in Zombies Ate My Neighbors

Image Credit: Aron, en.wikipedia.org

Star Fox 64: An Animal Pilot?

by: Christian Blas
You whisked up and down, forward and backwards through the eminent dangers of space field with robots, rocks, and animalistic villains (such as a wolf and a monkey). Alright, if you haven’t guessed yet what this is, I’ll tell you. This is Star Fox 64, an action simulator released by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64 in 1997.

Left to Right: Peppy Hare, Slippy Toad, Fox McCloud and Falco Lombardi.

The game is not a sequel, but of a remake of the original for SNES, which was a real surprise to me. Another surprise was the added feature of the rumble pack, which we take for granted in game controllers these days.  It was an attachment that plugged into the back of the controller, not built-in, and it enhanced the experience of gamers and developers alike.

The storyline goes like this: You are Fox McCloud, leader of team Starfox, and you must go through the mysterious regions of the Lylat system to destroy the all-powerful Andross and protect your city of Corneria, despite the fact that it is in shambles once you encounter it in the beginning. Just in case you haven’t played Star Fox 64, I will not ruin the whole gaming experience by revealing the ending, because I believe the element of surprise should beautify the experience of a game.  The rest of the story, however, I shall reveal.

See I told you there was a monkey…Andross (above)

As for the gameplay, it is incredible. The fluidity and simplicity of the controls made sure that you were the king of the skies (or space for that matter). You play with three bots as your friends (Falco, Peppy, and Slippy) in campaign mode. They are really not much of a help in cases where you have trouble. In fact, you must help them if they get into trouble! Even if they are a bit brain-dead and go into the dangers you wouldn’t think of getting into, they are a great help when if comes to other stages that involve an ambush or an invasion. The missions that you must go into may seem repetitive but have an overall difference in feel and difficulty. These range from destroying enemy devices to just plain blowing up the enemy boss. If you skip certain missions, there is always another option you can choose in order to advance the story line. This allowed the game to have immense replay value and added branching complexity to the game’s main storyline. What might make others mad about this is if they aren’t able to do the mission properly, the game will commence and keep going to the same path as before. The only way to replay is to restart the entire game and start from the beginning, which was no bother to me at all.

The villains in this game, I must say, really added to the goodness of this slice of heaven. Wolf O’ Donell, Fox’s arch enemy and leader of team Starwolf, is employed by Andross along with others (Leon Powalski, Pigma Dengar, and Andrew Oikonny) to destroy you and the rest of team Starfox. The battles that you encounter with this group are both more enjoyable and more difficult than any other boss you will encounter in the game, bringing to mind the thoughts of dog fights during WWI.

The music was what really latched me to this game the most. When I began playing the game I was so obsessed with the tunes the game churned that I began playing it over and over in my head, especially Area 6 and Starwolf’s Theme. To me, it was very unique that a game would have songs so great that they would be so appealing in other cases besides actual gameplay.

When you played it, you felt that it was like no other game you played before. The dialog that Star Fox 64  produced was that of a regular cheesy 80s-90s action flick with brandishing and terms of domination, but still great overall because it produces its own personality. The multiplayer was so-so and is not as fun as single-player; there is not much to say about this except that I believed there should’ve been more time and effort put into it. The training is a nice addition and it helped in the end with understanding the control scheme. It also allowed for you to improvise combos and gave you a preview of things you might encounter in campaign and multiplayer modes (enemies, power-ups, etc.). The game was like a large-scale movie that had a gripping science fiction tale that wasn’t over until you said it was over or at least turned off the console. But why would you do that?

Image Credits: rotpod.net, boards.ign.com

Power Piggs of the Dark Age (yup, there's 2 g's in "Piggs")

by: Aron Deppert
Power Piggs of the Dark Age is a side-scrolling (though in the first level, most movement seems to be upward) action platformer for the SNES that was released by Titus Software in 1994. The game takes you through one chapter in the eternal struggle of pigs versus wolves. In it, human/pig hybrids battle human/wolf hybrids in a medieval setting. The werewolves are sneaky and get better weapons, so initially you feel like they have the upper hand, but that is only until you discover you can throw donuts at them! The sound in the game was my favorite feature – the music sounded like a 70’s detective TV show (which seemed wildly out of place given the setting), and one maneuver in the game results in your beloved man-pig (werepig?) farting. Yes, even at 27 years old I am still a sucker for a fart joke.






This wolf in princess's clothing almost tricked me!


In the first stage alone I had to deal with princess werewolves, archer werewolves, knight werewolves, and werewolves that charge on the ground to head butt you. For the most part it was pretty straight-forward platforming. I will admit I did loose a life once to the knight werewolves, who were flying around on gusts of air from geysers down below. It was a delightful death though, because when you die the sprite turns into a ham hock. YUM YUM!

The first boss was a cinch. He was a heavily-armored werewolf that I slashed at with my huge sword until his armor fell off to reveal his pink boxer shorts underneath. The boss was so embarrassed that he quickly tried to scurry off the screen, but it was to no avail. His pink panties offered little protection against my blade!

The second stage was called “West Blow Hole Forest”. The ground is covered with the air geysers that make you fly, and quicksand that sucks away your health half a donut at a time. Most of the action takes place on platforms in the sky or in the midst of the geysers. There are new spikey ball obstacles to deal with and a new werewolf that is toting a pea shooter. His shooter must be loaded with some special peas, because they take away half a donut on the health meter when hit.





Ooo...these holes sure can blow.

Overall this game wasn’t too bad. The music was out of place, but I have a hard time saying anything bad about a game that has fart sound effects, weaponized donuts, and wolves in drag. It’s no wonder a game this quirky and seemingly kid-orientated didn’t gain much attention in its day, but this is a title I could easily see being a $7 WiiWare download or a flash game on Newsgrounds.

Image credits: me, en.wikipedia.org