Maya the Bee: Sweet Gold
released on Apr 27, 2002
Game Boy Advance game based on the German children's book (which in turn spawned a Japanese anime series), Maya the Bee (Die Biene Maja). The game offers 60 different levels in seven graphically different environments, as well as oodles of bonus levels. An overworld map, filled with puzzles and challenges, connects all the levels. Players choose from either Maja (Maya) or Willi. The story involves teacher Kassandra (Cassandra), who is kidnapped by nasty hornets. The evil insects want to trade Kassandra for five pots of honey. Maja and Willi set out to free Kassandra and return order to the hive.
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What I've played from this developer; Shin'en, has always left me a bit unsatisfied.
They're clearly extremely talented at coding with what they can pull of on basic hardware, creating pseudo-3D games and impressive 3D rendered environments with convincing visual depth and you can always count on an incredible soundtrack to go with it, with uncompressed sound that rivals the best the Game Boy Advance can handle, they have a lot of potential as a developer.
But every game I'd played from them pre-2015 was underdeveloped or unpolished. Terrible hit detection, bad visibility, and repetitive games that wear out their welcome quickly. Something like Iridion II comes very close to being a solid game (and I would still recommend trying it), but difficulty balancing, useless weapons, mindless boss fights that go on for too long, and basic enemy patterns hold it back from being great, there's elements of the dreaded "euro shootemup" design in many of their games.
I've always liked games they made in spite of all of that, because the aesthetics and sound were that amazing.
Something like Maya the Bee: Sweet Gold (and Great Adventure) is unassuming, considering it's a licensed game I had even less faith in it, I thought, surely this is a terrible low effort shovelware game.
No, it's actually the opposite, I was very pleasantly surprised once I started playing this, as it turns out this is probably their best game (that I've played so far).
It's the last Gameboy Advance game developed by this team and it looks and plays like it. From the very first level in the game the player is presented with very clean visuals, fluid animation, and a surprising amount of background layers with visual depth, while this really catchy theme is playing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eS8y1OUT9H0
Out of the 6 world themes none had underwhelming music, and every level has some kind of nice visual effect. Whether it's ridiculous parallax
https://youtu.be/eAKN2UzwnT4
Transparent background layers https://youtu.be/uq0wGG-iVy0
weather effects https://youtu.be/ctNlewHfYho
lighting effects, or just a nice looking background, the game is consistently appealing visually.
The game plays like a late-era Snes game, movement is smooth and responsive, and there's a small hover move that can be done after jumping making hitting enemies and landing on small platforms more manageable.
One neat and unique mechanic is that the hover move is limited, and has to be recharged with an item throughout each level, there ends up being some light strategy and puzzle solving with conserving it and making it last for when it's needed to clear a wide gap or get some extra height.
The gameplay consists of jumping on enemies, collecting many items scattered throughout the levels to earn extra lives, and a goal somewhere at the end of the level, it's pretty standard.
What makes this fun to play despite the simple and familiar gameplay is the level design and theming, every level has many secret areas to find and they're often intuitive or just hidden well enough to be a challenge to find but not to the point of frustration.
The camera seemed like it was going to be a significant issue more-so with the small screen size advance games have, but thankfully there's a look up/down function mapped to L and R, and the camera doesn't move around too much or too little to be annoying.
Besides that there's a some variety introduced with level specific gimmicks, push-able objects that are part of small puzzles, round objects that roll down hills and can be used to avoid spikes, moving platforms, or objects that need to be stomped from above to be broken that block paths.
Again it's all standard but well implemented, in fact all of these things are near identical to the game Yoshi's Island, even the visual effects that were used, it never reaches that level of ingenuity or brilliance but it's competent at least and keeps the game from getting too repetitive.
So the game isn't very original, players won't find anything groundbreaking or unique here, but it's well designed enough within more open larger levels to stand out and be enjoyable to play in it's own way.
Repetition almost sets in before the environment changes or a different mechanic is introduced, there's also some completely vertical levels which is not something often seen in 2D platformers and works really well with the mechanics the game uses.
It's also a pretty easy game, I only played on the hard mode, which just removes checkpoints and health refills and I still barely had any struggles getting through this game.
It's very laid-back, I would describe this as a comfy game. the clean colorful visuals, nice weather effects, and charming music all make this a very easygoing cozy game, overall it's just pleasant to play.
After beating the game there's an "arcade" mode where all the collectibles are tracked, and getting all of them is acknowledged by the game.
I had more fun playing this way with a real goal in mind, and it means completely exploring every level.
So it's a solid game, but there are some issues. Collecting everything and beating the game unlocks a sound test and image gallery, but that's it, beating the game on hard doesn't seem to do anything either, it takes awhile to fully complete arcade mode, it would have been great to unlock some kind of extra content within the main game, but there isn't much of a reward at all, it's kind of a letdown.
Hit detection is pretty good overall, but a few enemies have unpredictable movement or are harder to jump on than they should be so there were a few deaths that were unfair, some obstacles like falling icicles blend in with the background or fall from off-screen and I got hit by them constantly, the ice levels were dreadful to play because of that, falling obstacles are hard to react to.
Worst of all there are no boss fights, considering how platformer bosses usually end up it's not much of a loss, but some kind of added challenge, especially at the very end would have made more of an impact, otherwise it feels like the game ends suddenly with no real conflict. Instead of boss fights the game has these odd flying stages, they're all the same besides the background changing for each world, it's just avoiding enemies for a few minutes as the level scrolls by until it ends, there's no combat and they're also very easy.
It's definitely not a perfect game, the highs aren't nearly as great as the best you'd find in something like Mario, Yoshi, or DKC, it's derivative and doesn't take as much risks as it could and isn't quite as ambitious or creative as the best of the genre, but there aren't really any low points and for a licensed Gameboy Advance platformer it's much better than it needed to be.
This doesn't set the standard for licensed child-friendly platformers, but it comes awfully close. An overall pleasant experience with great graphics and some nice music.
It's a shame copies of this are so hard to find and that the game only released in PAL regions, anyone looking for a decent GBA 2D platformer that isn't a Mario port or licensed shovelware should find a way to play this.
They're clearly extremely talented at coding with what they can pull of on basic hardware, creating pseudo-3D games and impressive 3D rendered environments with convincing visual depth and you can always count on an incredible soundtrack to go with it, with uncompressed sound that rivals the best the Game Boy Advance can handle, they have a lot of potential as a developer.
But every game I'd played from them pre-2015 was underdeveloped or unpolished. Terrible hit detection, bad visibility, and repetitive games that wear out their welcome quickly. Something like Iridion II comes very close to being a solid game (and I would still recommend trying it), but difficulty balancing, useless weapons, mindless boss fights that go on for too long, and basic enemy patterns hold it back from being great, there's elements of the dreaded "euro shootemup" design in many of their games.
I've always liked games they made in spite of all of that, because the aesthetics and sound were that amazing.
Something like Maya the Bee: Sweet Gold (and Great Adventure) is unassuming, considering it's a licensed game I had even less faith in it, I thought, surely this is a terrible low effort shovelware game.
No, it's actually the opposite, I was very pleasantly surprised once I started playing this, as it turns out this is probably their best game (that I've played so far).
It's the last Gameboy Advance game developed by this team and it looks and plays like it. From the very first level in the game the player is presented with very clean visuals, fluid animation, and a surprising amount of background layers with visual depth, while this really catchy theme is playing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eS8y1OUT9H0
Out of the 6 world themes none had underwhelming music, and every level has some kind of nice visual effect. Whether it's ridiculous parallax
https://youtu.be/eAKN2UzwnT4
Transparent background layers https://youtu.be/uq0wGG-iVy0
weather effects https://youtu.be/ctNlewHfYho
lighting effects, or just a nice looking background, the game is consistently appealing visually.
The game plays like a late-era Snes game, movement is smooth and responsive, and there's a small hover move that can be done after jumping making hitting enemies and landing on small platforms more manageable.
One neat and unique mechanic is that the hover move is limited, and has to be recharged with an item throughout each level, there ends up being some light strategy and puzzle solving with conserving it and making it last for when it's needed to clear a wide gap or get some extra height.
The gameplay consists of jumping on enemies, collecting many items scattered throughout the levels to earn extra lives, and a goal somewhere at the end of the level, it's pretty standard.
What makes this fun to play despite the simple and familiar gameplay is the level design and theming, every level has many secret areas to find and they're often intuitive or just hidden well enough to be a challenge to find but not to the point of frustration.
The camera seemed like it was going to be a significant issue more-so with the small screen size advance games have, but thankfully there's a look up/down function mapped to L and R, and the camera doesn't move around too much or too little to be annoying.
Besides that there's a some variety introduced with level specific gimmicks, push-able objects that are part of small puzzles, round objects that roll down hills and can be used to avoid spikes, moving platforms, or objects that need to be stomped from above to be broken that block paths.
Again it's all standard but well implemented, in fact all of these things are near identical to the game Yoshi's Island, even the visual effects that were used, it never reaches that level of ingenuity or brilliance but it's competent at least and keeps the game from getting too repetitive.
So the game isn't very original, players won't find anything groundbreaking or unique here, but it's well designed enough within more open larger levels to stand out and be enjoyable to play in it's own way.
Repetition almost sets in before the environment changes or a different mechanic is introduced, there's also some completely vertical levels which is not something often seen in 2D platformers and works really well with the mechanics the game uses.
It's also a pretty easy game, I only played on the hard mode, which just removes checkpoints and health refills and I still barely had any struggles getting through this game.
It's very laid-back, I would describe this as a comfy game. the clean colorful visuals, nice weather effects, and charming music all make this a very easygoing cozy game, overall it's just pleasant to play.
After beating the game there's an "arcade" mode where all the collectibles are tracked, and getting all of them is acknowledged by the game.
I had more fun playing this way with a real goal in mind, and it means completely exploring every level.
So it's a solid game, but there are some issues. Collecting everything and beating the game unlocks a sound test and image gallery, but that's it, beating the game on hard doesn't seem to do anything either, it takes awhile to fully complete arcade mode, it would have been great to unlock some kind of extra content within the main game, but there isn't much of a reward at all, it's kind of a letdown.
Hit detection is pretty good overall, but a few enemies have unpredictable movement or are harder to jump on than they should be so there were a few deaths that were unfair, some obstacles like falling icicles blend in with the background or fall from off-screen and I got hit by them constantly, the ice levels were dreadful to play because of that, falling obstacles are hard to react to.
Worst of all there are no boss fights, considering how platformer bosses usually end up it's not much of a loss, but some kind of added challenge, especially at the very end would have made more of an impact, otherwise it feels like the game ends suddenly with no real conflict. Instead of boss fights the game has these odd flying stages, they're all the same besides the background changing for each world, it's just avoiding enemies for a few minutes as the level scrolls by until it ends, there's no combat and they're also very easy.
It's definitely not a perfect game, the highs aren't nearly as great as the best you'd find in something like Mario, Yoshi, or DKC, it's derivative and doesn't take as much risks as it could and isn't quite as ambitious or creative as the best of the genre, but there aren't really any low points and for a licensed Gameboy Advance platformer it's much better than it needed to be.
This doesn't set the standard for licensed child-friendly platformers, but it comes awfully close. An overall pleasant experience with great graphics and some nice music.
It's a shame copies of this are so hard to find and that the game only released in PAL regions, anyone looking for a decent GBA 2D platformer that isn't a Mario port or licensed shovelware should find a way to play this.
Maya the Bee: Sweet Gold for Game Boy Advance is a decent platformer developed by Shin'en, who I know for their GAX Sound Engine and contributing many decent and good GBA soundtracks, mostly for licensed games. How did they do in making their own game? They did make a few games before, including an earlier Maya the Bee game for the same system, and I'll check that some time in the future, but for now, it's Sweet Gold time.
Before I go into gameplay and other aspects, I want to talk about graphics, which are the best part of this game. Honestly, the game looks gorgeous, the backgrounds have a sort of hand drawn look, while foregrounds and sprites are detailed, and there's a good variety in set pieces. A few levels feature sun rays, rain or snow and some backgrounds feature parralax scrolling and it all looks tasteful, some of the best graphics I've seen in a while. And the butterfly sections feature water reflections for sprites and foreground which looks good as well. There are also a few 3D prerendered elements, particularly the spinning goal comb and Maya riding the butterfly, and they look good and smoothly animate. The graphical style reminds me a bit of Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, which looked pretty good as well. Not much else to say, it's simply an eye candy.
The music is pretty good too. The first level theme is easily the best and most memorable track. Unfortunately, that track set my expectations high, and other tracks don't quite reach it. That's not to say the soundtrack is bad, it's still pretty good, the tracks are decent and there are a few more tracks that I like. One problem I have is that I think there should've been more variety. I think having more than 1 track for each world's levels would've been nice, as the tracks can become a bit repetitive.
Now, with presentation out of the way, I can finally talk about gameplay. The game is a platformer, and you control Maya who can jump, flutter her wings for slight midair delay or for additional height, ground pound which can reveal secrets, and crawl into tight spaces. There are many secrets in each level, but all of them are for extra lives. Instead of having 100 something, which is little flowers, to get an extra, you're required to collect 200, which means getting extra lives is slower, but the game isn't terribly difficult, and I ended the game with a little under 50 lives. Unless you suck at platforming you won't have difficulties with this game's lives system. Collecting flowers and finding extras is only required for arcade mode where you get checkmarks for everything you find, but it's optional and doesn't contribute to 100% completion. There are a few levels that have a secret exit that unlocks a bonus level that gives you an apportunity to gain more lives, but that's it, not a challenging level or anything like that. The platforming itself is pretty decent, the controls are responsive and I didn't find any issues with it. There are only a few gimmicks sprinkled in: one level features wind that feels a little random though it probably has a pattern that I didn't bother learning and a couple levels with rain that make platforms slippery, but that's it, the game is as straightforward as it gets. Aside from platforming, each world has a buttefly section at the end. It's just a flying section where you avoid enemies and pick up honey so that you can fly for longer, y'know, shoot em' up without shooting. I was actually disappointed that the game doesn't end with a final boss but with yet another butterfly section. If the game was more challenging, or had more variety, like more gimmicks, I would've enjoyed the game a bit more.
Overall, the game is pretty decent, I can see myself really enjoying this as a kid, and it was an alright game with very good graphics and solid music. An above average licensed game.
Before I go into gameplay and other aspects, I want to talk about graphics, which are the best part of this game. Honestly, the game looks gorgeous, the backgrounds have a sort of hand drawn look, while foregrounds and sprites are detailed, and there's a good variety in set pieces. A few levels feature sun rays, rain or snow and some backgrounds feature parralax scrolling and it all looks tasteful, some of the best graphics I've seen in a while. And the butterfly sections feature water reflections for sprites and foreground which looks good as well. There are also a few 3D prerendered elements, particularly the spinning goal comb and Maya riding the butterfly, and they look good and smoothly animate. The graphical style reminds me a bit of Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, which looked pretty good as well. Not much else to say, it's simply an eye candy.
The music is pretty good too. The first level theme is easily the best and most memorable track. Unfortunately, that track set my expectations high, and other tracks don't quite reach it. That's not to say the soundtrack is bad, it's still pretty good, the tracks are decent and there are a few more tracks that I like. One problem I have is that I think there should've been more variety. I think having more than 1 track for each world's levels would've been nice, as the tracks can become a bit repetitive.
Now, with presentation out of the way, I can finally talk about gameplay. The game is a platformer, and you control Maya who can jump, flutter her wings for slight midair delay or for additional height, ground pound which can reveal secrets, and crawl into tight spaces. There are many secrets in each level, but all of them are for extra lives. Instead of having 100 something, which is little flowers, to get an extra, you're required to collect 200, which means getting extra lives is slower, but the game isn't terribly difficult, and I ended the game with a little under 50 lives. Unless you suck at platforming you won't have difficulties with this game's lives system. Collecting flowers and finding extras is only required for arcade mode where you get checkmarks for everything you find, but it's optional and doesn't contribute to 100% completion. There are a few levels that have a secret exit that unlocks a bonus level that gives you an apportunity to gain more lives, but that's it, not a challenging level or anything like that. The platforming itself is pretty decent, the controls are responsive and I didn't find any issues with it. There are only a few gimmicks sprinkled in: one level features wind that feels a little random though it probably has a pattern that I didn't bother learning and a couple levels with rain that make platforms slippery, but that's it, the game is as straightforward as it gets. Aside from platforming, each world has a buttefly section at the end. It's just a flying section where you avoid enemies and pick up honey so that you can fly for longer, y'know, shoot em' up without shooting. I was actually disappointed that the game doesn't end with a final boss but with yet another butterfly section. If the game was more challenging, or had more variety, like more gimmicks, I would've enjoyed the game a bit more.
Overall, the game is pretty decent, I can see myself really enjoying this as a kid, and it was an alright game with very good graphics and solid music. An above average licensed game.