The game involves going through 8 stages (broken up into two parts each) of side-scrolling action. At the end of each stage is a boss monster that must be disposed of. Jerry moves by sliding across the ground and can latch on to walls and climb them. Jerry can also jump, stretch out to cling to ceilings, and also move at a faster pace. Jerry can consume balls that he finds during a stage and can then fire them out of his body at enemies blocking his path. Enemies can also be defeated by jumping on them and then flattening Jerry's body on them. Also, there are flowers that contain items for Jerry to collect. Items include life, which refills health, a 1-up that adds an extra life, and a seed, which will grow a climbable beanstalk when planted. If the player collects the scattered letters that appear in every stage that spell out the name Jerry, the player will earn two extra lives.
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This game came out in the US, but under the name Smart Ball. So why translate the Japanese version? Well, pretty much the whole story was cut out in the US release, such as the intro and towns, which is a damn shame, considering the game makes a hell of alot more sense with them in it. You play the part of a guy who rules a kingdom with his brother, which is going along just fine until you decide to marry this princess. Unfortunatly, your brother gets pissed off, (I guess he can't find his own woman or something.), and lets some mysterious wizard guy turn you into an amorphous slime ball so he can take your girlfriend, and rule the kingdom by himself. Naturally you must beat the wizard and your brother's ass, and with your super secret slime powers, you have a chance. Not only can you jump, turn into a phallic looking glob, and climb walls, but you can also find little balls to shoot at crap. I guess it's a good thing the wizard didn't just kill you instead of giving you all these abilities, but then there'd be no game, huh?
I've always considered myself to be really good at platformers, but this game had me ripping my hair out at certain parts. At first I thought it'd be a walk in the park, but no, some of the levels are really damn tricky (Not Dragon's Lair for NES tricky, but then again, I don't think anything's that hard, except maybe Battle Toads.), even sadistic at times. Despite the difficulty, it's a really fun game, and definitly worth a spin on your SNES emulator of choice, especially if you've played Smart Ball and want to see what all you missed out on.
The US version removes the opening cutscene explaining the plot as well as all villages and NPC dialogue. The important characters show up regardless for the climax, though, which just left me thinking "who are these assholes?" Maybe they were just too lazy to translate the text and story over so they got rid of it? Very strange.
Not terribly impressive for Game Freak's early years, with Pulseman and Magical Taluluto-kun both severely outshining it in most if not all aspects. I would probably replay it over Pokemon R/B/Y though.
Have a 5/5, Smart Ball!