A portable version of the original, with the same decent Bubble Bobble-style gameplay.
An incredibly deep single screen platformer with a fun vacuum mechanic and tons and tons of levels and extras. The lack of a save system is a little annoying.
This was a childhood game of mine.
A portable version of an arcade title I really loved every time I'd find the machine at some beachside bar, Tumblepop's premise is simple. Wander around differently-themed levels using a Ghostbusters-like device to suck up ghosts and then shoot them back out as swirling stars to defeat other enemies, all while collecting power ups or coins that can be strategically used to boost your speed, the power of your ghost-vacuum device or freeze the time temporarily.
Very simple premise, for a very simple game, which isn't always a bad thing. The problem is that Tumblepop's Gameboy version, while having much larger levels than the arcade version, is also kind of brought down by how big it is, compared to how simple the game is.
Graphically, the title is not pushing the boundaries of the already limited system, but there's been plenty of GB titles, even early ones, showing off quite the charming pixelated locales. While the enemy sprites are charming in their simplicity, the same can't be said about the backgrounds, which pretty much look all the same, except for a vaguely-themed background, depending by the world you're visiting, as if you're getting through warehouses with very cheap themed wallpapers as opposed as to getting through a haunted castle or a pirate ship. It's a shame because the concept has potential. The boss designs are fun though.
On the gameplay side, while the title can be fun enough on short bursts, it's ay too repetitive and simple for its own good. Enemies have barely any difference from each other, aside from representing the level theme they all act generally the same and, while the layout of the stages can change a lot (with even an in-game level editor to make your own), the problem is that this kind of level design worked much better on the arcade title, where the stages were much smaller but more intense in the process, resulting in fun short bursts of arcadey goodness.
The bosses are a bit better, but they too suffer of being a bit too similar to each other, with just two different kinds of arena and some bosses pretty much acting identical to each other.
The game also tries to pad things out toward the end, by pretty much forcing the player to beat every single boss again, and then challenging them to go through one final boss rush to get to the true final boss which...isn't exactly different from anything you've faced before.
The music is pretty catchy though, trying pretty fun variants of the main theme. There aren't too many tracks, but what is there will stick in your mind!
I do have a soft spot for the game since it was one of the few GB titles I've owned when I was a kid, but it's clearly onw of those concepts that had more of a home in its arcade roots. I do think there's a potential in this concept, so I'd love to see this kind of game again, this time with an expanded gameplay to make things a bit spicier.
A portable version of an arcade title I really loved every time I'd find the machine at some beachside bar, Tumblepop's premise is simple. Wander around differently-themed levels using a Ghostbusters-like device to suck up ghosts and then shoot them back out as swirling stars to defeat other enemies, all while collecting power ups or coins that can be strategically used to boost your speed, the power of your ghost-vacuum device or freeze the time temporarily.
Very simple premise, for a very simple game, which isn't always a bad thing. The problem is that Tumblepop's Gameboy version, while having much larger levels than the arcade version, is also kind of brought down by how big it is, compared to how simple the game is.
Graphically, the title is not pushing the boundaries of the already limited system, but there's been plenty of GB titles, even early ones, showing off quite the charming pixelated locales. While the enemy sprites are charming in their simplicity, the same can't be said about the backgrounds, which pretty much look all the same, except for a vaguely-themed background, depending by the world you're visiting, as if you're getting through warehouses with very cheap themed wallpapers as opposed as to getting through a haunted castle or a pirate ship. It's a shame because the concept has potential. The boss designs are fun though.
On the gameplay side, while the title can be fun enough on short bursts, it's ay too repetitive and simple for its own good. Enemies have barely any difference from each other, aside from representing the level theme they all act generally the same and, while the layout of the stages can change a lot (with even an in-game level editor to make your own), the problem is that this kind of level design worked much better on the arcade title, where the stages were much smaller but more intense in the process, resulting in fun short bursts of arcadey goodness.
The bosses are a bit better, but they too suffer of being a bit too similar to each other, with just two different kinds of arena and some bosses pretty much acting identical to each other.
The game also tries to pad things out toward the end, by pretty much forcing the player to beat every single boss again, and then challenging them to go through one final boss rush to get to the true final boss which...isn't exactly different from anything you've faced before.
The music is pretty catchy though, trying pretty fun variants of the main theme. There aren't too many tracks, but what is there will stick in your mind!
I do have a soft spot for the game since it was one of the few GB titles I've owned when I was a kid, but it's clearly onw of those concepts that had more of a home in its arcade roots. I do think there's a potential in this concept, so I'd love to see this kind of game again, this time with an expanded gameplay to make things a bit spicier.