I had an Atomic Purple Game Boy Color back in the before times and I loved this game. I never beat it because it's a difficult one. And my Game Boy eventually melted on the dashboard of a car in the desert Sun. Tilt 'n' Tumble would remain a fond, uncompleted, memory for nearly two decades.

While browsing one day, I (s)tumbled over a ROMhack for the game that gave it d-pad controls. While it definitely isn't the true Tilt 'n' Tumble experience, it was a way to revisit this long lost memory. And one of my Chinese retro game handhelds is Atomic Purple. I just had to.

D-pad definitely takes a bulk of the challenge away, yet also removes some of the finest finesse. It's a massive net gain towards easy, but it changes the feel too. It's hard to explain unless you've played both.

But the game is still Kirby. It's still full of charming sprites and ideas. And yeah, it's fun. I played it through and got to see all of the game I never got to before. It's cool to read that it is available on the Switch these days too. While it's a difficult one, it really was something special. It deserves to be played.

My higher rating admittedly reflects me scratching a personal nostalgia itch. Plus I'm a huge sucker for novelty features in general. I will still definitely have to experience that gyro novelty again some time and play it again "right". Always itchy..

[Emulated/played on Anbernic RG35XX]