Battle Bull & Navy Blue 90 retrospective: Not so bullish | Game Boy Works

Ойындар

They say you have to walk before you can run, and in Game Boy Works, we need to slog through some mediocrity before we get to the good stuff. Neither of these games is terrible by any means; Battle Bull feels like an update to Sega's Pengo or Irem's Kickle Cubicle, while Navy Blue 90 is, y'know, Battleship. However, both end up being let down by some questionable creative choices and frustrating technical issues. Neither lives up to its real potential.
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Пікірлер: 49

  • @TheSmart-CasualGamer
    @TheSmart-CasualGamer4 жыл бұрын

    "Crush." might be my favourite piece of pop-up text in Video Game history. It's so blunt and to the point, with an added bit of grammatical weirdness and a fairly dull emphasis due it just ending on a full stop.

  • @Megoodfilmguy

    @Megoodfilmguy

    4 жыл бұрын

    That was my thought too! Well said!

  • @deepx77
    @deepx774 жыл бұрын

    I just started watching all your game boy works videos... again... Love them, keep making them please.

  • @JeremyParish

    @JeremyParish

    4 жыл бұрын

    I have two episodes in the works now!

  • @jasongarrett768
    @jasongarrett7684 жыл бұрын

    1:36 Popcorn?! By Hot Butter? I’m still baffled every time I’m reminded of Vermon CaTaffy, but this is the same company that gave us Paula Abghoul and Fred Askare years later.

  • @samfrito

    @samfrito

    4 жыл бұрын

    A future generation will see game booklets from this era as some sort of conspiracy theory or predicted alternate history.

  • @jasonblalock4429

    @jasonblalock4429

    4 жыл бұрын

    Seriously, one does not just start playing "Popcorn" without warning. I'm gonna have that stuck in my head for days now. Anyone else here get introduced to it thanks to an 80s PC game called Digger?

  • @ChristopherSobieniak

    @ChristopherSobieniak

    4 жыл бұрын

    @@jasonblalock4429 That or a certain Russian cartoon from the 70's that used it as well!

  • @KuraIthys

    @KuraIthys

    4 жыл бұрын

    @@jasonblalock4429 Yep. At least, I think that's what it was. Keep forgetting the name of the game... nope. Digger it is. I always thought it was made for that game until only a few years ago when I found out what it really was... xD

  • @gameboydadtm37
    @gameboydadtm374 жыл бұрын

    I was just watching some of your old gameboy episodes last night than this video comes out. This is a good morning

  • @EvanCWaters
    @EvanCWaters4 жыл бұрын

    I gotta figure it can't be TOO hard to program a Battleship-like game with the computer having a fog of war. Sure it stores the information about where your ships are, but the code for it selecting a tile to shoot doesn't have to reference that. It can just be told to pick a tile at random, then pick further tiles depending on whether it hit or missed.

  • @jonnyd9132
    @jonnyd9132 Жыл бұрын

    "And, bless Navy Blue 90's heart, it doesn't even pretend." Okay THAT made me laugh XD

  • @absolutezeronow7928
    @absolutezeronow79284 жыл бұрын

    Glad to see a new episode of Game Boy Works. Had no idea there was essentially a Combat Sokoban game for Game Boy.

  • @travishawks5371
    @travishawks53714 жыл бұрын

    I get a good chuckle from the melancholy teasers for the next episodes.

  • @Bluegoo
    @Bluegoo4 жыл бұрын

    Dude, thank you so much for covering Battle Bull. I played so much of that game as a kid. It's so weird, yet so awesome.

  • @JeremyParish

    @JeremyParish

    4 жыл бұрын

    I wish I liked it more than I do! I feel like its heart is in the right place, but the flesh isn't as willing as the spirit. Or something.

  • @robotlorekeeper9880
    @robotlorekeeper9880 Жыл бұрын

    Oh my god, that little cartoon of the sad sailors at 9:12 is so hysterically sad. They’re too cute! I’m sorry, wee guys! It’s my fault! I failed youuuuuu!

  • @MaidenHell1977
    @MaidenHell19774 жыл бұрын

    Amazing as always. Super nice touch with that Battleship game commercial from the 70s.

  • @radracer8889
    @radracer88894 жыл бұрын

    Battle bull has a nice soundtrack

  • @hazy33
    @hazy334 жыл бұрын

    Surprised to see Captain Birdseye on the cover! One for the uk viewers.

  • @TheSmart-CasualGamer

    @TheSmart-CasualGamer

    3 жыл бұрын

    Fish Fingers for all!

  • @2yoyoyo1Unplugged
    @2yoyoyo1Unplugged4 жыл бұрын

    1:08 OH DON’T GET ME STARTED ON NES METAL GEAR!

  • @FloatingSunfish
    @FloatingSunfish4 жыл бұрын

    I remember being so frustrated even with Battle Bull's earlier levels that I dropped the game even though I thought it was super cool. Gameplay and fun are king, after all!

  • @superjoy1337
    @superjoy13374 жыл бұрын

    "The third and final Navy Blue game" Might be fourth technically, there was a Navy Blue game on Famicom released two years after '90, tho it could be based on the GB sequel as it uses the same soundtrack

  • @gerbilsmith
    @gerbilsmith4 жыл бұрын

    Glad you said Battle Bull is like Pengo...I was sure thinking it lol

  • @powruser0
    @powruser04 жыл бұрын

    Excellent work as usual! Stay well Mr. Parish!

  • @kaneo1
    @kaneo14 ай бұрын

    Battle Bull was completely winnable, with just a little practice. Fun game.

  • @JomasterTheSecond
    @JomasterTheSecond4 жыл бұрын

    Aw hell yeah, Sokoban Battle & Chase.

  • @Firestorm2900
    @Firestorm29004 жыл бұрын

    I owned Battlebull and looked up the Japanese version of the story, and it is what you think it is, a robot battle arena game. I think the importers thought that was too violent a concept for kids. I think I got around the whole economy thing by saving when I did a major upgrade so I could go through a few levels to build up to the next upgrade and if I died, just used the code where I didn't have any cash. I think there was a way so save and keep your cash of you want to save scum? Also, I wasn't as big on the piercing missile, I found it left too many levels empty of blocks too fast and fire too slow. Plus, shoving 3 bots into one block is a bit addicting

  • @7thangelad586
    @7thangelad5864 жыл бұрын

    Are you familiar with Mysterium on the Game Boy?? Might be worth a glance for something entirely different on the gray plastic brick. Now I’m off to adapt BattleBull to a carport in real life.

  • @jasonblalock4429
    @jasonblalock44294 жыл бұрын

    Yeah, it's funny. For as many great games were launched for Gameboy over the course of its very long life, people tend to forget just how much of its catalog was disposable filler. For every SML2 or Gargoyle's Quest or Pokemon, there are ten puzzle games that all vanished into the memory hole a week after release.

  • @TheSmart-CasualGamer

    @TheSmart-CasualGamer

    4 жыл бұрын

    It's the same with all Nintendo handhelds. It's identical for the DS!

  • @Saturnome
    @Saturnome4 жыл бұрын

    Well I didn't knew about Pengo and it looks neat!

  • @JeremyParish

    @JeremyParish

    4 жыл бұрын

    It is a good arcade classic!

  • @IanSane
    @IanSane4 жыл бұрын

    I don't see why the AI for a Navy Blue has to be so bad. The computer knows where your pieces are but it doesn't remember at all times. It would logically have to check some variable to know where you are. As long as it doesn't "peak" when executing the logic to guess where you are it shouldn't have to cheat. It would be easy to program a routine that randomly picks an available spot on the grid to fire at with logic to fire at spaces next to a direct hit if in the process of sinking a ship. You could tweak it also to narrow it's search to available spaces. IE: if the five piece aircraft carrier is the only remaining boat then it only needs to guess at spots that allow for five pieces to fit. There is no need for the AI to look at where you are aside from the developers deciding to make it work that way.

  • @samfrito
    @samfrito4 жыл бұрын

    I dug BattleBull. Probably because of the look of its tank. Heiankyo Alien was my bargain basement game of choice for games on the go until BattleBull surfaced. Its not the best, but after beating SML a few more times the top down look of Battle Bull grew on me. Hell, now playing Crackdown, Sega Genesis collection on Switch, I realize portable games that look straight down on your character were my sweet spot.

  • @AltimaNEO
    @AltimaNEO4 жыл бұрын

    Yeah, that gameboy library... left a lot to be desired. But kid/teenage me didnt care. It passed the time and satiated my need for video games.

  • @LeftyPem
    @LeftyPem4 жыл бұрын

    Heavy Machine Pengo!

  • @fingrati
    @fingrati4 жыл бұрын

    Such a disappointment to see that Navy Blue 90's computer AI is unbalanced in it's favour. It would have become such an under-rated gem.

  • @Marzimus
    @Marzimus4 жыл бұрын

    Battle Bull would work better if every continue asked you to take away one power-up. That way you'd only have "the controller" to blame. 😂😂

  • @massivepileup
    @massivepileup4 жыл бұрын

    I guess it'll be a while until GB Works reaches the games I grew up with, stuff like the hellish Mega Man 1 on GB with its sprites that are far too large and jumps that are far too small.

  • @Technosphile
    @Technosphile4 жыл бұрын

    You mean you don’t want to have to talk about War Gods, Jeremy?

  • @Poever
    @Poever4 жыл бұрын

    Sounds like this Battle Bull is a bunch of bull

  • @slightlyevolved
    @slightlyevolved Жыл бұрын

    I kinda felt bad thumbing this up... The like counter was at a lovely 777. I had to ruin it.

  • @jamesmoss3424
    @jamesmoss34244 жыл бұрын

    I should get battle bull. 😀👍🎮

  • @JohnZyski
    @JohnZyski5 ай бұрын

    I liked Battle Bull.

  • @jordankelsey4501
    @jordankelsey45014 жыл бұрын

    They misspelled my name.

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