Yoshi's Cookie (Game Boy)

The Game Boy really was a puzzle game heaven in the early 1990's. Whether you were old or young at least one puzzle game appealed to you...sadly however for every Mole Mania you had a Hatris and for every game that made you think and act on your toes you had one that put you to sleep. Yoshis' Cookie, featuring both Yoshi and Mario sadly falls into the second category.

The game, in the screen shots, may look like a typical falling block game (think Tetris) though it's not your normal falling block game. Rather than maneuvering falling blocks your maneuver the blocks on the bottom of the screen with an arrow type system that allows you to scroll a single line either vertically or horizontally. You need to make a single line all with the same style of cookie to delete them from the screen.

Although the game seems to merge both Tetris and Rubix cube it sadly lacks the challenge of a Rubix Cube and it lacks the charm and addictiveness of Tetris. What you are left with is a slow puzzle game that seems to be based solely at children who need a lot of time to think of their next move. Whilst I'm sure the game does eventually get hard it gets there so slowly that it's hard to keep yourself interested and find the challenge. It's game play at times seems almost sleep inducing rather than challenging and as a result it's hard to really enjoy.

Despite the game featuring Mario and a nice cheerful tune the game just feels a bit like a flop, a rarity for a Bullet-Proof Software. If you want a puzzle game that you can let your 6 year old play this is acceptable enough (even though it's in monochrome) though if you want to challenge yourself avoid it.


55%

Details:
Console-Game Boy
Release-1993
Developer-Bullet-Proof Software, Inc.
Genre-Puzzle
Players-1 or 2 (Link Cable Required)

Trivia:
A version of this was released on the SNES with much better graphics and much more to the game.

Hatris

We've all heard of "Tetris" the video game that really helped the Game Boy become the dominant handheld of the 1990's (and late 1980's) though what few know is that the game had a spiritual successor of sorts in Hatris. Created by Alexey Pajitnov (the man behind Tetris) Hatris was released on the Game Boy at the start of the 1990's and tried to replicate the success of Tetris with a similar sort of concept.

As the name suggests this game features hats, lots and lots of hats. The players job is simple, they need to stack the hats as they fall from the top of the screen into piles to remove them (as opposed to making a solid line across the screen like in Tetris.

Hats fall in sets of 2 and come in a variety of styles (such as novelty Christmas hats, top hats, caps and Mexican hats) with each stacking in their own way. The player needs to place 5 hats of the same type on top of each other to remove them from the screen as the game slowly gets quicker and more complex. After the player stacks a set amount of hats they will go to the "shop" and get to add another type of hat which further complicates matters and makes the stacking more and more difficult.

Whilst the game may seem a lot like a Tetris based game it's more complex and adds several new ideas, including a flame (which can burn through some hats) and the shop function, sadly however it over complicates it's self and lacks the magic of Tetris. Whilst it's certainly different it's impossible not to compare the two and when you do, this seems to lack the charm and heart of Tetris.

68%

Details:
Console-Game Boy, NES, Arcade, TurboGrafx-16
Release-1990 (Game Boy)
Developer-Bullet-Proof Software, Inc.

Genre-Puzzle
Players-1 or 2 (Link Cable Required)

Trivia:
The arcade version of Hatris features heads at the bottom of the screen include one that looks like Elvis.