Toonsylvania is a 2d platformer game released on the Game Boy Color in 2000 by Ubisoft. I actually have the cart for this one, I think it belonged to my younger brother. This is my review after playing it a few hours on my RG353.
It's based on a cartoon of the same name, and was seemingly released after the shows cancellation in 1999. I don't recall watching it, but here is the intro for anyone curious.
Playing as Igor, the game involves searching for special items and body-parts (for Dr. Frankenstein) through 5 stages (15 levels in total). Some items are hidden or unobtainable until you unlock secret paths using levers and buttons.
The levels are not too large, but without a mini map, finding your way around can prove a frustrating experience, especially given most of the level lacks any distinguishing features so you don’t know where you’ve already searched.
Once you've found all the items (shown on the bar at the bottom of the screen), you have to then find to exit gate to move to the next stage.
The controls in this game take a little getting used to. You have plenty of movement options; walking, running (double tap), crawling, and jump, but the jumping is a little strange because you move way faster in the air. It feels more like a Genesis platformer than an NES platformer if you know what I mean—it feels quite smooth, but it is not very precise.
Your basic attack is either a punch or throwing a skull. Which one you use is seemingly random. I later found out you can also roll by attacking while running, if speed is your thing.
One gripe I had with the controls were how it pans the camera unintentionally. Pressing up or down, or hitting a dead end, pans the camera in that direction. This can reduce visibility and allow enemies to creep up on you unaware.
Enemies in the game include a variety of somewhat generic creatures; spiders, rats, bats, skeletons, that kind of thing. The enemies have basic movement patterns but a few also home in on you, like the bats which annoyingly spawn out of the floor. Once they are on top of you, hitting them with your attacks doesn’t really work.
There are also obstacles that deal damage such as darkness (for some reason), and some insta-death spike pits and holes. Some of the holes at the bottom of the map can be mistaken for paths so beware.
Visually, the game is quite nice. The sprites are varied and detailed, and the movement/idle animations are smooth. The level themes were a bit boring and generic however; underworld, graveyard, etc. The levels are also sprinkled with various decorative objects—this was a little confusing because it made it difficult to know what could be interacted with, and what as just there as decoration.
The music in the game was average. The main let down for me was the lack of sound effects—nothing when you attack or jump or kill enemies. Only a death jingle. Some simple sounds could have made it a little more exciting.
Although I’m a huge fan of platformers, searching around for items is a little too repetitive for my tastes, and I don’t think there is much replay value in this.
It’s just a tad dull overall. Coupled with the frustrating level mechanics, I doubt I’ll pick this up again. That’s not to say it’s a bad game, there is certainly worse out there. If you have nostalgia for the show you might have a little more patience with it than I.
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Gameplay: Repetitive, some frustrating mechanics, but the engine wasn't terrible. 3 out of 5.
Graphics/Animation: Nice variety and good animations. 3.5 out of 5.
Music/Sound: Okay music, but no SFX. 2 out of 5.
Replayability: Well, it has length so it will keep you busy a few hours. But I doubt you'd play it again. There are apparently some unlockable secrets but I did not experience them. 2 out of 5.
Challenge and Fairness: Difficult in a frustrating kind of way, but unlimited tries so it's not hard, just time consuming. 2 out of 5.
Personal Slant: I found it a bit boring tbh. 2 out of 5.
Dug out my Game Boy Colour bits. I have more GB/GBA games than I do for the Colour specifically. Wario 4 on GBA was great, so looking forward to 2 and 3 which I have yet to play.
I see Metal Gear and Pokemon are worth quite a bit now $$ 😬
I did a short comparison between a recapped GameGear, one with a modded screen (RetroSix kit), and the Anbernic RG353v which uses emulation.
The OG screen is pretty poor, even compared to old Game Boys etc. I had to tweak the curves for the video because it was so faded on camera! I’m gonna try a backlight mod at some point.
The modern modded screen, and the Anbernic, both have lovely depth, saturation of colour, and contrast, and overall were pretty close, with the emulation being spot on as you can see.
This was the game title demo so all ran at the same speed. The game is Shinobi 2, if you’re curious.
Really enjoying the Anbernic device, which has the advantage of offering a larger integer scale view than the modded GameGear.
A short comparison between the Game Gear, a Game Gear with a modern screen (the RetroSix clean screen kit), and the Anbernic RG353v which ru
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