Smart Ball / Jerry Boy
Jan. 4th, 2022 06:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yamamanama74 days until the vernal equinox
Originally, this game was called Jelly Bean for the American market but I guess its similarity to the other Jelly Boy made them settle on Smart Ball, which, okay.
The title screen has some real impressive music. In fact, the music in this game is probably its greatest strength.
Grabbing those ball flowers allows you to expel them back out at enemies with the L button, of all things.
Like B.O.B, this game has some weird controls, and unlike B.O.B, was made back in the days when you got the controls you were given and you liked it, damn it.
One of the people involved in the game's soundtrack was Akira Yamaoka, of Silent Hill fame.
It doesn’t really look like an SNES game, aside from greater color depth and some really good music.
A lot of the game mechanics are very similar to its sequel, though less-refined and more clunky.
Just throw balls at him until he's dead.
I have no idea why this is blurry.
Collecting the JERRY flags function as checkpoints for when you die and if you get all of them, you get an extra life.
Jerry can squeeze down pipes.
Wait a minute. It says on Hardcore Gaming 101 that the Japanese version had a story and towns with people to talk to. This was all removed for the US port. So we’re going to play that version instead.
As you can see, this game has only the vaguest connection to its sequel.
I wonder if this is Sienna from the sequel.
Ohhh. Like Tom and Jerry.
I wonder if Jerry can talk in jelly form.
Uh... the NPC design is cute, I guess.
That does explain what's going on with the giant bird.
I guess the bird and the mice both have their own agenda.
Sometimes the NPCs ignore you and have thier own conversations.
I mean, there’s not much to it. You might be better off playing the American version, honestly.
You see, the Japanese version has somewhat different controls. Despite there being four buttons on a SNES controller, both lower buttons jump and both upper buttons are used to both run and throw balls. Balls are finite. As bizarre as using L to attack is, at least you don’t waste your only attack by attempting to run or cling to walls.
Jerry can find plant seeds that let him grow vines. The problem with them is that you're going to want to run everywhere.
This is a strange boss.
Clinging to walls is direction-sensitive and therefore extremely fickle.
I think you need the high jump powerup to get here but I don’t understand how in the holy fuck it expects me to keep the high jump powerup if I immediately spit it out if I try to run or climb walls.
That was way harder than it needed to be. I’d imagine it was trivial on the American version.
In the American version, the sign at the end of the first desert level says "OASYS." I don't know if it was fixed in the patched rom, but I didn't notice it earlier, so it probably was.
No, there aren't any sidequests in this game.
There is a manual out there and despite the American Kirby RAAAR I'M ANGRY front, the inside is filled with Japanese-style illustrations.
Emi's name in the US is Wendy. Emi's a Japanese name but it can be a shortened version of Emily or Emil or whatever.
The game takes place in the land of Kyliria.
Does the camel have the wrong message attached to it?
King Geoffrey is planning to abdicate the throne and pass his crown to Jerry.
No, mirages tend to look like water.
The moon moves with you, which is a nice touch.
This level gets darker as you progress.
MODE SEVEN!
I had to check and, no, despite my thoughts, neither Miyoko Takaoka nor Masanori Hikichi were involved with the soundtrack. The moon's background music may have been a Yamaoka composition. Hirohiko Fukuda is a jazz fusion and funk musician known for Bomberman games and I can't find much of Manabu Saito, though he sadly died at the age of 22.
If you’re wondering why there are rabbits on the moon, it’s because in Chinese and Japanese culture, the “Man in the Moon” is a rabbit.
The boss is Capricorn. And he's pathetic. He has a second form, though.
There's a leak, there's a leak in the boiler room.
He gives you extra lives.
Jerry can swim.
You can't talk to the whale.
That must be his boat.
And you exit through... eww!
The penguin shoots fish at you.
There's that aurora australis.
Is that guy naked?
It's called paradoxical undressing. You see it sometimes with severe hypothermia. The poor bastards rip off all their clothes and run out into the snow.
Some of the igloos don't have entrances.
I'm not sure if he came back to life here or if he wasn't dead at all. He gives you another extra life.
A lot of the weirder enemies for this game were removed out of "memory concerns"
This guy might be the hardest boss in the game.
You have to ride the balloons up.
I think they used the wrong sprite here.
The old man is the unsung hero of the game.
But before we get to the peak, we have to go down and fight this fish.
In the manual, this guy is merely called The Bad Wizard.
This place must be across the border in Pottsylvania.
The music is really good here.
The cross was, of course, removed for the SNES version.
The blob will try to swallow you but you can fight from inside.
Dejected, he'll schlep off.
This is his true power.
burning question: why would anyone be a monarchist? With laissez-faire capitalism, at least there’s the small chance that you might find the key to success (which I’ve decided is bro-country because it takes zero talent) but with monarchy, you’re never going to become the king because all the social classes have been ossified into place via incest.
It’s laissez-faire capitalism for people who know that they’ll never be millionaires.
Originally, this game was called Jelly Bean for the American market but I guess its similarity to the other Jelly Boy made them settle on Smart Ball, which, okay.
The title screen has some real impressive music. In fact, the music in this game is probably its greatest strength.
Grabbing those ball flowers allows you to expel them back out at enemies with the L button, of all things.
Like B.O.B, this game has some weird controls, and unlike B.O.B, was made back in the days when you got the controls you were given and you liked it, damn it.
One of the people involved in the game's soundtrack was Akira Yamaoka, of Silent Hill fame.
It doesn’t really look like an SNES game, aside from greater color depth and some really good music.
A lot of the game mechanics are very similar to its sequel, though less-refined and more clunky.
Just throw balls at him until he's dead.
I have no idea why this is blurry.
Collecting the JERRY flags function as checkpoints for when you die and if you get all of them, you get an extra life.
Jerry can squeeze down pipes.
Wait a minute. It says on Hardcore Gaming 101 that the Japanese version had a story and towns with people to talk to. This was all removed for the US port. So we’re going to play that version instead.
As you can see, this game has only the vaguest connection to its sequel.
I wonder if this is Sienna from the sequel.
Ohhh. Like Tom and Jerry.
I wonder if Jerry can talk in jelly form.
Uh... the NPC design is cute, I guess.
That does explain what's going on with the giant bird.
I guess the bird and the mice both have their own agenda.
Sometimes the NPCs ignore you and have thier own conversations.
I mean, there’s not much to it. You might be better off playing the American version, honestly.
You see, the Japanese version has somewhat different controls. Despite there being four buttons on a SNES controller, both lower buttons jump and both upper buttons are used to both run and throw balls. Balls are finite. As bizarre as using L to attack is, at least you don’t waste your only attack by attempting to run or cling to walls.
Jerry can find plant seeds that let him grow vines. The problem with them is that you're going to want to run everywhere.
This is a strange boss.
Clinging to walls is direction-sensitive and therefore extremely fickle.
I think you need the high jump powerup to get here but I don’t understand how in the holy fuck it expects me to keep the high jump powerup if I immediately spit it out if I try to run or climb walls.
That was way harder than it needed to be. I’d imagine it was trivial on the American version.
In the American version, the sign at the end of the first desert level says "OASYS." I don't know if it was fixed in the patched rom, but I didn't notice it earlier, so it probably was.
No, there aren't any sidequests in this game.
There is a manual out there and despite the American Kirby RAAAR I'M ANGRY front, the inside is filled with Japanese-style illustrations.
Emi's name in the US is Wendy. Emi's a Japanese name but it can be a shortened version of Emily or Emil or whatever.
The game takes place in the land of Kyliria.
Does the camel have the wrong message attached to it?
King Geoffrey is planning to abdicate the throne and pass his crown to Jerry.
No, mirages tend to look like water.
The moon moves with you, which is a nice touch.
This level gets darker as you progress.
MODE SEVEN!
I had to check and, no, despite my thoughts, neither Miyoko Takaoka nor Masanori Hikichi were involved with the soundtrack. The moon's background music may have been a Yamaoka composition. Hirohiko Fukuda is a jazz fusion and funk musician known for Bomberman games and I can't find much of Manabu Saito, though he sadly died at the age of 22.
If you’re wondering why there are rabbits on the moon, it’s because in Chinese and Japanese culture, the “Man in the Moon” is a rabbit.
The boss is Capricorn. And he's pathetic. He has a second form, though.
There's a leak, there's a leak in the boiler room.
He gives you extra lives.
Jerry can swim.
You can't talk to the whale.
That must be his boat.
And you exit through... eww!
The penguin shoots fish at you.
There's that aurora australis.
Is that guy naked?
It's called paradoxical undressing. You see it sometimes with severe hypothermia. The poor bastards rip off all their clothes and run out into the snow.
Some of the igloos don't have entrances.
I'm not sure if he came back to life here or if he wasn't dead at all. He gives you another extra life.
A lot of the weirder enemies for this game were removed out of "memory concerns"
This guy might be the hardest boss in the game.
You have to ride the balloons up.
I think they used the wrong sprite here.
The old man is the unsung hero of the game.
But before we get to the peak, we have to go down and fight this fish.
In the manual, this guy is merely called The Bad Wizard.
This place must be across the border in Pottsylvania.
The music is really good here.
The cross was, of course, removed for the SNES version.
The blob will try to swallow you but you can fight from inside.
Dejected, he'll schlep off.
This is his true power.
burning question: why would anyone be a monarchist? With laissez-faire capitalism, at least there’s the small chance that you might find the key to success (which I’ve decided is bro-country because it takes zero talent) but with monarchy, you’re never going to become the king because all the social classes have been ossified into place via incest.
It’s laissez-faire capitalism for people who know that they’ll never be millionaires.
