Just wanted to say congratulations for finishing Ys III on SNES. If you ever get the chance, I strongly suggest playing through the TGCD/PCECD version, such an improvement in every way.

It is, and I'd forgotten it entirely until I played Shovel Knight and entered the Trouple King Pond (or whatever it's called), which caused that memory to become flooding back, and become the center of my obsession for months.

The Game Gear screen was awful, too; it didn't have the sharp contrasts that the monochrome Game Boy did, so you couldn't always tell what was going on, and the magnifier KINDA helped. My first portable Game Boy was the Game Boy Color, which was great to play all of the old Game Boy games, but in terms of Game Boy Color exclusives, it has about 10 worthwhile games, and that's because I like the rainbow colors in Centipede; Centipede is nothing special. Zelda is just a colorization. Daikatana never came Stateside, and Ganbare Goemon: Hoshizorashi Dynamites Arawaru isn't even in English. Realistically, I could have had 6 or 7 brand new experiences that were worthwhile.

I think I agree with that assessment; having not owned a Game Boy until the Super Game Boy came out, my impression of the system was that it was largely just made up of inferior ports of NES games, which was simply not the case, though they did exist. And some people most certainly did lose them; you hear stories all the time about people who just found a game lying on the bus or the sidewalk somewhere, and gave it a try. There is a lot about the system that is largely undiscovered - partially because the NES takes most of the glory - and like you, I didn't really know what was out there until I started actively looking. There were some games that would have been truly revolutionary, had they ever caught on. You're not really going to find another game like Kingdom Crusade, even if it's no one's masterpiece. There are diamonds in the rough, and then you have fluorite in the depths of a cave; the latter isn't valuable, but it is strange and beautiful in its own way, and those are the sorts of things that I like to discover more than anything; I enjoyed Cybernoid on the NES far beyond its actual level of quality.

If you, like me, have a thing for oddities, then I'd definitely recommend the first Rolan's Curse. Knight Quest is on the weird side, too, but it's extremely middling.

That's pretty solid, because the Game Boy has a lot of hidden gems, and many unusual specimens. Game Boy Color, not so much. Despite being monochrome, there are plenty of fascinating worlds to explore, and not always where you'd expect them, either; I was pretty shocked to find such intrigue in Cosmo Tank. It could be that Game Boy feels like uncharted territory for me, because everyone I knew had one, but I decided to be smart and get a Game Gear, instead. I mean, how can you go wrong with a backlit display in bright, beautiful color? An anemic system library, that's how; aside from being able to play it at night, and being able to play Master System games on the go, I almost always regretted that decision. My first Game Boy was a Super Game Boy, and by then, most of the games that I wanted to play were hard to find, because Amazon wasn't a thing, and neither was retro game collecting; in the '90s, everything was about what was new. I remember catching the odd glimpse of a Mega Man or Super Mario Land 2 here and there, and reading about them in Nintendo Power. Most vividly, I remember spending an evening with a young man at his family's cabin by a lake in the woods somewhere; we went on a long walk, and at some point, I was watching him play Kid Icarus on his Game Boy. I'd always thought it was just a standard Platformer, like your Marios or your Mega Mans, but this had all sorts of secrets to find and doorways to explore; I wanted to dive into that world. Anyway, I'm rambling.

The first game is absolutely worth playing, even if you've played the sequel. It's definitely stripped-down by comparison, but it's a wholly different experience. You don't really have party members, the areas are broken up as different stages (rather than one big map), and you find power-ups; it's really more overhead Action than Action-Adventure. This is going to sound weird, but despite the lack of dice or a spinner, it almost plays out like a board game. It's no masterpiece that's going to blow your mind, but it's definitely a unique experience.

I honestly don't remember the music; I may have to give that another listen.

Hidden, indeed; I think you might be the only person I've ever heard talk about Rolan's Curse 2! It's fairly different from the first one, but better in most regards, as I remember it.

Wall-jumping was a bit of a chore and, another thing I seem to recall, enemies sometimes spawn way too close to you and you take an unavoidable hit. Stages were pretty short, Egypt had to have been my favorite though.

It's a good example of a port that always need all of the flash, as you put it, that other versions may have. They simplified the game, made it challenging still on its own merit and it looked quite good. I also like that they went with bigger, detailed sprites than what most NES games had. You're right, it definitely has segments that are reminiscent of Bionic Commando!

I'm glad to hear that you enjoyed it for the most part. It's certainly something different from the rest of the games, but a refreshing change nonetheless.

NES Strider was my introduction to the series, so it holds a special place in my heart. That being said, I like how different it actually is from the arcade version and the ports that came directly from it. The music was pretty darn good, too, and I like how the newest game remixes some of the NES tunes. What were your thoughts?

Dino Riki has an interesting concept, but its brutal difficulty makes it lose points. Perhaps making an auto scroll SHMUP with platforming elements didn't quite pan out and that's why they made those powerups where you can hover in the air until you let go of the button. Still, you gotta admire that classic Hudson Soft presentation.

If you want an overall better SHMUP where you play as a human, try Elemental Master. There's no platforming in it, however.

Chalvo 55! You really do find some of the best obscure gems!