The original Game Boy had some serious limitations when compared to the platforms with which it was competing. Developers couldn’t simply port their home console releases to this system. It was too lacking in hardware. This meant that game creators had to create original software with these limitations in mind. I’ve always had an odd interest in these titles. Game development had progressed to a certain point on console, and developers had to get inventive with the Game Boy. Enter Adventures of Star Saver. I got this cartridge on the cheap, and it took a little doing but I finally finished it. Adventures of Star Saver is decent, and a nice addition to any collection.
Story isn’t a song suite for the Game Boy. Adventures of Star Saver does it’s best with what it was working with. You get an opening cut scene depicting brother and sister as the latter is kidnapped and the former has to save her. There’s also a mech thrown into the mix. It’s a little bizarre and abstract, but hey, it’s an early video game after all.
Adventures of Star Saver starts you off in the aforementioned mech robot. You can walk, jump, and shoot bullets at enemies. It’s not exactly rapid fire as they take a bit of time to reach the end of the screen, but it’s functional to say the least. As this mech (I’m guessing it’s name is Star Saver, or at least, I’m going with that) you have a few different abilities. By collecting various arrows you can hookshot yourself back into a stage when you fall off. Additionally you gain a tri-shot which harkens to shooters of this era. For the most part though the mech functions as an additional hit.
When you’re touched by a foe or projectile your character falls out of the suit and you must continue on foot. Functionally it’s largely the same. You can walk, jump, and shoot. The thing is you can’t get any of the power-ups, and being hit once more results in the loss of a life. You also can’t use the hookshot ability. Should you take a hit and lose your mechanized armor you can gain it back via a power-up. Basically, you’re going to need help from your robot friend if you’re going to be successful in Adventures of Star Saver.
There are a couple of interesting things going on here when it comes to level design. First off Adventures of Star Saver likes to throw multiple tiers at you for navigation. In this sense it’s similar to a Sonic game, but actually it’s a little better designed than that. The fact that there’s more to explore here than in your typical platformer of this era is a major plus, and the smart enemy layout (though it can be downright aggravating due to difficulty) makes the Adventures of Star Saver stand out from the rest of the pack.
What gets annoying though (and rather fast I might add) is that enemies like to split into three when they’re shot. This is especially true later on when you’ll be facing off against so many at once. At times it can feel impossible to proceed unless you have the spread shot. In that sense it’s similar to something like Gradius, which again, helps nudge this toward being more of a shooter than a pure action platformer. It also represents one of the greatest weaknesses of Adventures of Star Saver.
Unfortunately the game does suffer from a few limitations, but these are mostly due to the hardware itself. First of all the screen only scrolls in one direction. You can either move forward, down or up. If you want to backtrack you’re out of luck; apparently the hardware didn’t keep anything in the memory so forward is the only way. The screen shows a pretty limited view and the developers didn’t seem to care about this as you’ll sometimes have to make leaps of faith. This is particularly bad when you’re moving down. One false footing and you lose a life in some areas. You can rely on the hookshot for only so much here.
You also have some really bad slowdown. When you have the spread shot it’s even worse; Adventures of Star Saver can move at a snail’s pace sometimes. You can have a screen full of bullets and enemies that multiply and you’ll feel like you’re playing a flip book instead of a legitimate video game. This can be helpful when you’re struggling to proceed, but I’d take a stable framerate over that any day.
The graphics are a little painful, to be honest. This is after all a very early Game Boy title and boy does it show. The backgrounds are very simple, and characters are pre-NES standards. They do serve their purpose however so I can’t fault the game too much. Power-ups are easy to distinguish, as are the enemies. The backgrounds are mostly white (to make things easier to see I imagine) and I just didn’t get a real ‘outer space’ feel from it. The music is okay, but when it’s bad it’s really bad. Some of the stage themes are catchy and well done, but whenever you lose your mech the audio gets high pitched and annoying. I assume this is to give a sense of urgency, but it’s a little ear piercing through headphones.
Adventures of Star Saver is… well it’s okay. It’s nothing Earth shattering, nor is it even a classic. For an early Game Boy game it was one of the better options outside of Nintendo’s offerings. The hardware limitations hold this one back, and I feel the developers could have benefitted from putting this one on a home console. Adventures of Star Saver is a decent exclusive title, but it’s just barely fun to play in my opinion.
