Every console released in the 80s and early 90s needed a good mascot based platformer. Nintendo had Mario, Sega had Sonic, and unfortunately the Turbografx had Keith Courage. So where does that leave the Neo Geo? This system wasn’t a traditional console, rather, a means by which SNK and other primarily arcade developers could get their coin-op games into homes. That’s why there were very few platformers released on the system. If I had to choose an unofficial mascot for the system it would be Blue from Blue’s Journey. This was one of the early Neo Geo releases, and also one of the few side scrollers ever released on the platform. Blue’s Journey isn’t a fantastic platform game, but it’s worth playing at least once and I’m here to tell you why.
This game takes place in a beautiful and lush world called Raguy. Recently the planet has been overcome with pollution caused by the invasion of the alien Daruma Tribe. Blue, the protagonist of this story, sets out to defeat them and restore the natural order. What’s interesting to note about this game is that all of the NPCs you encounter, and even Blue himself, are humans that are dressed in clothing to make them look like insects. Blue’s Journey is a fairly typical side scrolling game. Your goal is to make it from the start of every level to the end. Every platformer needs a good gimmick or hook, and Blue’s Journey is loaded with them. The character’s primary attack is to drop a leaf in front of him, but this only stuns enemies. From here you can pick up the enemy and they can even be stacked, and throw them at other foes to destroy them. It’s a pretty decent mechanic, but the fact that by default you can’t hurt foes is a little annoying. Jumping on the heads of enemies is also a viable attack that turns them into a ground based projectile that destroys all opponents they touch. In addition Blue can shrink down which allows him to reach areas previously inaccessible. This ability isn’t limited in use, but you cannot attack while small.
The abilities are pretty interesting, but they’re a little unorthodox and not in a particularly good way to be honest. Thankfully the game is full of power-ups. Whereas Mario collects coins and Sonic gathers rings Blue picks up flowers. This is the in-game currency, and there are several shops within the levels themselves where you can spend them. They can be used to purchase items, remove the curse status, and more. Power-ups serve numerous purposes such as increasing the range of your leaf attack, allowing you to throw boomerangs (this too can be upgraded), increasing your speed both on land and in water, and Blue can even acquire bombs. Your inventory is displayed on the bottom of the screen and there are a lot of these power-ups to collect. Blue’s health is measured by a heart meter, and when you first start out there’s only two notches on it. As you progress this too can be upgraded at the shops. At times your progression is limited and you will be required either to find a key or return an item to one of the many NPCs. This is a decent mechanic and adds depth you rarely see in an arcade title.
Unfortunately the level design in this game just isn’t that great. You’re often attacked by too many monsters at one time, and the basic leaf dropping ability isn’t very effective. The difficulty comes from your limited attack, and that just isn’t a smart design in my opinion. The final areas of the game are the only ones which feature intricate platforming, and while they’re fairly difficult I found it’s mostly due to visual mis-direction which is cheap in this case. There aren’t any aquatic only zones here, but Blue can still swim in some cases when there’s water. His leaf mechanic is altered a bit when underwater in that the leaves float to the surface instead of straight down which is kind of cool. In general though the levels aren’t that different from one another, and rarely is a new mechanic introduced. Blue’s Journey is very average in this regard, and near the end the game starts to be a little boring. The shrinking mechanic is rarely used for anything interesting.
Blue’s Journey isn’t even particularly impressive graphically. It’s bright and colorful, but the game doesn’t look better than a lot of games on the Sega Genesis or Super Nintendo. There’s some decent scaling with the shrink mechanic, and the parallax scrolling is really good, but aside from that this title is pretty generic looking. Blue’s Journey was released on the Neo Geo, and after seeing what it’s capable of I expect a lot more. The enemy designs are pretty standard with very few that are memorable. The nature motif is also decent, but the developers didn’t put it to good use instead referencing genre tropes by having ice and fire based levels. The boss designs fare better with large sprites, but in general they look fairly similar to one another. Blue’s Journey is a decent looking game, but it hardly shows off the Neo Geo hardware in any real way.
The soundtrack also doesn’t make particularly good use of the system’s power. Every song is composed of bleeps and blips in a pretty obvious way which isn’t bad by any means, but many other Neo Geo games have been able to transcend this. For the most part every track is really upbeat and bouncy which is a plus. Every zone has its own themes, and I enjoyed all of them. The sound effects are pretty interesting in this case because they’re surprisingly high quality. I’ll never get tired of hearing the high pitched jump sample, or the screech that occurs when you shrink. They’re all extremely fitting and I’m a big fan. This game even features a little bit of voice acting. The boss characters have specific cries that, as far as I can tell, are drawn from actual recordings. The audio is pretty decent overall, but I’ve come to expect more from the Neo Geo system.
