Action Video Game/System Mega Review: Game & Watch Mickey Mouse AKA Egg

Mickey Mouse was the thirteenth game by Nintendo Research & Development 1 in Nintendo's line of Game & Watch consoles. It was redesigned without the Disney license as Egg, which was the fourteenth Game & Watch console. Both versions were released in 1981.

In the original Mickey Mouse-branded game, Mickey tends to chickens in a chicken coop and has to catch the eggs. The game is played on a simple liquid crystal display and depicts Mickey Mouse, a chicken sitting on top of one of the coops, and the eggs in a frame-by-frame style. The background panel is in color and depicts the coops from which the eggs come as well as other stationary chickens and grass. 

The Egg version is identical, except Mickey Mouse is now replaced by a wolf that is stealing eggs from chicken coops in a hen house. This version works much better thematically and is the version that Nintendo has remade and ported onto more powerful systems over the years.

Egg was converted to and remade in Game & Watch Gallery 3 for the Game Boy Color in 1999. It has the classic mode, which is identical to the original, as well as a modern mode. The modern mode takes a cue from the puzzle game Yoshi's Cookie since a blue Yoshi collects cookies as they come out of an oven. The modern version adds a bit of spice into the mix since bob-ombs will sometimes have to be avoided while the cookies are being caught.

Game & Watch Gallery 3 was available through emulation on the Virtual Console on Nintendo 3DS in 2014 as well as through the Game Boy emulator available to Nintendo Switch Online subscribers on Nintendo Switch in 2023.

On a side note, in the Soviet Union, both versions of the game were bootlegged as part of the Elektronika Microprocessor Games line. Mickey Mouse was copied directly under the Russian translation of Mickey Mouse, Микки Маус. Egg became Ну, погоди!, which is romanized as Nu, pogodi!, and is translated as Well, Just You Wait! in English. Well, Just You Wait! was a popular series of animated shorts in the Soviet Union, and later in Russia, that were produced by Soyuzmultfilm. The wolf from Nu, pogodi! replaced Nintendo's wolf and the hare from Nu, pogodi! replaced the chicken sitting on top of a chicken coop.

There are also a whole bunch of Soviet Elektronika consoles that used the Soviet bootleg of the Mickey Mouse microprocessor with different art, graphics, and themes. You can find out about them in a separate review located here. 

Like all Game & Watch games, there is fun to be had with Mickey Mouse and Egg in short bursts. If you want to try it, I recommend the version in Game & Watch: Gallery 3. This way, you not only get a conversion of the original game from 1981 but a modern mode as well. The modern mode adds more advanced color graphics as well as a modification to the game formula by adding bob-ombs, which leads to a slightly less monotonous experience.

Final Verdict:

3 out of 5

Action Video Game/System Review: Game & Watch Mario Bros.

Mario Bros. by Nintendo Research & Development 1 was the twenty-fourth Game & Watch console. It was actually the first game that included both Mario brothers, Mario and Luigi, as it was released before their eponymous arcade game.

It is a frame-by-frame game on a liquid crystal display. In the game, Mario and Luigi work in a factory packing bottles and loading them on a truck. In the unofficial sequel for the Commodore 64, as well as the officially released Game & Watch Gallery 3 for Game Boy Color, the brothers pack up cakes instead of bottles.

Mario is on the right and Luigi is on the left. Mario loads the base on a conveyor belt, it goes through a machine and comes out the other side. Mario and Luigi have to go up and down ladders in order to keep the packages from falling to the ground. When the fully packed items get all the way to the top, Luigi tosses them in a shipping truck. 

In the Game & Watch Gallery 3 remake, Wario also sometimes messes with the process, and Luigi has to pull a lever to the left in order to fix it. Also in the remake, the truck takes off and a new one comes back to start the process again.

Like all Game & Watch games, Mario Bros. is simple. However, despite its simplicity, the game works well on double screens of this version of the Game & Watch system. Game & Watch Gallery 3 is the best way to play it, whether it is on the Nintendo Game Boy Color, Nintendo 3DS, or Nintendo Switch. The addition of Wario throwing a spanner in the works adds more complexity, and the more advanced technology allows for color graphics as well as animation. This is much less remembered than the arcade game of the same name, which is a shame, as this is actually one of the most fun Game & Watch games.

Final Verdict:

3½ out of 5

Donkey Kong Jr. review

Mario Bros. Review

Action Sports Game Review: Downtown Nekketsu March: Super Awesome Field Day!

2020 was by any account a terrible year. But even terrible years have some good in them, and one good treat for gamers last year was the release of Double Dragon & Kunio-kun Retro Brawler Bundle by Arc System Works. This officially brought all of Tecmo's Kunio-kun Famicom games to English speaking gamers for the first time ever.

One of the most entertaining games of the bunch is Downtown Nekketsu March: Super Awesome Field Day!, known in Japan as Downtown Nekketsu March: Let's Go to the Great Athletic Meet.

In Downtown Nekketsu March: Super Awesome Field Day!, the goal is to choose one of six students from Nekketsu High School to compete in several events. The school with the highest amount of points at the end is declared the winner. Rounds, or laps, as well as time, can be selected in the menu for each event.

The first event out the gate, Cross Country, or XCountry as it is displayed in-game, shows exactly what kind of game you are in for, as the athletes run through the city. As this is a Kunio-kun game, you have the ability to hit your opponents, as well as pick objects off of the ground to use as weapons. The portions of the track are quite a lot of fun, as they involve the usual such as running along city streets and along rooftops, and the strange, such as running through houses past people sitting down to enjoy a meal, as well as the unusual, such as climbing up a building parkour-style and swimming in sewers.

The second event, Obstacle, is a Sasuke or Ninja Warrior-style obstacle course where the goal is to get to the end of the event first while running and jumping through obstacles such as trampoline platforms, conveyor belts, and hands that come out of doors as you walk by. In essence, it is a precursor to modern games of this type, such as Doritos Crash Course.

The third event, Ballbreak, is aptly titled as the event has the athletes climb a pole to reach a ball, and the goal is to be the first to break the ball. As usual, you can punch and kick your opponents and use picked-up objects to keep them from reaching the pole first. Once on the pole, you can punch and kick your opponents off the pole as well.

The martial arts competition, or M.A. as it is displayed in-game, is the minigame that is the most like Tecmo's regular Kunio-kun or Double Dragon brawlers, with the exception that the mayhem takes place in a single location. Here, the goal is to simply beat on your opponents the most, with fists, kicks, or with picked up objects as weapons, in order to bring their health bars down to zero. The last opponent standing wins.

It's a shame this one never made it outside of Asia during the lifespan of the Nintendo Entertainment System. It has the same charm as Super Dodge Ball, with bits of River City Ransom thrown in. I grew up with both of those games, and I would have loved to have been able to play this one as a child. Luckily, it's still fun as an adult, provided that you don't mind the limited graphics and somewhat stilted control scheme of games from the 8-bit era of gaming.

Final result:
3½ out of 5