Friday, December 18, 2015

Magical Pop'n (SNES Repro) Review

Received: July 2nd, 2015 / Written: December 13th-18th, 2015
Year: 1995 | Developed by: Polestar
Published by: Pack-In-Video | [|O|]
 
Hello everyone, StarBoy91 here; passionate about video games, big retrophile, and fan of all things 16-bit!  =D  It's time to get back to business and talk about a quality title I'm excited to talk about!

During this Summer (for reasons that would take too long in this review to explain) I had come to the realization that the Super Famicom had a much more superior and fascinating library than the Western Super Nintendo; which don't get me wrong, does have games worth playing, but its collection pales in comparison to the Japanese counterpart.  So because of this (and because my 16-bit importing got put on hold) I decided to try something I never tried before: buying an NTSC SNES repro cart of a Super Famicom game, import without actually importing.  And while the process of converting SFC titles to SNES carts attributes to their costliness, the good news was that their prices all varied (plenty somewhat below $50).
And given that the repro cart movement inspired a vast array of SFC-to-SNES games, naturally there was a wide selection to choose from.  One of my first choices was actually Magical Pop'n, which normally costs an outrageous amount to buy in its original format (for reasons I have a feeling I know the answer to) boxed or no, but there was a copy I saw on eBay that was roughly $46!  That was quite a bargain all things considered, but sadly by the time I came back to it that cart was gone.  But I wanted to try a repro cart as soon as possible, so when I saw a repro cart of Lenar's Ganpuru: Gunman's Proof (a game I had been curious about for awhile) I went for it without hesitation.  And I'm glad I did, because that lightheartedly quirky Western equivalent to The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past quickly became one of my favorites, and was a great way to start this year's Summer.  <=)
But even though I had lost the opportunity with Magical Pop'n I did not give up on wanting to purchase it, because I knew that I would have another chance.  So once in awhile I checked to see if there were any repro carts for it; sometimes yes, sometimes no.  But luckily that late June I saw a copy which had cost roughly a dollar less than the one I glanced at a month prior, which was perfect--and this time I bought my own copy for sure, which arrived in early July.  This highly sought after platformer is often clamored to be one of the best Super Famicom games ever made by the retro video game-loving masses, but does it live up to that hype?  Let us talk about my second NTSC SNES repro cart: Magical Pop'n8-)  We're in for quite a ride here.
 
In the magical realm of To'ahl magic flourished and peace had prospered for awhile, and in it lived a young hyperactive princess named... er... "Princess" who's been rendered bored not just by peace but by the lessons her wizardly grandfather is bestowing upon her.
But during one lesson that he's in the middle of teaching, Gramps is shocked when he sees the crystal ball on the table flash a bright blinding light, which gives him a bad feeling and sees it as an ill omen.  And he was right, for that night a legion of monsters and henchmen serving the Demon King have decided to attack the kingdom and wreak havoc upon the once peaceful land.  With her highness being the only one who's got the skills to take on the evil forces on the land, will she be able to save To'ahl and become a better monarch/sorceress in the process?

Up on the rooftops
Magical Pop'n is a 2D sidescrolling platformer with some rather involved gameplay, so please bear with me as I describe the controls: as To'ahl's unnamed princess Princess you can run left and right, look up above you, and duck (you can even crawl as you hold down as you go left or right); jumping is done with the B button (like any reasonable SFC/SNES game, and how high or low you jump depends on how hard you press it), sliding down thin platforms by pressing down and B, doing the slide attack by pressing the lower diagonal left and right direction and the B button simultaneously, using the sword (for attacking and deflecting purposes) with the Y button (on the ground, in midair, lunging it above you, and while you're ducking), using your sword as a pogo stick as you press down and Y at the right moment (like DuckTales and Shovel Knight), and with the A button you use any one of the six magic abilities you can choose from, which you can alternate with the left and right shoulder buttons; and finally by pressing the Select button (yyyyeah, that's obscure button placement there) on any one of the abilities you're currently using you'll be conjuring a desperation attack against your foes.

Daaah, demon rabbit!  Kill it!
The magical abilities that you use cannot be used indefinitely (so it's best to use your magic sparingly), for you need the requisite amount of star power to conjure them at your leisure (many times more for your desperation moment), and scattered throughout each stage there are stars that can be found and located; some of them appear in chests while certain stars will appear after certain enemies have been dealt with.  The beauty of your magic capabilities is that they're not just a good way of disposing of enemies without going physical with the sword, but they are also a perfect way of bypassing particular obstacles in each stage (i.e. fire melts ice, rope magic lets you swing on magical hooks) should you locate and find said magic.  =)

Explosive toss
The controls are really responsive and easy to get into, and one of the best aspects of the game is actually how vast and widely nonlinear each stage is.  =)  Magical Pop'n is not a straightforward and linear platformer, for there are moments when you occasionally have to backtrack or reenter certain rooms if there was an obstacle you previously could not clear, and sometimes two separate rooms would lead to a room that is connected (like Super Metroid).  Thorough exploration is also a necessity if you wish to find chests with vital items inside and/or the magic spell you need to clear past particular obstacles; which is great because it ends up lending this platformer plenty of atmospheric depth.  =)  I'll elaborate more on it later.

"Magicaru Bomba!"
Each of Magical Pop'n's various areas look really good, with a good sense of detail here and there in both the foreground and the background.  I like how in the introductory stage it starts out raining and thundering at night, but then after passing through solid-looking interiors of both houses and underground sewers, you're treated to an amazing parallax scrolling sequence of houses as you're on the rooftop which gives it lots of depth.  =)  The forest stage, simple though it may be from comparison, has got soothing chartreuse hues during the day sequence, and its foliage looks so pretty.  Even the wavy effects of the fire cavern and the ice palace with its calming interiors look great!

Pushing to the left
The main character you control looks and animates very smoothly, and I liked the cute anime charm about her.  Her running, jumping, attacking, ducking, crawling, sliding, pushing, and even idle animations are great to look at; but what's really great about her is the expressions when she does any of these things.  =)  Among the enemies you encounter are piranhas, blobs, eerie creatures with extendable arms, fire-breathing pyro creatures, trolls, and even a literal army of penguins (if not regular ones); some of the latter even drive tanks in the first stage.  The enemies are all well-designed and animate nicely.
On the (mid)boss side of things, they are all huge by comparison, and all have varying designs (some with a very ominous look and feel to them).  One of them is a Janus-head style boss with each of the four sides having a head, and one of them is a giant-sized anthropomorphic fruit with bug-eyes (I think), to name a couple; the rest are good too and I'll leave a surprise.  When you face the final form of the Demon King the design is grotesquely menacing (do not highlight unless you've played the game: makes me think of the designs of the late H.R. Giger), and the backdrop for when you face him is visually nifty.  =D

"Take that!"
The cutscenes in the beginning and end of the game are simple yet appealing in terms of design, and the bright colors are very well-chosen during these instances; I especially adored the markers that introduced the stage you were about to start embarking.  The simplicity of the in-game cutscenes is a rather stark difference from the very detailed cover art that was attached to the game (designed by Takami Akai)--which don't get me wrong, the latter is visually striking in its own right, but the difference between the cover and in-game design of the character Princess is keenly felt.  Bottom line is, the visual art of Magical Pop'n is really good.  =D

Embracing the sunrise in the midst of battle
The music in Magical Pop'n is really great for it not only does a fantastic job of lending the numerous areas of To'ahl their sense of atmosphere but their own sense of identity too.  =)  The music ranges from lighthearted (To'ahl Castle) to atmospheric (Mystic Forest) to intimidating (Dangerous Keep) to epic and inspiring (Cloudy Ice Palace, my favorite song in the game), and they all work perfectly well (especially the intensifying final stage theme).  Even the bouncy and upbeat title theme is pleasant to listen to, and the (mid)boss themes aren't so shabby either.  The rest of the music is great, and I like hearing the short fanfare for when you successfully cleared each stage, not to mention that the soft cue for when you find a new magic spell is very comforting to hear.  =)  Even better, the music can be listened to in the sound test (yay!).

Let it snow!  Let it snow!  Rain the icy flakes
down my enemiiiies! ♪
The sound effects are decent (the sound for Princess' sword too), but I feel it would be unwise to talk about this game without mentioning what I feel was its major selling point: the main character talks.  While nowadays voice acting is common place when it comes to video games, when it came to the Nintendo 16-bit games of the '90s  if there were to be any digitized dialogue put in it would only be used occasionally, once, or not at all; in Magical Pop'n Princess speaks frequently, which gives this game a sense of uniqueness (among the SFC/SNES library).  Princess was voiced by the late Japanese media personality and AV actress Ai Iijima, in her only contribution to video games (to the extent of my knowledge), and the multitude of lines she provided helps breathe life into this game, and personally if Princess didn't utter a single word in-game then this platformer would not have felt the same.

... Still a better platformer than anything Sonic-related in
the past decade and a half
Given the way she looks when she spinjumps
Iijima passed away in 2008 at the young age of thirty-six from pneumonia, which is sad to hear as from what I've looked up about her she seemed like a very nice person.  May the voice of the Princess rest in peace.  =(  When I say that the main character speaks throughout the game, I'm not kidding: she speaks when she attacks with her sword and when she takes damage, she says the magic spell aloud (mostly during desperation magic), she moans when she loses all her health, she cheers when she finds a vital item or a magic spell and when she defeated the end of stage boss, and even the title is spoken out loud by her ("Magicaru Pop'ūn"), and they all sound crystal clear.  =)

Now that is one big breath of fire
The six stages in Magical Pop'n are all layered in a way that certain turns you make will lead to different parts of that stage, but if it leads to a dead-end at least it's possible to backtrack; you never know if a particular door or path will lead to something good.  Occasionally you will stumble upon treasure chests, and depending on what's inside you will find a star for your star count, a heart that will augment your health capacity (health can regularly be replenished by candy and sweet food), and a life icon, but be careful because some of them might contain bombs (and when that's the case you should clear out from it within seconds).  Part of what adds to the challenge is that in this game you must find three life icons in order to gain a new life as opposed to one like in most games of the genre; and that I find quite clever.  =)

Spinning in action
Just like Princess' health is represented by hearts, the (mid)bosses' health is represented by, fittingly enough, skulls.  Polestar devised many ways of challenging you in this game; for example, on several occasions are doors that will have to be unlocked by the press of a switch, and later on in those instances you have an unspecified amount of time to reach that door and enter it before time runs out and you have to go through it again.  Once in awhile you'll have to avoid the beaming and fiery projectiles from the wall enemies, even as you must jump on (a series of) moving platforms.  Do you remember how you had to properly time your jumps on the disappearing/reappearing platforms in Mega ManMagical Pop'n has one moment like that during one stage, but don't worry, it's not as tasking here as it is in that aforementioned 8-bit platformer.

Penguins are my enemy in this game
Quite honestly as far as difficulty is concerned it's largely normal for the most part (especially when confronting enemies and bosses); what makes it worthy of challenge for me are the stages' sense of longevity.  The area layouts are complex, which gives you a solid chance at trial and error as far as navigation is concerned; the first time you play it you don't know where a path might lead you until you take it, and after the midboss fight you can only progress forward from there.  Don't worry, these stages are not as nightmarish as I make them sound, for they are fun and manageable to navigate (with plenty of challenge to boot); where it might feel overwhelming in terms of size (even after the first time) are the maze-like final two stages, especially since this platformer must be beaten in one sitting.  Spoilers: Magical Pop'n has to be beaten in one sitting; but it's not so bad since it can be beaten in roughly an hour or an hour and a half if you stick with it.  =)

Nearing the tale's end
It's too bad Magical Pop'n remained Japan-exclusive (officially speaking), but I do understand the reason for it: while it is possible to translate what little of the story dialogue there was during the beginning and ending, the voice would've remained the same regardless.  Voice acting doesn't come cheap, you know, as it is a very costly process, and I can't imagine the pint-sized heroine speaking in a language that is not Japanese.  That is one of the many reasons I consider Polestar's platformer to be very fun until the very end, as well as for the versatile control scheme, complex area layouts, and likable boatloads of anime charm.  Also, thank you, Polestar, for not adding a score on the HUD (who says all platformers need them?)!  =D

What a beautiful statue
Magical Pop'n is a very enjoyable and highly endearing platformer through and through, from the likably outgoing character Princess to its well-made structure to its varying ways of challenging you to the very fun lighthearted nature.  When I received the game this July I was excited, and because I was so invested in it and because I was willing to persevere I wound up beating it in less than twenty-four hours (give or take a few breaks from it when I didn't succeed).  Gamers all over often regard it as one of the best Nintendo 16-bit games ever made, namely Top 10 material, but is it really?  I don't know, Magical Pop'n is a very great game, there's no doubt about that, but as much as I like the game I don't think it's quite that high in terms of quality (for me it ranks more in my Top 30 than anything else); but then, in the long run it might depend on your personal taste and preference.  =)

Swinging on by
Do I recommend this game?  Absodamnlutely!  If you want to play a platformer with complex area layouts and a grand sense of fun and challenge then Magical Pop'n delivers in those regards.  True, it must be beaten in one sitting, but the ending will be very rewarding should you bypass all the obstacles and challenges thrown in your way.  With the original Super Famicart, from what I looked up, you'd be lucky if you stumbled across a copy that cost way less than $100; with the repro cart edition that has popped up in years past, that is now possible, and if you can afford it then I say go for it!  =)  I guarantee you'll have a very great time with it!

My Personal Score: 8.5/10
<( ^o^)^TO EACH THEIR OWN^(^o^ )>
P.S. Did I get any more repro carts after Magical Pop'n?  Yes, I have; the next one I got months later was Human Entertainment's The Firemen (my third repro cart); now does that game live up to the hype?  Stay tuned for my thoughts on it sometime in 2016.  I'm sorry to say that you might be disappointed as to what I have to say about that one.  =(
 
P.S. 2 Huh, all these years I've been pronouncing Konami's vertical scrolling cute'em on the Super Famicom wrong: it's not Pop'n TwinBee ("Pop'in TwinBee") it's Pop'n TwinBee ("Pop'ūn TwinBee").  And people say video games don't teach you anything.  XD
 
HAPPY 20th ANNIVESARY, Magical Pop'n!  ^(^o^)^
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I don't know about you, but this snowman doesn't look like one who wants to wish you a happy birthday.  Which reminds me, I should probably watch Rankin/Bass' Frosty the Snowman again which is... okay, I guess?  There's also Frosty's Winter Wonderland which is... ummm?  =/  Or how about Frosty Returns which itself is...... ummm?  =/  I haven't seen his crossover features with Rudolph, I wonder how they are like?
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Thank you for reading my review, my kind readers, please leave me a comment and let me know what you think!  Have a very Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!  =D

Saturday, November 28, 2015

Ganpuru: Gunman's Proof (SNES Repro) Review

Received: May 22nd, 2015 / Written: November 9th-27th, 2015
Published by: November 28th, 2015
Year: 1997 | Developed by: Lenar | Published by: ASCII
[|O|]
 
Hello everyone, StarBoy91 here, passionate about video games, big retrophile, and fan of all things 16-bit.  =)   Let's talk action-adventure:
When Nintendo released the third in the Zelda franchise The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (which celebrates its twenty-fifth anniversary next year) on the SFC/SNES, not only did it go back to the top-down roots of the first game but it improved and expanded upon everything previously set up in the series to marvelous effect!  =)  So much so that it ended up becoming revolutionary for its time and still holds up very well to this day due the strong impact it left behind, some even calling it their top favorite Nintendo 16-bit game because of this.
And since A Link to the Past came out there have been developers that tried to compete with or had the gameplay structure influenced in one way or another by the aforementioned Nintendo classic, not just on Nintendo consoles but even Sega consoles as well; many have tried, but few have equaled it in terms of quality.  Two notable examples of this were Capcom's Disneyfied take Goof Troop/Gūfii to Makkusu - Kaizoku Shima no Daibōken which was good in its own right (in particular the Japanese version) despite its brevity, and another one was the highly revered bookend of the Gaia trilogy and Quintet's Magnum Opus Tenchi Sōzō/Terranigma (which turned twenty last month) which not only was very successful but managed to be just as good as A Link to the Past (better, to be exact) thanks to its emotional power and incredible quality (this is my Number One favorite Nintendo 16-bit game).  =)  I actually recommend that you play both these games for they are actually both really great alternatives to the Nintendo classic.
But there is another game that shared A Link to the Past's structure which is more obscure than either game combined.  So what do you get when Lenar develops and turns their take on Zelda to a quirky Western with the company behind the underrated Ardy Lightfoot ASCII acting as publisher?  You get one of the greatest 16-bit action-adventure games that never left Japan... officially^~^

On January 1997 the Super Famicom saw the debut of Ganpuru: Gunman's Proof in Japan, but because both the American and European SNES consoles were relatively late in their lifespan (not to mention the transition to the Nintendo 64) we never got to play it at the time.  But luckily in recent years, thanks to fan translators and dedicated Nintendo 16-bit fans, a series of repro carts have been made (not just for America but Europe as well) to ensure that specific Super Famicom games that are generally highly sought after would be played and enjoyed in the comfort of the American or European SNES console (should people not afford the luxury to own a Super Famicom console or import Super Famicarts).  =)
Still given all this background, it's surprising then that Nintendo had no problem releasing HAL Laboratory's Kirby's Dream Land 3 for North America on the Nintendo 16-bit console... ten months after the fact (almost a month shy of '98); it's a miracle all things considered that anyone got to play that underrated and overlooked platformer at all (excepting Europe and Australia, but the Nintendo Wii/Wii U Virtual Console downloadable services rectified that).

There is a story as to how I got this game, but I promise I'll try not to tarry too long.  There was a moment this Summer when I thought of my collection of SFC and SNES games, and (because the SFC slot of my Retro Duo was off and I'm afraid of the thought of modding my SNES because I don't wish to risk permanently damaging it if I misstep; freakin' region-locking, urrgh!!) it was at this point that I came to a sudden realization: the Super Famicom has a superior and much more fascinating 16-bit library than the Super Nintendo.  Oh, don't get me wrong, North America and Europe definitely has worthwhile and interesting games to play on the SNES (and has a sufficient amount of content in of itself), but let's face it: Japan always had the big end of the stick when it came to Nintendo 16-bit games.  =(
So, I wanted to try something different: I wanted to import a game from Japan without actually importing (given the Retro Duo condition)--that's where the repro comes in.  Up 'til then I never ordered a repro cart from eBay before, so this was huge for me.  The good news is that the repro scene inspired a wide selection of SFC hits retrofitted for the SNES, the bad news is that they can be quite pricey, the good news is that prices are varied and the lowest costs I saw were somewhere in the below $50 mark.  Okay, long story short, one of the games I considered first was Magical Pop'n (which normally is outrageously expensive in its original format), but by the time I came back to it it was gone (don't worry, I did procure a repro SNES copy of it the same Summer), so I eventually settled for Ganpuru: Gunman's Proof which I thought was decently priced at $50.  And, as they say, the rest is history.  <=)

In the year 1880 on the fictional Strange Island, located in North America's Western coast, two meteors fell down to Earth, but because everyone was focusing on their meager livings they didn't think much of it and just went on their merry way--that ultimately proved to be their downfall.
Since the meteor incident strange monsters have been appearing out of nowhere and have been attacking nearby folk, and wherever they attacked they left behind a crest with the name "Demiseeds" on it; since that discovery the otherworldly monsters have been named thusly as a result.  Meanwhile, the main character--a young boy whom you can assign a name--goes out of his home Bronco Village to play despite these attacks.
Right at that moment one other meteor came tumbling down to Earth, crashing exactly at the spot leaving a big crater where the boy hero was about to play.  Wanting to get a closer look, he crawled his way in there, and at the point he saw a UFO emanate from the hole, and from the UFO emerged two alien beings, Space Sheriff Zero and Space Sheriff Garu.  They explain that they went after the Space outlaw Demi, who's the mastermind behind all the monster attacks as of late.  Because the aliens cannot last a long time without a physical form, Zero asks if he could "borrow" the young boy's body that way Zero will be in control of his subconscious, to which the boy hero willingly accepts.  So are you actually controlling the boy or Zero?  Or... are you controlling both?  =|  Should I be disturbed by thi-- oh who cares, the game is fun!  =)

Sneaky sneaky sneaky
Ganpuru: Gunman's Proof is a top-down adventure game in the vein of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, but with slightly different features (obviously).  The boy hero can roam around in eight different directions, and instead of using swords to battle enemies he uses pistols and guns...... yyyyeah, I can see why it remained Japan-only (that would never fly today).  }8  So anyway, the A button lets you shoot from your gun, the Y button has you use your fist, and holding down the B button enables you to crouch and sneak in any direction.  If you wanted to do the crabwalk or even hold your position regardless where you move just hold down either shoulder buttons (you never know when it might come in handy)--oh, yay, I loved that feature in SoulBlazer=)
And since this game follows the vintage formula of Nintendo's classic you must be wondering: are the majority of the stairs save for one leading to the floor above or below you spiral?  Yep!  Is it possible to jump off thinly-drawn ledges?  Uh huh!  Can you do a charge attack with your main weapon?  Of course!  Are the layouts and dungeon maps Zelda-like in nature?  Definitely!  And can you swim on water and leave behind a series of bubbles should submersion be used in the deep?  You betcha!  Basically Lenar is following the A Link to the Past formula to a T, which is a good thing, not to mention that Ganpuru's controls are about as polished.  =)

Standing by the entrance of a Demiseed Base
If you feel that you're outnumbered or feel you have no choice you can launch a Chrysanthemum Firework or a Starmine Bomb via the X button, but be forewarned you can only carry three at a time, so use them wisely after you procure them.  Throughout the game you'll learn new tricks pertaining to the A, Y, and B buttons (like a combo punch attack or a wild shooting attack where bullets are sprayed every which way), including a surprise maneuver.  Some special items and/or updates can be found inside chests, but occasionally taking out baddies results in goods being dropped: be they money (bronze, silver, or gold), variants of food to replenish your health, a Chrysanthemum Firework/Starmine Bomb, an alternate weapon/punch icon, and a carrot.  When you touch a carrot a horse by the name of Robaton (officially Mono, a fellow Space Sheriff) will drop by and let you ride on him, rendering you invulnerable to enemy attacks (and crushing them) for a momentary period of time--he will only do it outside though, for he doesn't do dark places.

Well crap, I'm trapped in the corner
Your normal gun and fist grants you infinite usage, but should an enemy drop a powerful weapon icon (with rather limited usage by comparison) it'll cycle between the ones that are readily available, and if you touch it while it's on a certain weapon then you'll be stuck with it until you're either out of ammo or when you touch another weapon an enemy's dropped after he... well, dropped.  The powerful weapons in question are the machine gun where bullets spray at a fast rate, the shotgun where it serves as your five-way spread shot, a bazooka which results in a very powerful blast, a flamethrower that eats up ammo quickly but enables you to unleash a scorching flame to singe enemies, a drill arm which you use with your punch to drill into enemies, and a ball-and-chain weapon that can be spun around (it might be hard to accustom to at first, but over time it'll become easier to use).

Go, Robaton, go!!!  ^o^
Even the visuals are influenced by those from The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, perspective-wise, but in Ganpuru's case they are much more colorful and wonderfully simple.  =)  I like how distinctive each areas are, from the grassy plains of Bronco Village, to the desert coast located South, the haunted Ghost Town for which completely looks and feels abandoned (right down to the worn and torn houses), the canyon in the Southwestern segment of Strange Island, and even the way the water flows and the way it combs against the beach.  And those are the outer areas, but what really shine in this regard are the interior dungeon areas.  =)

Down at the Brain Lord desert, sentient cacti and
fireworks  =D
The first dungeon has got a good Incan décor going for it (with the poison needles emanating from the wall masks), and the depths of the canyon dungeon are appropriately rocky, with a stream of water at the very bottom floor.  There is one dungeon that has got actual mine cart tracks that conveniently point to the direction of most doors (with lamps sticking on the walls), and one of the latter dungeons is lathered in golden wood; and the great thing about all the dungeons is that they all have got distinctive floor décor, which adds a lot to the dungeon.

Following the tracks is key
The character and enemy designs are simple and to the point, which works fine, plus their colors are perfectly chosen in my opinion.  =)  Among the roster of cartoonish-looking enemies you fight are monsters posing as gunmen, sentient armadillos and cacti, crab men, bats, haunted skeletons, ghosts, and even mimic chests to name a few (don't you just love those deceiving creations?).  The boy hero is quaintly designed and animates very fluidly, plus he's got incredulous over-the-top reactions whenever something is amiss or when he gets hit by enemies (even when frozen or burnt), not to mention his poses are nice; I especially liked how if he held the regular gun and didn't shoot for several seconds he would put it back in his holster automatically (I liked that touch).  Also, he actually face all eight directions when heading in any of the eight directions!  That's so cool and rare in a 16-bit game!  =D  What other Nintendo 16-bit top-down action-adventure game (RPG) had you face all eight directions instead of four?
Right: Torneko no Daibōken: Fushigi no Dungeon
...well, aside from those, of course?  =}

I hereby swear to protect this vessel at all costs
The villagers all have simple and amiably distinctive designs: like the wranglers, the fur coat-wearing rancher, the various children, the thin puppet-like weapons instructor Colobutch, and more; I especially liked the boy hero's friend Sarah who's designed and animates in a quaint way and has actually colored irises in her eyes.  Robaton exhibits great animation whenever you either interact with him or when you ride on him, and I liked how whenever you summoned him he drops by and for a couple seconds does a random pose (i.e. peacefully holding a mug of coffee while sitting down, cosplaying as Sailor Moon, wearing shades while pumping muscle) which is absolutely great.  XD

...courtesy of the Chun-Li School of Fighting Technique!
The bosses have all got diverse design at the end of their respective dungeons (or during a potential boss gauntlet).  Among them are a living totem pole out to get you, a Ye Olde English-versed cowboy ninja, a ghost/machine with hammers for arms, and a couple of female fighters wearing Oriental fighting gear (like a certain popular Capcom fighting character).  What I liked was how solidly animated they were and how they would sometimes express incredulous reactions upon being defeated by you.  The final two bosses are also cleverly conceptualized and are detailed wonderfully, but those are a surprise.  =)

Treading on narrow ground
You'd think that since Ganpuru: Gunman's Proof is a Western that it would be encompassed by typical Western music throughout, but surprisingly that's not the case.  Sure, there's a bouncy galloping theme the moment you step out of Bronco Village from the left exit (with a series of strums to boot) and there's a foreboding theme playing when you're near one of the last exits relying on nothing but a flute and a sinister whistling sound (with a menacing composition to boot); but overall the soundtrack is fairly versatile as many segments and dungeons of Strange Island rely on varying genres, which I feel works really great as it lends Ganpuru its sense of atmosphere and mood.  =)  Not to mention it helps give each segment you traverse to their own identity, which is a plus.

In the bottom level of the cave, things are starting
to get real
Bronco Village's theme is very peaceful and relaxing, and I liked its quaintly welcoming composition.  =)  The music for the intro and for when we're introduced to the hero sounds like something that would perfectly fit in a SquareSoft RPG, the former being mysteriously suspenseful and the latter being inspiring and grand near the end.  The theme that plays when you take Bronco Village's right exit is inviting despite its notes' simplicity, but some of the best songs in the game emanate from the dungeons.

AHHH, MIMIC CHEST!  KILL IT WITH FIRE!!!
One of the examples is the very first dungeon, where the moment you step inside it sounds deep and ambient, as if you stepped into an underground and mysterious temple.  The underground cavern taking place in the canyon is menacing in tone, and the mine theme is quiet and eerie with occasional bells and flutes abound.  The Ghost Town theme is incredibly ominous and fits its abandoned atmosphere to a T, for it starts out silent until slowly, slowly the music becomes louder and louder with a ghoulishly creepy composition to boot (so much so that it honestly gave me flashbacks of the scariest moment in Tenchi Sōzō).  D8  Another example is a playful dungeon theme primarily provided by a xylophone-style sound, and the penultimate dungeon theme is so intense and foreboding it prepares you for the moment (also, it reminded me of one of the themes from The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past).

Punching out!
Ganpuru: Gunman's Proof has got two boss themes: the first one is goofy and a bit obnoxious, but the second one is superior and composed in a riveting manner.  =)  I liked how engaging and bouncy Robaton's theme sounded whenever you rode on him, and the main ending theme is rewarding to listen to after finishing the game.  The sound effects are decently chosen throughout; such as the varying sounds of the main hero's punches, the swishing sound effects when you swim in deep water, and the sounds of the steps he makes on the stairs; what I found amusing was how a couple sound effects sounded like they were taken straight from '70s/'80s anime shows.

"Armadillomon says 'Hi', punk!"
This Western action-adventure is a bit on the easy side, but that's not such a problem as there's a lot of things that end up making up for its lack of challenge.  For starters, Strange Island is a fun area to explore, especially when you gain more abilities that enable to bypass previous obstacles, and it's fun to roam around in the dungeons, battle baddies here and there, and discover treasure chests along the way.  =)  Some rooms have forks where regardless of which way you choose to go it leads to the same location, and I love trying to clear out the whole dungeon map.  What I didn't like as much was how after you defeated each boss you would be ranked based on how you performed; come on, man, it was bad enough when the platformer Bugs Bunny Rabbit Rampage did this, the last thing I expected was for it to happen in an action-adventure like Ganpuru (the highest rank I've gotten thus far is a C).  =(  But hey, you're given how long you took and receive a free life after the results are done, so at least that compensates for whatever ranking you received.

Falling for this game!
Something I found fascinating while exploring some dungeons was how occasionally you would stumble across items you would normally be able to interact with in the Zelda series while in Ganpuru they're simply props.  Some of the items in question are candles, statues, jars, or even blocks (the last of which would be pushed in Nintendo's series); there are also a few rooms that in here lead to a dead end but it's not completely a red herring in some cases.  I think Lenar must have done this on purpose, as a nod to The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, for which gameplay structure this action-adventure was influenced by; and personally, if that is the case then I think it's cool that Lenar would openly acknowledge the very game that influenced them.  =)  Kudos!

"Stranger danger!"  D=
Another thing about this game that's really great is that it is genuinely funny, in part due the over the top reactions by either the boy hero, Robaton, or the main bosses, and largely due to the quirky dialogue.  =3  Ganpuru: Gunman's Proof is a lighthearted romp, first and foremost, but there are hints of bizarre quirkiness in the proceedings, and it makes much of it very funny.  I got a kick at reading the fan translators' take on late 19th century vernacular (with A Link to the Past-styled font, albeit outlined in red), like when Colobutch is trying to "learn" you how to use a weapon or two or when you speak with some of the other Bronco Village folk (in particular the rancher).  ...  o~O  Wait!  If this is an accurate account of how people spoke in the late 19th century, does that mean...?  O=
...... ummmm,... moving on!  ...  Please?

"Aaaaah, ghosts, get them off of me!"
There is only one method to save your progress in the game, and that is when your boy character sleeps in his bed in the comfort of his home; which is a quaint idea, and the reason behind that is that Ganpuru is quite a short venture (mainly since Strange Island is a such small cay).  And, that's a shame because it's one of those games where it's fun to explore every nook and cranny, and yet at the same time I just don't want it to end; yeah, the ending is inevitable, but that just shows how much fun and how great the game is altogether.  It's not Goof Troop/Gūfii to Makkusu - Kaizoku Shima no Daibōken short, but the length is sufficient enough (and pretty much everything else makes up for that shortcoming).

I love the Power Hand!  It's so bad!
One of the few issues I have with Ganpuru: Gunman's Proof is that its ending feels incomplete.  Without going into very much detail, there is basically one half of an ending while another half is missing; by which I mean, not all loose ends are tied, and as a result I kind of want to know what else was planned or was supposed happen during the epilogue.  I felt The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past did a wonderful job when it tied all loose ends during its ending sequence; I just wish that Lenar included one more outcome for one of this game's central characters (I'm not saying who, you have to play the game to find out).  It doesn't make the game bad, but a little more would've been appreciated; oh, and funny I mentioned SoulBlazer...

"Oooh, crab, my favorite!"
But the only thing I feel is worse than a game with an incomplete ending (or one that's insufficient) is a game that lacks a credits sequence, and unfortunately Ganpuru is guilty of that as well.  =(  When I played the game for the first time I was shocked when I found out that after the incomplete ending that there was absolutely no credits sequence to speak of; at first I thought maybe it might appear if I leave the game on for a while longer, or maybe the credits will make an appearance if I find every single treasure chest scattered in Strange Island.  Nope!  Just "The End!!" with no extra words attached.  =(  C'mon, man!  Kemco-Seika's Nintendo 16-bit port of Zoom's Lagoon didn't have a credits sequence, Capcom's take on Bonkers didn't have one; what have the people of Lenar got to be ashamed about?
Child abuse played for laughs?  That's in rather poor taste, I think
O.O  Ohhhhh.............. *awkwardly looks left and right*  ...Well,... aside from that what have Lenar got to be ashamed about?  NOTHING!  It's a really damn good game!

"The Bat Lord commands you to stop attacking bats
in video games, or he'll threaten to cancel
Yooka-Laylee for good!"
Ganpuru: Gunman's Proof would've been perfect if it was a slightly longer game and if it had a full ending; but for what it is it's a highly entertaining and charmingly lighthearted game that in my opinion is near excellent.  =)  From the various settings and dungeons of Strange Island and the very simple but intuitive gun-toting gameplay of its main character, plus its very own quirky brand of humor, Lenar created a winner with this Western action-adventure.  And like the aforementioned Goof Troop/Gūfii to Makkusu - Kaizoku Shima no Daibōken and Tenchi Sōzō/Terranigma before it, Ganpuru is a great alternative to The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past=D

Intense showdown
I remember first having looked up this game years ago online, and having enjoyed the third Zelda a lot beforehand it seemed like it would be a lot of fun, and luckily for me when I actually got to play Ganpuru this Summer it turned out to be just that: a lot of fun, and more.  =)  I recall years ago when I looked up its original Super Famicom cart on eBay that it wasn't in high abundance and that it cost quite a bit (not $100s, but slightly below that mark), but surprisingly the repro cart copies that have been produced for years are far more common but still cost a bit, which would explain the former's case (as far as I had noticed).  Even so, I'm glad I bought it, for it was a great way to start the Summer for me.  =)

And something I just realized: I got this game on a May!  =O  And it seems to me that every three years I made a milestone as far as ordering and catching up on Nintendo 16-bit games are concerned, on the same month (and I swear, that was not a consciously made decision, just a coincidence).
May 2009; I bought my first ever physical SNES game (and made my first purchase on eBay): Ocean's highly underrated and squirrelly Euro-platformer Mr. Nutz, after years of either having played SNES games over at my relatives and/or friends or digitally on the Nintendo Wii Virtual Console, several months after one of my cousins lent me his SNES console (which I'll always be grateful for).
RIP Producer Satoru Iwata =(
May 2012; I imported my first ever physical Super Famicart from Japan (back when I got a Retro Duo console that opened up possibilities for me for the past two and a half years): HAL Laboratory's highly obscure and arcade-like A-RPG Alcahest, during that phase as a gamer when I wanted to broaden my horizons and start importing games from Japan.
May 2015; I bought my first ever SNES repro cart of a Super Famicom game: Ganpuru: Gunman's Proof, never having played a repro cart beforehand and wanting to give it a fair shot, being intrigued by the concept of playing Super Famicom games transferred to an SNES cart.
And because these three separate games represented my first purchase for the physical SNES cart, physical Super Famicart, and NTSC SNES repro cart respectively, they all hold a special place in my heart and I'll always have a fondness for them because they all opened up a new doorway for me.  I love these games with a passion, and for that, I hereby dub Mr. Nutz, Alcahest, and Ganpuru as my Terrifically Underrated Big 3<=D
 
One of the best action-adventures on the Nintendo 16-bit
Ganpuru: Gunman's Proof is a Western action-adventure I highly recommend you play.  =)  If you're in the mood for a fun, lighthearted venture, then I think you'll have a great time with it (if you feel that you can afford it).  Just do not expect there to be a lot of length, and you'll be just fine.  And if you enjoy humor when it comes to playing games, there's plenty of it here and there.  Ganpuru's got great and polished gameplay, an inviting island to explore, and it is non-demanding lighthearted entertainment from beginning to end.  Frankly, I could not ask for a better first NTSC SNES repro cart experience.  =)
 
My Personal Score: 9.5/10
<( ^o^)^TO EACH THEIR OWN^(^o^ )>
P.S. At least in the beginning of EarthBound when Ness' kid neighbors got physically abused by their father we never saw it happen,... but we did hear it, so yyyyeah, that doesn't exactly make it better.  =(  ......  I'm thankful every day that I was raised by a caring and loving family, and I feel very sorry for those that weren't/aren't.
 
P.S. 2 Before the year is over I'll share my thoughts on Magical Pop'n, my second NTSC repro cart.  =)
 
P.S. 3 Time to contemplate getting a Super Famicom console.
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"I NEED AN ADULT!!!!!!!"  D8>
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♫ I am the man who will fight for your honor,
I'll be the hero that you're dreaming of
We'll live forever, knowing together that we,
did it all for the glory of love ♪
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Thank you for reading my review, my readers, please leave me a comment and let me know what you think!  I hope you have a great day, and take care!  =D