Harapeko Bakka for SFC

Image: MobyGames

Harapeko Bakka

Imposter Yoshi Othello

Genre: puzzle - blocks

Publisher: Sunsoft

Year: 1994

System: SFC

Gameplay Score: 1

Gameplay Notes:

It's real-time Othello. Walk your character around the 9x9 grid to drop a piece (in this case an egg) on a square. The wrinkle is that you can also each up an egg, whether it's yours or your opponent's. All other Othello rules are enforced and naturally, at the end of the short 40 second round the player with the most eggs wins. Unfortunately, the game suffers from two problems: unresponsive controls and extreme difficulty. The controls only involve the d-pad and the A button to eat an egg, but the timing is awkward. Your character moves, stops to lay and egg, and then moves. So, you have to hold in the direction that you want to go, which is fine when continuously moving in the same direction, but turning is a crapshoot since you have to stop holding and switch directions with weird timing. It's hard to describe but suffice it to say that it doesn't feel right. Likewise, it's difficult to get the timing right for when to eat an egg. Your opponent, of course, has no problems with the timing so they are much faster than you are at both dropping and eating eggs. I played several rounds and found that the only way to have a sporting chance was to follow just behind the other guy and eat his eggs. Even then I only won about half the team, and even on the Easy difficulty. Bleh

Level Design Score: 1

Level Design Notes:

There's only one mode, only one board, and three difficulties with Easy being insanely hard. So yeah, not much to see here.

Theme Score: 3

Theme Notes:

No, it's not Yoshi, but the dinosaur sprites bear a vague resemblance and the hatched eggs that get counted up at the end of each round are a spitting impage of Mario's sidekick. In fact, the backgrounds and many of the sounds feel like Nintendo counterfeits. Overall it's a nice motif that gives the game a smidgin of personality. However, it would've been more interesting had your opponent been a different character.

Art Style Score: 3

Art Style Notes:

Pretty basic sprites and background. There are a couple of nice touches but overall this is a very average looking puzzler.

Audio Score: 4

Audio Notes:

Nice music and sounds. They have a cute, Mario-esque sound.

Overall Score: 32

Review ID: 1665