Review Mazinkaiser 3/5 · May 14, 2019
Game & Watch Gallery: Tight Games, Excruciating Goals
Game & Watch Gallery manages to bring back a beloved slice of the past on some more accessible hardware. The games mostly hold up very well and have some more modern versions, but the goals set for this game will very much drive the player to insanity.
Featuring four of the old Game & Watch games, the player has the …
Game & Watch Gallery manages to bring back a beloved slice of the past on some more accessible hardware. The games mostly hold up very well and have some more modern versions, but the goals set for this game will very much drive the player to insanity.
Featuring four of the old Game & Watch games, the player has the choice of Manhole (cover up gaps for pedestrians to walk on), Fire (bounce people jumping from a burning building), Octopus (get treasure from an octopus's clutches), and Oil Panic (catch dripping oil and put it in a barrel). The games save for Oil Panic are relatively simple, and in the case of Classic mostly follow a very intense and focused pattern that can feel exciting and rewarding. Except for Octopus.
The Modern versions try to switch things up a little bit, and end up being cheery little bits of Mario-style with much more chaotic things thrown in. Manhole covers don't immediately kill people in Manhole, various things fall at different rates in Fire and include stars and Bobombs, the tentacles have more varied directions in Octopus and the player can catch oil in two separate buckets in Oil Panic. It's different and sometimes not as welcome (mostly just the less points from treasure and sometimes slower pace in Octopus and other games).
Pacing is the biggest flaw. The unlocks come from stars every 200 points of a high score (1000 max) per mode and special portraits detailing other Game & Watch games are unlocked at 400 and 800 high score points per game. Whether it's the agonizingly slow + difficult pace of Octopus or even a swift round of Oil Panic, 800 points as a high score is very much insane. Why this game would do this to people is cruel and unusual.
Despite that, this game doesn't push these goals as necessary to unlock any unique games - just harder modes, which is fine for the dedicated player who can reach 1000 points easily. Otherwise, sit back and enjoy some gaming history with a couple of experimental twists.
