Time for edition 62 of GBAtemp book game club. Here at GBAtemp we have an interest in seeing people able to say the have played some of the best and most interesting titles and as such we have a couple of columns on the subject. This column is one in which we aim to highlight both the best and more importantly more interesting games but rather than us reviewing it this is more about what those that want to join in think about it, most of our focus will be on the huge libraries of rom hacks, commercial games, homebrew and leaked code for the GBA, DS and Wii but we do occasionally move outside it. Although we both like and showcase good games we wish to note this is not simply a top ? games list as there are many titles that tried interesting things or were important for some reason but fell short of true greatness. Most of the time the selections will be of a single game but there will be the odd compare and contrast for a selection of related games or a franchise or a challenge/run might be posed.
#62 - Lode Runner (NDS)
The original Lode Runner was published by early game publisher Brøderbund who are probably better known as the publishers of the original Prince of Persia, the first Myst game and much of the Carmen Sandiego series but Lode Runner was a well liked classic game at the time placed alongside the likes of manic miner. Hudson, the developers of bomberman, ended up making a somewhat enhanced DS port of the title back in 2006 featuring a polished version of the original game and a sort of puzzle mode but never got around to releasing it outside Japan; even though it is quite playable otherwise ROM hacking exists and the DS does well for it so a translation was made in 2010 by GBAtemp member twiztidsinz for the menus and with it most of the game. Gameplay itself is somewhat like the aforementioned manic miner/jet set willy series as or perhaps long time Nintendo handheld favour "Crazy Castle". Prolific homebrew developer and one of the GBAtemp homebrew bounty winners Alekmaul made a DS homebrew remake you might also like to see and there are a couple of commercial GBA versions as well.
Did not bringing games like this over see Hudson the able to be purchased by Konami a few years later or had the world moved on by this point? If you like this sort of gameplay you are also encouraged to check out the Crazy Castle series if for no other reason than it demonstrates some of the better titles using licensed properties. Next week something other than a puzzle game.
gbagotw should get you other links in this series
