The 1990's feels like the decade where video games exploded as a successful business industry, with numerous potential franchises vying for attention and popularity. While I don't know much about the video game company Natsume personally, (the company that made this game), this video game feels like an oddity, even by video game standards! This video game stars a monkey, who for some oddly named reason is named Spanky (though thankfully, that's as naughty as the game gets). The monkey is captured by a witch named Mortica, dropped into a six level castle that he has to make out of, and he has to fight against magically enchanted living fruits that Mortica brought to life, in order to get out of each stage. In each stage, Spanky has to collect keys, often being held by the enemy fruits, in order to unlock the door in each stage, in order to move on to the next stage. To combat the fruits, Spanky has an ability. The ability to create a magic bubble. And depending on how big it is before Spanky makes the bubble pop, the bubble will transform into a different sports ball. The smallest bubble transforms into a baseball, the next size up transforms into five soccer balls that fall in rapid succession, the next size up transforms into a volleyball which swarms around the enemy in a circular motion for a while, and the largest size transforms into five basketballs which spread out away from Spanky, covering a lot of ground, and potentially hitting a lot of enemies. However, this task is not exactly easy, because you have to memorize the movement patterns of each enemy, in order to best gauge when and where to throw and activate the magic bubble. Also, don't try to take too long in completing a stage, because eventually, Mortica will send her evil, indestructible crow to attack you, and the crow will gradually try to close in on you, so take care in trying to finish each stage as soon as possible. The same movement pattern trick also applies to each of the six bosses, giant fruits (except for Mortica, who turns giant, than turns small, than turns into a giant crow, than turns small before finally being defeated). However, some walls can secretly be destroyed by a transformed magic bubble, revealing secret bonus areas! By bouncing a giant red ball, and keeping it on screen for as long as possible, not only will you score major bonus points, you can also net a very valuable extra life! The graphics are really good, the controls are solid, the music/sound effects are good, and the challenge is pretty solid. The only downside is, if you're an expert like me, than the challenge doesn't last that long. However, if you're looking for a unique video game experience, it's hard to get more unique than this, and there has never been a better time to play this game, as it's now available to play via the Nintendo Switch Online Super NES Video Game service, so I highly recommend trying it out. Enough said, true believers!
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