The Opposite of Awesome Possum: Amazing Penguin, Game Boy, 1990

Though I don't usually expect much of video games about superlative, exemplary animals, Amazing Penguin surprised me. An obscure Natsume title that has nothing to do with Harvest Moon, Amazing Penguin is basically an action/puzzle game. You have a square, and Penguin can move along certain lines in the square. Along the lines are switches you have to flip, and when you flip all the switches on a line, the part of the square inside the line fills with a pattern or part of a background image. Enemies follow you, but are killed if they are on a line when you fill it in. Think a combo of Dig Dug and Qix, two arcade classics.

If my description seems confusing, that's because it is. Get off your couch and go play it yourself if you're so curious. 

The controls are great and the simplicity of the game makes it quick to learn and fun to play. Simple arcade-style games were definitely the Game Boy's technological forte. Amazing Penguin has 40 levels, but I only played up to about 10. The difficulty curve is not too bad, as each level is only slightly harder than the last. But once you've played a few, you realize it's not as easy as when you started and in fact, it's threatening to kick your ass. This gradual difficulty increase actually adds to the game, as most games just unleash hell at you, not slowly boil you like the frog in the pot.

Unfortunately, Awesome Penguin will probably be lost to today's gamers, as will many Game Boy gems. That's because the primitive father of handheld gaming is itself largely forgotten, overlooked by the collectors who are at the forefront of the retro gaming movement.

I wish I could have spoken to Natsume in 1991, and made a suggestion for the game that would have kept it alive today. Instead of filling in silly-looking patterned backgrounds when you complete a square, have Penguin fill in an image of a cute half-naked girl. Base and hedonistic? Sure. But then we would have had ourselves a real game.

Final Rating: 8/10

Final Comment: Fun, addictive arcade-style action/puzzler that runs great on the Game Boy and beats a lot of other similar games