The best feature of this game, after the multi-plane scrolling, is undoubtedly the rousing 8-bit rendition of "Waltzing Matilda", the crown-jewel of Australia's musical culture.
For anyone wondering how to beat this game, you have to collect each of the 5 types of animal items at least once throughout 10 stages, of which each type spans 2 stages accordingly. If any is missed, you'll have to re-do the whole process (level vegetation is following a different pattern).
I was doing a little bit of research awhile ago to determine what the heck this had to do with the movie...the closest I could figure out was a note that the movie was heavily marketed with footage of exotic animals and landscapes, so maybe Pony Canyon thought "Hey, kids will find these creatures cute, maybe they'll want a game about it too" and then shoveled this out. For the US I always assumed they thought kids would get it confused with the Tazmanian Devil.
If you look closely at the footage I dug up, when the kid is by the hospital bed and lifts his head, he's holding a Game Boy. And apparently the game came out in Japan the same day as the movie. Maybe there was some sort of promotional/marketing scheme in place - supposedly this was the second most successful domestic film release of 1990, and Fuji knew it would be seen by a lot of kids, so maybe this was targeted for *synergy*.
I remember learning about the movie many years ago (I also had this game on a 100 in cartridge) and being very confused on how this was a game based on a movie.
It's entirely possible this game fell victim to the "E.T. formula" in that, the programming team may have had almost no knowledge of the movie and programmed it in tandem with the film, causing quite a disconnect between the two. To be fair, however, E.T. on the Atari 2600/VCS is a perfectly playable game with some flaws that translates the film poorly into that format. This screams "cash grab" in contrast. I picked this one up a while back, and now this makes me want to play and review it so I can get it out of the way. Most of what I've reviewed so far has been good to great, so getting a real stinker in the mix would be good.
This game was prominently featured in various JP bootleg carts and I got one with it. Well, what can I say other than I enjoy it to some extent. If we count obvious ljn crap that is also prominently featured in same carts, it's actually one of the better ones. Simplistic graphics help focus on the gameplay, it's fast and action-packed; controlling and movement physics are obviously done in rather 25%-to-one-tile-per-press movement and rarely is it to suggest to stop moving on some point both because of that and because monsters aren't gonna wait for you to choose - ha, Start button won't help either. Just develop tactics and strategize on-the-go and keep holding on the d-pad because this is totally not a tapping game. For example, on 6:38 you should've planted a bomb for the monster on right. I know, it's easy to tell when you can pause a gameplay, but such skills can be developed. 6:17 on another hand along with many other pits on the starting-platforms are usually progressively nicely aligned for you to try stomping on the monsters, which is the most important tactic to develop in this game (and in case of that particular level starting, should've just held left to stop the left monster, went to the bouncer to climb that lone platform just as the right monster approaches, stomped that one too). Now I haven't played any other games this game is ripping-off, but I certainly could say I could find more appeal playing this-style game on a handheld than otherwise. Nothing much to recommend about the game, but if you're in for some of it from time to time and already have it for some reason like having a cheap bootleg, it's there. It completely rippped-off concepts from other games but those were good ones, and that's why I like it on one hand. Wow, now this looks like a solid wall of 3 paragraphs. :D
Pony Canyon would eventually get it right when they port Bubble Ghost to the Game Boy. It's one of my favorite Game Boy games, and I'm saying that after having only discovered it a few years ago. (So nostalgia is not involved.)
This game definitely feels like one of those "Hey, we are making a direct to VHS movie, so we need a video game tie in" kind of executive move from somebody on the board of directors. I can't possibly imagine anybody in any creative department looked at Tasmania Monogatari and said, hey, let's make a game of this.
Still about the game controls and quirks, the most useful mechanic is you dropping on monsters (if all 4 are in the same place, you can disable all 4 at the same time, it's tricky), the animals are just for points (and thus, to get more lives) and the stars are to get more bombs (which are only meant to be used in an emergency). The trampoline can only make you jump 2 times in a sucession, you die after a third jump - but it resets after a while - so you can't abuse the trampoline. Everytime you die you get more bombs. I think the game loops from some stages in (enemies just get faster), I think there's no actual ending...
Wow. I have to imagine what it would look like if publishers pulled such a stunt in this day and age. Here, a "Book of Henry" game that's just a palette swapped clone of Great Giana Sisters! I mean, what the f--?!
There's plenty of odd stuff he did in the 80's nobody's ever seen like "Sasuga no Sarutobi" ("Clever Sarutobi", about a fat ninja kid who's special technique is making girls' skirts lift up). I forget he also did music for "Robot Carnival".
I don' t know what the title music is supposed to be. It doesn't seem to be the Tasmanian anthem, nor the asutralian one... but the very same track is heard in the film Young Einstein, during a scene that takes place... in Tasmania. Maybe some sort of classical music of Tasmanian folklore or whatever? But it's definitely the same music.
Just looked it up. Thanks! I did not know that but seeing it dubbed the unofficial Australian anthem, I can understand why it would be heard rather prominently in two highly "Australian" themed products of media.
hello everybody, i've lived in tasmania all my life. I was only about 6 years old when this game came out, but as far as i know, not one single person who lived here cared about it. thank you for your attention.
I have this game. I must say that despite the fluent animation, parallax scrolling, awkward dialogue, and the nice 8-bit rendition of Waltzing Matilda in the intro, Tasmania Story is pretty much the most cheaply made Game Boy game I've ever seen.
I remember my dad getting this for me at the mall when I was 5 or 6. I was upset because I didn't get the game I wanted (don't even remember what I wanted). I still played the crap out of this game. This was my second video game ever (after Tetris which came with my og Game Boy). After this I got Metroid II and things kept getting better.
i found it! that weird game from the "105 games" pirate multicart from my childhood! i think the apple silhouette in the title screen somehow burnt itself into my memory, and for a time i though Apple made some bad Game Boy game. i didn't really know what Apple was about back then, except computer stuff (and i assumed they were japanese 😅). as growing older that story kinda fell apart. now the memories finally make sense 😃!
Thank you for dredging up unknown globules of mediocrity from the recesses of pre-internet video game history. ...no seriously, always enjoy the show. :D
Pony Cannon is known for making bad games, and this most certainly is not their first bad movie based game. Before this they made a game based on the movie Koneko Monogatari (Kitten Story) which was edited into Milo and Otis for American audiences, for the Famicom Disk System. The game is poor quality, and has some of the worst music on the Disk System so far, and has no reason to even be a disk based game, as it has no features such as expansion audio or a save feature, the only reason they put this on the FDS rather than the Famicom is probably because it was cheaper.
"...collect all the items littered throughout the stage without being gobbled by monsters." You refer to the enemies in the game as "monsters" throughout this review. They are actually supposed to be Tasmanian tigers, hence the title/intro scene at the beginning of the game. Now granted, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, thylacines are extinct, but they're certainly NOT monsters. The game isn't as shit as you're making it out to be; for some brief casual gaming, it's an alright bit of software.
They're supposed to be Tasmanian Devils* per the game manual. I think this kind of wording is used lightly as a mere convenient gaming term to describe the enemies, as in not clearly being able to tell their depiction or making it more convenient for audience. "Lightly" because they aren't a focus here.
hey i just found your channel trying to figure out how to play a game and i realized that we both are doing pretty much the same thing so i think maybe we should do a colab
![Game Boy World #057: Ayakashi no Shiro [Seta, 1990]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/aOj1OLDo76k/mqdefault.jpg)
![Game Boy World #059: Catrap [Asmik Ace, 1990]](/img/n.gif)
The best feature of this game, after the multi-plane scrolling, is undoubtedly the rousing 8-bit rendition of "Waltzing Matilda", the crown-jewel of Australia's musical culture.
"Flamin' galar!"
My 9 year old self is still angry that this game had absolutely nothing to do with the Loony Tunes Tazmanian Devil!
im with you
For anyone wondering how to beat this game, you have to collect each of the 5 types of animal items at least once throughout 10 stages, of which each type spans 2 stages accordingly. If any is missed, you'll have to re-do the whole process (level vegetation is following a different pattern).
I was doing a little bit of research awhile ago to determine what the heck this had to do with the movie...the closest I could figure out was a note that the movie was heavily marketed with footage of exotic animals and landscapes, so maybe Pony Canyon thought "Hey, kids will find these creatures cute, maybe they'll want a game about it too" and then shoveled this out. For the US I always assumed they thought kids would get it confused with the Tazmanian Devil.
If you look closely at the footage I dug up, when the kid is by the hospital bed and lifts his head, he's holding a Game Boy. And apparently the game came out in Japan the same day as the movie. Maybe there was some sort of promotional/marketing scheme in place - supposedly this was the second most successful domestic film release of 1990, and Fuji knew it would be seen by a lot of kids, so maybe this was targeted for *synergy*.
I remember learning about the movie many years ago (I also had this game on a 100 in cartridge) and being very confused on how this was a game based on a movie.
It's entirely possible this game fell victim to the "E.T. formula" in that, the programming team may have had almost no knowledge of the movie and programmed it in tandem with the film, causing quite a disconnect between the two. To be fair, however, E.T. on the Atari 2600/VCS is a perfectly playable game with some flaws that translates the film poorly into that format. This screams "cash grab" in contrast. I picked this one up a while back, and now this makes me want to play and review it so I can get it out of the way. Most of what I've reviewed so far has been good to great, so getting a real stinker in the mix would be good.
The cover for the US box art was drawn by a guy who went on to work on Dead Space.
My my, it's not a common thing to have my homestate be mentioned! Go Tasmania!
Sorry it couldn't be under happier circumstances!
He'll just have to wait up until you get to 1994 and review Sunsoft's Taz-Mania (which is an ok game)
Haha me too. Launceston way
Devonport here
This game was prominently featured in various JP bootleg carts and I got one with it. Well, what can I say other than I enjoy it to some extent. If we count obvious ljn crap that is also prominently featured in same carts, it's actually one of the better ones. Simplistic graphics help focus on the gameplay, it's fast and action-packed; controlling and movement physics are obviously done in rather 25%-to-one-tile-per-press movement and rarely is it to suggest to stop moving on some point both because of that and because monsters aren't gonna wait for you to choose - ha, Start button won't help either. Just develop tactics and strategize on-the-go and keep holding on the d-pad because this is totally not a tapping game.
For example, on 6:38 you should've planted a bomb for the monster on right. I know, it's easy to tell when you can pause a gameplay, but such skills can be developed. 6:17 on another hand along with many other pits on the starting-platforms are usually progressively nicely aligned for you to try stomping on the monsters, which is the most important tactic to develop in this game (and in case of that particular level starting, should've just held left to stop the left monster, went to the bouncer to climb that lone platform just as the right monster approaches, stomped that one too).
Now I haven't played any other games this game is ripping-off, but I certainly could say I could find more appeal playing this-style game on a handheld than otherwise. Nothing much to recommend about the game, but if you're in for some of it from time to time and already have it for some reason like having a cheap bootleg, it's there. It completely rippped-off concepts from other games but those were good ones, and that's why I like it on one hand. Wow, now this looks like a solid wall of 3 paragraphs. :D
As an Australian I'd like to say that Tasmania doesn't have wild cacti... I think.
Probably shot the film in another part of Australia or elsewhere.
Pony Canyon would eventually get it right when they port Bubble Ghost to the Game Boy. It's one of my favorite Game Boy games, and I'm saying that after having only discovered it a few years ago. (So nostalgia is not involved.)
Yeah, Bubble Ghost is pretty good. I'm looking forward to that one.
That was actually not ported by Pony Canyon, but by a company called Opera House.
Same. I love Bubble Ghost; it was an okay game on DOS, but the Game Boy version really makes it come alive.
This game definitely feels like one of those "Hey, we are making a direct to VHS movie, so we need a video game tie in" kind of executive move from somebody on the board of directors. I can't possibly imagine anybody in any creative department looked at Tasmania Monogatari and said, hey, let's make a game of this.
I guess Fujisankei could only do so much when it came to what we ended up with over here (like the Milo & Otis movie).
Woo, parallax scrolling on the ending screen! :P
Still about the game controls and quirks, the most useful mechanic is you dropping on monsters (if all 4 are in the same place, you can disable all 4 at the same time, it's tricky), the animals are just for points (and thus, to get more lives) and the stars are to get more bombs (which are only meant to be used in an emergency). The trampoline can only make you jump 2 times in a sucession, you die after a third jump - but it resets after a while - so you can't abuse the trampoline.
Everytime you die you get more bombs. I think the game loops from some stages in (enemies just get faster), I think there's no actual ending...
Wow. I have to imagine what it would look like if publishers pulled such a stunt in this day and age. Here, a "Book of Henry" game that's just a palette swapped clone of Great Giana Sisters! I mean, what the f--?!
I like how awkwardly worded that first parallax scrolling screen sentence is.
Oh man. Joe hisaishi composed the music for the movie? Gotta check that out. He's so dope.
There's plenty of odd stuff he did in the 80's nobody's ever seen like "Sasuga no Sarutobi" ("Clever Sarutobi", about a fat ninja kid who's special technique is making girls' skirts lift up). I forget he also did music for "Robot Carnival".
It took me a while to realize the title theme is Waltzing Matilda. Did they get Tom Waits to do the music for this game?
I find this game to be rather unsettling for some reason.
"Arsed"? "Buggered"? Did Tasmania Story turn Jeremy British for this episode?
They use those in Australian slang too, I presume, so it's appropriate.
I think I remember this from a bootleg cartridge! They cut the intro though..!
Those player character death throes are disturbing. o_O
I don' t know what the title music is supposed to be. It doesn't seem to be the Tasmanian anthem, nor the asutralian one... but the very same track is heard in the film Young Einstein, during a scene that takes place... in Tasmania. Maybe some sort of classical music of Tasmanian folklore or whatever? But it's definitely the same music.
it's waltzing matilda
Just looked it up. Thanks! I did not know that but seeing it dubbed the unofficial Australian anthem, I can understand why it would be heard rather prominently in two highly "Australian" themed products of media.
lol @ "Tasmanian Anthem"
waaw, I had no idea the tasmanian tiger was a marsupial, interesting.
hello everybody, i've lived in tasmania all my life.
I was only about 6 years old when this game came out, but as far as i know, not one single person who lived here cared about it. thank you for your attention.
oh and that is a horrendously rough attempt at waltzing matilda D:
also today i learned that in the 80s the japanese made a movie based on my home state???
I live in tasmania, and never heard of this till now.. i can see why i hadnt heard of it lol
haha, legend :)
I have this game. I must say that despite the fluent animation, parallax scrolling, awkward dialogue, and the nice 8-bit rendition of Waltzing Matilda in the intro, Tasmania Story is pretty much the most cheaply made Game Boy game I've ever seen.
Never played this one before but knew the name. I can say I honestly wasn't expecting _that_
I love these puzzle game videos,
I am learning about some really out there games.
I saved you $12, now by my book! I have spoken.
Man, game 69 and just a licensed movie :(
Pony Canyon with another fucking banger!
I remember my dad getting this for me at the mall when I was 5 or 6. I was upset because I didn't get the game I wanted (don't even remember what I wanted). I still played the crap out of this game. This was my second video game ever (after Tetris which came with my og Game Boy). After this I got Metroid II and things kept getting better.
It's too bad they had no ambition, I can see an action-adventure-RPG of looking for the Tasmanian Tiger deep in the untouched bush.
i found it! that weird game from the "105 games" pirate multicart from my childhood! i think the apple silhouette in the title screen somehow burnt itself into my memory, and for a time i though Apple made some bad Game Boy game. i didn't really know what Apple was about back then, except computer stuff (and i assumed they were japanese 😅). as growing older that story kinda fell apart. now the memories finally make sense 😃!
Nice.
Fruit Panic looks like a cross between Pac-Man and Mappy.
This is one of those games that were often included on pirate multi-carts back then.
I never liked it. The art style even gave me the creeps.
Thank you for dredging up unknown globules of mediocrity from the recesses of pre-internet video game history.
...no seriously, always enjoy the show. :D
Pony Cannon is known for making bad games, and this most certainly is not their first bad movie based game. Before this they made a game based on the movie Koneko Monogatari (Kitten Story) which was edited into Milo and Otis for American audiences, for the Famicom Disk System.
The game is poor quality, and has some of the worst music on the Disk System so far, and has no reason to even be a disk based game, as it has no features such as expansion audio or a save feature, the only reason they put this on the FDS rather than the Famicom is probably because it was cheaper.
I'd love to know the name of the song used in the next episode preview...
It's the Neon Genesis Evangelion next episode preview song.
"...collect all the items littered throughout the stage without being gobbled by monsters." You refer to the enemies in the game as "monsters" throughout this review. They are actually supposed to be Tasmanian tigers, hence the title/intro scene at the beginning of the game. Now granted, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, thylacines are extinct, but they're certainly NOT monsters. The game isn't as shit as you're making it out to be; for some brief casual gaming, it's an alright bit of software.
They're supposed to be Tasmanian Devils* per the game manual. I think this kind of wording is used lightly as a mere convenient gaming term to describe the enemies, as in not clearly being able to tell their depiction or making it more convenient for audience. "Lightly" because they aren't a focus here.
I will think about playing tasmania story.
I loved this game as a kid
I almost enjoy these train wreck games more than the classics of the system
hey i just found your channel trying to figure out how to play a game and i realized that we both are doing pretty much the same thing so i think maybe we should do a colab
Nnnooice!