Altered Beast: Guardian of the Realms

I wasn’t sure if I was going to like this game at all, seeing as how I don’t particularly care for the original, but I gotta say, I came away from this one more positive than I expected! Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a recommendation without caveats, certainly not, but it could have easily been a disaster, so I’m happy to say that it’s at least worth a shot if you like that original game in any way. Whether you legitimately enjoyed its gameplay or loved the concept only to be betrayed by the execution in one way or another, Guardian of the Realms is at the very least a slight improvement upon what its predecessor established. It’s a simple game that shows the depth of its mechanics to you just as quickly as its forebear did, but its aesthetics and surprises do a lot to give it that extra bump to put it just above harsh labels like “mediocrity” or “a pointless sequel”.

Planet Monsters

Planet Monsters is what you get if you combine Bomberman, Kickle Cubicle, and Pengo into one strange mixture of a game. It's an interesting concept and it's visually charming, but its single player mode leaves a lot to be desired. Playing against the AI over and over again loses its appeal quickly and the boss fights, while novel enough, don't do enough to keep things interesting. Despite all that, and perhaps it's because I'm a big fan of the GBA, there's something about it that keeps me from outright disliking it. I could see this one being more exciting if you're able to wrangle together people who are actually willing to try it, but good luck with that in 2022...

Challenger

Challenger is yet another game to add to the pile of "misunderstood NES games that are actually good but people think are bad because they played them years past their ideal historical contexts" alongside games like Hydlide, Deadly Towers, The Legend of Kage, and Xevious. People playing it for the first time nowadays could easily walk away unimpressed thinking it's just a worse Zelda with some other stuff, but when looked at in the context of 1985, it comes off as something really ahead of the curve. With multiple genres of play, a large world that takes exploration and practice to master, and a flexible difficulty curve for all kinds of players, it's a game that impressed me in short order.

Disney’s Chicken Little

Chicken Little falls in between the extremes of licensed game quality and that's the most unfortunate place for it to be - too dull to recommend playing, but also rarely funny enough to get an accidental kick out of. Its GBA version fares better, being a simple but competent platform with a stronger focus on platforming and more consistently enjoyable design.