Edit: See post 3 for new games for today!
I'm gonna try something different this week. New day, new game. That way we'll get some variety out there and also hopefully find something appropriate for the rapidly approaching 25th
Today's game is going to be...
Noboranka, 1986 Data East.
Prologue baloney:
As usual I remembered at the very last minute that I had the chair for this week's MMMC. Instead of rushing, I just took my time and kept on with what I was doing - listening to some games in BridgeM1. I knew this game from the music in MAME, but oddly I don't remember ever having fired up the actual game. I realized immediately that I had to make it a game for this week, just because (we'll get to some seasonally-themed ones). When it's cold outside and the foliage is all off the trees, this is a nice cheery title.
Whoa! Shrooms with 'tude!
If everything goes well, I'll get some screens & a ROM up later.
Quick strategy:
Climb up the trees and don't get hit by enemies, bullets (some have homing rings), or the skulls that occasionally fall along with fruit.
At the base of the tree, enemies are worth 200 points and fruit 100 points. There's no point stacking that I can see. Therefore, if you have to choose (and you often do), shoot the enemies instead of collecting fruit. An added bonus is that dead enemies won't be able to attack and your chances of accidentally trying to catch a skull are somewhat lower if you aren't rushing around after fruit (although you should chase it as much as you can anyway).
The second button isn't actually needed, but it can make things easier. Take a look at the ILOVEYOU meter - the number of letters is the number of uses of flying you have left. I wouldn't recommend trying to use it at the beginning of the game; it's easier to fall out on a limb to get the shaded caterpillars and those nasty things with hair ribbons and homing bullets (to trick homing bullets, just move one way when they appear and then go the other way - easy). The first place you'll likely want to use it is at the first fork in the tree, where there's invincible bees flying around. You can get past them without flying, but it requires good timing.
Random interesting point: For every different way of getting bumped off the hero has a different exclamation - the small enemies at the beginning (trunk crawlers, caterpillar dudez) provoke an "A!" while the skull is a "Chi!" Most are just simple syllables (like A! I! Ge! Hi! or Chi!) with no meaning (the small wavy thing after the syllable is a small tsu, meaning the pronunciation is clipped). I'll try to get a chart together; it's amusing.
Tomorrow - stay tuned for Christmas themed stuff heading this way!