Innsmouth no Yakata is an Action game, developed by Betop and published by I'Max, which was released in Japan in 1995. Loosely based on the H.P Lovecraft novel "The Shadow over Innsmouth". On the cover and in the manual, the name is incorrectly rendered as "Insmouse".
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This game is intresting mostly because it's actually a game once again. The internet describes it as a horror game but the main premise is exploring hallways and there are monsters? So I guess kinda horror but more so a first person shooter. Strange game but I kinda love it for its charm might give this a replay later this week if I get bored.
Virtual Boy Complete - Game #6
I was looking forward to this, a Virtual Boy horror game? Sounds like a match made in heaven (or hell, I guess. Horror and all) - unfortunately, the only scary thing about this game is the RNG. It's essentially a psuedo-3D maze game, think 3D Monster Maze, with a bit of FPS thrown in - you're in a big mansion filled with doors, and have to collects bullets, keys, and orbs. Bullets are well, bullets; keys are well, keys; and orbs show you areas on the pause map. As I mentioned earlier, these are placed with RNG. The bullet system works as it should (though I'll get to my thoughts on the shooting controls and monsters later), but the keys and orbs are both handled a bit poorly.
The keys open locked doors, as a key should - the thing is, locked doors have no visual signifiers. Just a random door from the stage gets labeled as "the locked door", so you can't enter without a key, and entering it with a key clears the level. This is fine when you've got an orb, but the problem is that often times they'll appear early into a floor, so you'll either clear a stage very quickly, or you'll find it without an orb or key, and then have no way of knowing which way to go back when you have the key, and waste the very short time you have trying to pick up an orb you really wouldn't need if the game was designed a slight bit better - not helped at all by the fact that none of the rooms in this game are distinct from one another, so backtracking without an orb is absolutely impossible.
This is a twin-stick shooter, but has no real reason to be. The corridors are cramped and the monsters are big, so there's only really two areas of the screen you'll need to shoot, and they don't attack frequently enough to where there's much reason to keep distance.
Another thing I mentioned going into this, and probably the most damning flaw, is: the game's not scary! The enemy designs don't feel intimidating, you can hear their footsteps even when they're not nearby, they're completely silent once they approach, and they're all just too frequent and easily disposed of to really take you by surprise. There's a lot of potential for horror settings on the VB, with its bizarre blood-red-on-a-night-sky colours, but as mentioned eariler, it's just the same hotel room over and over. If you could get through an identical hotel floor on stage 1, it's not too hard to believe you could get through the same hotel floor on stage 4.
I was looking forward to this, a Virtual Boy horror game? Sounds like a match made in heaven (or hell, I guess. Horror and all) - unfortunately, the only scary thing about this game is the RNG. It's essentially a psuedo-3D maze game, think 3D Monster Maze, with a bit of FPS thrown in - you're in a big mansion filled with doors, and have to collects bullets, keys, and orbs. Bullets are well, bullets; keys are well, keys; and orbs show you areas on the pause map. As I mentioned earlier, these are placed with RNG. The bullet system works as it should (though I'll get to my thoughts on the shooting controls and monsters later), but the keys and orbs are both handled a bit poorly.
The keys open locked doors, as a key should - the thing is, locked doors have no visual signifiers. Just a random door from the stage gets labeled as "the locked door", so you can't enter without a key, and entering it with a key clears the level. This is fine when you've got an orb, but the problem is that often times they'll appear early into a floor, so you'll either clear a stage very quickly, or you'll find it without an orb or key, and then have no way of knowing which way to go back when you have the key, and waste the very short time you have trying to pick up an orb you really wouldn't need if the game was designed a slight bit better - not helped at all by the fact that none of the rooms in this game are distinct from one another, so backtracking without an orb is absolutely impossible.
This is a twin-stick shooter, but has no real reason to be. The corridors are cramped and the monsters are big, so there's only really two areas of the screen you'll need to shoot, and they don't attack frequently enough to where there's much reason to keep distance.
Another thing I mentioned going into this, and probably the most damning flaw, is: the game's not scary! The enemy designs don't feel intimidating, you can hear their footsteps even when they're not nearby, they're completely silent once they approach, and they're all just too frequent and easily disposed of to really take you by surprise. There's a lot of potential for horror settings on the VB, with its bizarre blood-red-on-a-night-sky colours, but as mentioned eariler, it's just the same hotel room over and over. If you could get through an identical hotel floor on stage 1, it's not too hard to believe you could get through the same hotel floor on stage 4.
Definitely the coolest Virtual Boy game, and maybe the only dual-digital first person shooter?
probably the best virtual boy game, not that that means anything but nice fun fact
(EDIT: I forgot Jack Bros exists, that one is amazing, so this is the 2nd best virtual boy game)
(EDIT: I forgot Jack Bros exists, that one is amazing, so this is the 2nd best virtual boy game)
Survival Horror, as a genre, often feels hard to pin down due to its particular origins in adventure games. The prototype tends to be one of attrition and riddles, a game about navigating a maze of monsters while solving puzzles and unlocking doors. But what if you reduced that down, boiled it down like syrup into its absolute most basic form? I think different people will have different ideas of what that syrup would taste like. But it might taste something like Innsmouth no Yakata (Mansion of Innsmouth).
The game consists of running around corridors, searching for keys and map orbs, and shooting Lovecraftian beasties that get in your way. Your ammunition is limited, so you also scour for bullets, as well as health pick-ups. It's almost like a dungeon crawl. But here's the kicker: there's a time limit. A short one, too! You never get more than like, 3 minutes to complete a level. Unlike most Survival Horror, which are slow trudges through corridors of dread, playing through Innsmouth no Yakata is a frantic, desperate sprint through a haunted house.
In a way, Innsmouth no Yakata is almost a precursor to the cult classic Killer7, Grasshopper's own radical reinterpretation of Survival Horror. It's a unique experience, and I'm curious what it would feel like in the Virtual Boy headset.
Now, does all this singularity make Innsmouth no Yakata a good game? Not really. It's too barebones and too repetitive to be much more than an a diversion. And I bet there are other games that have figured this style out better. But it's an interesting piece within the lineage of Survival Horror, showcasing a unique take on just what this genre can be capable of doing, all while draped in that eerie VB red monochrome.
The game consists of running around corridors, searching for keys and map orbs, and shooting Lovecraftian beasties that get in your way. Your ammunition is limited, so you also scour for bullets, as well as health pick-ups. It's almost like a dungeon crawl. But here's the kicker: there's a time limit. A short one, too! You never get more than like, 3 minutes to complete a level. Unlike most Survival Horror, which are slow trudges through corridors of dread, playing through Innsmouth no Yakata is a frantic, desperate sprint through a haunted house.
In a way, Innsmouth no Yakata is almost a precursor to the cult classic Killer7, Grasshopper's own radical reinterpretation of Survival Horror. It's a unique experience, and I'm curious what it would feel like in the Virtual Boy headset.
Now, does all this singularity make Innsmouth no Yakata a good game? Not really. It's too barebones and too repetitive to be much more than an a diversion. And I bet there are other games that have figured this style out better. But it's an interesting piece within the lineage of Survival Horror, showcasing a unique take on just what this genre can be capable of doing, all while draped in that eerie VB red monochrome.