Magical Taruruuto-kun is based on the manga and anime named the same. It run on both TV and magazine lasted between the years of 1988 to 1992. Due to the fact that it finished publishing 3 years before I was born, and also the fact that I am an American, I've never actually seen or experienced this property. I didn't do much research but I didn't see this get ported over to the states anyways. Even so, I'm not sure if I had if it would affect how I feel about this game, which was not great.

To sum it up, while I'm sure it was graphically impressive for its time, the game play has aged pretty poorly. I think even when it was released the game play felt dated and unremarkable.

The game, Magical taruruuto-kun, was released in 1991. This was a time in the shmup genre where there were alot of experimenting on gameplay mechanic and difficulty. Its a fun period to explore. This game however, is a the pinnicle of why I think the genre fell out of popularity. It is a button mashing mess with very little in terms of availability for experimenting.

While undoubtly the restrictions of the game gear are here, and I will admit I do lack a lot of experience with game gear games, I don't think all the faults of the gameplay can be blamed on it.

To be blunt, the game feels very amateurish to play. It's sluggish with how it controls and moves. As of right now I am not sure if this is due to how the game gear is, or if it was purposefully designed. On top of the player moving slow, the stages drag. Instead of flying through the air, excitingly shooting down books with eyeballs, I feel like I'm chugging through rush hour traffic. In addition to the horrible movement, every single enemy is a bullet sponge. Be ready to do thumb exercises before and after playing the game because you will be mashing the hell out of the B button.

Chances to upgrade only come twice in a level, One at the beginning and one at the end. You upgrade by flying your character into a witch on a broom and shooting at her. You are then presented with 6 choices, Almost all of them are dog shit. It's pretty frustrating seeing all of these choices being presented and there's really no room to experiment. They may as well not put them in there. I would get very excited seeing the witch at the end of the level though, because it meant the level was almost over.

The games difficulty is pretty easy. In terms of shmups I've played, and I am pretty experienced in the genre, it's not very challenging. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone new to genre though as it's extremly boring. The only stages I actually did enjoy were the last two stages. The first level, I found out you can sit in one spot and Mash the B button endlessly and get through 25% of the stage.

The sounds is fine. But I'll be honest, I played this game muted the entire time. I only wanted to hear how it sounded and I could see myself getting a bit annoyed with the charmless blips and loops.

I think the look of the game is its best feature. It's very stylized and charming, but it's charm doesn't last. If you can't tell I didn't really like this game. It was boring, forgettable, and at parts felt like an actual chore to play. You can skip this one if you are looking for a game gear game to play.