Create ball, make bigger ball, kill fruits!

I had a ton of fun with Spanky's Quest on the Gameboy. I went it completely blind and therefore had no expectations of what I would be walking into. It starts off with a stage select screen and the ability to pick any of four towers to play first, encouraging replayability as they do not have to be finished in a set order. Every tower has 15 levels and a boss in which you have to kill every enemy on the screen to move on to the next level. A simple concept, but how does Spanky's Quest execute this? Our monkey hero is equipped with a ball that he can throw to instantly get rid of enemies. But the fun thing about this ball is that it can be juggled on your head to become even bigger, all states having their own effects. I personally really enjoyed this mechanic a lot because not only could you get rid of enemies in unique and effective ways, but it also introduces a ''High risk, high reward'' system as you are vulnerable to enemy attacks while you are charging your ball. Usually, you don't have to worry about the attacks too much as the only thing enemies do is walk around very slowly, sometimes jump and that's about it. As a whole Spanky's Quest is also not very difficult for that reason (and also because you can continue from the same spot after all lives are lost). Bosses do actively attack but also have easily exploitable attack patterns. I personally don't mind this too much as it is an early Gameboy title, and the gameplay that is here is perfectly fine. Enemies also drop power-ups or letters that can form the word Spanky, which will annihilate all enemies on screen and bring you to a bonus world as well. You have to be careful with this as one death results in all letters being lost, which is yet again ''High risk, high reward''. I do feel there is a bit too much emphasis on the scoreboard system however, mostly due to one reason: juggling the ball also gives you points. You can juggle the ball indefinitely and get a ton of points, and the only thing you really have to worry about is an invisible time limit. It doesn't matter for a small Gameboy title as the leaderboards are not online or something, but it's very easy to abuse. Also, the soundtrack for this game is surprisingly very well done; I absolutely love the themes of the towers. The game gives you about ~3 hours of playtime, but I felt those 3 hours were very well spent.

8/10