The Final Fantasy Legend was a pioneering release for the Game Boy, being its first RPG. Early Game Boy games were tiny, just 128 kilobytes of data, so it was an achievement to create a complete, albeit small, RPG. The game is not actually a Final Fantasy game but the beginning of a separate series, called SaGa in Japan. Square (successfully) slapped the FF name on it to capitalize on the success of Final Fantasy . Due to the memory limitation, FF Legend is structured around four small worlds connected via a central tower. You create a party of four characters using any combination of three races: humans, mutants ("espers" in the Japanese), and monsters. The game's mechanics are unusual. Firstly, there are no experience points. Each race has its own growth mechanism. You boost your humans' stats by buying items that increase strength, agility, or hit points (HP). Some weapons use strength and others, like whips and bows, use agility (which is also a defensive stat), s...

Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest builds upon and adds to everything the first game did well. By the way, if you didn't catch the pun in the game's subtitle, read it again—it's not Diddy Kong's Quest, as some have misread it. Donkey Kong has been kidnapped by Kaptain K. Rool (formerly King K. Rool, a detail I didn't clock while playing). This may be an homage to the sequel to the Donkey Kong arcade game , Donkey Kong Junior , in which Mario took the big gorilla captive, leaving DK Junior to save him. Well, I don't know what happened to Junior, but now Diddy and his girlfriend Dixie must rescue DK.  The action takes place on Crocodile Isle, with a world map set up like in the original. Per usual, each of the seven worlds boasts a different, tropey biome: a pirate ship, volcano, poisonous swamp, abandoned amusement park, haunted forest, K. Rool's castle, and finally his airship. The biggest change from the original is replacing DK with a chimp named ...