Game #10 Partially Complete - Need for Speed Underground

Need for Speed is a series of arcade (in the sense of not being realistic simulators) street racing games. Need for Speed Underground for home consoles is a game that I personally have a lot of nostalgia for, having played it a lot on the PS2. The main features were the nice graphics (for the time), detailed car customisation, and fun career mode with a story told in pre-rendered cutscenes.

The GBA version is not up to that standard.

Game #9 Complete - Boktai: The Sun Is In Your Hand

Boktai: The Sun Is In Your Hand is an action RPG about hunting vampires with a unique gimmick: the cartridge has a light sensor used to measure sunlight in the real world, which you use to hunt the undead in the game. Boktai is the first in a series. Boktai 2 is on the challenge list, Boktai 3 was only released in Japan, and there's a spiritual successor, Lunar Knights, on the DS.

The gimmick plays out simply enough: if the cartridge light sensor picks up sunlight, it will be sunny in-game. Undead caught outside will burn up, and inside dungeons there are skylights which will provide light inside. The main character Django's attacks use sunlight energy which he stores in batteries which can be recharged in the sun. There are other ways to manage sunlight energy like items that restore it, and a "solar bank" which fills up whenever light is on the sensor and can be withdrawn from later. Playing in strong sunlight for an extended period will cause the game to overheat your gun, which seems to be a way of preventing kids from getting sunburnt.

Game #8 Complete - Riviera: The Promised Land

Riviera: The Promised Land is a JRPG in the "Dept. Heaven" series. This is a loosely connected series of games that all have unique twists on the mechanics of JRPGs and strategy/tactics games, and a norse-mythology inspired setting. Riviera was the first one released, but Yggdra Union for GBA is also in the series. It took me a long time to get through this one because, although it wasn't obviously bad in any specific area, I just felt unmotivated to play it. I only realised later this was probably due to the speed issues I'll get to later.

Riviera has some interesting and unique mechanics. In battle, characters don't have their own skills/spells that they know. Instead, everything is tied to items. For example, one character might be able to cast a particular spell if they have specific staff. There is no traditional exp/levelling either. Instead if a character can use an item, they will be able to "master" the item with repeated use. This will award them a stat boost at the end of the battle as well as unlock a powerful "overdrive" ability with that item in future battles. Items have limited durability, which means managing their use is vital.