Puss ‘n Boots: Pero’s Great Adventure
System: NES
Release Date: June 1990
Developer: Shouei System
Publisher: Electro Brain
Genre: Action
Hop around the world in 80 days in Puss ‘n Boots: Pero’s Great Adventure. I never put two and two together that Toei Animation’s mascot is Puss in Boots. But now I know. Travel through 7 levels of action as Pero seeks out Count Gruemon and Dr. Gari-gari before they kill him.
Pero’s Great Adventure is a very simple platformer. Pero runs to the right and jumps with the A Button. He’s equipped with three weapons that can be switched among when the action is paused. A pistol is your main armament and shoots straight ahead. Bombs are thrown in an arc and I got the most use of them against the bosses. There’s also a boomerang, but I got very little practical use out of it.
Levels are extremely straightforward and don’t really present obstacles except enemies that die in one or three shots. Run to the end without getting hit to win. You are even given a life bar, meaning you can take multiple hits before you die. I didn’t lose a life until the boss in level 5. Many stages put you into a vehicle of some sort. These range from a boat, car, balloon, plane, and submarine! These only have one weapon, which has the same functionality of the pistol.
There are three bosses before the final level and they are all simple. The last level is a door maze that ended up not being too terrible to navigate, but there were some spots with difficult jumps. The final boss took me several tries as touching Dr. Gari-gari is an instant death. Once I realized I should jump to the right and avoid projectiles while shooting them frantically, I won the day. Pero celebrated on the Statue of Liberty and the credits sent me on my way.
Graphics: 2.0
This actually looks alright, but you can tell the original release was many years earlier.
Sound: 2.0
Music isn’t impressive, except for the fact there are a lot of different tracks.
Gameplay: 2.0
Pero plays as expected. Nothing particularly good or bad, it works.
Difficulty: 1.0
Way too easy, until the final level, which spikes the difficulty in a way I wouldn’t expect.
Fun Factor: 1.5
It’s simple and fast, but that didn’t equate into fun.
Overall Grade: 1.7
Puss ‘n Boots: Pero’s Great Adventure earns a C-. This would be a good game for a smaller child.