[GAME] Gargoyle's Quest (1990)
Gargoyle's Quest is at its best during its incredible side-scrolling platformer sections. The protagonist, Firebrand, has a really unique moveset, which I haven't seen anyone try and replicate since - the player must balance a flight meter, accurate wall jumps, and several projectile types that can either break through blocks or create a wall in the place of spikes to grip on to. It comes together in a really amazing final stage, which is a real test of the player's understanding of the moveset.
Everything else, unfortunately, is not great. In between these stages is a kind of pseudo-JRPG style overworld, which while impressive given the platform, doesn't really add much to the moment-to-moment gameplay. There are some incredibly obtuse puzzle solutions, like interacting with invisible tiles to get an item required for story progression, that are very dated. I was also quite frustrated with everything related to combat - given how good movement is in this game I don't think that enemies really added anything to my enjoyment of this game, I would have vastly preferred for this to be a straight-up platformer.
The story, while not particularly well told, is unique in the sense that you play as a villain, which I thought was quite an interesting idea for the time - I can't think of many games from this era that tried to do this.
Visually, Gargoyle's Quest is very impressive. The tilesets are detailed and atmospheric, and bosses have some really chunky, interesting sprites. Given the fact that this is running on a Gameboy, this game is really impressive, and the controls and platforming are so good that it makes me want to overlook everything else about it.