Barunba (TurboGrafx-16)

That title screen's not giving much away. Though if I had to guess, I'd say it was probably a platformer or a shoot 'em up. Or a puzzle game.

I haven't got a clue what that text on the level map says, but it seems I've got a space ship and I'm starting on a floating island.

Ah, it's a shoot 'em up! Just as I expected. No clue what I'm doing here, but those robot birds are a potential hazard so I should probably slaughter them.

Wait, is that the pilot's head peeking out of cockpit window?

What the hell? Am I playing as a giant head who steers the ship with his nose?

Something dropped a L! No wait, now it's an 'N'. And now an 'S'. Well I'm curious, what does this mysterious pick-up do?

Damn, apparently not much. Nothing I can notice anyway.

Crap, I'm an idiot. The guns are on the outside edge of my ship, so there's a huge gap in my fire that enemies can just fly through unharmed and hit me.

Well at least now I know I've got hit points.

Oh shit, what have I done? My guns have been knocked off axis and now they're firing downwards!

There goes another hit point.

Actually this might work out for me. Downwards tilted weapons are handy for fighting these bouncing pink mecha-bunnies.

Aww I only get one life to last me the entire game? I don't even get continues? That's pretty harsh.


LATER.

I'm doing better now I know how to spin my weapons around. It seems that holding a button makes them rotate clockwise. When I'm happy with the way they're facing I let go and they stay locked in that direction.

It's a fairly unusual feature and it works better than I would have guessed.

What are these things firing anyway? They're definitely not bullets or fireballs. They look more like shiny red marbles.

Oh no, it's a wall mounted cyborg dragon head, and he has a laser gun installed in his mouth! It's possible he has a weak point in the eye or the open mouth, but I'm not sure I'm even hurting him yet.

Wow, what the fuck? That's a really low trick to pull on a guy. He opens his mouth like he's going to shoot me with lasers, then suddenly fires his entire head at me.


ONE BOSS FIGHT LATER.

Huh, that was just a mid-boss? Even with his head destroyed, Dragon island is still firing jets of fire from its ass, which I'll need to negotiate carefully to proceed.

Damn, I took another hit. Fuck it, I'll just dart through while I'm temporarily invulnerable.


SOON.

So this guy must be the real cyborg dragon boss. I can't seem to find his weak point though.

I did a pretty crappy job at dodging his dart forward attacks too. And that's game over again.

Even if I wanted another go at fighting the dragon, I'd first have to replay the entire bloody level and defeat a mid-boss just to reach him. So I'm really not interested. Next game.