41. Lost Word of Jenny (TOSE, Famicom, 1987)

Lost Word of Jenny is a Famicom platformer game based on a doll from Japanese toy company Takara, who also published the game.

This is a pretty typical boring Famicom platformer. There is a top down overworld that is mildly annoying to navigate. Dogs are running around but they can only hurt you. Once you enter a location (including a bakery, a church, and NASA), the game becomes a standard side-scrolling platformer. To get to the end of a level you have to collect a certain number of keys to open a door, but the collectibles are scattered throughout the levels that re not particularly fun to navigate. Combat is also unrewarding and floppy, though it's made easier by the fact that you can stun-lock enemies with a series of punches.

The levels themselves are at least occasionally nice to look at, whether Jenny is in space or climbing over some 30 foot tall cakes, but the colorful varied levels are about the only good time I had with this game. It really reminds me of GeGeGe no Kitarou (aka Ninja Kid in North America), another TOSE-developed licensed Famicom game, though at least Ninja Kid had a little bit of joy in its controls, not to mention giant, weird bosses.

2/5, some nice backgrounds, but the game is mostly joyless and tedious.