234. Juju Densetsu (Taito, Famicom, 1991)

Juju Densetsu ("Juju Legend") is a port of a 1989 arcade game by TAD Corporation that Taito developed and published on the Famicom (and NES as Toki). The titular juju here is a spell that a witch  places on the main character that turns him into a monkey. The action progresses across 6 relatively short levels that feel decently familiar to anyone who has played a Mega Man-type game. 

Like Mega Man, the levels are brightly colored and have a good amount of personality and theming, and your character has the ability to spit out something at a rapid pace to take down enemies. Come to think of it, this might have more in common with Contra, since you can shoot up and diagonally in addition to sideways. There are also plenty of shot powerups sprinkled liberally through the levels, and there is a really nice variety with the types (spread, flamethrower, wave beam, etc). In addition to shot powerups, there is also a football helmet that decreases your jump height but lets you take an extra hit, or there are some shoes that give you a much higher jump. Once or twice, the game presents you with both, forcing you to prioritize, though for me the security of an extra hit always outweigh the flexibility of high jumping, especially with how unwieldy the high jump can feel. The NES version actually gives you an extra hit by default, which was interesting to me, as I have found that typically the Famicom version is easier than the NES version.

In addition to shooting enemies, you can also jump on them, but it is much finickier than Mario and doesn't feel nearly as good, mostly because the jump itself is not anything special. The first time it happened, it was such a jarring movement that I thought I got stunned by an enemy. That said, jumping on a chain of enemies always feels great, even if it doesn't feel as good as Mario.

The 3rd boss is a weird wrinkly piece of poop looking thing that burps at you (with the letters "BURP" forming projectiles). The other bosses were not quite as memorable, and none were that fun to fight. Most bosses were either super easy to just find a safe spot and just keep firing, or they had a simple pattern to avoid while you moved to different safe spots while constantly firing. The lack of enemy stun is a double edged sword for Juju Densetsu, it means that the powerups really do make you feel powerful, but most boss encounters and harder enemy encounters become a kind of spray and pray / stunlock smorgasbord.

4/5, a Famicom platformer that has no glaring flaws, but also fails to amaze