‘Kero Kero Cowboy’ and ‘Yap and The Enchanted Bubbles’ - NEW Game Boy Color Games From Broke Studio 🎮 @HomebrewFactory #IndieGame #GameDev

We’ve covered a few games over the years from Broke Studios / Homebrew Factory (more info on them here) and their products are always of a high quality, with a heavy focus on giving tasty indie titles a professional-level physical release. 

Today we will be taking a look at two of their Game Boy Colour titles, Mike Bedsole’s Kero Kero Cowboy, and Cel Design’s Yap and The Enchanted Bubbles.

Kero Kero Cowboy – Purchase Link

Coming in a glossy box with cover art that features our intrepid frog sheriff brandishing a shining six-shooter under the desert sun, Kero Kero Cowboy is a bright, colourful and cartoony adventure. Flipping the box over, the case states that the Kero Kero Cowboy is compatible with all Game Boy Colour compatible devices. 

The inside of the box holds a cart and booklet, the front of the cart features the box artwork, whilst the rear features the Broke Studio logo with a ‘90s background that reminds me of a Toejam and Earl loading screen – good! This personalisation of the arts is a really cool touch that further illustrates Broke Studio’s dedication to creating high quality products. The booklet is full colour and explains the background of the story that drives the game as well as the controls and abilities etc. it’s all clearly been proofread and is very clear in terms of the visuals, printed to a high standard.

The game itself is a side-scrolling affair, with the titular Kero Kero Cowboy making his way across various stages in a bid to take down the boss of each area - pocketing the reward from the bounty poster! Each stage is broken up into different sections and these ramp up in challenge quite nicely, with the entire first part of the game introducing mechanics and enemies, ensuring that players of all skill levels will get to enjoy the game, although there are some later sections that are a bit saucy, let me tell you (I look at you enemy bounce-back down an insta-death pit!). 

Kero Kero Cowboy can suck up enemies a-la Kirby, and spit them out to cause damage. He also has his trusty six-shooter, and whilst bullets are limited, they can be picked up throughout the levels and used to solve more puzzle-centric sections that give further bonuses. 

The bosses of each stage have patterns etc. that need to be learned in order to defeat them, and whilst there’s nothing out of the ordinary here in terms of a new approach to the platform game genre, the feel of the game, clean visual approach, jaunty music, level design and satisfying, responsive controls make this a great game that feels right at home on the Game Boy Colour!

Yap and The Enchanted Bubbles– Purchase Link

Packaged in the same way as Kero Kero Cowboy - with a full colour manual etc. - Yap and the Enchanted Bubbles is instead a Pang-inspired game that casts the player in the role of the titular Yap, who lives in a peaceful village that has been taken over by magical bubbles brought to life by the evil sorcerer Baltar. 

Featuring absolutely fantastic music from beatscribe, Yap is a game that has a simple premise at its heart, but the fun lies in the sheer challenge of it. Unlike Pang, with each stage having a handful of bubbles to pop before moving on to the next scenario, Yap has ‘rounds’ of bubbles coming at you, menacing that there’s a certain level of focus required in order to complete each stage. Your magical slingshot is slow initially, meaning that you’ll need to plan your shots carefully in order to pop the bubbles, and pick up upgrades to allow you to fire more shots and once, as well as increasing their speed. 

Combine that with the fact that you only have three health points, are up against a tight timer, and drop your upgrades when hit; leaving you a short time-frame to pick them up before they disappear – and it all adds up to Yap being a pretty challenging game that requires your utmost attention! A great take on a classic genre, and one that will certainly appeal to those that like a challenge, Yap and The Enchanted Bubbles is awesome fun with a great soundtrack here!

These are just two of the many games available for purchase from the website, and will breathe life into your Game Boy Colour library. 

Accessible, fun games presented extremely well from two developers that clearly love the system.