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Urban Yeti! was first covered in the 2019 version of the "Games page" (see link) and the review in the next paragraph is an updated version of what I wrote.

I learned not to trust HardcoreGaming101 for what a "good game" is a long time ago, but that didn't stop me from trying a ROM of Urban Yeti! for a laugh. The review seems to advertise it as some sort of schlocky but unique title that was badly executed. I disagree. It's just bad.

Whether it's the music that sounds like they played something through the GBA's wimpy sound chip and re-recorded that as the actual music, or the overhead "gameplay" where you can barely figure out what's going on, or the fact that there's no save features and just passwords, or the awful minigames that literally count that as a "life" if you fail at it. They (HG101) tries to justify it as being a game from an unloved developer that worked on licensed titles, but there's other games, licensed games from "licensed game" developers that are better. Personally, it reminded me of two things: a bit of the GBA The Sims: Bustin' Out except all the fun sucked out of it (the punchline being that Bustin' Out is in fact significantly flawed itself). But the bigger reminder was all those unlicensed NES games, the likes of Menace Beach, Bible Buffet, Action 52, Master Chu and the Drunkard Hu, Wally Bear and the NO! Gang, and so forth because everything was there: the loose gameplay concepts, the not-quite-right-to-the-system sound, non-standard interfaces that weren't standard, and vastly undervaluing the system's capability.

FINAL RATING:   

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