Baby Boomer (NES) Playthrough

Channel:

NintendoComplete

Subscribers:

305,000

Published on November 17, 2023 12:31:26 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RaJV4ILo-M

Game:

Baby Boomer (1989)

Category:

Let's Play

Duration: 20:02

4,682 views

0

A playthrough of Color Dreams' unlicensed 1989 light gun shooter for the NES, Baby Boomer.

Baby Boomer was the first of four games produced between 1988 and 1990 by Color Dreams, an unlicensed NES developer known for the bright blue cartridges their games shipped on. In 1990 they changed their name to Bunch Games, and in 1991, Wisdom Tree.

Boomer is a toddler who has escaped from his crib and crawled into a nearby forest in search of adventure. Zapper in hand, it's your job to protect Boomer as he crawls through nine treacherous stages, including the yard, a cemetary, Hell, and a construction site, in search of his mother.

Like Sega's Laser Ghost (https://youtu.be/L_EeiUCCyT0), Baby Boomer is a light gun-based escort mission. You blast away at hungry animals (like bats, snakes, and rats), monsters (skeletons, ghosts, and devils), and environmental hazards (chainsaws, mine carts, dynamite, etc.) that threaten the boy as you create a safe route forward by flipping switches and building bridges out of ice and rock. You shoot milk bottles to keep Boomer's energy up, and if he collects twelve golden nuggets, he'll win an extra life.

It's a neat premise for a light gun title, but Baby Boomer leaves a lot to be desired. The Zapper isn't accurate enough to reliably hit the tiny collision boxes, the enemies move in erratic patterns, and they often appear without warning just a few pixels ahead of Boomer. Using the controller helps offset the frustration to some extent, but in either case, success boils down to memorizing the level layouts through repeated playthroughs.

It's not fun, it's too slow to be exciting, the graphics are ugly, and the music is like nails on a chalkboard. I had a friend who had Baby Boomer, and it was a game we avoided playing at all costs. Whenever we would grow bored with the rest of the games on the shelf, we wouldn't consider popping in Baby Boomer for another try. As allergic to the sun as we were, we'd go outside to play.

My opinion on the game hasn't changed in the thirty-two years that have passed since I first played it, either. Even by bootleg standards, it's pretty poor.
_____________\nNo cheats were used during the recording of this video. \n\nNintendoComplete (http://www.nintendocomplete.com/) punches you in the face with in-depth reviews, screenshot archives, and music from classic 8-bit NES games!