Duration: 13:01

12,868 views

0

Hey all you fun-loving people out there! Any of you like Sanrio and their lovable characters like "Hello Kitty"? How about Game Freak's "Pokemon"? If you love both, then be prepared to wet yourself because this game combines characters from Sanrio's universe with a game engine that is almost completely plagiarized (or rather, stolen) from the Pokemon franchise. I know imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but when you develop two different versions of the same game (a past and future version, this being the future one, the past is STN: Kako Hen), over 150 characters to collect, a player character and a rival that you have to name, skill items that function similarly to TMs (not to mention you can equip up to four skills per character), only those who participate in battle gain experience, a bike you can ride... the list goes on and on. I wouldn't be surprised if I saw Game Freak mentioned somewhere in the credits.

There were so many people in the late 90s and early 00s that wanted a piece of Pokemon's lucrative fortune, but the knock-offs rarely were as fun as the original, as is the case with Sanrio Time Net. It's a decent game in its own right and has the added incentive of featuring omega-famous icons like Hello Kitty, Keroppi, Badtz-Maru, Pochacco, Little Twin Stars, and various others, but it simply isn't as entertaining and the lengths it goes to imitate Pokemon instead of adding a little more originality leaves a bad taste in my mind (no, that doesn't really make sense). In the game, you play with either a male or female (with the one you don't pick being your rival) to save some digital world inside of a computer, which a god of some kind (let's call him Professor Oak) asks you to do. You recieve ten items necessary for catching enemies, are given one of three monsters, and then you're off on your own.

I've had this game for a while and used to know more about it, but stopped playing part-way in, but you'll basically go from city to city doing good deeds, fighting challengers and random encounters, and activating switches to progress in the game in much the same way as Pokemon. Characters can gain levels and have different traits and types, as well as gain new abilities. Some differences from Pokemon is that you don't just fight in dungeons or in certain areas; you fight practically everywhere in this game whether you're walking around in a patch of grass or not. Characters don't have limited # of use on attacks. Instead, attacks cost a certain amount of power to use, so you can basically see it as a Spell/MP system. On top of earning Keiken (experience) points, characters also get Waza (Technique) points.

The audio/visuals of the game are okay, and both versions have Super Game Boy support. I've uploaded two videos for this game (Intro/Sample where I look in a trash can for the Warehouse Key and do a little dungeon exploring) and I've tacked on a segment showing what the SGB border looks like on both of them (towards the end, it's roughly one minute and twenty seconds). I should note that the colors on the SGB, barring the border and title screen, aren't as full-featured as when played on a Game Boy Color. Enjoy.