Story:
The story in Batty Zabella is that the game’s namesake must locate her lost husband while roaming around the family estate.
Gameplay:
The game is a point-and-click adventure game that will feel familiar, as you navigate around a given scene and move between scenes using a cursor. You can pick up items to use to solve puzzles that go into an inventory screen, not unlike other point-and-click adventure games, and during the course of the game, there is a lot of dialogue and even animated cutscenes that help to tell the story as you progress. In solving puzzles around the large estate, you will be able to banish the spirits that haunt your home, complete various tasks, and ultimately solve the mystery of your missing husband.
Graphics and Performance:
Graphically the game is very impressive for a Gameboy game. There was a point to push the hardware to its limits and this game does a good job of achieving that, and the attention to detail with the number of items in a scene and the environmental effects are impressive. Even more so is the animation, since in addition to having animated cutscenes that you wouldn’t normally see in a Gameboy game, you also have your character portrait that is animated and reactive and Batty Zabella will react and move based on what’s taking place on the screen. With the game being a point-and-click, there isn’t much going on in a scene so the game can focus on pushing limits in other ways as mentioned above and the result is a game that performs so well, it makes you believe your playing an old school PC game and not something on a 90’s handheld.
Sound:
Even though the only sound you will find in this game is the background music, this too pushes the envelope when it comes to the Gameboy. Instead of having one continuous track, the music will change dynamically. The track will be upbeat in your bedroom but then dark and foreboding when you come face to face with a spirit downstairs while grabbing the basement key. In addition to the music dynamically changing to fit what’s happening on screen, the music can even change from room to room in some cases.
Conclusion:
I’ve played other point-and-click games on Gameboy like Deja-Vu and it doesn’t even come close to Batty Zabella. Now one could argue that I am comparing a game that came out during the handhelds life cycle to one that is modern, and that’s fair. But what I am getting at is that Batty Zabella breaks the mould of point-and-click adventure games. What you’re getting with Batty Zabella is a point-and-click PC game on the original Gameboy, with animated cut scenes, tons of dialogue, dynamically changing music, and a character portrait that reacts to what’s happening on screen. If you love point-and-click adventure games, then you have to pick up this game and play it. Even if you don’t, this game is definitely worth picking up just for the one-of-a-kind experience it offers on the Gameboy hardware.
Disclaimer: A review copy was provided. You can purchase the game here
In addition to writing articles, Ryan Byers also creates content for his YouTube channel called "Obscure Games and Consoles", collects video games, and dabbles in video game development.