Insmouse No Yakata is the only first person shooter for the Virtual Boy and is said to be based on H. P. Lovecraft's book "The Shadow over Innsmouth".

After the usual screens and a tendencyful intro you see the atmospheric title screen, where you can either start a new game or choose a password option.

The goal of the game is to find the exit to a labyrinth of hallways and doors full of monsters in a given time frame. For his self-defence our hero is armed with a gun, which can be fired with the R button and reloaded with the L button. You aim with the right control pad and move with the left one. Since ammunition is always short, you should not forget to collect all the clips of bullets you find in the levels. There are also hearts to refill your life meter, a key to the level's exit, as well as white and black orbs waiting to be collected in each level. The last two mentioned respectively reveal the whole level map - which can be accessed with the Select button - or the positions of the key and the other power-ups.

During a game, you visit 13 of a total of 45 levels. Depending on the time you needed to complete a level, you next play the next higher or next lower level on the speer-like level chart. At the end, there are 4 endings depending on your achievement in the play-through. Ending A can only be gotten if you finish all 13 levels one after another in the given time limit and without a single death.

Graphically, Insmouse is solid but technically outdated, even for 1995. You don't move through real 3-D environments, but those are pretended by single images with simple 3-D effects. By presing on the left digital pad, you move forward or backwards a part of the hallway, or turn to the left or right by 90°. Unfortunately, all levels look the same, bald walls, some doors and lamps, that's it.
When oyu run into a monster, it's your choice to either fight or flee. Since the hair cross of your weapon is pretty slow and you're always short on ammunition, there's a strained atmosphere of being on an escape, while, in later levels, monsters breaking through walls give you some moments of shock. But that's what Insmouse No Yakata ("The mansion of Insmouse") is about, you have to try to escape from a mysterious manor-house in the middle of nowhere.

The sound should carefully be described to be appropiate. The background music and soundeffects are not of the highest quality and quantitiy, but are very atmospheric and strenghten the feeling of being hunted, especially when you hear monsters coming closer from behind or the side, thanks to the Virtual Boy's stereo speakers.

The bottom line is that Insmouse is interesting for collectors at best, which has a big number of levels and a great atmosphere, put disappoints with pseudo 3-D graphics and monotonoty.

Result:
Insmouse No Yakata's cool atmosphere and large extent can't emislead over the (already in 1995) outdated techniques and so sadly only is an average title at best.

Author: KR155E

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