With Virtual Lab, the most weird of all Virtual Boy games is being reviewed here. Before even starting the game, you'll notice two typos, namely "Nintenndo" on the bacl of the game's box and even "Ninntenndo" on the cartridge. And that is not the only startling thing in J-wing's puzzle game...

After the usual Precaution, IPD/Focus and Auto Pause Screens, the game jumps to the simple title screen, where you can adjust the game speed before starting. "Low", "Mid" and "Hi" are available, but all three options show only small differences and, oddly, "Mid" is by far the fastest mode. In other things, like the scoring system, all three modes are identical.

The game plays like a mix of Tetris and Pipe Dream. Worms falling down on a playfield have to be arranged to form completely closed off pipes. Pieces open to the playfield border count as closed, that also includes the upper border. When all worm pieces on the playfield are removed, the level is completed and you see, accompanied by a short melody, a screen saying "Level Up!" and "Take A Rest" as well as some japanese text and a password - which is useless since there is no way to enter passwords anywhere in the game - before the game continues with the next level.

Some worm pieces are ramdomly placed on the playfield at the beginning of a level and need to be removed by the player. In each level, there is a different number of already placed worms. A rising difficulty level can not be found.

Although J-Wing created a simple, but still habit-forming game concept for Virtual Lab, it is not fully thought-out to the end. Like you can easily maneuver yourself into a situation, where several pieces block each other and can't be removed anymore. In such a case, you have to remove ten or more worms at once, which causes a little fairy to axe away the bottom line of pieces on the playfield in an annoying little animation. Too often this appears to be hardly possible, though, while the inaccurate and way too sensitive controls do the rest and lead to many frustrating situations.

Graphically, Virtual Lab often looks out of context and unkind. 3-D can only be found in simple Parallax effects in the background or counters. Alternation, i.e. in the backgrounds, is not existant and the animation of the manga characters look very abrupt. Also, graphic bugs can be seen, for example when you press the A button while a game is paused, you can see the playfield and buy some time that way in confusing situations.

Sound-wise there is not much offered either. Besides some beep sounds, there's only one, annoying background tune, which can be heard throughout the entire game.

After all, Virtual Lab is a simple and amusing puzzle game, but thanks to the game's bugs, small extent and annoying sound, you always have the impression of playing a game, which has been put together and rushed out by a small group of hobby programmers in only a few days.

Result:
Virtual Lab is an amusing puzzle game, which suffers from its many design and program bugs and looks very unfinished. Because of its rarity it's only interesting for collectors anyway.

Author: KR155E

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