River King - Kaito's Adventure

Console: Gameboy Color
Japan Release: February 2000

Introduction: This is a spinoff game from the River King series where you play as Kaito, an adventurous young pirate boy living on Aries Island. While fishing one day he finds a bottle with a message inside from the princess of Orion Country. He and his friends Wendy and Jack, find a boat inside of a cave and head off to help her. On their travels the add more people to their crew; the mechanic Andy, a child cook named Mana, and a minstrel named Russell.

The fishing system is pretty much the same from the earlier Gameboy Color versions, but this game has a constellation (58 in total) sky mapping side quest for you to do. Each of the 7 islands have different fish and star patterns, plus you can also fish while you are traveling on the ocean between the islands.

On the ocean you raise and lower your sail to navigate the currents that lead you from island to island. While sailing you'll also encounter other enemy pirate ships. Fend them off by shooting cannon balls at each other!

Kaito's Adventure was also one of the few GBC games to include a rumble feature. You could feel the fish bite and the blast of the cannon battles! The game was packaged with one AAA battery, but it didn't last very long. Bzz bzzz bzzz.

Like other River King games, there are monster battles involved. During a battle you'll see the beast on the left size of the screen, and you can shoot at it from your position on the right side of the screen. You can only control Kaito though, as the other members of your party will fight on their own.

Unfortunately the game was never translated into English. The game came out near the end of the Gameboy Color era, and the Gameboy Advance launched in Japan just a year after the game was released.