Panel Action Bingo

Title: Panel Action Bingo
Developer: Locus Co.
Publisher: FCI
Year: 1993
Platform(s): Game Boy
Description:

   +--+--+--+--+--+
   |15| 7| 6| 3| 8|
   +--+--+--+--+--+
   |23|10|24| 2|16|
   +--+--+--+--+--+
   |21|11|13| 5| 4|
   +--+--+--+--+--+
   |22| 9|18|17| 1|
   +--+--+--+--+--+
   |25|20|14|19|12|
   +--+--+--+--+--+

The only things this game has in common with the bingo games played at bingo parlors are the name, the 5x5 grid, and the goal of getting five in a row. Two players (a bird and a cat unless you have hacked the ROM) appear at opposite corners of the board. Players can occupy the same tile in 1P vs. CPU but not in the Game Link 1P vs. 2P mode. Numbers from 1 to 25, or Latin alphabet letters from A to Z, fill the grid. Your job is to step on the symbols in order (A, B, C, D, or 1, 2, 3, 4,) and claim them. Get five in a row or have the most tiles at the end and you win the board. Make BINGO in multiple directions with one claimed tile and get a bonus life. Lose the board in 1P vs. 2P and you lose a life.

1. 25 symbols, no obstacles. This is the only board played in 1P vs. 2P mode.
2. 24 symbols, one block obstacle that nobody can step on and is not counted as a "free space."
3. 23 symbols, same block plus a hole that the CPU opponent treats as a brick, but if you step on it, you lose a life. If you can get the CPU opponent to step into a corner next to a hole, you can block the computer's path and listen to the music until your Game Boy's AA batteries run out.
4. A bonus round. BINGO is not possible, you can only see the immediate next symbol, you cannot pause the game during this round, and losing doesn't take a life away.

On Game Boy Color (and no other models), there's a bug where the audio gets cut off momentarily when counting the score after each board.

No ROM links.

OK. Could have used a few improvements, such as highlighting the next available symbol and automatically claiming any tile you step on instead of making the player press A (plug plug). The most annoying thing is that you can't see the round password until after you've lost all your lives, which is really hard to do once you get in the zone. If you want to skip ahead, TLCBHRPH takes you to round 14.

• GNOME vs KDE: a port of the game to NES