Uploaded November 2023 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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This is a, no commentary, Longplay of Popeye for Game Boy, playing Course A. Popeye released only in Japan but no translation needed since there is not a single Japanese word. The story is rather simple; you need to reunite with your family (Olive and Swee'Pea) in maze-like levels, avoiding Brutus and his foes. Apart from 1P mode, there is also 2P mode where another person can control Brutus. Each maze has time limit which is quite strict as Popeye needs to fulfill various tasks to end each level. There are 3 Courses (A, B and C), each one consists of 5 stages. Course A is easier than B or C. You get points by collecting pickups or punching Brutus; there is no high-score table though. There are no difficulty settings.

To complete a level, Popeye needs to collect all hearts and find Olive as well (Brutus can also collect hearts). After all hearts are collected, Swee'Pea appears and you have to bring Olive to her son to end the level. If you meet Brutus a fight begins where you have to spam punch button to stun him (or he stuns you). There is no real death, but you lose 10 or so seconds. If Popeye has Olive during fight, she flees and you have to find her again. Having spinach make fight easier. Brutus also summons foes that stun the hero upon touch (with spinach, foes are automatically beaten on touch). To make things even harder, Wimpy also blocks some routes with burgers which can only picked up when Popeye eats spinach or Wimpy decides to eat them. I noticed that when Popeye is with Olive, he moves slower (does he carry her?). There are no secret levels or sidequests (zero replayability). Note also that courses A and B has no end (you get back to initial screen), while course C has.

Regarding the game itself, graphics are very basic even for a 1990 handheld game and music is quite boring as there is only 1 track for all stages. Sound effects are mediocre too. The controls are generally responsive. As for difficulty, the hero can't die but time limit is quite strict to complete all tasks even if you know each maze very well. What I disliked is the randomness of spinach and Wimpy's burgers. It's possible to get stuck in an area because a burger blocks your way and there is no spinach summoned near you. This leads to time running out having to retry the level (for a no death run that's very annoying).

In short, Popeye is a poor/mediocre game in pretty much all aspects. No death run (death = time's up).

For course B go here: youtu.be/3v6pjU6dNPE
For course C go here: youtu.be/rgTpgJ2G-9k

Below are the time stamps for each stage:
Stage 1: 0:47
Stage 2: 2:30
Stage 3: 3:25
Stage 4: 4:27
Stage 5: 5:23

Game is played by me in one go. No save states/cheats have been used. Recorded in VBA23.2.

Please note I uploaded it just for fun, no intention to compete anyone.