|
A part of what makes collecting videeo games so much fun is that getting a package in the mail is exciting. It's always been this way for me. And it goes back to those elementary school days when I would receive my monthly issue of Nintendo Power. Each magazine would be filled with rumors, reviews, tricks & tips about all the latest Nintendo games. And of course there would be feature-length walk-throughs, with screens cut and paste (literally! cut and paste!) of entire levels. Back before the days of the internet and it's endless FAQ's, all we had was Nintendo Power and our friends on the playground.
Two years after the release of the Game Boy, the editors of Nintendo Power released a book that served as an inventory of every Game Boy game released up until that point along with some collected walkthroughs.
[img width=500 height=500]http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61KTJNY7DKL._SS500_.jpg[/img]
Game Boy: Nintendo Player's Guide (1991, 176 pages) is a must-own piece of history for any Game Boy enthusiest. Although I generally tend to stay away from FAQ's, I feel like the walk-throughs contained in these pages are fair game. There's something extremely fun about an old-school paper walk-through straight from the nerdy writers at NP. The back of the book contains cover art and brief reviews of over 130 Game Boy games, which makes for a truly great pick-up-and-thumb-through coffee table (or bathroom) book.
The games that receive In-Depth (generally 6-8 pages) reviews and walk-throughs are:
Batman
Castlevania: The Adventure
Cosmo Tank
Days Of Thunder
Dr. Mario
Double Dragon
Duck Tales
F-1 Race
Final Fantasy: Legend
Fortified Zone
Gargoyle's Quest
Golf
Gremlins 2: The New Batch
Kwirk
The Hunt For Red October
Nemesis
Operation C
Quarth
Revenge Of The Gator
R-Type
Solarstriker
Solomon's Club
Super Mario Land
Super RC Pro-Am
Sword Of Hope
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall Of The Foot Clan
Tetris
Ultima: Runes Of Virtue
[img width=500 height=500]http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51ASSTENR6L._SS500_.jpg[/img]
Three years later, a companion book was released entiteld simply Super Game Boy (1994, 72 pages) which is a little less necessary, but certainly interesting. It mainly focues on the concept of the various color palettes that were made available through use of the SNES Super Game Boy adapter. However it also contains some extended analysis (usually 4-6 pages) for some games that were released after the first book, and especially ones that contained enhanced features for use with the Super Game Boy.
Games outlined:
Alleyway
Donkey Kong
Dr. Mario
Kirby's Dream Land
Kirby's Pinball Land
The Legend Of Zelda: Link's Awakening
Metriod II: Return Of Samus
Super Mario Land
Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins
Super Mario Land 3: Wario Land
Tennis
Tetris
World Cup
Yoshi
Okay book club, let's read and discuss!
[img width=296 height=298]http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/bigboxshots/3/585623_38530_front.jpg[/img]
The title Battletoads is synonymous with pure infuriatingly cheap anger-inspiring difficulty. The original NES game is generally considered one of the hardest games to be released on the system. Maybe ever.
In January, the forum over at http://www.racketboy.com decided to play the NES cult-classic as part of the monthly Together Retro game club. Obviously I took this as an excuse to massachistically expose myself to the Game Boy version.
As it turns out, the NES version was eventually ported to the Game Boy under the title Battletoads In Ragnarok's World and eventually even spawned a crossover sequel called Battletoads & Double Dragon. However I tackled the self-titled Game Boy cart, which turned out to be a completely original game that was very obviously inspired by the varied levels -- and of course difficulty of the NES game. Here's how I did:
The first level is a rather straight forward 2.5D beat-em-up stage. It's been an extremely long time since I've played the NES game, but I'm pretty sure this level is very similar to one from the original game. Nothing too difficult really. Level boss is a big cow.
The second level is already proof of the effort that went into making this little black & white cart into a game as compelling and varied as the original. It's a shmup stage! There are checkpoints that help keep you going, but it gets really hard, really fast. There's a part where you need to keep squeezing very tightly into a small hole in a series of walls. And it goes fast! But if you memorize the layout of the wall holes, then you should be able to pull it off after a few play-throughs. The end boss is a mouse-robot-spaceship, which is maybe the most awesome Darius ribbing ever.
Next up is the ice stage, another platformer. This is actually a bit of breather after the high-speed shmup level. If you're any good at platforming, then you should have no problem with this one. I got through it no problem.
The fourth stage is where things start to get out of control. The jet ski level. This stage is actually a lot harder than the shmup stage was. It took me a while to get the hang of the jet ski -- which also goes really fast. But eventually I pulled it off. The level boss is super easy.
Fifth stage is where I really start dropping the F-bomb. This stage sucks. Big time. You gotta run through this ant-farm style maze level while this big testicle/brain thing chases you like in Temple Of Doom. It's awful. If it touches you once, you die. And the level is not that short. No checkpoint. Just start over from the beginning of the level. I actually only beat this level once.
Sixth level is a lot like its NES counterpart. I can't go into much detail, because I died before the endboss, and I've only made it up to here once. Apparently there are three more levels after this one. And there's a good chance I'll never see them, as the thought of firing this game up for any more punishment just seems rather out of the realm of possibility for me any time soon. But really, I could never see myself getting rid of this game from my collection after puting such effort into. Sure it's demanding and brutal, but it's also extremely rewarding when you finally beat each level. Who knows, maybe I'll try again next year? Or the year after that...
At any rate if you happen upon this little grey cart, pick it up! It's a very complex game packed into a small monochrome package.
I've been toying with the idea of this blog for a while now, so I've decided to finally give it a go. Basically, I'd like to try to shed some light on some overlooked, forgotten, awesome, or weird games from the gigantic library of my favorite console -- the Nintendo Game Boy Player.
[img width=200 height=284]http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/games/E-076/bf/E-076-S-00780-A.jpg&sizex=200[/img]
Yes, you read that correctly. The Game Boy Player is my favorite console of all time. Though I grew up with the NES and SNES (among others), I've realized that I've had some sort of Game Boy system for nearly 20 years. Therefore, almost every major game franchise that has been released in the time has been ported to a Game Boy sytem of some sort. Mario, Donkey Kong, Link and Mega Man are well accounted for, but it's not just Nintendo. When you combine the libraries of Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance (not to mention the Gamecube itself) there's a staggering amount of games to discover. There's Sonic and Bonk and Master Higgins and a ton of other amazing little ports and sequels and oddball releases out there to investigate. And what better way to do so than with this:
[img width=200 height=288]http://www.rfgeneration.com/PHP/watermark.php?ID=U-076-H-00200-A;type=bf;sizex=200[/img]
I love the Game Boy Player... it's so bad.
|
|
|
|
