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The original Game Boy found its way under my Christmas tree in 1989. And with it came what would be known as perhaps the greatest puzzle game of all time: Tetris. There's certainly no arguing with how great Tetris really is. And in all honesty, there's been a lot of thoughtful and insightful analysis written on the game. But the reason I bring all this up is to make it known that I in no way knock Tetris nor its importance to Nintendo, the Game Boy and the rise of so-called Casual Gaming. There's no denying that Tetris was meant for the pea-green-gray brick. And up until last year Tetris would have been my favorite puzzle game of all time, because that's when I discovered Super Puzzle Fighter II.
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Super Puzzle Fighter II is the sort of game that is made for fans; in this case fans of Capcom. There's lots of in-jokes and references. And let it be no secret that I am a fan of Capcom. Here they've taken the tried and true formula of dropping multi-colored shapes from the ceiling and having the player organize them until things get too chaotic, and somehow managed to make it entirely fresh. How the did this was by mixing the puzzle genre with the Player-vs.-Player intensity of their 2D Fighting games. As ridiculous as that may sound, it actually works amazingly well.
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What immediately draws in geeks fans like myself is the art style. Whereas most puzzle games are very simple -- and generally speaking, that's often the point of many puzzlers -- Super Puzzle Fighter II has amazingly rendered 2D sprites. Characters from both the Street Fighter and Darkstalkers series are reimagined in a cutesy super-deformed style. The two fighters occupy the middle of the screen and slug it out Capcom Vs. style in a representation of the puzzle-solving skills of their respective player.
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Luckily for puzzle fans the actual puzzling element of the game is just as great as the art. The game seems simple enough: gems fall of different colors; you put like-colors together until a glowing gem of that color appears. By pressing say a red glowing gem to a bunch of red gems you've piled up, you cause a bunch of crap to fall on your opponent. However, the real strategy comes in choosing which colors you'll try to build up, and how you'll arrange them -- the bigger the squares or rectangles you create, the more crap that you'll send over to the enemy. Meanwhile, in true Street Fighter fashion, it's just important to keep an eye on the other guy and think defensively. Indeed Puzzle Fighter II is one of the most addictive puzzlers I've ever played. It's easy enough for a beginner to enjoy, but then requires an incredible amount of strategy to fully exceed at.
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I also wanted to point out a very unique aspect to this game. Capcom came up with an incredibly original (and perhaps strange) way for two players to enjoy the game using only one cart. The idea was that in Vs. Mode two players would hover of the same GBA unit and each use half of the buttons. So Player One would use left and right to control the gems and the L-Button to flip them. Meanwhile Player Two would use the A and B to move their gems and R to flip theirs. I've never actually tried this single-GBA approach to playing, as it certainly sounds awkward in theory. However this means that a single Puzzle Fighter II cart can be inserted into the Gamecube Game Boy Player, and can be played totally co-op with each player using his own controller since the Game Boy Player recognizes any controllers plugged in at the same time. Certainly this wasn't Capcom's original intention, but it's definitely a bonus for current enthusiasts of the Game Boy Player.
The recent acquisition of my Hori Fighting Stick has gotten me in a very arcadey kind of mood. I've been going through various genres that I tend to associate with the feel of an arcade stick. That being said, don't be shocked if the Game Boy Player Land blog becomes a bit flooded with these sort of random rundowns of stray games. First up: Shmups.
Now I should note that different people tend to classify genres differently. It tends to be a personal thing. Shmup, or slang for "shoot 'em up" (as anyone who frequents this website is well aware) is described by the all-knowing Wikipedia as a game in which "the player controls a lone character, often a spacecraft or aircraft, shooting large numbers of enemies while dodging their attacks." This is actually exactly how I tend to think of Shmups. Others consider something like Contra to be part of the genre. But in my head -- no spaceship, no Shmup. Contra and the likes are Run-N-Guns, which many consider to be a sub-genre of Shmups, but again -- no spaceship, man. So to me those two genres are millions of miles apart. That's just me.
Also, I think it's important to point out that this is not meant to be any sort of comprehensive list, or Best Of, or anything like that. Ultimately, it just touches upon games that I've actually had experience with.
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Gradius Galaxies seems like a good place to start. I mean look, right there in the title... it says Gradius, so it must be good. Right? Well, sadly that's just not the case. Sadly, Galaxies has a lot going for it, but manages to drop the ball. The graphics are certainly top-notch, but the huge downfall is the control. Unfortunately, control is pretty much the most important aspect of whether a Shmup will be playable or not. And Gradius Galaxies is damn-near unplayable as far as I'm concerned. You see, the ship is terribly terribly slow. I mean really slow. I mean if you're at the top of the screen and you hold the down button expect to really wait a while to make it to the bottom of the screen. In a genre that prides itself on pandemonium, this kind of snail's-pace just doesn't cut it.
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Invader seems to be a somewhat overlooked GBA exclusive from 2002. And it's pretty much everything I want out of a Shmup. It's brightly colored with crazy robotic bugs and explosions. It's got lots of power-ups, a fantastic ambient-techno soundtrack and vocoder voices. It's really hard, but not infuriating. This is a game I cannot praise enough. Though it's rare that I see it mentioned when discussing GBA Shmups, ultimately I think it will earn a certain cult-status. In my eyes it's like the Ikaruga of the Game Boy Advance.
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Iridion II tends to be the first game anybody ever mentions when discussing Shmups released for the Game Boy Advance. And with good reason. In reality Iridion II -- which is somewhat confusingly the sequel to Iridion 3D -- is a fantastic game. It's got a great control scheme, and stunningly innovative graphics. To be fair, this game and Invader are certainly a tough call as far as which is my favorite GBA Shmup. I've actually never played Iridion 3D but from what I can tell it portrays its ship from an over-the-shoulder perspective like Space Harrier or Star Fox. Though those are two games I love, I generally flock more towards traditional vertical or horizontal shooters.
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R-Type III: The Third Lightning is such a frustrating release to me. Take a look at those pictures and you can see that this is a game with gorgeous graphics. They certainly are on par, and maybe surpass the SNES version. However my major plight with this game -- and it's the same problem I had with the previous Game Boy and Game Boy Color R-Type games -- is that the ship is just too big for the screen which results in incredibly difficult maneuvering. Your ship is just so long that it works as a detriment, making even simple movements result in crashing into something. This is a real letdown considering just how great the game looks. I've heard that some fans really love the Game Boy releases, so who know; maybe this game is for you. But I just couldn't get over this flaw in any of the Game Boy entries in the series.
Besides these, there's a supposedly near-perfect port of the SNES classic Phalanx that I would love to track down. Similarly there's the Japan-only release of Darius R which I'd love to get my hands on. But you tell me, what GBA Shmups am I missing out on? And more importantly, which should I avoid?
The above blurry cellphone picture is of my gaming setup -- I'm playing Super Street Fighter II Turbo, if you're curious. I've been asked many times to show it off, so here it is in tiny cellphone pixelated format. The reason for showing it off now is because I wanted to celebrate with you, dear Game Boy Player Land blog readers, my newly acquired holy grail -- the Hori Fighting Stick.
 
 
Yes the Hori Fighting Stick is an arcade stick that I've wanted for quite some time. So it's kind of a big deal that I finally have it. For a while I was content to seek out an easier-to-find alternative. And trust me, I tried. However it wasn't until I got my Hori Game Boy Player Controller that I knew that nothing was going to substitute the quality of Hori.
At any rate, here's a bit of a rundown of the others that I tried...
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My first Gamecube arcade stick was the Soul Calibur II stick that Nuby Tech released when Soul Calibur II came out. The stick was actually made to work universally with Gamecube, XBox and PS2 which is actually a pretty cool feature if you have multiple consoles. The stick certainly looks rather cool with its Soul Calibur graphics, and it's a pretty sturdy build. As cool as the stick looks on display, I wasn't that impressed with it functionally. The stick itself can only be described as clunky, and the buttons seemed to stick at times. It isn't a horrible controller, but it's not the most fluid either.
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Next I tried the Wii Shaft, which despite its name is actually a Gamecube controller. The stick is made by a third party manufacturer and is pretty easy to find at an affordable price online. It's a compact design which is nice. However, this stick was far worse than the Nuby. Though the buttons were a little nicer to press, the stick on the other hand was so loose that if offers almost no accurate control at all. This one I'd stay away from unless you're desperate.
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The Hori stick comes in two flavors, the more common Soul Calibur II version (left) and the more generic Fighting Stick (right). Other than the Soul Calibur graphic they are the same exact thing. The Hori stick is incredibly durable, with a good weight to it. The stick itself clicks like many real arcade cabs, and the buttons feel just as accurate. This is the kind of stick I was hoping for since I first became a Cube enthusiast.
I personally use mine almost entirely for games on the Game Boy Player which means that only four of the six buttons are used in any one game. Of course thanks to the Z-Button menu, the layout can be reconfigured however you prefer. If you are planning on using this stick for Gamecube games then certainly it's important to point out the lack of a C-Stick. But if you're a hardcore Game Boy Player like myself, then this stick is pretty much the best thing you could pair your Cube with. Trust me. I figured that out the hard way.
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Like many collectors, I sometimes browse Ebay listings of cheap Game Boy carts in an effort to stumble upon something awesome. And one night the cover above caught my eye. I had completely forgotten about Spider-Man 2, but I knew the instant that I saw it that I had owned the game when I was younger. And how could I have not? Look at that cover! It has Carnage on it! And yet strangely as hard as I tried, I just could not recollect the game itself. I did a quick Google Image Search, and nothing jogged my memory. I could see the game was published by LJN who had been responsible for several games I have fond memories of, so I figured it was worth tracking down.
When the game arrived I tossed it into my Game Advance SP and within about two minutes I remembered Spider-Man 2 with a vengeance. Yes friends, this game is terrible. It is so unbelievably hard that I doubt anybody has ever had the skill patience to even make it past the first level. I know I never did when I was younger (and I was way more skillful patient when I was younger).
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The game begins in an abandoned warehouse. You exit out a window and there's the Hobgoblin. Then he hits you with a pumpkin-bomb, you fall off the side of the building, quickly run out of webs while trying to make your way back up to the Hobgoblin and eventually somebody kills you or you just shut the game off in disgust. Seriously. That's everything that happens in this game. I mean, it's possible that there are other levels after this one. But I'm not sure they're needed, because this scenario is going to play out every time.
And yet what's really strange about this game is that I have no urge to get rid of it. I've gotten rid of far better games than this simply because I never felt like playing them. Perhaps there's a part of me that wants to hang on to the nostalgia associated with a game that infuriated the child version of myself nearly 20 years ago. Or maybe I'm just a masochist.
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One of my highest collecting priorities these days is tracking down all the games I remember spending the most time with when I was younger. What this means is that although certainly classic games like Super Mario Bros. 3 or A Link To The Past are high on that list, they also rub elbows with games that another collector may have never played -- or even thought twice about playing. Friends, I present you with one such game: Robocop.
Released in 1990 and developed by Ocean, Robocop was based on the ultra-violent film classic of the same name. Due mainly to the limitations of the Game Boy hardware, the game isn't nearly as blood-soaked as the film, but it is a surprisingly competent release which is saying a lot for a movie-licensed 8-bit game.
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The game is mainly a side-scroller in which you patrol the mean streets of Detroit. There are a load of scumbags out there looking to take you down, and for an incredibly strong cyborg you can die pretty easily. And unfortunately the controls can feel a bit clunky. For instance when you duck down, you have to manually push Up to stand up again. However, this and the rather limited height of Robocop's jumps actually help to make him feel a bit more robotic and heavy. Perhaps this was unintended, or perhaps it was brilliant design. Either way, it works in a strange way.
What's really interesting about the game are the mid-levels. Each one offers some kind of change-of-pace to the usual shoot-everything side-scrolling levels. For instance, you may find yourself reconstructing the face of a wanted criminal via the police computer systems. Or maybe you'll be using a scope to disrupt a hostage situation in the first-person perspective. There's definitely a lot of variety to the level layouts. And in no shocking surprise for many early Game Boy releases, Robocop gets really hard really quickly. Though there are only ten levels total, I've never beat the game myself. And yet, the difficulty never really stops it from being fun either.
There are a surprising number of Game Boy sequels including a crossover with the Terminator, and even eventual Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance releases. But I can't speak about any of them from experience. All I can say is that either nostalgia has skewed things way out of perspective, or Robocop is one hell of a fun game.
Jamie Woodhouse may not be a household name, but he's certainly an interesting fellow: a game designer who dropped out of college (his major was designing games) so that he could just get on with designing games. His major claim to fame is a puzzle-platformer called Qwak; a title in the vein of Bubble Bobble, Parasol Stars, or other similar deceivingly cutesy games from a simpler time in gaming history. Though it was initially released on the BBC Micro in 1989, Qwak would eventually be ported to Acorn Electron, Amiga, Amiga CD32, and in 2006 Game Boy Advance. But what's special about the Game Boy Advance release is that Jamie decided to release the damn thing himself. By this time he had had enough experience designing GBA games to just make this his own pet project and sell the homebrew carts, xeroxed instructions and downloadable printable boxes right on his website. However, here's a bit of a breakdown of all the GBA titles that Jamie has had a hand in creating.
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Simon is a port of the old handheld electronics game. Y'know, there's four buttons -- each a different color. They light up and play a note in random order and you have to play it back. Sort of a precursor to the rhythm games we have today. The GBA version is exactly that. Although it may trigger some nostalgia and perhaps even boost your memory (I have no scientific data to back that up), it's not incredibly engrossing either.
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A port of the board game Scrabble Junior was a similar upgrade of a childhood favorite. This conversion bodes much better than Simon as it's far easier to get sucked into. It's also a perfect match for a handheld, as it's the kind of game that you can easily kill some spare time with.
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Next was a port of the 1979 arcade classic, Lunar Lander. The GBA version is an extremely faithful recreation. And trust me, it's just as hard as ever. Retro-fans of the original will certainly be thrilled with the attention to detail, though newcomers may find the vector graphics to sort of sell the GBA's video output a bit short.
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Lego Racers 2 is possibly the most ambitious GBA release that Jamie developed. On the surface it's an average 2D racer reminiscent of Super Mario Kart. But what's interesting is the story mode, which adds Grand Theft Auto-ish missions and even statistical elements of an RPG. It's certainly an interesting mix of high- and low-action genres.
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In 2006 Jamie decided to independently port his masterpiece, Qwak to the GBA. This version is fantastic. It seems almost like it was meant to live on the portable console with it's bright colors bursting out of its dark backgrounds and the condensed Donkey Kong-like levels. And much like the 1994 Game Boy release of DK, the levels just keep on coming, delivering hours of challenging game time. This cart is a must-have for GBA puzzle fans. And although the Game Boy officially "died" sometime in 2007, perhaps there's hope that independent developers could continue to breath new life into the fan favorite console.
Check out the rest of Jamie Woodhouse's portfolio, and beg him to port his other games to GBA here: http://www.jamiewoodhouse.co.uk
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If you've been following this blog at all then you're probably aware of the Together Retro game club that I follow that's curated by the folks over at http://www.racketboy.com. The game for March was the original Phantasy Star, a game that I never got the chance to play prior. Thankfully a cart containing the first three games of the series was released for the GBA in 2002. Though I did have a Sega Master System years ago, I didn't adopt it until around the time that the Genesis was released and toy stores threw Master Systems into a bargain bin. Unfortunately, Phantasy Star was never one of the games that found its way into the same bins. I do remember trying Phantasy Star II on the Genesis for a short time, but the entire series was one that I was always aware of -- and mildly interested in -- but just never found myself curious enough to give it a go. And I had no idea just what I was missing out on.
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What immediately became apparent to me was that Phantasy Star was a game that was far ahead of its time, bearing in mind that its contemporaries were Final Fantasy and Dragon Warrior on the NES. Of course those two titles tend to epitomize what we think of as 8-bit RPG classics -- and they're the first two RPG's I ever played myself -- they actually come off as quite shallow in comparison to Phantasy Star.
The game begins with our main character, Alis as she slowly ventures out from one little town and grinds (for at least an hour!) until she can venture to the next. Pretty basic stuff. But over time you will pick up three more varied characters to add to your party and explore not only the planet that you started out on -- but two others as well!
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Indeed the world of Phantasy Star soon becomes amazingly large and complex. There are deserts and tundras; robots and slimes; hovercrafts and landrovers! There's elements of Star Wars, Dune, and Greek Mythology. It was truly a game that was ambitious in its scope in every department -- be it the story, visuals, or music.
Unfortunately, one such ambition also leads to the games one true detriment -- its absolutely brutal-to-navigate 3D dungeons. My understanding is that upon its initial release in 1988, the Master System cartridge of Phantasy Star sold for $80. To put that it into perspective, it cost nearly as much as the Master System itself. I suppose that perhaps the 3D dungeons were a way to force the player to stretch a lot more gameplay out of the already enormous game, forcing you to eventually resort to making your own maps (or if you're playing it today instead of 1988 simply finding some online, which is exactly what I resorted to midway through my own playthrough). Of course as frustrating as the dungeons may be, they are certainly interesting and well... ballsy for a game of its time.
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After spending the month grinding, and exploring and cussing my way through Phantasy Star, I can firmly say that the series has gained a new fan.
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GameSpite Quarterly No. 1: (Game Boy) x (20 Years) = Retrospective
If you are not aware of http://www.gamespite.net, then I suggest you put on your reading glasses, direct your browser in that general direction and set aside a serious amount of time to think about retro-games. It's a fantastic website that offers thoughtful, funny, brainy, and at time brutally honest essays on games of yore. What's even more wonderful is that in the Spring of 2009, GameSpite began a quarterly campaign to compile their website essays into journals that share a common theme. And the premier issue was dedicated to our friend, the Game Boy.
Now in theory, you can read pretty much the entire contents right on the website (save for a handful of the bonus essays that were only included in the more expensive hardcover edition). However, holding this little book in your hand is really something special. You see, this is the first time I've seen a claim to condense the Game Boy's 20 year history into a single tome something of a reality. What makes the book work so well is that it doesn't allow nostalgia to distort the history into something it wasn't. In fact, there are are essays on all of the Game Boy's primary threats and they are completely forthcoming about the Game Boy's hardware inferiority in each case. Likewise, it is not just the "classic" games that are mentioned, nor is it the "overlooked gems"-only; there are chapters about games that we may all remember playing or that seemed important at the time that are total duds.
Each essay is generally short (usually less than 5 pages) and covers a specific topic: be it a game, accessory or competitor. But the book as a whole works both as a brisk primer for those just getting into Game Boy collecting and as a wonderful recollection for those of us that have been interested for the past 20 years.
Games picked apart:
Baseball
Battletoads
Bionic Commando
Castlevania: The Adventure
Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge
Daedalian Opus
Donkey Kong '94
Final Fantasy Adventure
Final Fantasy Legend II
Final Fantasy Legend III
Gargoyle's Quest
Gradius: The Interstellar Assault
Heiankyo Alien
Kid Icarus: Of Myths And Monsters
Kirby's Dream Land
The Legend Of Zelda: Link's Awakening
Mega Man (series)
Metal Gear Solid
Metroid II
Nemesis
Ninja Gaiden Shadow
Operation C
Picross
Pokemon Red/Blue
Street Fighter II
Super Mario Land
Super Mario Land 2: Six Golden Coins
Tennis
Tetris
Wario Land II
The book also includes essays on the Game Shark and Game Boy Camera as well as competing hardware such as Atari's Lynx, Sega's Game Gear, SNK's Neo Geo Pocket and Bandai's WonderSwan. All in all, it's a fantastic read. Highly recommended.
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One of the main reasons I love collecting Game Boy games is that it gives me an excuse to relive my youth. Truly, many of the games that are highest on my wishlist aren't what you would consider classics. And in some cases they might not even be considered great games. But when you're young and your only source of games is what happens to be in stock the at the toy store the day your parents decide to get you a new one, you learn to love an ordinarily overlooked game because you can either spend some serious time with it, or just do your homework instead.
One such title that fits into this description is the 1990 Konami release Skate Or Die: Bad 'N Rad. This is a title I played the hell out of in my pre-teens based mostly on the merits of the NES Skate Or Die titles, along with the promise of an experience that would be equally bad AND rad -- two very enticing words to adolescents of the the 1990's.
This Game Boy sequel bares very little resemblance to the first NES game. The original game focused more on open-ended skating and the ultimate goal of becoming a skateboarding champion. Or at least shutting up that mohawked jerk at the skate shop. Bad 'N Rad on the other hand plays out like an adventure game. On a skateboard. You must skate through each level and dodge lots of spikes, rats, thugs, and for some reason people in life rafts with tridents.
 
Similarly to what Konami did with their Game Boy Contra games, they decided to split up the levels in Bad 'N Rad between sidescrolling levels and overhead levels. This seemingly offers a challenge to gamers that are better than one or the other, which ultimately probably helped make the game last a bit longer. Unfortunately the other thing that made the game last so long was the extreme cheapness of the obstacles! You might land in water and get hit by it twice. Or a rat might run at you from a two pixel buffer zone between you and the end of the screen. And there are a lot of spikes in the town this skater lives in. But none of this really stops the game from being fun. It instead calls for a certain blend of eye-hand coordination along with level memorization which is somewhat similar to the approach that Konami took with their early Castlevania games.
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Like most of Konami's early releases for Game Boy, they put an awful lot of detail into the graphical details as well as the music. In fact, the music in this game is certainly on par with the original NES release. The sound effects are few, but good when they do pop up. Most importantly the gameplay is stellar. Left and right will make your skater coast appropriately with enough control over speed; A jumps and B crouches which is a great touch when you use it to go through large pipes and other interesting tricks.
Later Konami released a Game Boy sequel titled Tour De Thrash which I never got the chance to play. And though I won't try to say that Bad 'N Rad is a completely unheralded classic, it's certainly classic to my own gaming memories. And it's definitely worth picking up if you happen upon it.
From time to time I've encountered some pretty awesome ads from the history of the Game Boy line of handhelds. I was 8 years old when the first Game Boy was released, and I've followed the line rather closely. So in a way it's endearing to see this time line grow up with my generation. For your review I've assembled a bit of a retrospective of the Game Boy line and how each new iteration has been presented to the world.
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As an active member of the forums at http://www.racketboy.com, I try to participate in the Together Retro game club every month. However, as I don't like to bother with emulation and I only collect for Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance and Gamecube, I can't always play the chosen game. Luckily what makes the GB collection so fantastic is that almost every major game or series has been ported, remade, or had some kind of sequel or related game land on the little handheld that could. So while the game club spent February with the NES classic Contra, I investigated the monochrome sequels.
 
Operation C was released only two years after the Game Boy surfaced, and yet it's a highly advanced and impressive game. It was a Game Boy exlusive that was obviously inspired by the second NES title, Super C. The attention to detail in the graphics is really a bit of a surprise for such an early release, and the music rivals that of any Contra game released on the NES. Lance is controlled just as smoothly in the NES classic, so if you've played that one you'll have no problem jumping into this. The weapon upgrades include two versions of the spread gun, a homing gun and some kind of single shot flame-thrower. The levels are split between side-scrollers and overhead levels (see above pictures). Although the game is relatively short at just five levels, the difficulty of the levels certainly makes them last. In fact, I couldn't beat level four since I decided to give it a go without using the Konami Code.
 
Released three years later, Contra: The Alien Wars is basically a port of the SNES game of the same title. Obviously the game is stripped down to fit onto the GB hardware, but a ton is stuffed into the little cart. Though Lance's movements aren't quite as fluid as they were in Operation C, he can now do a lot more such as transfer down to platforms below the one he's on, climb walls or hang from ceilings. Because of these new capabilites, the controls take a bit longer to get used to but eventually feel comfortable enough to master. Again, Konami did a great job with both graphics (fire even looks like fire!) and music. In fact, the music in this one might even trump that of Operation C.
The levels again vary between side-scrollers and overheads and have alot of fun twists and turns within them. The boss animation is extremely impressive even when comparing it to the SNES version. The game is again only five levels, but the levels are generally pretty long and extremely hard. In fact, this game offers three difficulty levels to choose from: Easy, Normal or Maniac. After spending a bit of time on Normal I decided to give Easy a try so I could at least take a better survey of the levels (again no Konami Code) but strangely the game reset itself after I defeated the third level boss.
In 2002, Alien Wars was remade for the GBA, which may appeal more to the fans of the SNES game. I haven't played this version, so I can't speak from experience. Ultimately I'd say that both Game Boy releases are worthwhile additions to your collection. And although Alien Wars is perhaps better musically and graphically, my vote goes to Operation C as the better game. I find the controls a bit more natural, and it tends to have the better balance of being difficult without being completely frustrating.
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.
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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
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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!
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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.
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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:
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I love the Game Boy Player... it's so bad.
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