Black and White... what are they? Their contrasting nature tends to give them different associations. Beneficence and malevolence, Ying and Yang, ebony and ivory, light vs. dark, Good vs. Evil, Spy vs. Spy?! I suppose they're black and white too. Some would say Black and White aren't even colors, just the absence or presence of light. Religions associate light and darkness with virtues and sins, with some even being particular to the color of light. In video games, if you're seeing in black and white, you're well overdue for a color television.
Kicking off this week's features is a fantastic piece of hardware that comes in only one color. The
Game Boy Player comes only in black, which likely means it won't match your
purple lunch pail. Despite its poorly coordinated chromatic aesthetic, this device (accompanied by a disc) lets you play your backlog of Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance cartridges on a full-sized television screen. Spiffy.
The featured image fits the theme dead on, as it comes from a PC game titled
Black & White. Packaging for this game finished the one-two punch of the monochrome cover by packaging it all in two different box designs. The game itself can be considered a "god simulation" strategy game. The premise of the game is to build a following of tribesmen on a remote island. As you gain strength, you can compete against other gods and even claim some of their followers.
Patrick is the proud owner of this week's featured collection. This chap enjoys collecting for the Mega Drive and Master System, and even owns this week's featured game.
Mickey Mania was originally intended to be a landmark project for Mickey Mouse's 65th birthday, but the original project timeline was canned to accomodate bigger ideas. The end result proves to be a greater tribute to the Mickey Mouse legacy. So the story goes... Mickey gets zapped back to the past, but instead of reliving history, he gets to reenact his own cartoons. The first level is first starring role in the black-and-white animated short, Steamboat Willy. As Mickey progresses through the game, he travels to subsequently later cartoons in his animated career. For being targeted at a younger audience, this game proved to be quite difficult. Now we are all a few years more experienced as gamers, maybe we can rise meet the challenge.
Until next time, stay tuned to channel 3...
it's thinking