What are you playing?

[noiseredux]

Our opinions intersect quite a bit here. I never cared for Sonic & Knuckles (or Sonic 3) myself. The levels feel huge and arbitrarily constructed, and both games have this unpleasant sort of "looseness" to the design and controls.

Looseness to the design is a good way to put it. People who love this game always talk about how well crafted the levels are, but to me they feel kind of thrown together. There are times in S&K where I seriously feel confused about which way I'm supposed to be going. That's a weird feeling in a Sonic game.

[noiseredux]

I've never been a big fan of the Killer Instinct games. I remember back when the first one was released on SNES, I thought it was impressive looking given the hardware. Though, we'd already seen some of these tricks with Donky Kong Country. And besides, the whole focus on combos was just not my thing in a fighting game.

Over the years I've dabbled a little in the series, but I've never gotten sucked in. And going back and revisiting this Game Boy port of the first game is doing the series no favors for me.

I guess it looks OKAY on Game Boy. It's missing a couple of characters, but the ones available are at least recognizable - if not exactly detailed. Backgrounds are also extremely sparse.

Of course the most important thing here is HOW DOES IT PLAY? Well... It's not bad. But let's be straight up: nobody is purposefully choosing to play this version over the console big brother. Nobody other than me anyway. I'll be honest, I don't know the arcade original enough to remember what the button layout was, but I'm sure it was more than two buttons. That's all you've got here: "kick" and "punch."

My experience playing this game again on GB was reminiscent of most of my attempts to play any Killer Instinct game. That is, I just mashed the buttons a lot and hoped for the best. Which worked fine for like three fights and then I started getting wrecked. I don't know any of the special moves. And with the rather sluggish performance of this port, I don't care to spend any time learning them.

Look, I think it's cool (and FASCINATING) that so many ambitious games were ported to the low powered hardware of the Game Boy over the years. But that doesn't mean they're all going to be fun.

[Ack]

Check out Shaq Fu. The Game Boy port is the most interesting version because it adds in vertical elements and less "cinematic" controls.

[prfsnl_gmr]

Have you tried the Takara GB de-makes of games like Battle Arena Toshinden, King of Fighters, Samurai Shodown, etc.? Those are probably the most solid fighting games on the GB.

[noiseredux]

Have you tried the Takara GB de-makes of games like Battle Arena Toshinden, King of Fighters, Samurai Shodown, etc.? Those are probably the most solid fighting games on the GB.

I have, and I agree. They are fantastic. Battle Arena Toshinden is actually probably my favorite of them all, even though (or maybe because) it strays so far from its source material for the better of the game/platform. I'd say those Takara games are up there with NGPC fighting games.

[noiseredux]

There's a long running misconception that all licensed games are shovelware. I've never subscribed to this. There are some truly wonderful licensed games out there - many of which are hidden gems. Unfortunately, I don't count Toy Story as one of them.

This sucker was released on Game Boy in 1996, which might seem late in the system's life except we all know that it just kept on ticking until the GBC rolled around in 1998 almost a full decade after the GB launched. Crazy!

At any rate, this monochrome port had to compete graphically with its SNES big brother and while it tries admirably, it fails. Don't get me wrong, the sprite work is impressive. When I knocked over a tub of tiny toy soldiers, I was shocked to see that these minuscule sprites had their own little personalities. However, all the work that went into animating this game is to its own detriment as the frame rate is like molasses.

Yup, your boy Woody jumps like he's in space. So maybe it should have been Buzz Lightyear as the star, haha! When you press the B button in hopes of making him whip is lasso go ahead and take a sip of something. You've got time.

But I tried to play it. I did. The first level is a little confusing. At the start of each level you're given a mission briefing with multiple steps. I felt like I should write them down or something. So first you need to find the toy soldiers and free them, then you need to find them a baby monitor, then you need to meet up at another baby monitor to finish the level. I found the baby monitor and stood in front of it. Nothing happened. So I thought maybe it's the wrong one? I went looking for another. No dice. Ultimately I checked a walkthrough and found that standing IN FRONT of the baby monitor was no good, I had to get on the table it's on even though it's a low enough table that it looks like you're supposed to just stand in front of it since you're touching the monitor. Annoying.

However, it was the second level that had me pulling my hair out. It's basically just a puzzle where you need to find several toys around the room and open up their paths so they can get put away before Andy comes into the room. This would be fine - and fun even - if it weren't for the strict 150 second time limit. I tried and failed multiple times before finally rage quitting. Sorry, this game just isn't fun for me.

[prfsnl_gmr]

There's a long running misconception that all licensed games are shovelware. I've never subscribed to this. There are some truly wonderful licensed games out there - many of which are hidden gems. Unfortunately, I don't count Toy Story as one of them.

This sucker was released on Game Boy in 1996, which might seem late in the system's life except we all know that it just kept on ticking until the GBC rolled around in 1998 almost a full decade after the GB launched. Crazy!

At any rate, this monochrome port had to compete graphically with its SNES big brother and while it tries admirably, it fails. Don't get me wrong, the sprite work is impressive. When I knocked over a tub of tiny toy soldiers, I was shocked to see that these minuscule sprites had their own little personalities. However, all the work that went into animating this game is to its own detriment as the frame rate is like molasses.

Yup, your boy Woody jumps like he's in space. So maybe it should have been Buzz Lightyear as the star, haha! When you press the B button in hopes of making him whip is lasso go ahead and take a sip of something. You've got time.

But I tried to play it. I did. The first level is a little confusing. At the start of each level you're given a mission briefing with multiple steps. I felt like I should write them down or something. So first you need to find the toy soldiers and free them, then you need to find them a baby monitor, then you need to meet up at another baby monitor to finish the level. I found the baby monitor and stood in front of it. Nothing happened. So I thought maybe it's the wrong one? I went looking for another. No dice. Ultimately I checked a walkthrough and found that standing IN FRONT of the baby monitor was no good, I had to get on the table it's on even though it's a low enough table that it looks like you're supposed to just stand in front of it since you're touching the monitor. Annoying.

However, it was the second level that had me pulling my hair out. It's basically just a puzzle where you need to find several toys around the room and open up their paths so they can get put away before Andy comes into the room. This would be fine - and fun even - if it weren't for the strict 150 second time limit. I tried and failed multiple times before finally rage quitting. Sorry, this game just isn't fun for me.

I am loving this series of posts, Noise. You are playing some pretty obscure GB games. I *love* that little system - and I suspect you’re discovering how great it is for people with small children - and if you’re looking for hidden gem recommendations, please let me know.

[noiseredux]

I am loving this series of posts, Noise. You are playing some pretty obscure GB games. I *love* that little system - and I suspect you’re discovering how great it is for people with small children - and if you’re looking for hidden gem recommendations, please let me know.

Thanks dude! Some of this stuff is replays for me. Like Killer Instinct or NBA Jam ports. As random/obscure as it may seem, there is a hidden method to my madness here. I've been working from a lengthy 'master list' of games for about a year now. As I can, I pick up stuff from that list super cheap, and attempt to play the ones I have roughly chronologically - which is why I've been mostly playing GB/NES/SNES stuff as of late.

It's been a sort of rent-to-buy kind of project. As I play/replay this stuff, I'm making a definitive KEEP IT or TRADE/SELL IT decision. That way, I'm able to keep the collection growing (or at least curated) without really spending anything out of pocket.

Anyway, it's been fun. The way I've been going thru, it's given me a good mix of classics and not-so-classics to play, and both can generate interesting experiences.


EDIT: by the way, here's some pics of my old GB collection, circa 2011...











...you could say I'm a big fan of the system as well.

[prfsnl_gmr]

Awesome imports and home brew carts! I’ve been getting into those recently, and I’ve really come to appreciate the “region-free” nature of the Gameboy recently. Also, it is much cheaper getting handheld games sent from abroad. I had 5+ GB carts shipped to me from Japan not that long ago for $2.99. (The games cost more than that, obviously, but the shipping was so cheap!)

[Ack]

Finally, Noise comes full circle.