SwanCrystal worth the extra money?

[Betagam7]

If you can read Japanese I'd say the WonderSwan Color and NGPC are about tied as far as game quality goes.

in terms of the software library it could be but as I've noted the system quality is not even close.

The NGPC's lovely clicky stick and nicely placed buttons vs the Wonderswan's weird Dpad buttons and not very comfortable A&B.

The NGPC's screen seems much clearer. You can use headphones and properly adjust sound on the NGPC unlike the wonderswan.

The NGPC even has an internal dashboard with an alarm clock, calender and (albeit gimmicky) horoscope feature. It also lets you select a variety of colour pallettes for monochrome games.

I suppose that one interesting feature of the Swan is the ability to play it in vertical and horizontal format, which is useful for shooters...unfortunately the only shooter I can think of is Judgement Silversword which is so expensive.

But yeah, if you can speak Japanese I can see a lot of great exclusives and many great RPG's available for the system

[84pontiacdream]

I was looking for an oddball system and I think the WS fits that description quite well, don't regret my purchase one bit. Almost done with Engacho, have been really enjoying it and I have some more games on the way. I'll pick up a NGPC some day but I'm in no rush, was just looking for something to play on when I'm trying to kill a few minutes and it's always nice to discover new games that you never heard of before

[Betagam7]

I was looking for an oddball system and I think the WS fits that description quite well, don't regret my purchase one bit. Almost done with Engacho, have been really enjoying it and I have some more games on the way. I'll pick up a NGPC some day but I'm in no rush, was just looking for something to play on when I'm trying to kill a few minutes and it's always nice to discover new games that you never heard of before

Sorry, didn't mean to disparage your purchase (I did buy two myself after all), I just wondered if anyone could provide a counterpoint to my experience of struggling to find things to play for it.

I would recommend Buffers Evolution btw. It's cheap, easy to find and perfect for a quick fix. It's a black and white game, time trial platformer that seems simple at first but actually has quite a deep exploration factor to it once you start rooting out the secret tokens in each stage. In this sense it can be played very much like a Sonic game, either racing through a stage as fast as you can or searching for the hidden items that unlock new forms that in turn help you get better times in the stages.

[84pontiacdream]

Sorry, didn't mean to disparage your purchase (I did buy two myself after all), I just wondered if anyone could provide a counterpoint to my experience of struggling to find things to play for it.

I would recommend Buffers Evolution btw. It's cheap, easy to find and perfect for a quick fix. It's a black and white game, time trial platformer that seems simple at first but actually has quite a deep exploration factor to it once you start rooting out the secret tokens in each stage. In this sense it can be played very much like a Sonic game, either racing through a stage as fast as you can or searching for the hidden items that unlock new forms that in turn help you get better times in the stages.

Oh no worries, no offense was taken at any point
I will definitely check that game out, I'm a big fan of Sonic. Thanks for the recommendation! The only game I have played so far is "Engacho!" but being ~80 puzzles in I can safely say it's worth the 5 or 10 dollars on ebay if you're a fan of puzzle games. Will be getting 4 more games in the mail soon(Umizuri ni Ikou, Tane wo Maku Tori, Wonder Classic and Turntablist DJ Battle) I'll report back to this thread and let everyone know how they are.

[Betagam7]

Sorry, didn't mean to disparage your purchase (I did buy two myself after all), I just wondered if anyone could provide a counterpoint to my experience of struggling to find things to play for it.

I would recommend Buffers Evolution btw. It's cheap, easy to find and perfect for a quick fix. It's a black and white game, time trial platformer that seems simple at first but actually has quite a deep exploration factor to it once you start rooting out the secret tokens in each stage. In this sense it can be played very much like a Sonic game, either racing through a stage as fast as you can or searching for the hidden items that unlock new forms that in turn help you get better times in the stages.

Oh no worries, no offense was taken at any point
I will definitely check that game out, I'm a big fan of Sonic. Thanks for the recommendation! The only game I have played so far is "Engacho!" but being ~80 puzzles in I can safely say it's worth the 5 or 10 dollars on ebay if you're a fan of puzzle games. Will be getting 4 more games in the mail soon(Umizuri ni Ikou, Tane wo Maku Tori, Wonder Classic and Turntablist DJ Battle) I'll report back to this thread and let everyone know how they are.

I had a look at Engacho!. on youtube I'll keep an eye out for it on ebay as it looked a decent puzzler and perfect for pocket gaming.

I also looked at Beatmania. The sound quality is simply incredible and made me reassess the Swan's ability in that area...but my goodness, why no headphone jack! That's the one thing that has really put me off picking that one up already!

Tane wo Maku Tori looks great! I'll definately look at adding it to my collection as I really want to test out the Swan's vertical configuration.

Wonder Classic looks very similar to Neo Turf Masters on NGPC. Is it part of the same series?

[84pontiacdream]

Yeah, Wonder Classic made me think of that game too. I like old sports games and the spritework looks nice. Looks like it is played in TATE mode as well. Let me know what you think of Engacho if you do end up picking it up. I'm going to have to try the PS1 game eventually, the WS game has 100 puzzles whereas the PS1 version has over 300 IIRC. Hardcore Gaming 101 did a nice article on them.

[Betagam7]

Just to chime in on an old post but I've had something of a change of heart since getting a modded backlit Wonderswan original.

With a properly lit screen I'm really starting to appreciate it in a new light (no pun intended).

I've been playing through Klonoa:Moonlight Museum and really enjoying it and have also picked up Gunpey and Tane O Makutori (the seed watering puzzle game) and have had fun with both of them.

I'm very interested in the Swan version of Makaimura too, although it's pricey.

If you can get a frontlit/backlit system then go for it. Its games are generally still veering on affordable which, sadly can no longer be said for the Neo Geo Pocket which has now become doomed to ebay insanity.

[jdollatari]

i loved my swan crystal when I had it back in 2009 or so highly recommend it

[colorcomputerstore]

Old post but also jumping in....

Yahoo Auction has tons of WonderSwan systems for sale. I had a chance to buy like 5 systems for $40. When I came back from Japan I bought one system and some BW and Color games. Sold off the system but got 'stuck' with the games (as in, no system now to play them..) LOL

cheerio

[Betagam7]

Old post but also jumping in....

Yahoo Auction has tons of WonderSwan systems for sale. I had a chance to buy like 5 systems for $40. When I came back from Japan I bought one system and some BW and Color games. Sold off the system but got 'stuck' with the games (as in, no system now to play them..) LOL

cheerio

Any particular advantage to using it over Ebay?