Game Boy Memories Part #2

May 5th, 2009

zelda-oracles

Game Boy Color Era

Compared to the original, black-and-white Game Boy, the Game Boy Color had a rather short life-span of about 3 years. As a sharp blow to my love of the portable, I never actually owned a GBC, despite the large number of titles that caught my attention. I don’t believe that I could afford it at the time. As I said in my previous musings on the system, the GBC in it’s short life span arguably had a line up better than the past decade of Game Boy titles, which made missing out all the more painful. I did make up for my absence due to the backwards compatible titles, and later playing catch up on the GBA.

The most standout title of the GBC years would undoubtedly be the Zelda: Oracle of Seasons/Ages duo. Originally planned as a trilogy (completing the Din, Nayru, Farore arrangement), Seasons and Ages linked together two games, similar in structure, varying in mechanics. I played this title alongside my brother and a friend so that the three of us could unlock the whole experience. Ages was the more seasoned game, tougher puzzles being a key contributor but both games provided similarly high quality experiences. Capcom took the reigns of these title and did solid justice of the Zelda series, delivering a title to appease more hardened fans of the series.

game-boy-color-rpgs

During the GBC years I use to salvage titles that allowed B&W play, one of these titles was Pokemon Trading Card Game. Sure, it’s a Pokemon spin-off, but it was a bloody good card game too. My brother and I first rented this title (we didn’t rent games that often, mind you) and finished the title as a pair, only to buy the title a few weeks later and finish it individually. I personally detest trading card games, they’re stupid, money-spinning time-wasters, yet TCG I liked, really liked. Even though the game is built around a deck of cards, I never mentally put the two together, which probably explains why I enjoyed it so much. There was no fat to it, go to gym, battle moochers until you reach the gym leader, beat him, go to next gym – it was all about the card battles. I also remember the music being really intense, particularly in important battles, when the bass is rolling and cards are being shuffled, you know this game means business.

Polished in almost every way, the Mario sports series (Mario Tennis and Mario Golf) are both excellent examples of wholesome gaming experiences. Both titles thoughtfully translate these sports into digital equivalents, layer it with content and combine the package in an RPG shell. Golf uses a two-touch bar system where one first lines up a moving power bar, to then again line up the retraction for accuracy. It’s a simple system that works to great effect. The polish is what makes it shine though, smart course designs, a range of clubs and additional spin mechanics vary the experience. Tennis is more or less basic tennis, with effects added to the ball dependent on which buttons pressed. There’s a slight strategy involved in managing the three types of shots, four if you include volleys. The RPG contexts flesh out a storyline and give the game a sense of progression, and something to do outside of the sport itself. They’re a hub to access the gracious amounts of additional training courses and challenges. The Game Boy Advance versions are also well worth a look, even if they are remakes/highly derivative.

game-boy-color-hits

Pokemon Gold/Silver still maintained my interest, although by that stage I found myself enjoying the adventure less, it lacked the sense of familiarity that the previous games had. I often found myself unsure on how to progress and which Pokemon I ought to adopt into my party. The series had become too ahead of itself. The Donkey Kong Country port to the GBC was impressive, although hardly worth playing over SNES original, the mini-games and additional content were slick but felt too attached to DK 64 which we won’t discuss. In the past year I also picked up Perfect Dark and enjoyed that quite a bit. It’s a string of interesting set pieces, the standard action was a little clumsy due to the low resolution tightening the amount of visual lead way, but overall it was a very solid, sophisticated little brother to the N64 game.

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Tags: Donkey Kong Country, mario sports, perfect dark, Pokemon, zelda

Game Boy Memories Part #1

May 3rd, 2009

game-boy-wario-land

A few Tuesdays ago marked the Gameboy’s 20th Anniversary and as usual I’m late to the party. It’s not because I wasn’t aware of this momentous occasion, rather I’m usually fashionably late. By the time the topic came to me, I needed a few days to reminisce and then finally wait until my writing groove came about. And anyways, where was Nintendo? You’d have thought they’d be joining in the festivities of their biggest money spinner. Despite their no-show and my markedly late arrival, I think it’s time we unpack the memories, here are my personal favourites;

Original Game Boy

My first Game Boy was a Game Boy Pocket. I bought the system in a pack with Super Mario Land and a small carry bag for around $AUD120. Pokemon was one of the key reasons I wanted a Game Boy. My brother had saved up enough for his transparent GBP and Pokemon Red, and sure enough, I wanted one too. Pokemon wasn’t the only game that caught my attention though, I’d previously completed chunks of Donkey Kong Land years earlier, as well as sampling the amazing Zelda: Links Awakening (one of the best in the series). These titles as well as odd bits of Tetris, Mario, Kirby among others all intrigued my small mind.

When I did finally purchase Pokemon, perhaps a good few months later, it was my 3rd Game Boy game, alongside Mario Land and Ducktales (a B&W iteration of the Capcom NES classic). I blasted through Mario Land in a few short days after I picked it up. The speedy pace, and similarity to the original made this an ideal obstacle course to flex my platforming prowess. Ducktales was slower, focusing instead on exploration. Like all the Disney licenses handled by Capcom, Ducktales shared notable Capcom traits. For me, a fan of the series, the well characterized sprites were a highlight, but of course, it’s difficult to ignore divine chip tunes like the famous ‘The Moon’ track. Very iconic that.

game-boy-platformers

Pokemon was a magical game for me. I don’t think I’d every gotten so much millage out of a single title. As I read on a design student’s blog elsewhere (sorry mate, I lost the link, you stopped updating), Pokemon was the ideal Game Boy games because it was really a game for young boys. Pokemon succeeded in digitizing the essence that made the activities of young boys enjoyable, such as adventuring, collecting and playing. Pokemon was the digital playground of its era, and I lost many hours to it.

Zelda: Links Awakening and Wario Land followed suit not long after (it might have been before – little vague). The box-art for the Mario Land titles presented an imagery that weakened my Nintendo-loyal heart. I never ended up purchasing Super Mario Land 2 (the title with the most endearing box-art of the lot) until just a few years ago, the title was difficult to find on store shelves for some bizarre reason. Super Mario Land 3: Wario Land on the other hand wasn’t, it was quite readily available, so I settle for it instead. Availability aside, this game had my interested piqued, I mean, who after all is this Wario character, besides some guy that wants to beat Bomberman at his own game

Wario ended up being one of my personal favourite Nintendo games. The series has always always delivered a strong villainy fibre to it, not just in the designs itself, but by the way the move set represents the design. Wario was a large, Italian tyrant whose anti-hero role was best characterized by the fact that he doesn’t just stomp on heads, he literally attacks enemies. His repertoire of ramming, stomping, ground thumping and apprehending harmless creatures spoke more villainy than his domineering appearance ever could. The two qualities worked together to separate him from another Luigi.

game-boy-rpgs

Zelda: Link’s Awakening ushered me into this real-time world of adventuring. It’s a title so far ahead of it’s time, no wonder it was re-released for the Game Boy Color 4 years later. Link’s Awakening is most memorable for diverging from norms. Portablizing a brand new, console-sized game world – an incredible task. Allowing you to steal from the local store and then renaming you to THEIF for the rest of the game as punishment. The inclusion of appropriate 2D platforming elements. In fact, swooping through Wikipedia reveals even more series staples that began on the Game Boy, wow, I’m impressed; item-trading side-quests, assigning weapons to controller buttons, fishing, flying around by rooster and the use of the ocarina. Damn, I want to go back and relive his title.

There were other games that I enjoyed during my childhood. I think Legend of the River King should be the last significant title I point out. My brother and I rented this niche-ly little fishing game during the phasing out of all B&W Game Boy games. The title’s similarities the much loved Harvest Moon series instantly struck a chord, and even though the game is questionably a shoddy, arcane little RPG that wouldn’t garner a passing glance for many, like Harvest Moon, it’s also a niche staple that fits nicely alongside Survival Kids as a cute trio of classics.

Wow, that’ll do more for now, I’ll continue my personal retrospective in the next post.

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Tags: game boy land, Legend of the River King, mario, Pokemon, wario land, zelda

I’m Envious, Mr Parish

April 24th, 2009

With the possible exception of the monthly Link Out column, I rarely ever participate in the overrated blogging ritual of glorifying another blog in the hopes of obtaining that ever elusive trackback link and a complementary slice of recognition. The truth is, beyond the legendary Simon Carless (smooch!), no one with a crown and trophy room in this internet microcosm genuinely loves the little guy. *sobs* Oh it’s not all bad, I’m just a terrible writer.

Here comes the eventual ‘but’; but today I want to discuss my favouritest of favourite writers; Jeremy Parish and his merry band of Retronauts. Specifically the 1UP Retro and RPG blogs, and to a slightly lesser extent GameSpite. This trio of blogs provide a good chunk of my retro and niche gaming readings. I usually reserve a special spot in my week to huddle up and read the collective group of posts from these sites. Always warms a soft spot in my heart.

They cover a type of gaming that I’ve become very fond of, and do it in a very intelligible and respectful manner. The collective writing style of Jeremy, Kat and Ray is smart, clever and always interesting, if occasionally snarky (I mostly blame Jeremy for that). Their writing approaches are diverse, individual and rather personalized. Each writer has their own character within the language and as a whole the group of their have their own congruent style of writing. I’m always gleaming interesting writing techniques from what they have to say. The content itself is wholly unique, these guys are masters of their own niches and cover their respective specializations in progressive, uncategoric ways of writing. Never mind the content they cover, it actually feels good to read insightful journal natured writing on games.

game-spite

For these writers, it’s more or less their job to become enveloped in this truly hardcore brand of games, and their history supports this with an encyclopedic knowledge on various mainstream and niche subjects. They also have a strong frequency of posts, a rare thing for most outlets covering this material.

I’m out of compliments for now. All I really want to say is that I wholeheartedly admire the roles that these guys are playing out. What they’re doing for niche games coverage in my mind is having a real impact, and I think their influence will be significant. I’m envious though, and not in a green kinda way. The lives of these people revolves around covering specialized topics with the freedom that they desire. It’s passionate people producing labour-of-love content that can’t be found anywhere else, and that so few people actually care or know about. When I blog about something that I know people aren’t particularly interested or well versed in, such as the games-culture relationship or even some of the retro stuff, I feel a great pride in being one of the only people writing about it, even if my audience is minuscule. Their jobs are what I’d personally endeavour to live out, if that were possible. The content made by this team of talented writers remind me of some of the most evergreen feelings I’ve had playing games.

Furthermore Jeremy and many of the writers for these blogs contribute elsewhere on podcasts, video shows, print and web. A good example of this dedication is reflected through the print produce starting to come out of Game Spite. Near the end of last year, Jeremy collated 350 pages of collected critiques from the portal and produced them into the site’s first yearly book, which he then distributed by himself. Just a few days ago, the maestro announced that he was turning the site on it’s head, where the writers firstly do copy for a new print magazine, rather than the site. The same content is being made for and uploaded to the site, rather the team operates as though they’re writing for print first, with a magazine being released regularly full of content. It’s a marvelous idea.

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Tags: game boy, parish

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