Sega 16's impressions and reviews about Game Boy games

[bigladiesman]

The console that requires you to bang your head with a dead squirrel if you want to see some colour! Still, it has such an awesome catalog that it won't matter anyway. Shall we comment on it?

NOTE: This thread has been created to discuss both GB and GBC, which I personally treat as two versions of the same system.

[bigladiesman]

I'll get this thread started with one of the first GB games I played on a friend's house (I'm a proud Game Gear boy), and one I recently discovered it also is on our MDs! It's no other than Technos's Nintendo World Cup.

This Kunio-kun game was on a lot of consoles, but I think it's a perfect fit for the Game Boy: five players for team, big, easy to see sprites, hilarious, over-the-top action that can be attractive to both footie fans and people that does not care about the sport, catchy soundtrack and furthermore it's fast to get into. An ideal game to play on the move.

[Bloodreign]

Another one I collect for, besides the NES, SNES, Genesis, the PS1, and somewhat the Saturn (insane prices on games keep me from getting even more great Saturn stuff).

Bonk's Adventure/Bonk's Revenge - Nothing like their TG-16 counterparts, love the Bonk games, and for portable Bonk on the go, or preferably on my Super Game Boy, these 2 platformers starring the hard headed little caveman, they fit the bill.

Legend of Zelda Link's Awakening - I remember buying the LAST copy I ever saw in my town back when this game came out, from a department store that at that time was about to stop selling video games altogether. Large world to get lost in, lots of replay value, beat this game multiple times, never without losing at least 1 life though. Dungeons were easy to get lost in, you really kind of had to use your head to advance in them. The 2 GBC follow ups were good, just not quite as good.

Ganbare Goemon Sarawareta Ebisumaru - Excellent soundtrack (like pretty much every Goemon title), first Goemon title on the portable, played just like the Famicom games that came before it. You only controlled Goemon out to save his kidnapped partner in crime, Ebisumaru. Damn this game is fun, but I have never come close to defeating it, it can get rather difficult.

Burgertime Deluxe - Follow up to the arcade original, except this time it's not a simple one screened game, stages scrolled some, and were bigger, and it is not nearly as difficult as the original arcade game, worth a play or more.

Samurai Shodown 1/Samurai Spirits 3 - Both games used chibi sprites, but it works so well with the Takara SNK ports on the handheld, moves aren't hard to pull off, and every character is in the game, quite an achievement. Third game even has some sound bites when you win, on the victory screen, if you have the game in an SGB. The first game had story cutscenes after every fight, 3rd game didn't, but behaved exactly how the arcade game does. Third game does go for a bit of money, I was lucky to get a cart only for about $14 a few years back.

Batman The Animated Series - This game, Konami did some of their best work on the Game Boy with it. The only version that INCLUDES as best as it can, the cartoons opening. Great music, long stages, nice graphics, very noir feel to it, like Batman should be. Considered to be the hardest Batman GB game to find, though I had no trouble finding it over a decade ago for my collection. Got it before I got the original GB Batman, and Batman Return of the Joker GB, both picked up late 2020 for my birthday on an Ebay game buying spree I do each year.


The Game Boy has such a gem filled library, even games that have no business being good on the handheld, somehow mostly turned out good.

[Baloo]

Honestly I feel like its the total opposite. Most Game Boy and Game Boy Color games in my eyes have aged horribly! There are so few I can recommend still playing in 2022 relative to other stuff:

Pokemon TCG 1 and 2
Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX
Super Mario Land 2 DX
Mario Tennis
Metal Gear (Solid): Ghost Babel
Pokemon Pinball

Everything else I've played recently is terrible.

[bigladiesman]

Now this Bonk port has piqued my curiosity, and Burgertime Deluxe is a charm of a game… About Pokémon, I only play Pokémon Café: I've never had enough patience for Pokémon games… And I'm not too fond of Pokémon Pinball, either.

Mario Tennis, well, what can I say… Wonderful piece of software.

[Bloodreign]

Honestly I feel like its the total opposite. Most Game Boy and Game Boy Color games in my eyes have aged horribly! There are so few I can recommend still playing in 2022 relative to other stuff:

Pokemon TCG 1 and 2
Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX
Super Mario Land 2 DX
Mario Tennis
Metal Gear (Solid): Ghost Babel
Pokemon Pinball

Everything else I've played recently is terrible.

Aren't those all GBC games though (Except for SML 2 DX, that's just a ROM hack to give the original game some color. The Pokemon games, I could take them, or leave them, I choose the latter as I never got into it, I was too old for it's target age group by the time it came out)? That handheld has not aged well no, but the original black and white brick's selection of games are timeless. It helped that it didn't come out when I was a small kid, but a teenager, and had a good ability to know what I liked and didn't like at that time. Sorry Baloo, not often we disagree, but this will just have to be one of those times.


bigladiesman, The best part, there are two Bonk's for the Game Boy, give them both a try if you can.

[Baloo]

I dont think there is much difference between the two consoles honestly, which is why I lump them together.

In my view, there is one Game Boy game I can recommend that I think is still worth playing: Mega Man V. And I grew up with the Game Boy and the Game Gear. Everything else for the systen is old, remade, and remade again. Has anyone played the hit games that made this system lately? Look at Tetris, Kirby Pinball Land, Super Mario Land, Metroid II, Kid Icarus, Ducktales. Theyre just not worth playing in 2022. Better versions on every system. Who cares of Mortal Kombat II for GB was good in 1993? It is dated now.

I'm not trying to be debbie downer or anything, I just think people have a lot of nostalgia for the Game Boy. I think there are about 4-5 games that are worthwhile on it.

[bigladiesman]

Aren't those all GBC games though (Except for SML 2 DX, that's just a ROM hack to give the original game some color. The Pokemon games, I could take them, or leave them, I choose the latter as I never got into it, I was too old for it's target age group by the time it came out)? That handheld has not aged well no, but the original black and white brick's selection of games are timeless. It helped that it didn't come out when I was a small kid, but a teenager, and had a good ability to know what I liked and didn't like at that time. Sorry Baloo, not often we disagree, but this will just have to be one of those times.


bigladiesman, The best part, there are two Bonk's for the Game Boy, give them both a try if you can.

Will do. I sure have them in my GB Everdrive.

BTW, like Baloo, I also treat the GB and the GBC as the very same system, and all the commentaries I make in this thread will refer indistinctily to both GB and GBC (in fact, it's with a GBC that I play all GB games). I'll edit the top post accordingly.

[ComradeOj]

I had one of the black&white GB pcoket models as a kid. I only had two games for it, to the best of my knowledge. Oddly both Simpsons games.

The first was Bart vs. the Juggernauts. I probably played this one more often. I liked it at the time, but it's probably aged badly by now. I could never get the hang of that level with the tiles that would zap you. It always drove me crazy. I liked the variety of that game, and thought the intro sequence was pretty cool.

The second was Itchy and Scratchy Golf. I don't remember this one as well, but I remember enjoying it. Not as much as Bart vs. the Juggernauts, but it was definitely a lot less frustrating.

[axel]

I dont think there is much difference between the two consoles honestly, which is why I lump them together.

In my view, there is one Game Boy game I can recommend that I think is still worth playing: Mega Man V. And I grew up with the Game Boy and the Game Gear. Everything else for the systen is old, remade, and remade again. Has anyone played the hit games that made this system lately? Look at Tetris, Kirby Pinball Land, Super Mario Land, Metroid II, Kid Icarus, Ducktales. Theyre just not worth playing in 2022. Better versions on every system. Who cares of Mortal Kombat II for GB was good in 1993? It is dated now.

I'm not trying to be debbie downer or anything, I just think people have a lot of nostalgia for the Game Boy. I think there are about 4-5 games that are worthwhile on it.

For the most part I agree with you, except on Tetris (DX). It's still one of the best versions of the game, simple and fun, easy to play for a few minutes. It's almost like the first mobile game. There are some hidden gems in there too, like Milon's Secret Castle on the Gameboy fixes most of the frustrating aspects of the NES version.

In some ways I enjoy both GB and GG more today though. Modern LCDs make it much easier to see what's happening and emulators can add extra features, like color hacks for GB games or running GG games at SMS resolution.

[goldenband]

There are plenty of games I still enjoy on the Game Boy. The restricted, limited nature of them is exactly what I like: most of the time, I don't want something involved, epic, or packed with options and unlockables and gameplay modes and online leaderboards. I want something relatively simple, with a single, clear, defined end goal and a low time commitment.

(Not coincidentally, I don't really do much modern gaming. Most of it just isn't for me.)

That said, there are only a handful of games that have really sucked me in (so far, of the ~75 games I've beaten):

Catrap - great puzzle game with unlimited undo
Cave Noire - addictive bite-size roguelike with a great translation patch
Navy SEALS - very Euro platformer, liked it though
Operation C - classy entry in the series, not amazing but very good
Pipe Dream - good version of this puzzle game
Shisenshou: Match Mania - English-friendly puzzler, similar to Shanghai but different, higher levels get brain-bustingly difficult
True Lies - I genuinely like the Game Boy downport of this 16-bit title

There are plenty of shoddy-ass Game Boy releases, of course, like Fist of the North Star (just terrible) and In Your Face (an embarrassment). The lowest tier of all tends to be game show games and board/card game adaptations, which can get really, really bad. Like, "not properly programmed" bad. And then there's the port of Flipull (aka Plotting), where you can't even pass one level due to a programming error!

[profholt82]

I keep my gameboy around for Operation C. That game is excellent, very much in the vein of the first two NES Contra games, but with some slight tweaks. I just love it. There are a few other games I pop in from time to time, but I've just never really been much of a handheld guy. But I keep a GB Pocket around with Op C loaded up ready to go at my whim for when I've got a little time to kill or just get the urge to blast some mofos.

[bigladiesman]

A game that I have physically and glues to the console me everytime I play is Trax: Nice little shoot 'em up by HAL with cute little tanks and great playability. It reminds me of SWIV, but AFAIK, Trax predated it.

[bigladiesman]

I happen to love Batman on the GB: it's quite clear it was a completely different game repurposed to follow the plot Tim Burton's Batman, yet that ridiculously teeny-weeny Bats (check the first boss fight: Jack Napier looks like Gheorge Muresan compared to The Dark Knight) and his itsy-bitsy gun (yes, Batman using a gun… Only Bob Kane and Bill Finger dared to portray Bruce Wayne brandishing such a weapon) is just a minor detail on a very good platformer with nice-looking backgrounds, impressive cutscenes, and classic Sunsoft sound and difficulty (spoilers: not easy, thorughly enjoyable). Also, it's interesting to check on the useless but nifty level transitions on such an early 3rd party GB game.



I have to say that the game looks way better when played on my GBC, but this is still a nice capture of the real thing, so for realism's sake…

[Baloo]

That Batman game aside from the realistic screen capture (Good gravy that screen blur!!) looks decent. It looks a lot like Darkwing Duck for the NES. The music is jamming.

For the most part I agree with you, except on Tetris (DX). It's still one of the best versions of the game, simple and fun, easy to play for a few minutes. It's almost like the first mobile game. There are some hidden gems in there too, like Milon's Secret Castle on the Gameboy fixes most of the frustrating aspects of the NES version.

In some ways I enjoy both GB and GG more today though. Modern LCDs make it much easier to see what's happening and emulators can add extra features, like color hacks for GB games or running GG games at SMS resolution.

If I am playing Tetris handheld today, it is 100% Tetris DS. Though I also put my favorite incarnation of Tetris, Magical Tetris Challenge for PS1/N64 onto my PSP. Just one of those things where it's hard to justify the primitive technology of the early handhelds these days because of that. I do agree with you on running GG games with the nicer palette but at SMS resolution makes them nicer, but almost all Game Gear games were SMS games that weren't released widely in the states anyway/no one played them. Good repurposing by SEGA. I'm still waiting for someone to create the backwards-compatible SMS and GG machine! Though I'm not sure how many good Game Gear exclusives are worth playing in 2022 either, but I think the SMS has some worthwhile games. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers is the big one, then maybe Ronald in the Magical World and Land of Illusion, though that former got an SMS release in Brazil.