Sam's video game collection essentials

Here’s the big game that really put the Game Boy on the map. Nintendo made the very wise decision to include Tetris as a pack-in game with Game Boy systems, so buyers would have one of its very best games to play right off the bat.  I already talked about a couple versions of Tetris previously, so I’m not going to talk too much about how the game works or the history behind it. See those previous posts for more such info. Tetris on the Game Boy is a really solid version of the game. It’s similar to the NES version, but arguably better since it has an actual two-player mode. The Game Boy had an accessory called a “link cable” which connected two systems together for multiplayer modes. (I had mentioned multiplayer in Pokémon already but didn’t mention how it was done, whoops!) The iconic Tetris theme that most people remember debuted in this version of the game. I don’t have a ton else to say about Game Boy Tetris. It was one of my early Game Boy acquisitions, so I have plenty of e...

Wario was the main antagonist of yesterday’s game. Nintendo quickly decided to give him a shot at being PROtagonist. This would be the first time of many. Just because you’re playing as Wario doesn’t mean he’s suddenly a good guy. Wario is entirely motivated by greed. At the end of the last game, Wario got booted out of his castle by Mario, and so his objective in this game is to get his hands on a whole bunch of money to build an even better castle. As he goes out looking for treasure, standing in his way are a bunch of pirates, so I guess there’s no real good guy in this game on either side. Wario plays a lot differently than Mario, too. Sometimes he can stomp on enemies like Mario, but Wario also relies on a charge attack where he puts his arm in front of him and runs forward to forcefully collide with an unfortunate enemy in his path. Wario is also fond of picking up items which he can then throw, and this includes enemies, who often get toppled when hit rather than dying instantly...

The second Super Mario Land was also made without the involvement of series creator Shigeru Miyamoto, so it continues to feel quite distinct from the console Mario games, but it also is quite different from the first Super Mario Land as well. I’m happy to say that this is quite an improvement over the first Super Mario Land in pretty much every way. There’s more content, better graphics, better music, better gameplay…better everything. The game has a world map this time (where you move Mario around the world in order to select which level to play next), and the levels are divided up into a series of “zones” with different themes. For example, in “Pumpkin Zone” you will play Halloween-themed levels. This helps the game inject more “personality” into its levels and makes them more memorable.  There’s some exclusive stuff in this game, such as the “Bunny Mario” power-up which lets him hover. Quite a few of the enemies don’t appear in any other Mario game. However, there’s one thing th...

  And now we jump from the very last game made specifically for the original Game Boy (Pokémon Yellow) to one of the very first which was available on day one.  It’s no surprise that the Game Boy would launch with a Mario game. What may perhaps be surprising is that the series’ creator, Shigeru Miyamoto, had nothing to do with it. As a result, Super Mario Land feels very distinct from most other Mario games. There are a lot of other things that are a little different, such as the jump physics, the way Mario’s fireball moves, and the fact that the music for the invincibility star is the can-can rather than the usual theme. Super Mario Land also introduces Princess Daisy as the damsel of distress, the third different lady that Mario has had to save up to this point. Daisy wouldn’t be seen again for a while, but eventually became a recurring character starting in the late ‘90s. Super Mario Land also features two “shoot ‘em up” levels where Mario pilots a submarine and a plane, fl...

After the raging success of Pokémon Red and Blue, the developers saw fit to create a refined version of the original game. With the Pokémon cartoon being so wildly successful, they decided to incorporate some elements of it into the games to more resemble the cartoon. The protagonist of the show, Ash Ketchum, is known for having a Pikachu who always stays outside of its Poké Ball (small containers which magically hold any Pokémon, no matter how large it is). And so, most obviously and notably, a major change in Yellow is the fact that you always start with a Pikachu who follows you around rather than stay in a Poké Ball. And they even implemented voice samples from Pikachu’s real life voice actress to make it sound more authentic, and added special animations for when the player talks to their Pikachu. The antagonists Jesse and James from Team Rocket also appear in this game after debuting in the cartoon.  By and large the basic adventure is the same as the Red and Blue versions an...

LONG POST INCOMING. Here’s a big one. This is the birth of what is now the highest-grossing media franchise in all of human history. “Pokémon” is short for “Pocket Monsters”, which is what the games were originally called in Japan, where they actually released two whole years (1996) before the rest of the world. By the time Pokémon was finally exported late in 1998, it didn’t merely have these two games for the world to jump into, but also a cartoon, a trading card game, and tons of merchandise with all the franchise’s very marketable monsters. The result was an incredible Pokémon craze that captivated the world’s youth for a couple years. If you were alive in the late ‘90s, it was almost impossible to escape Pokémon. It was EVERYWHERE. Even news stations couldn’t help but report on the fad, and there was some amusement seeing the series grow so huge that these adults who knew nothing about it and had no idea how to even pronounce the name were talking about it. One thing that was kind...

Shigeru Miyamoto is an absolute legend in the world of video games, creator of many of Nintendo’s most iconic games and series such as Donkey Kong, Mario and Zelda. Seemingly everything he touches turns into an iconic long-running series. Except for Mole Mania, that is. Mole Mania is what you’d call an action puzzle game, one where the primary objective of most levels is to use your brain to figure out how to progress through a level designed to require logical thinking to figure out a specific course of action to advance. The “action” part of it means that sometimes you’ll sometimes have to do something like avoid enemies or use precise timing as part of the experience, but generally speaking these games are primarily played with the thinking part of your brain rather than fast reflexes.  The objective on Mole Mania’s levels is to find a way to drag a huge black wrecking ball to destroy the gate blocking your way forward. You play as, surprise, a mole named Muddy Mole who has the ...

Metroid was a revolutionary game on the NES. It is perhaps surprising that it took Nintendo several years to make a sequel, and for that sequel to be on the Game Boy rather than a console. I’m not gonna have a deep analysis of Metroid II as I haven’t played it a whole lot in my life. Metroid would go on to become a great series, but this is still part of the phase where it was “getting there” and hadn’t arrived yet.  The gameplay of Metroid II is certainly similar to the first game, but it plays out slightly differently. Metroids are dangerous creatures, and Samus is on a mission to exterminate them. The goal of Metroid II is to find and destroy all the Metroids in the area. The game literally indicates the number of Metroids remaining at the bottom of the screen (there are 47) to remind the player of their mission. It’s neat that they mixed things up that way, although in practice it doesn’t really make for the most fun Metroid game because there’s not much variety at all in those...

It should be no surprise that, with SIX whole titles on the NES, that Mega Man would grace the Game Boy too. It should be noted that this is not a Game Boy port of Mega Man 5. In Japan, these Game Boy games had a more distinct title, it was called the “Rockman World” series (Rockman is Mega Man’s name in Japan). I skipped the first four, because from what I understand they have a lot of recycled content from the NES games despite not being direct ports, and they’re not all that great. However, this fifth entry is entirely original, with brand new levels, bosses and power-ups. And it’s fantastic! I’ve only played through it once, but when I did I came away thinking it was one of the best Mega Man games. At some point I’m probably gonna replay the series, and it will be interesting to see if my opinions change at all, but this one is definitely a winner. It doesn’t get nearly as much recognition as the mainline Mega Man games, and it’s pretty rare so it probably didn’t sell too well for ...

Here we have the fourth game in the Zelda series, and the third that I have covered in this series since that game came on the next system that I’m going to talk about. (Awkward, but putting all the games and consoles in order of release to do everything chronologically would have been far more trouble than it would have been worth) By this time, Zelda had evolved a bit from the original game that captured the hearts of the world’s youth in the late 1980s. The games now were a bit more linear, with more focus on story and dialogue, while still featuring things like exploration and elaborately-crafted dungeons to navigate. More on that evolution when I get to the third game. Link’s Awakening was originally planned to be a scaled-down port of the aforementioned third Zelda game, but eventually was reworked into its own original adventure. They could have simply made such a port, or a game that was very similar substantially and stylistically to the previous Zelda game, and nobody would h...

It’s called Kirby’s Dream Land 2, but this is actually the third game in the series. Kirby’s Adventure for NES came out second in 1993, while Dream Land 2 followed in ‘95. And this certainly is a huge step up from Dream Land 1. Kirby’s Dream Land 2, not surprisingly, like every other future Kirby game brought back the copy ability from Kirby’s Adventure, so Kirby can eat certain foes in order to gain their powers. Dream Land 2 has fewer powers than Adventure did, but it does sort of make up for it with a new feature. There are three animal friends here this time to help Kirby out: Rick the hamster, Kine the fish, and Coo the owl. Upon meeting them, Kirby can team up with them, which not only can change the way Kirby controls a bit, but it also changes how all the power-ups work. So each power-up in the game has four different variations, one type of use when Kirby is alone, plus a different one for each of the three animal friends.  Dream Land 2 is one of those games that want you ...

I’ve already talked about a Kirby game on the NES, but this game is the one that actually started it all, releasing in 1992. Developed by HAL and published by Nintendo, Kirby may not be quite the same level of household name as the likes of Mario or Zelda, but it has proved to be a successful and iconic franchise that is still around over 30 years later.  This first game, as you would expect for a series starter, introduces many elements that would be seen in many future games, such as the main villain King Dedede, some of the music, many of the enemies, Kirby’s ability to fly and suck things into his mouth before eating them or shooting them back out, and more. There is one glaring thing missing, though, and that is Kirby’s copy ability, something he has in every game released after this one. Normally Kirby is able to eat certain enemies and gain a special power-up based on their ability, but not here. Kirby’s Dream Land is pretty short, although once you beat the game, you’re thr...

I already talked about the original Kid Dracula for the Famicom before, so go back and read that one for more details! Kid Dracula on the Game Boy is actually not a scaled-down port of the original game. It’s kind of in a weird territory between remake and sequel. Some parts of the game are clearly based on the original with some modifications, while other content is new. It’s well worth playing both Kid Dracula games! This one, unlike the original, received a proper international release too, as you can see. It’s an uncommon game so it must not have sold terribly well, which is a shame, because it’s definitely on the shortlist of best platformers for the original Game Boy. This one, sadly, is not available in the Castlevania Anniversary Collection, but if you play and enjoy the original Kid Dracula in that one, I highly recommend seeking out this one as well. You won’t be disappointed!

This is a gem from Nintendo that somehow didn’t get an international release despite being one of the most impressive Game Boy games. The game resembles a Legend of Zelda game, which is not a coincidence, as a future Game Boy Zelda title I haven’t gotten to yet was directly built on some of the foundation set by this game. It’s hardly just a Zelda clone, though. You play as a prince who goes off to rescue a princess, which is also not too unlike Zelda, but this game is also much more whimsical and cartoony than Zelda. The gameplay is similar in some ways, with advancing a linear plot and solving puzzles also being a major factor, but this game has more emphasis on platforming (there are 2D side-scrolling sections in addition to the overhead view seen in the picture), and features the ability to transform into a frog and a snake as well (A Zelda game did do something similar, but it was years later). Combat is also entirely different from most Zelda-like games, with you and the enemy en...

Here’s a device that’s obviously outdated, but still has some charm. The Game Boy Camera is sort of a game/accessory hybrid, and it was released in 1998, before digital cameras were a widely available and affordable thing. Obviously the Game Boy is not a very powerful piece of hardware and does not even have color, so the quality of the pictures it could take was very low, but nonetheless, to a ‘90s kid it was a lot cooler than having no camera at all. And it wasn’t just a simple accessory lazily slapped onto a Game Boy cartridge, as it has various features, modes and personality to make the experience more memorable. You can edit the photos you take and add stuff like stickers to them. There are a few minigames to play that can utilize your face. There’s even a simple music creation program here. There’s an accessory called the Game Boy Printer (which I do own!) compatible with this game. The Game Boy Printer prints onto small bits of thermal paper with an adhesive back, which were sp...

A while back I showcased three Game & Watch units in this series. They were standalone LCD games that pre-dated Game Boy, and they were simplistic but pretty fun. With the Game Boy, an entirely new generation was getting into handheld gaming. Nintendo had the great idea to make Game Boy titles where you could play these old Game & Watch games, which a lot of these ‘90s kids probably weren’t even aware of at the time. This is the first such Game & Watch compilation released in the US, and it contains four games, which isn’t a lot considering how many Game & Watch titles existed, but this was not going to be the last such compilation anyway. And Nintendo didn’t simply stick the old titles onto a Game Boy cart, but the four games have a reimagined “modern” mode, with all new graphics featuring Mario characters and tweaks to gameplay as well. Very cool. Now, some compromises had to be made for this version too. For one thing, the Game Boy does not have an LCD screen, so the...

I’ve already talked about Dr. Mario previously. This Game Boy version released on the same day as the more-famous NES version. It’s the same addictive concept, though since the Game Boy lacks color, they had to change the appearance of the pills. Instead of red, blue and yellow, the pills are black, white and dotted.  The two versions aren’t quite identical though. The Game Boy version is harder, at least when the number of viruses is set to the maximum. This is because they will flood the bottle up to just two spaces below the top of the play area, as opposed to three in the NES version. This means that you will not be able to stack up three pills of the same color to eliminate one virus of the same color right at the start. I’d say the NES difficulty is better and more fair, but the Game Boy version might be enjoyable as an occasional challenge to spice things up once in a while. I learned of this version in my younger days due to my Uncle Job. He wasn’t a gamer, but he would hav...

I’ve already talked about the arcade classic Donkey Kong in this series before. By the time the Game Boy was out, that game was already old news. But Nintendo still probably could have gotten away with simply porting it to the Game Boy and calling it day. Nobody likely would have batted an eye. Donkey Kong for the Game Boy does seem to be that at first, as it starts out with you playing the first four levels of the arcade game with new graphics and controls. But then, you quickly find out that this game is WAY more than you were expecting! Once you finish those first four levels, you have NINETY-SEVEN left to do! As in the original game, you play as Mario (formerly known as Jumpman) while trying to save your girlfriend from Donkey Kong. The gameplay has evolved more into the direction of a puzzle platformer. Typical stages in the game have a key that Mario must grab from a specific starting location and bring to the locked door in order to progress. Mario must dodge obstacles and enemi...

  Our next system is one you’ve more than likely heard of if you’re above a certain age, even if you’re not a gamer. It’s Nintendo’s wildly successful portable gaming device, Game Boy. The Game Boy launched in 1989. It was not the first portable handheld game system to use interchangeable cartridges, as such a thing had been created a whole decade prior, the Microvision by Milton Bradley. But prior to Game Boy, no such system had ever achieved any real widespread popularity.  The funny thing about the Game Boy is that it wasn’t really cutting-edge technology even for the time. The Game Boy screen was in monochrome, and had no backlight, meaning the player needed an outside light source to see the screen. In the very same year, the Atari Lynx would be released, and it boasted both color AND a backlight, which are undeniably nice things to have. But the Game Boy absolutely trounced the Lynx and all other competition. Why? The answer was Nintendo ingeniously finding the right bal...