My thoughts on Game Boy Color (rant alert)

[Segataritensoftii]

The Original Game Boy. Many loved it, many scoffed at it's garish green LCD screen, and still others outright hated it, but there's something to be said for it's success. Nintendo has been the best seller of handheld game systems in history. The fact that this garish game system sold the amount of 1/10 of the current population of the United States at launch proves that. Other systems tried, but failed to match up to the success that the Game Boy had. It's easy to see why, though. Many of these systems had very poor battery life, and what's more, they were much too big. Eventually, systems came out that could actually compete with the Game Boy in battery life and size. One, the Neo Geo Pocket Color, actually surpassed Game Boy in battery life. However, those systems didn't have the sheer marketing genus and muscle of Nintendo backing them. So they quickly died out.

 

Now, let's go ahead to 1998. Nintendo was taking a very long time to develop their "Atlantis" handheld, and Nintendo's refusal to advance the Game Boy (no pun intended) beyond it's 1989-era tech status was beginning to make developers frustrated, and some even threatened to stop supporting the Game Boy if Nintendo didn't upgrade the system soon. So, in a last minute ditch, Nintendo released the Game Boy Color. Now, since this was the first time Nintendo ever made a real technological enhancement to the Game Boy line, so people must have been excited. Unfortunately, what we got was little better than the original. I, personally have never liked this system, and Nintendo made a huge, and I mean COLOSSAL mistake not upping the tech enough for developers. It seems that most developers had forgotten to program for 8-bit systems, so most games for the Game Boy Color either sucked outright, or ignored. And most of the good games that got ANY attention at all were from Nintendo. Do you see anything wrong with that? I sure do. And what's more, people snapped it up like nobody's business! And this is what is precisely why I hate this system so much. I just can't accept the fact that this horrible system got ALL the attention. If it was just a quirky little niche system that quickly faded into obscurity, I would have enjoyed it far better. As it stands, I would see fit to call it the worst Nintendo system ever made. And yes, I think it's even worse than Virtual boy, which, in my personal opinion, was a classic compared to this mega-POS.

 

Sorry, I just had to get that out of my system.

[Technosis]

Sorry, I just had to get that out of my system.

I still have to get my out my dislike for the non-backlit GBA and the countless "improved" revisions released

 

But you have a point in your rant. I think the gaming public has been FAR to kind to Nintendo over the years in regards to what they released. Often it is like Nintendo tells the consumer what it needs, not the other way around (listening and responding to gamers wants). Yes, I agree that the Color GameBoy wasn't a big upgrade, especially if we are talking 1998 or so.......

[A Sprite]

My rebuttal:

 

1. Metal Gear - contained all the action of the PSX game.

 

2. Street Fighter Alpha - the only good 8 bit adaptation of the series.

 

3. Mr. Driller - Better than the sequel on Advance.

 

4. The Tomb Raider Series - Prince of Persia meets Pitfall.

 

5. Dragon's Lair - Ever play the game for SNES? NES? Gameboy Original? Need I go on?

 

6. Capcom's Zelda Games - not as good as Link's Awakening, but if they had appeared on any other 8 bit, they'd have their own shrine.

 

7. Magical Chase - Who could afford the Turbo-Express?

 

8. Shantae - Silken smooth animation.

 

None of them made by Nintendo.

 

Clocking in at 10mhz, the GBC was faster than the original Gameboy, the Game Gear, and the NES combined.

 

You can dismiss it if you want, but if the Virtual Boy had this many options, people might have been willing to risk the headache.

[shadow460]

The Color Game Boy definitely does have its faults in the non backlit screen and some of the games. There's also no brightness control, which means if the games are too dark (I wonder what game would be too Dark), then you're screwed. Some of the games are fun. Mario Tennis is probably the best I've got, followed by some Mindscape remakes of the classic titles.

Aside from Pokemon, all the Color titles I have are either Rare or Nintendo games.

 

The other mistake was the Transfer Pak. They should have built a cartridge that could play Game Boy and Color Game Boy titles on the N64 without it. The Transfer Pak is bulky and weighs the controller down to the point where it's uncomfortable to use the middle grip. It's great for Pokemon, but not much else. Try playing Perfect Dark with that piece of crap plugged in. The Game Boy cart just sits there and it won't even rumble!

[jboypacman]

Am going to say that i thought that Dragon's Lair on GBC was just amazing for what it was.

[BrianC]

My rebuttal:

 

1. Metal Gear - contained all the action of the PSX game.

 

2. Street Fighter Alpha - the only good 8 bit adaptation of the series.

 

3. Mr. Driller - Better than the sequel on Advance.

 

4. The Tomb Raider Series - Prince of Persia meets Pitfall.

 

5. Dragon's Lair - Ever play the game for SNES? NES? Gameboy Original? Need I go on?

 

6. Capcom's Zelda Games - not as good as Link's Awakening, but if they had appeared on any other 8 bit, they'd have their own shrine.

 

7. Magical Chase - Who could afford the Turbo-Express?

 

8. Shantae - Silken smooth animation.

 

None of them made by Nintendo.

 

Clocking in at 10mhz, the GBC was faster than the original Gameboy, the Game Gear, and the NES combined.

 

You can dismiss it if you want, but if the Virtual Boy had this many options, people might have been willing to risk the headache.

 

Some other well done, non first or second party games:

 

Cannon Fodder - very impressive port for GBC

 

Solomon/Monster Rancher Explorer - Very well done game based on Solomon's Key with an edit mode.

 

Rayman - Original game loosely based on the original Rayman. Actual levels are new, but use similar themes to levels in the original. Nice graphics for GBC. Excellent gameplay, though much easier than the original Rayman.

 

Xtreme Sports - Despite the cheesy title and 5 games in 1 moniker, this is a surprisingly well done game with a RPG like overworld and goal based simple, but fun sports events. Some events use an overhead perspective and some use side scrolling, but all are well designed. From WayForward, the makers of Shantae.

 

Klax - Not the best portable Klax, but still well done. It also includes hidden clones of snake and minesweeper.

 

Rampart - Smallish graphics and doesn't get detailed like the arcade, but the playability and fun is intact.

 

Survival Kids - Backwards compatible, but very well done GBC palette. Unique game with Zelda like elements where you try to survive on an island. Has multiple endings.

 

Joust/Defender GBC - Backwards compatible, but looks terrible on b/w GB. Well done ports of the originals.

 

Toki Tori - Very nice platform puzzle game with excellent graphics for GBC

 

I agree with most of your choices, but I feel saying "contained all the action of Metal Gear PSX" for the GBC Metal Gear is misleading since the GBC one is a completely different game. I also feel the GBA Mr. Driller 2 is better than Mr. Driller 1, though I agree the GBC Mr. Driller 1 is well done.

 

Edit: I can't believe I left out Dragon Warrior III. It's based on the JP SNES one, but unlike that version, it's officially translated to English. Very nice old school RPG with much less grinding than the original NES version.

Edited December 17, 2007 by BrianC

[JB]

I think the big issue is that the GameBoy Color was never INTENDED to be a real system.

It was nothing more than a stopgap measure. It's very short shelf life is testament to that fact.

 

At the time it was created, Nintendo was seeing something they hadn't seen in a very long time. The Wonderswan was actually damaging their portable marketshare in Japan, and the NeoGeo Pocket was posing a threat(ironically, the less-successful NGP would see a widespread US release, while the Wonderswan would never make it to the West).

 

But hey, overclock the original Gameboy, add a color hack(which Bandai and SNK immediatly added to their systems too), and you can stave off the competition long enough to develop a REAL next-gen handheld.

 

It was never more than a quick and dirty hack meant to throw a wrench in the gears.

The GBA was a rushjob, but it was at least one with some actual thought put into it.

[Atari5200]

the Gameboy Pocket, then Pocket color, I believe was the beginning of the Nintendo re-hash era, where Nintendo figured out that it could rehash the same crap over and over again and the same people would continue to buy it. Which is why there are 4 versions of the GBA, regular, SP, newer SP, and Micro, and 2 DS version, though I'm surprised a 3rd version hasn't come out yet, probably by end of 08 a new one will be out.

 

This is one of the hardest things for me to understand. Why people buy multiple systems when 1 or 2 is fine. If you bought the original GBA, then yes, I can see upgrading to the SP, but not another SP. I know people with kids with 3 GBA's.!! What the hell for??? or 2 DS becaue they had to run out and get the lite when the original still is perfectly fine.

[Jess Ragan]

Gotta agree with the original poster on this one. The Game Boy Color was a ridiculously underpowered stopgap system, and the amount of quality software available for it was obscenely low. Sure, you could name a few exceptions to the rule, but I could name a lot MORE games that prove it. The system was a dumping ground for lame movie-licensed games and ill-conceived Playstation ports, and its retirement just two years after its introduction proved that even Nintendo didn't think too highly of it.

[wccw mark]

i have to disagree completly with the original poster.i love the gbc.until the ds/psp came out,that was my favorite handheld to take out on the road with me(i am a truck driver by trade)i have my gbc w/ worm lite attched to it and the following gb/gbc games:

shadowgate classic

deja vu 1 &2

dragon warrior 1&2

crystalis

metal gear solid

super mario bros dx

zelda series

pokemon series

tetris

 

and many more.i admit to playing alot of original gb games on it,but it was still an awesome system.

[Paul Humbug]

the Gameboy Pocket, then Pocket color, I believe was the beginning of the Nintendo re-hash era, where Nintendo figured out that it could rehash the same crap over and over again and the same people would continue to buy it. Which is why there are 4 versions of the GBA, regular, SP, newer SP, and Micro, and 2 DS version, though I'm surprised a 3rd version hasn't come out yet, probably by end of 08 a new one will be out.

 

This is one of the hardest things for me to understand. Why people buy multiple systems when 1 or 2 is fine. If you bought the original GBA, then yes, I can see upgrading to the SP, but not another SP. I know people with kids with 3 GBA's.!! What the hell for??? or 2 DS becaue they had to run out and get the lite when the original still is perfectly fine.

 

Well, you got a point but on the other side I think every makeover can open up new markets as well: the late adapters. I remember the day the GBA was at launch, me pondering in the store if I should fork out the money - and I didn´t. It took Nintendo 3 revisions (GBA Micro), 6 years and a price tag of $49 to feel not too bad about this purchase. I doubt that it´s just me.

 

Plus, running more than 10 years, the original GB and all its iterations saw enough new first gamers growing up and with slightly modernizing but keeping it cheap I would think it was always a no-brainer to get one for anyone interested in gaming, unlike the modern "handhelds" esp. a la PSP where many turn the dime twice before getting one or not.

[Vic George 2K3]

The lack of a backlit screen made me not want to get the original GBA, despite its better form factor than the GBA SP.

[BrianC]

Gotta agree with the original poster on this one. The Game Boy Color was a ridiculously underpowered stopgap system, and the amount of quality software available for it was obscenely low. Sure, you could name a few exceptions to the rule, but I could name a lot MORE games that prove it. The system was a dumping ground for lame movie-licensed games and ill-conceived Playstation ports

 

Naming the bad games for the GBC doesn't prove anything. The bad outnumbers the good for most systems. It doesn't make the systems stink since you can just avoid the bad games and play the good ones. I find it disappointing how the GBC is judged only by the bad games, since there are a ton of overlooked good games that more than make up for the bad ones.

Edited December 17, 2007 by BrianC

[Paul Humbug]

By the way, I understood the GB Color as a update worth to get for any original GB owner. Although I didn´t buy one, the idea of adding color to any original GB game seemed genius.

[Segataritensoftii]

Gotta agree with the original poster on this one. The Game Boy Color was a ridiculously underpowered stopgap system, and the amount of quality software available for it was obscenely low. Sure, you could name a few exceptions to the rule, but I could name a lot MORE games that prove it. The system was a dumping ground for lame movie-licensed games and ill-conceived Playstation ports

 

Naming the bad games for the GBC doesn't prove anything. The bad outnumbers the good for most systems. It doesn't make the systems stink since you can just avoid the bad games and play the good ones. I find it disappointing how the GBC is judged only by the bad games, since there are a ton of overlooked good games that more than make up for the bad ones.

I see you're point, but, as I said in my original post, most good games on the system were hardly advertised, and, therefore didn't do well. This gave the masses the illusion that the only good games on GBC were from Nintendo, because Nintendo were the only ones who were really doing anything to promote good GBC games.

 

And this is exactly what's wrong with the system. Unless you're remaking something, converting a PS1 game, or making something for Nintendo, you're basically screwed for sales. And I hate the system because of that. Understandably, I was overjoyed when the GBA came out, because at last, we finally had a handheld from Nintendo that was actually WORTH giving a s*** about. Third party developers got the recognition they deserved, and everybody won.

 

That's my opinion, anyway.

[DragonmasterDan]

I think the big issue is that the GameBoy Color was never INTENDED to be a real system.

It was nothing more than a stopgap measure. It's very short shelf life is testament to that fact.

 

At the time it was created, Nintendo was seeing something they hadn't seen in a very long time. The Wonderswan was actually damaging their portable marketshare in Japan, and the NeoGeo Pocket was posing a threat(ironically, the less-successful NGP would see a widespread US release, while the Wonderswan would never make it to the West).

 

But hey, overclock the original Gameboy, add a color hack(which Bandai and SNK immediatly added to their systems too), and you can stave off the competition long enough to develop a REAL next-gen handheld.

 

It was never more than a quick and dirty hack meant to throw a wrench in the gears.

The GBA was a rushjob, but it was at least one with some actual thought put into it.

 

Exactly, the GBC was a stop gap measure. It was to keep any further handheld market share from going to new competitors like the NGP and Wonderswan in the East and the Game.Com of Western markets.

 

It's also worth noting that the Wonderswan (under a new name) may have come here. Mattel signed a licensing deal with Bandai to bring the Wonderswan family of handhelds to North America going so far as to hire Bernie Stolar (former SCEA and then Sega of America head honcho) to run it. The problem was that many of the important games for the platform were designed by third parties like Namco or Square who were not interested in publishing for the platform in North America. This would have forced Mattel to license and localize most any Wonderswan products that made it out here. This is ultimately what led to Mattel's decision to abandon release of it.

[Atariboy]

I'm glad the GBC was created. I never owned one since I hated the screens on all handhelds until the DS and the SP2 and Micro came around. But I think the two Zelda Oracle games and Links Awaking DX were great, and I'm glad they were created.

 

The three games have gotten enough play on my SP and Game Boy Player for the GC to please me. Theres not much else of interest on the GBC, but I think thats the fault of the developers more than Nintendo.

Edited December 18, 2007 by Atariboy

[shadow460]

By the way, I understood the GB Color as a update worth to get for any original GB owner. Although I didn´t buy one, the idea of adding color to any original GB game seemed genius.

 

Problem is that the color really is hit and miss. For Qix and Solar Striker, it's awesome. For most games, it's barely noticeable. Some don't even work with the system at all.

[BrianC]

By the way, I understood the GB Color as a update worth to get for any original GB owner. Although I didn´t buy one, the idea of adding color to any original GB game seemed genius.

 

Problem is that the color really is hit and miss. For Qix and Solar Striker, it's awesome. For most games, it's barely noticeable. Some don't even work with the system at all.

 

The majority of GB b/w games work on the Game Boy Color. Some that don't work (like a couple of the Hudson collections) were released in an alternate form that works on the GBC. Some games like Galaga/Galaxian and the b/w rev of Pac-Man had imperfect sound on the initial release of the GBC, but that was fixed with later GBCs. As far as the color goes, different palettes can be selected at start up with different button presses. Not all games have auto palettes like Solar Striker. Some palettes work better than others, but the gray scale one works well for most games.

Edited December 18, 2007 by BrianC

[BrianC]

I see you're point, but, as I said in my original post, most good games on the system were hardly advertised, and, therefore didn't do well. This gave the masses the illusion that the only good games on GBC were from Nintendo, because Nintendo were the only ones who were really doing anything to promote good GBC games.

 

And this is exactly what's wrong with the system. Unless you're remaking something, converting a PS1 game, or making something for Nintendo, you're basically screwed for sales. And I hate the system because of that. Understandably, I was overjoyed when the GBA came out, because at last, we finally had a handheld from Nintendo that was actually WORTH giving a s*** about. Third party developers got the recognition they deserved, and everybody won.

 

That's my opinion, anyway.

 

I understand what you are saying, but I don't agree with your perspective. It's disappointing that many games didn't sell well, but that doesn't keep them from being good games. I feel that "going with the crowd" is a bad thing, especially in this case. Poor advertising is a marketing flaw, not a flaw with the system itself. Much of that had to do with the companies making the games, not Nintendo themselves.

Edited December 18, 2007 by BrianC

[shadow460]

None of the games have auto palettes, though, unless they are pre programmed into the GBC. There's no way that anyone could have planned for Qix or Solar Striker to be played on hardware that wouldn't be out for almost ten years, so why put custom palettes in there? And why would Nintendo build in an almost arcade perfect palette for a game that's not their own?

 

As for backward compatibility, the sound issues are one thing. I have two games in my collection that simply are not playable with a Color Game Boy. They are Japan and US releases of Burai Fighter Deluxe. They look great with that bit of color, but you die instantly in the boss battles without anything happening that you should die over. There's a boss at the end of every stage, so skipping to the next stage does no good. I'm told that DK '94 doesn't work at all, either, but I don't have that game to verify this.

 

One last rant, what's up with the (lack of) volume from the system speaker?

 

Now on to the plusses of the Color Game Boy:

The screen has decent contrast for those old classic titles. The unit is quite small so you can carry it in a pocket. It runs on less batteries than any other portable, and those batteries cost less than those from portables with custom battery packs (GB Micro, PSP, etc.)

[BrianC]

None of the games have auto palettes, though, unless they are pre programmed into the GBC. There's no way that anyone could have planned for Qix or Solar Striker to be played on hardware that wouldn't be out for almost ten years, so why put custom palettes in there? And why would Nintendo build in an almost arcade perfect palette for a game that's not their own?

 

Only Nintendo published games have them. The GB Qix was ported by Nintendo themselves, despite it not being their own. I was saying that some non-auto palettes like the gray scale look good with most games and that the defaults are not always the best to go with. When you said that the color is hit and miss, you implied that you only used the defaults.

 

As for backward compatibility, the sound issues are one thing. I have two games in my collection that simply are not playable with a Color Game Boy. They are Japan and US releases of Burai Fighter Deluxe. They look great with that bit of color, but you die instantly in the boss battles without anything happening that you should die over. There's a boss at the end of every stage, so skipping to the next stage does no good. I'm told that DK '94 doesn't work at all, either, but I don't have that game to verify this.

 

I haven't tried Burai Fighter, but I have beat the US Donkey Kong '94 multiple times on the GBC and had no problems. You might have confused it with the Donkey Kong Land games, which have annoying graphics issues on the GBC, but are still playable. This is the first time I heard of problems with Burai Fighter, though. Burai Fighter has a GBC specific version. It was released as Space Marauder in the US. Again, the sound issues don't even affect most runs of the GBC. Probably only the first run. I'm not sure if those runs also corrected other issues.

Edited December 18, 2007 by BrianC

[shadow460]

Hmmm, gotta add Space Marauder to the want list, then. Seems like it would be awesome in color.

[JB]

the Gameboy Pocket, then Pocket color, I believe was the beginning of the Nintendo re-hash era, where Nintendo figured out that it could rehash the same crap over and over again and the same people would continue to buy it. Which is why there are 4 versions of the GBA, regular, SP, newer SP, and Micro, and 2 DS version, though I'm surprised a 3rd version hasn't come out yet, probably by end of 08 a new one will be out.

 

This is one of the hardest things for me to understand. Why people buy multiple systems when 1 or 2 is fine. If you bought the original GBA, then yes, I can see upgrading to the SP, but not another SP. I know people with kids with 3 GBA's.!! What the hell for??? or 2 DS becaue they had to run out and get the lite when the original still is perfectly fine.

Well, the advantage of the Pocket was obvious. It was pocketable. Had a far better screen than the brick, too.

Given the age of the original at that point, it was hardly an unjustified move.

 

The Color was a new system. It may be a hackish stopgap release, but it's hardly fair to dump it in with the Pocket as a re-case.

 

 

The SP "fixed" the GBA's unlit screen, and made it more compact. It was a direct response to consumer complaints about the original GBA, so bitching about it seems counter-productive.

(IMO, it was a massive step backwards, and I'm proud to own an original-style GBA)

 

SP2 isn't really a huge change, despite hype to the contrary. It's a new LCD in the same old system. I'd bet money that the only reason it exists is so Nintendo could use the same LCD supplier for both the GBA and the DS.

In another era, it would've been a totally unadvertised change. As-is, it was treated like adjustments to breakfast cereal. "New tastier backlit marshmallow display!"

 

 

The Micro... shouldn't exist. They should've just axed the GBA in favor of full DS focus at that point.

Though I gather it has a place in Japan, where the size makes it competitive with cellphone gaming. Maybe they should've just left it japanese-exclusive, so people could gripe because Japan was getting awesome exclusive systems again.

 

 

 

So basically, I don't really see the argument, except for the Micro(partially) and DSLite.

 

Speaking of DSLite...

Why can't Nintendo make a good d-pad anymore?

The GBA/GameCube d-pad was horrible. The DSLite pad isn't any better.

I'm just assuming the SP/DS1 pad isn't any good either, having not spent any real time on either.

[A Sprite]

The Micro... shouldn't exist. They should've just axed the GBA in favor of full DS focus at that point.

 

The micro is what keeps me company while I wait for a new TV. Think of it as the Atari Jr; at $50 it's almost an impulse buy.

 

Back to the topic, just wanted to add two more games to the list in case anyone's still collecting for this system.

 

1. Montezuma's Return - In the sense you're robbing his grave again.

 

2. Wendy: Every Witch Way - She has two spells: Reverse gravity and make people explode. That's enough for the storyline provided.

 

Both are worth picking up if you see them cheap.

Edited December 22, 2007 by A Sprite