Vaperwave Edition has been a really nice way to play Game Boy games on my computer. The palette I’m using is what the hack’s author had Ninja Gaiden Shadow set to.
Some of the borders are pretty cute too!
I also really like my modded DMG as a way to play portably.
I tried the Minty Method again and it was just awful. I don’t even want to talk that much about the games: Super Boggle, The Flash, and Versus Hero. Super Boggle is possibly the worst way to play Boggle, but it had a CPU character select and one of them was named “Big Jim,” so that might give it a leg up. The Flash is a sidescroller like Castlevania, except the level design is atrocious. I can do this funny thing where I kick and tap 
to just wiggle my leg up and down. Versus Hero is an SD fighting game that I cannot win at. I’m reduced to even less of a man than I was in WWF 2. After so much humiliation, I decided I should just play games that @Alyx recommends while I still have a weekend.
I played a good half hour of Saint Paradise. It felt good to solve an adventure puzzle in Spanish even if the puzzle was hearing hints from two different characters: “Use this spell to open the cave.” “Find this spell under a tree near the cave.” Combat was strictly against the same enemy in varying amounts. I didn’t have to do anything but punch.
ZAS is RAD. I was playing it with a palette than inverted the colors and put things into high contrast. It made the game look like I was flying through space and every metallic object was illuminated by dozens of floodlights. I really love the details that were put into every stage. It’s funny how T&E Soft poured so much of their resources into the Virtual Boy. Who knows what could have been?
Dynaman is really cool. It seems inspired by Bionic Commando, but doesn’t outright copy that game’s feel. I could not get past the first boss no matter how much I tried.
I need to spend a lot more time with Avenging Spirit.
There is an itsy-bitsy Game Boy game in the bundle for Ukraine.
Vampire Night Shift
Is that a gosh darned Neopet playing on a gosh darned miniature GBA?
You know it
A horror game came out recently.
I enjoyed the demo so I bought the game.
Seems good. I haven’t really dived into it yet.
That looks cool! I like the composition of several of the scenes. Falling down a sideways world terrifies me so much that I wonder why it hasn’t been done before.
I played Trip World. It sits right beside Kirby’s Dreamland as a platformer with unique level design and a gentle atmosphere. A scene plays before the title where two sagely forest animals face off in the mountains. In this scene, flowers have an unknown significance. One flower blooms atop of a rabbits crown while he menacingly gains possession of another. The very first transformation I get allows me to grow flowers on other animals’ heads. It pacifies them and stops them in their tracks. Could the rabbit in the intro be vying for world domination?
The truth is, most of the creatures I encounter are already pacifist in nature. They don’t hurt me if I touch them and few try to attack me. I can kick them to death but my score counter remains the same and I don’t seem to get anything out of it. I do, however, get a bump in my score every time I cause a flower to sprout on their heads. There are even some enemies that will only attack after they’ve been attacked themselves. What this means is that most screens do not pose any sort of challenge; instead, it feels like taking a nice jaunt through a world.
The jaunt is nice, too. The music is great and every creature is animated with a lot of character. Seaweed transforms into a hermit crab. A squirrel morphs into a mushroom. It’s just great to walk around this place. No pit is an endless pit. They all lead somewhere and sometimes connect me to alternate routes. The one time this game made me upset was the very end. There’s a three stage boss that feels really unfair. All I have is a pitiful kick and the game sets me up against a doppleganger that can dive from the air, slide on the ground, and shoot spikes from its body. Perhaps there’s a message there. In a world this peaceful, I would not want to be like him.
I’m having a great time exploring different filters and finding which ones feel truest to these worlds. Here’s what I picked for ZAS and Trip World.
I played another modern GB game.
This one is very short. It’s about five minutes.
It is randomized; each game is a little different, and you won’t see everything in a single playthrough.
You press forward and most rooms present you the choice of checking them or leaving.
Checking usually results in a fight and getting an item.
some rooms will automatically present you with a fight.
Some rooms will have things in them that you can choose to either interact with or just leave alone and press forward.
I like it.
I’m going to pop this on my flashcart so I can play it from time to time.
I can hear this.
The monster, the
Noobow!
Noobow is a super cute platformer.
You solve puzzles to help out the various animal buddies that you meet.
I jumped into Noobow for a bit! I think I’ll add some to what you’ve said later once I’ve seen the whole thing. I started playing Great Greed, an environmentalist RPG from Nacmo.
The characters and locales all have food related names. The first person I meet is a magician named Microwave. She takes me to the Kingdom of Greene where Princess Candy awaits with her dog, Calorie. After the castle is attacked, I really start exploring and wind up in a town called Shishkaburg. In this town, there’s an election between Crabby and Cabbage Head.
Everyone in this town seems to love Crabby. I hear things like “I like Crabby.” “He is so rich and handsome. Of course, he’s Crabby!.” “If Crabby wins, good things will happen.” There is a billboard that shows Crabby ahead by sixty points. I get recruited for Cabbage Head’s election campaign and we learn that Crabby is manipulating the election. My first true mission is to expose this fraud.
To do so, I go on a bit of a wild goose chase. I hear that there is some scientist who studies family trees and lives in the forest. I suppose family trees are literal in this game. When I meet him, he tells me that he collects records from a pop star named Lola Leftover, but he is missing her debut. I leave the forest and head straight for the record factory. The factory itself has giant rotating vinyl. To my surprise, I find Lola in a backroom. She has exited the public eye, but still sings. She sings me a beautiful song and I learn the deets on Crabby. This is a great game.
The combat is not menu driven. Instead, all commands are given with single button inputs. 
for attack, 
for dodge, 
for magic. It’s really snappy and a great example of a single-member RPG.
Looking forward to your thoughts on Noobow.
I think Noobow is the best food mascot game.
There is an English translation patch available.
Noobow, Kirby’s Dream Land, and Trip World are 92’s Game Boy trifecta of feel good chill video-games.
I’d never heard of Great Greed. It sounds cool!
i once saw a bootleg cartridge, the label of which had the great greed logo coupled with artwork from burning rangers.
unfortunately, i had no money so we’ll never know what was actually on there
I have a GB cart somewhere around here that I bought off eBay and only realized it was a bootleg many years later when I was idly staring at the back of the cart and realized that it said ‘Nintondo’.
That rules. I have a Balloon Kid cart with a peeled off label and the cover over the connector is chipped off. It still works.
I played through all of Noobow! It’s a pleasant afternoon game. I really enjoyed one of the levels where I had to collect gyrocopter parts. The parts had scattered all over a mountain, so I had to hang glide over some areas, parachute down, and even fish for a piece. It’s nice how I was never put into an unwinnable situation. The solutions to problems are almost never more than one screen away. I just watch that yellow buddy waddle and see what’s up next.
I also played more of Great Greed. There’s one last great joke for the whole election saga. At some point, an election rep asked if I wanted 100 gold and I said yes. Well, once the election was over, someone came by and told me I had been found guilty of bribery. They took 500 gold from me and that’s the last thing that happened to me in that part of the world.
Great Greed has a similar world structure to the Saga games. Rather than one large world, the areas are pieced together episodically. When I arrived in the next area, I heard of a town where the laws change every day. Sure enough, I enter the town and hear an announcement that the laws are going to change. To my surprise, they even asked me to decide what they should be. A lottery machine starts rolling and I press the button to stop on the day’s new prohibitions. “Exit West” “Enter Armory” “Talk to Guard.” After I choose, I see a man being pulled away by soldiers and lamenting his ignorance of the new law. If I try to enter the armory, a soldier comes up to me and threatens me with a fine. If I refuse, he threatens me with jail. If I refuse that, he lets me go. After this episode, I can say that Great Greed is just about as good as the best RPGs on the Game Boy.
Did I mention all of its quality of life features? I can save at any time and the game autosaves. I’ve been taken out by random enemies but the autosave wound up triggering right before the battle, so I didn’t lose any time. Also, there’s party chat with assistants who can remind me of what I should do next. It’s just really considerate.
I sampled three games this weekend, two from the same developer. They were X, Days of Thunder, and Wave Race.
Days of Thunder is a wire frame, 3D racer based off the movie. Because it’s NASCAR, all of the tracks are some variation of an oval. You might think this is bland, but I started to get an understanding of the subtle variations of angles and lines. NASCAR is like a boxing match between dozens of opponents. It’s kind of cool. Using the pit stop means having to methodically change the tires myself. I dig it.
X is another wireframe 3D game, but this time it comes from the proud tradition of British 3D space games. The intermission briefings are my favorite part. A floating head talks to me over an animated PowerPoint about all the evil stuff that the bad guys are doing. Actually playing the game is often less exciting than I was hoping for. Much of my time was spent flying around the screen waiting for an objective to ping on my radar. Still, there’s a fairly simple joy to moving around a very primitive 3D space.
Wave Race is my second favorite racing game on the GAME BOY after F-1 Race. The specialized palette for it has the nicest turquoise. There are no brakes on a jet ski. All I can do is remember to stop accelerating. I really enjoyed the Slalom events. In these, I had to race against opponents to claim gates that are placed around the map. Even though there may be a clean line for claiming all the gates, it’s often more advantageous to go straight towards something that nobody else is claiming and working from there.
I’m sill having a great time with the GAME BOY.
It’s April so we’re entering yet another wonderful year of the GAME BOY. This is the first year where the number of releases has decreased from the previous year. Do the games also show a decline in quality or ideas? Let’s find out!
The first post has too many characters in it now, so I’ll post the list of games here:
| Game | Developer | First Release |
|---|---|---|
| Kid Dracula | Konami | January 3, 1993 |
| Dirty Racing | Gremlin Graphics | January 8, 1993 |
| Ring Rage | Taito Corporation | January 29, 1993 |
| Gerry Anderson’s Thunderbirds | KID | February 12, 1993 |
| Xerd no Densetsu 2: Xerd!! Gishin no Ryouiki | Graphic Research | February 19, 1993 |
| Adventure Island II: Aliens in Paradise | Now Production | February 26, 1993 |
| Burning Paper | Pixel | February 26, 1993 |
| Oni III: Kuro no Hakaishin | Pandora Box | February 26, 1993 |
| Cultmaster: Ultraman ni Miserarete | Minato Giken | March 12, 1993 |
| Double Yakuman | Imagesoft | March 19, 1993 |
| Monster Maker 2: Uru no Hiten | SOFEL | March 19, 1993 |
| Sanrio Carnival 2 | Character Soft | March 19, 1993 |
| Tip Off | Enigma Variations | March 19, 1993 |
| G1 King! 3-Hitsu no Yosouya | Graphic Research | March 26, 1993 |
| Milon’s Secret Castle | Make Software | March 26, 1993 |
| Raging Fighter | Konami | March 26, 1993 |
| Crayon Shin-Chan: Ora to Shiro ha Otomodachi Dayo | TOSE | April 9, 1993 |
| Makai-Mura Gaiden: The Demon Darkness | Sun L | April 16, 1993 |
| The Real Ghostbusters | Kotobuki Systems | April 23, 1993 |
| Rod Land | Eurocom | May 21, 1993 |
| Aguri Suzuki F-1 Super Driving | Pixel | May 28, 1993 |
| Bubble Bobble Part 2 | OLM Taito Corporation | May 28, 1993 |
| Populous | Enigma Variations | May 28, 1993 |
| The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening | Nintendo | June 6, 1993 |
| Pachi-Slot Kids | Coconuts Japan | June 18, 1993 |
| Booby Boys | Nichibutsu | June 25, 1993 |
| Splitz | Enigma Variations | June 25, 1993 |
| Race Drivin’ | Argonaut Games | January 1993 |
| Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back | NMS Software | January 1993 |
| Top Gun: Guts and Glory | Distinctive Software | January 1993 |
| Zen: Intergalactic Ninja | Konami | 1993 |
| Zool: Ninja of the Nth Dimension | Gremlin Graphics | 1993 |
| Krusty’s Fun House | Audiogenic | January 1993 |
| Darkwing Duck | Make Software | February 1993 |
| The Flintstones: King Rock Treasure Island | Taito Corporation | February 1993 |
| Lethal Weapon | Eurocom | April 1993 |
| Pyramids of Ra | MICROS | April 1993 |
| The New Chessmaster | Park Place Productions | April 1993 |
| Top Rank Tennis | Pax Softnica | May 1993 |
| Battletoads in Ragnarok’s World | Rare | June 1993 |
| Cool World | Ocean | June 1993 |
| F-15 Strike Eagle | NMS Software | June 1993 |
| Joe & Mac | MotiveTime | June 1993 |
| Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves | Bits Studios | June 1993 |
| Star Trek: The Next Generation | Imagineering | June 1993 |
| Titus the Fox | Aqua Pacific | June 1993 |
| The Addams Family: Pugsley’s Scavenger Hunt | Enigma Variations | July 1993 |
| Felix the Cat | Hudson Soft NA | July 1993 |
| Muhammad Ali Heavyweight Boxing | Gremlin Graphics | July 1993 |
| Spider-Man 3: Invasion of the Spider-Slayers | Bits Studios | July 1993 |
| Speedy Gonzales | Sunsoft | July 1993 |
| 4-in-1 Funpak: Volume II | Beam Software | August 1993 |
| Jurassic Park | Ocean | August 1993 |
| Nigel Mansell’s World Championship Racing | Gremlin Graphics | August 1993 |
| Pinball Dreams | Spidersoft | August 1993 |
| Tesserae | Eurocom | August 1993 |
| Bram Stoker’s Dracula | Probe Entertainment Limited | September 1993 |
| WWF King of the Ring | Eastridge Technology | September 1993 |
| Buster Brothers | Hudson Soft | October 1993 |
| Gear Works | Teque Interactive | October 1993 |
| Last Action Hero | Bits Studios | October 1993 |
| Ms. Pac-Man | Namco | October 1993 |
| The Ren & Stimpy Show: Veediots! | Eastridge Technology | October 1993 |
| Sports Illustrated: Championship Football & Baseball | Halestorm | October 1993 |
| We’re Back! A Dinosaur’s Story | Beam Software | October 1993 |
| Tom and Jerry: Frantic Antics | Beam Software | October 1993 |
| Batman: The Animated Series | Konami | November 1993 |
| Championship Pool | Bitmasters | November 1993 |
| NFL Quarrterback Club | Beam Software | November 1993 |
| Panel Action Bingo | Locus | November 1993 |
| Wayne’s World | Radical Entertainment | November 1993 |
| Battletoads & Double Dragon: The Ultimate Team | Rare | December 1993 |
| Chuck Rock | Spidersoft | December 1993 |
| Cliffhanger | Spidersoft | December 1993 |
| Metal Masters | Bit Managers | December 1993 |
| Spider-Man and the X-Men in Arcade’s Revenge | Unexpected Development | December 1993 |
| Tetris 2 | TOSE | December 1993 |
| Alien³ | Bits Studios | January 1993 |
| Bikkuri Nekketsu Shin Kiroku! Dokodemo Kin Medal | Million Corp. | July 16, 1993 |
| God Medicine: Fantasy Sekai no Tanjou | KCE Nagoya | July 20, 1993 |
| Aa Harimanada | Atelier Double | July 23, 1993 |
| Yū Yū Hakusho | Tomy | July 23, 1993 |
| Goal! | TOSE | July 23, 1993 |
| Jimmy Connors Tennis | NMS Software | July 23, 1993 |
| Shuyaku Sentai Irem Fighter | Irem | July 30, 1993 |
| Tekichuu Rush | Japan Clary Business | July 30, 1993 |
| Tekkyu Fight! The Great Battle Gaiden | Sun L | July 30, 1993 |
| Ranma ½: Kakugeki Mondou!! | Sun L | August 6, 1993 |
| Soldam | Jaleco | August 6, 1993 |
| Momotaro Dengeki: Momotaro Thunderbolt | Hudson Soft | August 8, 1993 |
| Monster Maker: Barcode Saga | Jorudan | August 10, 1993 |
| Double Yakuman Jr. | Imagesoft | August 19, 1993 |
| Kamen Rider SD: Hashire! Mighty Riders | Yutaka | August 20, 1993 |
| Family Jockey 2: Meiba no Kettou | Use Corporation | August 27, 1993 |
| Katsuba Yosou Keiba Kizoku | King Records | August 27, 1993 |
| Cult Jump | Sun L | September 10, 1993 |
| Double Yakuman II | Imagesoft | September 17, 1993 |
| Lemmings | Ocean | September 23, 1993 |
| Alien vs Predator: The Last of His Clan | ASK Kodansha | September 24, 1993 |
| Wirzardry Gaiden 3: Scripture of the Dark | Sir-Tech | September 25, 1993 |
| Kattobi Road | Now Production | October 8, 1993 |
| Crayon Shin-Chan 2: Ora to Wanpaku Gokko Dazo | TOSE | October 22, 1993 |
| America Ōdan Ultra Quiz Part 4 | Tomy | October 29, 1993 |
| Famista 3 | Namco | October 29, 1993 |
| Mega Man IV | Minakuchi Engineering | October 29, 1993 |
| Megami Tensei Gaiden: Last Bible II | Multimedia Intelligence Transfer | November 19, 1993 |
| Pachiokun | Soft Machine | November 19, 1993 |
| Ultima: Runes of Virtue II | Origin Systems | November 19, 1993 |
| Uno: Small World | Tomy | November 26, 1993 |
| Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: Radical Rescue | Konami | November 26, 1993 |
| Kirby’s Pinball Land | HAL Laboratory | November 27, 1993 |
| DuckTales 2 | Make Software | December 3, 1993 |
| Pingu: Sekai de Ichiban Genki na Penguin | Tom Create | December 10, 1993 |
| Undercover Cops Gaiden: Hakaishin Garumaa | Irem | December 10, 1993 |
| Yū Yū Hakusho Dai-Ni-Dan: Ankoku Bujutsu Kai Hen | Tomy | December 10, 1993 |
| Bakenou V3 | Graphic Research | December 17, 1993 |
| Kaijū-ō Godzilla | Bandai | December 17, 1993 |
| Saigo no Nindou: Ninja Spirit | Bits Studios | December 18, 1993 |
| Downtown Special: Kunio-Kun no Jidaigeki Dayo Zenin Shuugou! | Technōs Japan | December 22, 1993 |
| Tiny Toon Adventures 2: Montana’s Movie Madness | Konami | December 22, 1993 |
| Mickey Mouse: Magic Wands! | Kotobuki Systems | December 22, 1993 |
| Mortal Kombat | Probe Entertainment Limited | December 24, 1993 |
| Asterix | Bit Managers | 1993 |
| The Battle of Olympus | Radical Entertainment | 1993 |
| Castle Quest | Hudson Soft | 1993 |
| Franky, Joe & Dirk: On The Tiles | Audio Visual Magic | 1993 |
| Pierre le Chef is… Out to Lunch | Mindscape | 1993 |
| Sensible Soccer: European Champions | Sensible Software | 1993 |
| Lamborghini American Challenge | Titus Software | 1993 |
| Sports Illustrated: Golf Classic | Unexpected Development | 1993 |
| Taz-Mania 2 | Beam Software | 1993 |
| The Fidgetts | Game Over | 1993 |
| Alfred Chicken | Twilight | 1993 |
| StarHawk | NMS Software | June 1993 |
| The Lawnmower Man | The Sales Curve | November 1993 |
| 2nd Space | Sachen | 1993 |
| A-Force: Armour Force | Commin | 1993 |
| Ant Soldiers | Sachen | 1993 |
| Arctic Zone | Commin | 1993 |
| Black Forest Tale | Sachen | 1993 |
| Bomb Disposer | Sachen | 1993 |
| Duck Adventures | Commin | 1993 |
| Hong Kong Mahjung | Commin | 1993 |
| Japan’s Mahjong | Commin | 1993 |
| Magic Maze | Commin | 1993 |
| Magical Tower | Sachen | 1993 |
| Railway | Sachen | 1993 |
| Sky Ace | Sachen | 1993 |
| Store Tris 2 | Commin | 1993 |
| Street Race | Commin | 1993 |
| Taiwan Mahjong | Commin | 1993 |
| Trap & Turn | Commin | 1993 |
| Vex Block | Commin | 1993 |
| Worm Visitor | Sachen | 1993 |
| Zipball | Sachen | 1993 |
