• 25Jun 07

  Musings on a Gameboy Colour - Greatest handheld ever

  The gameboy colour defined my childhood gaming experience. I can clearly remember the good old days of Pokemon Blue, Pokemon Yellow, Pokemon Gold and....some stupid Daffy Duck game. Yup, that's basically it. Looking back, the Pokemon series singularly dominated the Gameboy for a decade, and that's no bad thing. Pokemon Gold in particular was a sophisticated Japanese RPG with a truckload full of appeal - an almost perfect gaming experience, for a 90s handheld at least. However, Pokemon deserves a blog post of it's own, and I won't go into detail on it here. Who knows, maybe in the future I'll rant about the greatness of Professor Oak and his furry chums right here on GS.

  Perhaps my love for the Gameboy is related to the fact that it straddled the period between what I would call 'modern' gaming - the age of the PS2 - and 'old school gaming' - the golden age of gaming when platformers and beat-em-ups ruled supreme. Sure, the PS1 and N64 were a big leap from the 2D era, but in many respects they were also a continuation and an evolution of the SNES and NES ideal. The PS2 changed gaming forever by taking it into the mainstream.

  So, where was I? The Gameboy Colour. What a beauty. It has the plastic, cheap-but-charming feel of the early consoles. A crisp screen that does the job when in decent lighting. It's most definately portable, and has a legendary battery life. 5 hour PSP, eat your heart out. When holding the GBC, I somehow feel 'special' - like I have a link to the good old days of gaming in my hands. Disturbing, maybe, but then who cares? The GBC is a 'comfort console'. You don't feel like you have to obsess over it because it's cheap. No need to fret over dead pixels, screen damage, or poor internal battery life. It's a tough old cookie that will long outlive the DS and PSP.

  Of course, then there's the games. Although Pokemon could certainly hold its own, the GBC supprisingly had some other little gems. Super Mario Deluxe, Tetris DX, LOZ: Oracle of Ages all stood out, and for the original GB Kid Ikarus, Metroid II and Kirby were equally impressive. Watching those slightly primitive pixelated graphics holds the same appeal as the NES visuals still do, and the D-Pad control system will never, ever age. Gameboy games are as immortal as those hallowed original NES titles themselves.

  If you have a GBC lying about, then pick it up and give it another try. It's a fantastic nostalgia trip if nothing else. If you don't have one, or if your original is stratched to hell like mine, then I urge you to buy one. After all, the console itself is as cheap as chips right now. The attention of the mainstream is directed away from the old Gameboy now that the GBA is king of the budget handheld market. I picked up a brand new, boxed, Limited Edition Pokemon GBC for a mere $25! For $50 you could easily build up a full games collection. Compare that to the hundreds of $$$ that you would have to spend over the life of the DS or PSP, and of course those consoles will be forgotten and buried once the new generation of handhelds come out. Buying a GBC almost feels like cheating. Instead of splashing out buying an old broken NES on eBay, or getting a more expensive portable device, you can get all of the old charm of the 8-bit era for a bargain price. For me, the GBC is the handheld version of the NES, which was the greatest console of all time in my opinion. Therefore, the GBC must also be the greatest handheld of all time, no?

  • Posted Jun 25, 2007 2:45 pm GMT
  • Category: Opinion
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• 29Jan 07

  Did I really just sell a 360 and buy a Wii?

  I ADMIT IT! I was unhappy with my 360 the minute I finished Gears of War. Whilst it was game of the year in my opinion it suddenly dawned on me at that time that the Xbox didn't offer me anything that I couldn't get on my PC. I don't want to elaborate on that issue, because I know that it's something Microsoft fans take seriously, but I just wasn't keen on anything in the 2007 lineup. Mass Effect? Nah. BioShock? Nah. Crysis? HELL YEAH! World of Warcraft? What else!
  I was terrified that my £300 console was going to break at any second (in fact it already had numerous problems - shoddy build quality). I needed to use the HD TV in the main room to receive the full gaming experience - an arrangement that clashed with others in the household. Xbox Live was too expensive, the accesories were too expensive, in fact everything about the 360 is expensive. It wasn't multiplayer (offline) friendly, the games were all of the same gory, shooter nature. I wasn't keen on any of the big hits like Viva Pinata or Oblivion. It was too dam noisy for my liking. The arcade games just weren't good enough to justify their price tags IMHO. The 360 wasn't for me. I like my consoles and games simple and fun. The Xbox offered very little of either.
  By now you're probably thinking that I'm a dastardly sell out who's taken the first oppertunity to jump onto the Wii bandwagon thats racing around town at the moment and rounding up the competition. In truth I was going to get a Wii in the first place. In fact a week before it was due to be released I had a massive pang of doubt and cancelled my pre-order. Stupid, stupid grarap and stuipid, stupid Microsoft for their clever advertising. I'm a retro guy at heart, and I need my Nintendo as much as Nintendo needs my $$$. The Wii will be arriving tomorrow, and I hope that I'll feel more comfortable using it. I'll give you my first impressions when it arrives through the letterbox/door.
  
  Appologies to q8hr and all of my other short-lived Live buddies. I understand if you hate my guts, but a girl's gotta follow his heart.
  
  • Posted Jan 29, 2007 2:25 pm GMT
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• 18Dec 06

  Noisy XBOX 360 - a crime against my ears

  I admit it, after a year of waiting for a Wii I chickened out at the last minute and bought a 360. It isn't that I regret my purchase. Actually I'm pretty keen on my 360 - Gears of War is gaming heaven. It would be damn near perfect, but for one issue:
  The 360 is noisy. Very noisy. So noisy that I'm always concerned that its going to blow up or break down on me. Those fans constantly whirring, the DVD drive clicking, the DVD drive moving in fact. Not that it detracts from the experience of playing games on the system, in reality I dont really mind, but you'd have thought that a £300 console could at least find a way to operate silently. The fans I accept, but the DVD drive? It sounds like a wind turbine. I hope that I haven't got a defective model or something....
  Oh well, when the new CPUs come out perhaps I'll tinker with the innards a little and send the beast back to Microsoft for a brand new replacement.
  
  • Posted Dec 18, 2006 3:27 am GMT
  • Category: Rant
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