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Re: "I've been really exploring the Game Boy library lately (..."
I'm thinking about making posts for the games that grab me as I go through them and I'd love to also see others make some threads for stuff they love!
2023-05-17 · 4 months ago
I remember playing Castelian when I was a kid. I had one of these bootleg cartridges containing dozens of games, and Castelian was one of those. It featured this weird perspective where you go around a tower and the tower "rotates" as you walk right or left. I could never figure out what was happening, my kid brain was not able to process that simulated 3D movement with GameBoy graphics.
@lufte I didn't think I had played Castelian until I looked it up, but I believe I actually played the NES version, and it was also on a bootleg cart lmao. A big thing I've always loved about the Game Boy is that it's a console where the devs absolutely pushed the limits of it. Thinking back to the grey brick era and the fact that they fit an entire fully fleshed out Zelda game on there when a lot of the games of the time were fairly simple. The fairly dense RPGs it got...A lot of consoles even now never get those games that push the platform beyond what you think it can do. So even something like Castelian really makes you go "wow" at what devs were pulling off back then.
Yes, it was in the NES but it was called Nebulus. I own a Switch now, and it has an official GameBoy emulator (NES and SNES also) with some unreleased games. You should see the GB port of Resident Evil, really pushing those limits!
I've seen footage of RE for GB but haven't played it, it's wild. The GB also had tons of bizarre hardware stuff too. I've been deep diving into the GB's IR capabilities and learned about Hudsonsoft's GB Kiss protocol (sadly introduced RIGHT before GBC came out and had its own IR) and how it had an entire IR modem and stuff. Absolutely wild times in gaming. I remember the GB fishing radar too, I saw it in a magazine and I'd kill to have one now. Some devs were defintiely trying to make the GB a cheap PDA kind of device.
Nebulus/Castelian looks really interesting and not one I've come across before. I just installed it on my Palm Pilot X-)
One that I really enjoyed on Game Boy is a Japanese game called Chalvo 55. It's a really unique platformer/metroidvania that has a number of different puzzle platformy elements.
@kelbot I'll have to check that out, I've been trying to dig into a lot of imports lately
One of my favorite obscure GB games is Torpedo Range, which is a collection of arcade games with a light RPG story tying it together. Also Motocross Maniacs, I used to play that every day on the bus on my friend's gameboy.
2023-05-18 · 4 months ago
And of course the game boy camera is an absolute gem.
@mozz I still have my old Gameboy camera, I wish it had more weird photos on it from when I was a kid but there are some funny photos where I like...took photos of magazine pictures of Pokemon.
@mozz Motocross Maniacs is solid.
Oh, another GB game that I have spent a lot of time with is atypical for GB. The word game WordZap. I found it quite entertaining and relaxing.
I think my favorite games for the console are the Wizardry Gaiden trilogy. I'm not sure if they've ever been translated out of Japanese, but the story's so scant that it doesn't really matter. They're all basic first-person dungeon crawlers, but I was impressed with how much they were able to cram into these GB versions.
Plus, they have great titles! Suffering of the Queen, Curse of the Ancient Emperor, and Scripture of the Dark.
2023-05-25 · 3 months ago
@marissa I should definitely check those out, I feel like I've played Wizardry 1 on a billion different platforms but never really explored anything else in the series
@lori If you're comfortable with Wizardry I and like the Game Boy, I'd say it's worth it. It's designed around some kind of port of the Wizardry V engine. The music and gameplay are good. There's also automapping through a spell. (There's a funny quote from the dev team somewhere justifying this saying "it's hard to draw on grid paper outside.")
One neat feature is transferring your party from I->II and II->III, but you need the "Heaven's Scripture" item and the requirements for getting *that* are frankly absurd. I'm a fan of the series but never bothered. Have fun!
I very much enjoyed playing Cosmo Tank back in the day, the soundtrack was good, and the mix of 1st person and overhead views gave the game a bit of variety.
2023-05-31 · 3 months ago
Golden Sun has a special place in my heart, probably my overall favorite game series. Driver is fun to play on the GBA just to be in awe of the graphics capability.
2023-06-13 · 3 months ago
I've been really exploring the Game Boy library lately (especially since LCD modding my GBA), so I wanna hear about what your favorite Game Boy/GBA stuff is, especially if it gets weird. What do y'all like to play?