Mario Golf - Game Boy Color - Review

“Everyone who tries golf falls in love with the sport”. Well, that is at least according to the stylish intro of Mario Golf for the Game Boy Color. And while the 10 year old me, who was dragged around cold, damp fairways at ungodly hours by my Dad, would certainly have taken issue with that statement even I can’t deny that that there is something strangely addictive about the pursuit. Surely far better though is the ability to play the game from the comfort of your own home without all of the expense, pomp and physical exertion. If only I could have convinced my Dad…

Lego Alpha Team - Game Boy Color - Review

These days it feels like barely a month goes by without a new LEGO video game being released. Back in the late nineties however games based around the Scandinavian bricks and minifigs were still a relatively new concept and whilst early titles such as LEGO Racers and LEGO Rock Raiders had received mediocre reviews at best, sales were still strong and so a wave of new games were quickly put into development. LEGO Alpha Team was one such game and would release for the Game Boy Color in the year 2000, a month after it would land on the PC.

The Mummy - Game Boy Color - Review

It’s not often that I’d have high expectations for a game based off of a somewhat forgettable 90’s film, least of all one on a handheld system, but there was something about the Game Boy Color’s The Mummy that made it look very, very promising. The Konami logo on the box was enough to catch my attention initially, but this wasn’t just any Konami game, but an 8-bit, 2D, horror themed Konami game, and historically when you put those things together very good things happen. It was enough to get me excited and I couldn’t help but wonder if The Mummy was actually a thinly veiled tribute to the classic Castlevania series.

A Tale of Two Game Boys - A Restoration and Modding Project Log - Part #3

Fresh off of my successful restoration project I was feeling confident and ready to take on my first ever Game Boy mod. I began by watching a few video tutorials and found myself wincing a little when it came to certain stages of the backlighting process. There would be no turning back after this, the mod would either be successful or the Game Boy would be killed in the process. Nevertheless I was determined to see it though and so undeterred I started shopping for parts.

A Tale of Two Game Boys - A Restoration and Modding Project Log - Part #2

My goal was clear in my mind and I was totally focused on achieving it. I knew nothing else would distract me over the next few days and so my mission to restore a broken Game Boy to its former glory and all out mod another was ready to begin...

A Tale of Two Game Boys - A Restoration and Modding Project Log - Part #1

The Game Boy modding scene has always been something that’s intrigued and concerned me in equal parts. Whilst I love the creative and colourful designs that new custom buttons, shells and backlights can provide, I can’t help but feel that with each mod a small piece of gaming history is forever lost. Yes, I know there are likely millions upon millions of unaltered Game Boys out there in garages and attics, and I know that the number of people who still see value in them is fairly small in the grand scheme of things. However I also know that over the years many others will have ended up in landfill, never to be seen again. More to the point; Nintendo aren’t making any more of them. Whatever we have now is all there will ever be, and that number can only ever get smaller. 

But does it really matter? Should we be preserving and restoring Game Boys to keep them as original as possible ‘warts and all’, or should we embrace the new ways of keeping our outdated handhelds relevant in this age of smart phones and tablets? To find out once and for all where I truly stand on the matter I decided I would take the plunge and try my hand at both restoring and modding an original dot-matrix Game Boy.

Quest for Camelot - Game Boy Color - Review

In 1998 Warner Brothers released their feature-length animation ‘Quest for Camelot’. The film set in Arthurian England, was reportedly plagued with internal conflicts during its production and was met with widely negative reviews upon its release. The troubled film failed to make a splash in the box office too going on to lose a whopping 40 million dollars for the studio. I guess it turned out to be less of a Quest for Camelot and more of a Quest to lose-a-lot then? (Sorry.) Despite this, later that year a video game adaptation was released for the Game Boy Color courtesy of French developer, Titus (yes, the ‘oh, no, not Titus,’ Titus).