GameBoy Player For Gamecube Reviewed

Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to an IGN.com review of the GameBoy Player for Gamecube. As the article says, "The GameBoy Player is a GameCube peripheral that plugs into the bottom of the system, and enables gamers to play any one of the thousands of GameBoy, GameBoy Color, and GameBoy Advance games released over the past 14 years." As well as being bundled with the Gamecube hardware starting June 23rd, this peripheral will be available separately on the same date, and it's particularly cool that you can control games with "either the GameCube controllers, or a GameBoy Advance system plugged in using the GameCube GameBoy Advance link cable."

Comments

So..

[dr ttol]

How's the backlight on this thing?

Re:neat

[NanoGator]

" price seems a little steep for something that contradicts the purpose of a gameboy (presumably people who buy gameboy use it places where a console would not go, hence portable gaming system)"

Just because it's a portable system doesn't necessarily mean we always want it to be portable. If you have a game you really enjoy playing, (Metroid Fusion for example...) having a device like this as an extra way of playing it is a good thing. Save the GBA (plus batteries) for when you can't be near your TV, like when you're on the bus or something.

Don't mistake it as a GBA replacement, but rather an addition.

No enhancement?

[Bagels]

One thing that I was a tad dissappointed about was there was no mention of any "enhanced" features. For all three of you out there who bought the Super GameBoy, you might remember that it could do things like change the color palette to be level-appropriate, provide borders for the screen, do full-color title screens, etc. Unfortunately, it doesn't sound like this device will do that for new games - but as it still plays original GameBoy games, I wonder if it would pull the Super GameBoy info out of them and use it?

Re:No enhancement?

[Guppy06]

"The GBA already uses the SGB colors."

No, it doesn't. The GBC introduced a fork when it came to coloring old games, and GBC and SGB code don't talk to each other.

With b/w games, the SGB can only display four colors. You can decide whatever you want those four colors to be, but there is never more than four. A GBC (and GBA, same hardware), however, can manage to squeeze 10-12 colors into that 4-color game. They manage this by applying different 4-color pallets to sprites and backgrounds. So Metroid II looks a little better on a GBC than it did on the SGB.

Games designed with the SGB in mind can put out 10-12 colors through it, as well as some other bells and whistles. Off the top of my head, Donkey Kong had some 16-bit sound clips, and Space Invaders had a full-fledged 16-bit game on the cartridge. Unfortunately, the GBC doesn't understand SGB code, and treats SGB games as normal 4-color games, which means colors get lost in the process. Donkey Kong simply doesn't look as good on a GBC as it does on your SNES.

The GBC in and of itself can display 52 colors at a time, but again the language it uses to do so is completely different from the SGB. In order to get cartridges to work on both the GBC and older Game Boy systems (including the SGB), developers essentially needed to put two copies of the game on the one cartridge: one color, one not. When you put this cartridge into an SGB, it's fed the b/w copy of the game (and any half-assed SGB code that was put into that version). Sure, the game may "technically" have some SGB code in it (ie. a custom border), but more often than not the SGB is given the shaft. Tetris DX on an SGB actually looks less colorful than the original, and the only difference between Link's Awakening and Link's Awakening DX is that DX has a border.

In my dream world, this new GB Player will take the best of both worlds and allow you to mix and match, just like any decent Game Boy emulator. I want to play Link's Awakening DX in 52 colors but with the snazzy SGB border they put in the game. Hell, at this point I'd be happy if the GB Player simply recognized the presence of SGB code (so that my copy of Donkey Kong looks and sounds just like it does on my SNES).

But looking at the way the SGB has gotten the shaft, I'm not about to hold my breath.

A perfect controller

[antin]

May I suggest that anyone interested in the GameBoy Player have a look at this third party gamecube controller?
http://www.lik-sang.com/info.php?cate gory=0&produc ts_id=2467&

It is modelled on the (excellent) SNES controller, it is essentially a GC controller minus the analog sticks. I find the dpad on the standard controller a little small for comfort, and the GBA as a controller is also not the best. Considering most of the games on the GBA are SNES ports this controller makes perfect sense :)

Oh and it is great for any fans of fighting games (who haven't purchased arcade sticks).

Re:neat

[Guppy06]

"(presumably people who buy gameboy use it places where a console would not go, hence portable gaming system)"

Statements like this have irked the hell out of me ever since the release of the Super Game Boy. Even IGN themselves are quite guilty of having this kind of attitude.

Game Boy (and all its descendants) isn't a "handheld game system," it is a game system that happens to fit in your hand. I sure as hell didn't buy my GBA because I need a quick fix when I've been away from my GCN for too long. I got it for Metroid Fusion, Golden Sun, Advance Wars, three Castlevania games and a slew of other titles. Writing off Game Boy and the games it plays as "just a portable" is doing a disservice to both the games and yourself.

Heck, one of the main reasons the Game Boy is still going strong after a decade is that Nintendo has never conformed to your two-tiered view of the industry. They still dominate the handheld market because most of their competitors sold mediocre "just a handhelds" and "just a portable games" that were simply unable to stand on their own.

If you want something to just kill time between your console fixes, save your money for an N-Gage (that seems to be Nokia's target market). If you're looking for real (and really good) games, then it shouldn't matter if they're played on a handheld or a television.