Batman

Rating: 4.0

Developer: Sunsoft Publisher: Nintendo Genre: Action Released: 06/1990

Rarity: Common Value: $

When I was 13, I was getting ready to take a train ride through the central valley of California to visit family. My grandmother gave me a $20 just so that I would have some spending cash for the trip, but the money would never make it that far. I had just noticed in the Sunday paper that Batman had come out for the Game Boy and was on sale for $20, so I quickly hopped on my bike to go grab it so that I could play it on the train. I always had bad luck buying games, getting stuck wth stinkers because I didn't do my research, but I definitely lucked out with this one. Batman is a side-scrolling action game based on the events of the 1989 movie starrring Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson. You start out on the streets of Gotham but quickly move into the Acme chemical plant where you face off against Jack Napier, who transforms into the Joker after you defeat him. You then progress through the streets of Gotham City, the Flugalheim Museum, the skies over the city (flying the Batwing as in a horizontally-scrolling shooter), and finally the Gotham Cathedral. Each level is rife with suspended blocks that can be shot. Dark blocks contain items such as point bonuses, weapon upgrades, and extra lives. Shooting some blocks however will make it impossible for you to reach some darkened blocks, and therefore some of the bonus items, so you have to be careful not to shoot everything in sight without surveying the lay of the land first. The difficulty of the game remains challenging and fair, up until the last level. There the screen scrolls from right to left and you have to keep up or die from falling off of a suspended block, all while facing an onslaught of heavy fire from stationary cannons that require several hits each to destroy. This level basically requires memorization to get past, which is disappointing considering how enjoyable the game is up to that point. Had that level not been what it was, I would have scored this game a half-point higher. Nevertheless, I consider it to be one of the best action games on the platform.

Golf

Rating: 4.5

Developer: Nintendo Publisher: Nintendo Genre: Sports/Golf Released: 02/1990

Rarity: Common Value: $

Released about 6 months after the launch of the Game Boy, this was the first golf game to appear on the system. As is to be expected, you play as Mario and have two course options; USA and Japan. The course design, while not particularly realistic, keeps the game interesting by offering up various challenges through the liberal use of sand bunkers and water hazards. The three click swing system, ubiquitous in golf games from the classic era, is present here but is better implemented than in Nintendo's previous golf title of the same name for the NES. While the non-interactive overhead map prevents you from getting the exact yardage to your intended target, hash marks on either side of the map at 100 yard intervals aid you with club selection. Again, as is common with earlier golf games of this era, the distance range for each club is not displayed and therefore must be learned. The game also uses the matrix of arrows method to display the contours of the green. The overhead map of the hole as well as the green may be called up at any time while setting up your shot, which helps you to aim for an appropriate spot on the green. Making it friendlier to a handheld grab-and-go platform, the game automatically saves your progress after the completion of each hole, allowing you to simply turn off the console whenever needed knowing that you can pick up right where you left off. The cartridge has two game save slots, allowing you to simultaneously have a round going at each course. My only beef with the game is that the ball rolls too much once it hits the ground, especially on the green. I've had balls hit the near side of the green, roll all the way across, through the rough, and into a water hazard. This is annoying, but just needs to be corrected for when you're setting up your shot. Overall, this is a great game that surpasses its big brother on the NES in just about every way.

NFL Football

Rating: 1.0

Developer: Konami Publisher: Nintendo Genre: Sports/Football Released: 04/1990

Rarity: Common Value: $

Remember when you were a kid and your parents told you that if you didn't have anything nice to say, you shouldn't say anything at all? By that logic, I shouldn't review this game. I bought NFL Football brand new in 1990, having walked from my dad's place to the downtown mall. I was eager to buy the first football game released for the Game Boy, but would have been better served by getting mugged on the way there. I was an impressionable 13 year old at the time, and the sight of a helmet from every team in the league plus the official NFL logo on the box art gave me undeserved confidence in the game's quality. NFL football has no game modes, no player rosters, and its only option is to play a short or normal game, the difference being 10 or 15 minute quarters. While you can choose any team in the league, there's no real difference between them except for some slight speed variation. The game runs so painfully slowly though that it doesn't really matter. You can choose between 6 offensive plays, but they're all passing plays, so there is no option to run the ball. This is especially painful because I'm convinced that it is near impossible to not throw an interception. Your best hope is to pick a play that sends the receiver on a route straight down the field (slants, posts, etc. just make things worse) so that he only has one defender to contend with. Once you throw the ball, you're controlling the receiver instead of the QB, so you can try to move the guy into position but its a crap shoot. Once you're on defense (and you usually are) you have 7 defensive plays to choose from. The quarterback likes to run back and forth behind the line of scrimmage to tease you before throwing the ball up field. If you can cover the receivers well enough, he'll hang on to it and get tackled for no gain. The graphics aren't horrible, but the sound effects and repetitive music are. 15 minutes after I bought this game back in 1990, I would have happily traded it for Coleco's Electronic Quarterback or some other LED-based handheld game. It would have done a much better job of giving me football on the go.

Super Mario Bros. Deluxe

Rating: 5.0

Developer: Nintendo Publisher: Nintendo Genre: Platformer Released: 05/1999

Rarity: Common Value: $$

Super Mario Bros. Deluxe was the historic game's first appearance on a hand held console (the game would later be ported to the Game Boy Advance as part of the "NES Classics" series.) The game features a pixel-perfect translation of the original NES title, but due to the lower resolution of the GBC's screen the view of the play field has been reduced. This is compensated for by allowing you to scroll up and down to see the portions of the play field that are out of view. Although this takes some getting used to, it is definitely preferable to Nintendo simply compressing the graphics, which would make the game appear distorted (as it does in the GBA release.) What really makes this game shine are all of the bonus features. This version of SMB features an overworld map similar to Super Mario 3 and Super Mario World. On top of the normal game play mode that everyone is used to, the game features a "Challenge" mode in which you must find hidden objects in each level of the game. It also features the complete "Lost Levels" game (Super Mario Bros. 2 in Japan), referred to in this game as "Super Mario Bros. for Super Players." The "Vs. Game" requires 2 Game Boy systems and a link cable, but allows you to play a 2-player simultaneous mode in which you compete in a series of 8 races through 8 SMB-style stages rife with obstacles meant to slow you down. The "You vs. Boo" mode is a single player version of the multiplayer race in which you compete against a computer-controlled Boo who cruises along overhead. The game also includes a few random items like a calendar, fortune teller, and photo album and is compatible with the Game Boy Printer, but these don't add any value to the game and were probably aimed more at the Japanese market where they seems to appreciate minutiae of that nature. Nevertheless, this is overall the best version of the original Super Mario Bros. game that was ever produced. Super Mario All*Stars for the SNES may have revamped graphics, but they are easily outweighed by the bonus features included on this cartridge. This game might as well have been called "Super Mario Bros. Ultimate."

Tecmo Bowl

Rating: 4.5

Developer: Tecmo Publisher: Nintendo Genre: Sports/Football Released: 09/1991

Rarity: Common Value: $

Tecmo Bowl and its sequel, Tecmo Super Bowl were big hits on the NES but somehow this Game Boy port flew under the radar. When I found this game in with a bunch of used cartridges at a local store, I had no idea that the game had ever been released but I knew that I needed to check it out. The game is a faithful reproduction of the home version, with minimal subtractions. The digitized speech ("ready, down, hut, hut, hut!" and "Touchdown!") have been removed, but the sound effects and music remain the same. The playbook is also the same as is the selection of teams. The animations following touchdowns have also been brought over, and all of the players' names are still there. The game runs slightly slower, which may be the reason that I have an easier time milking more yards out of my plays. Not only does Tecmo Bowl use the same password system as its big brother, it uses the same codes! That means that you can start a season on your NES and work on it on your Game Boy as needed. How many games back then let you do that? This game reminds me of how jealous I was of the Turbo Express handheld console, which allowed its owners to play their TurboGrafx games on the go. It's too bad that more games didn't take their cue from this one and allow players to take their NES games with them. Even though it's just a sports title, Tecmo Bowl is impressive if only for its achievement in re-creating the home experience on a handheld. While the graphics and sound effects are nothing to write home about, their consistency with the NES release must have really made gamers back in the day feel like they were getting a quality product, which they definitely were.

Tetris

Rating: 4.5

Developer: Bullet-Proof Software Publisher: Nintendo Genre: Puzzle Released: 08/1989

Rarity: Common Value: $

It is a little-known fact that Tetris was not originally intended to be bundled with the Game Boy. Henk Rogers, a game developer and founder of "Bullet-Proof Software", convinced Nintendo of America president Minoru Arakawa that Tetris, and not Super Mario Land, would give the Game Boy broad appeal across multiple age groups. Mr. Rogers was eventually able to secure the rights to Tetris from the Soviet ministry of software and hardware export (ELORG), and the rest is history. As of this writing, the Game Boy version of Tetris is the third-best selling game of all time, having sold 35 million copies worldwide, behind only Super Mario Bros. (40 million) and Wii Sports (50 million). Like the NES release, Tetris for the Game Boy features 2 game modes; a normal marathon mode (A-Type) in which you complete as many lines as possible, and a second mode (B-Type) in which you must complete 25 lines before your stack reaches the top of the screen. In B-Type, you can choose from 6 difficulty levels which determines how full of randomly-placed pieces the stack will initially be. The primary improvement that this game has over the NES version is the ability to play a 2-player game head-to-head via the Game Boy link cable. Each player is competing for high score, but a twist is added in that each multi-line completion performed by a player causes an incomplete line to form at the bottom of their opponent's stack, moving it closer to the top. Graphically, the game looks very good despite being in black and white, with varying shades of grey and unique patterns used to give each piece (tetronimo) a unique look. The Russian flair prevalent in the Tengen NES release and scaled back drastically in the Nintendo NES release is completely absent in this version, but the music selection is clearly the best of the three games. Included is the Russian folk song "Korobeiniki" which has become the song most closely associated with Tetris, along with another old Russian wartime song called "Katyusha". The third song is a lesser known work by Bach which, while not of Russian origin, fits in nicely with the other two songs. While I consider Tengen's release of Tetris on the NES to be the definitive version of the game, there is no denying both the excellence and the importance of this release.