Mike’s Gameboy Game of the Week: Dexter’s Lab: Robot Rampage

If your reading this there is a high chance you have probably heard of the show Dexter’s Laboratory it ran four seasons from 1995 to late 2003 before being moved to Boomerang where it can still be viewed today (among other shows). Dexter’s Lab Robot Rampage is far from an original game, despite featuring many characters from the show itself it in actuality is the North American localized version Elevator Action EX. Depending on your age you may remember a game called Elevator Action as it was originally an arcade game made in 1983. Both Elevator Action EX and Robot Rampage play exactly alike, barring sprite differences the games are practically identical. Does this mean that Robot Rampage, and by osmosis Elevator Action, are bad games? Well I’ll tell you.

That friends is how you make an original game.

The point of the game is to complete four stages each with four parts in the form of four buildings with differing interiors. You complete each stage by collecting all of the documents which are hidden behind special doors which you can open. Once all the documents have been acquired your objective is to either climb to the top of the building or to head to the bottom where you will be taken to the next stage. As the games name implies you will be assaulted by robots who will follow you and try to kill you by either coming into contact with you or shooting you, you can destroy them by using your weapon on them. You start with a regular pistol but can acquire  several other weapons ranging from a machine gun to bombs which can make dealing with the plethora of constantly respawning robots much easier. Oh did I forget to mention that they constantly respawn? Well they do, so if you want to farm extra lives it’s pretty easy to do.

I’m serious.

The graphics for the game are fairly impressive for a Gameboy Color game, but that may be due to the limited amount of stuff you can actually interact with allowing for that kind of space. The soundtrack for the game isn’t all that memorable but isn’t grating enough that it makes you want to claw out your ears. The sheer simplicity of these games may be why they have been received so well over the years, you climb take some elevators up, shoot some robots, grab some documents, and get out. No matter where you look this game is very inexpensive but due to the overall simplicity of the game it’s so easy to jump in and out of it that it’s hard not to want to come back to it every once in a while. The only possible downside I could think of is that the game can be beaten in a around an hour or so, maybe less if you are really good. If you want a cheap quick game that can give you a grand old time I’d highly recommend Dexter’s Robot Rampage, and if you have access to a European Gameboy I’d also recommend Elevator Action EX.

Only if there will be a ridiculous amount of elevators.

Why is there an apartment full of Robots anyway?

Mike’s Gameboy Game of the Week: Tailspin

Let it be known throughout all of the internet that I was a child of the late 90’s and I watched many an awful cartoon show, one of which was Disneys “Tailspin” which is a show in which Baloo from The Jungle Book is an airplane pilot where he clearly isn’t paid enough for the trouble he routinely deals with. Some other recurring characters were Shere Khan who is a big business dude and Louie who is… the owner of a bar? This show apparently garnered enough popularity to merit several games two of which are by Capcom for the Gameboy and NES and the others are by both Sega and NEC for the Genesis, GameGear and Turbografx-16 respectively.

This is the greatest marketing decision by Disney ever.

So my first impression of this game when I picked it up at my local gamestore for a dollar was that it would most likely be an awful game due to it being based off a television show and it being on the Gameboy which was notorious for it’s massive amount of mediocre and bad games. I spied on the cart that it was developed by Capcom which honestly gave me mixed feelings as Capcom did produce Darkwing Duck, Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers, and Ducktales games that were all amazing. Upon getting home I popped the game into my Super Gameboy and started it up and much to my surprise it was a port of the NES Tailspin game.

Even on the Gameboy people don’t know how to use inside voices.

Playing the game was a different story, the controls weren’t as responsive as they were on the NES but once I adjusted to them (took about 20 minutes at most) I didn’t have much of a problem. If you have not played the NES version of this game then let me explain what the point of it is:

You are Baloo the cargo pilot for “Higher for Hire” and you are being sent to deliver cargo to nondescript destinations.

Pretty simple right? Well for a game with only six levels you can bet your boots that it works just fine for the game as a premise. The game plays like a space shooter where you pilot the “Sea Duck” which can only fire one round at a time and cannot fire again until the shot either leaves the screen or connects with something (you can increase the amount of shots with upgrades later on). Shot direction is also determined by up and down movement as the plane tilts in each direction respectively when you are moving. Firing shots can be awkward at first and in my opinion is incredibly annoying but you can get used to it after a while. Aside from just shooting things you can grab up cargo crates which according to the intro are remnants of other cargo planes which have been shot down, also you can flip the plane upside down and head backwards same rules apply with all movement and shooting.

Seems legit. :/

Something unique to the game is the addition of bonus stages hidden in each level where you switch from playing as Baloo to playing as Kit Cloudkicker his spunky sidekick where you pop balloons while surfing on clouds. The balloons give out a decent amount of points and generally can give you the push you need for an extra life.

COOLEST. THING. EVER.

At the end of each stage is a boss fight, the boss fights weren’t exactly challenging but were interesting. The designs for each boss are neat and if the battles didn’t shoot by so quickly I would have liked to have seen them do more then their two or three standard attacks. Once you’ve beaten the boss you get a brief reprieve where you can buy power-ups for the plane with the money you earned by collecting cargo strewn throughout the level, this I didn’t know my first time through as I avoided many pieces of cargo and lost some easy money.

I swear this had best be the best engine I’ve ever invested my blood money in.

In my opinion this game is worth a look if you can’t get ahold of the NES version the animations are not nearly as nice as they are on the NES, the only reason I would recommend this game is if you want a portable version of the game or if you want to give the bonus stages a try. Tailspin for the Gameboy isn’t spectacular but for the price I paid I’d say it was more then worth it, if you can get this game for a couple of bucks I’d recommend you get it.

You can’t argue with a tagline like that.

Wendy Every Witch Way (GBC)

Wendy Every Witch Way is a slightly obscure gem by Wayforward Technology which along with another slightly less obscure game called Xtreme Sports both pushed the limits of the Gameboy Color with vibrant visuals and for the most part decent soundtracks. These two games took the regular conventions of a typical Gameboy Game (a basic sports game, or shooter) and polished those themes till they no longer looked anything like their predecessors. Now here is a link to some gameplay footage, you may be thinking, “Well that looks like any other skating game for the handheld!” You would be right in saying that instance made the game look like it was just a run of the mill Tony Hawk impersonator, but let me tell you this friend. Xtreme Sports had story. Yes dear reader you read that correctly the game had a viable story complete with cutscenes and an over world that could be explored.

I’d compare Xtreme Sports to Mario Tennis, only more anime styled.

Whereas Extreme Sports was a unique sports game, Wendy Every Witch Way is part Space Shooter and part Plaformer. The game stars Wendy the Good Witch a character from a comic series of the same name owned by Harvey Comics. Contemporary Gamers may know her better from her guest appearance in the second Casper movie, Casper Meets Wendy. It is worth noting that both intellectual properties belong to Harvey Entertainment. Wendy Every Witch Way is essentially about Wendy finding an odd chest in her home, and being of the curious sorts she opens it releasing many large green orbs (which are moonstones if the manual is to be believed) which cause a Castle floating above her home to collapse due to these gems reversing gravity. Wendy possesses a standard attack from her wand which can be upgraded by collecting the numerous stars strewn about each level, she also has the capacity to reverse gravity as she pleases moving from the floor to the ceiling with ease. Gravity can be a cruel mistress as changing gravity will also have an impact on the environment as certain enemies and hazards will move with the change of gravity.

They are jealous of your mad Fred Astaire skills!

The game itself is broken up into 4 levels with 3 stages each, there are also 3 bonus space shooter mini-levels in between where you shoot enemies and collect stars. If you happen to beat the game with enough stars you are able to play through an additional series of stages through a rather crazy space stage. Each level of the game introduces a new concept you will have to overcome, the first level has you learning how to jump from the ceiling to the floor by altering gravity, the second has you dealing with stage hazards, and the third has you dealing with hazards and enemies that switch from the ceiling and floor, etc. You are eased into these over the course of the three stages so difficulty is never much of a problem even if you choose to be extra ballsy and selected hard mode at the start screen.

I’m not enough of a badass to even consider doing hard mode.

Control-wise Wendy Every Witch Way is a pinnacle for what any platformer should be as everything is responsive, the gravity altering is incredibly responsive as if you are quick enough you can continuously alter gravity in mid-air over and over keeping Wendy perpetually in one spot. The Attack is quick and can be upgraded by grabbing stars (Stars are also representative of your life as when you have stars you lose one of them instead of dying if hit). The space shooter mini-stages are interesting and control just like Gradius where you can move all over the screen and shoot forward. Just like in the regular stages grabbing stars upgrade your attack and you can’t alter gravity but you can flip Wendy over which makes moving up or down slightly faster depending on whether you are right-side up or upside down.

And she’s so damn happy about it!

The game’s graphics are very nice and the stages all have a great deal of detail, especially for a Gameboy Color game. If you have a minute (as I’m sure you do if you are reading this) then give this video a look. Did you watch it? Did you notice the detail put into the moving background, how about the little explosions when enemies are destroyed, or just Wendy’s movement? Don’t just take that little gameplay video as an example…

That’s a Screen from the transition screen before the first stage, just like Extreme Sports Wendy Every Witch Way pushes the limits of the Gameboy Color with it’s colorful and vibrant visuals. The sound for the game is also very nice with moderately catchy level tunes and even a simplistic voice for Wendy limited mostly to yelps from being hit and what not. Wendy Every Witch Way is a great game for the Gameboy Color and is a simplistic platformer that is insanely fun and has a good deal of replay value I highly recommend this game or any game by Wayforward Technology.

Holiday Shopping tips: How to identify a bootleg Gameboy Advance game.

With the Holiday shopping season now in full swing you have to be increasingly aware of products which are either to good to be true or are of disputable quality. Ever since the Gameboy Advance’s release back in 2001 there has been a steady influx of bootlegged games being pumped into the video game market from places like Mexico and China. These fake games are for the most part surprisingly unconvincing. Bootlegs are typically brought in through border flea markets or online stores, but once they make it in they are here to stay. Now you may be thinking that the possibility of getting a bootleg game is exceedingly low but that couldn't be farther from the truth because unless you are purchasing a game used from a trusted retailer (i.e. Lukie Games, or some other company that checks its games for authenticity) you have a chance (albeit small) of getting a fake game. Bootleg games even wind up in used game stores (like GameStop) because the person who originally purchased it noticed it was fake, or because it stopped working and they wanted to get rid of it, this isn’t totally uncommon though you will most likely encounter bootleg games at flea markets.

The overall lack of quality makes me want to facepalm.

Bootlegs tend to be of more popular game series like Golden Sun, Legend of Zelda, Pokémon, etc. So when you go to purchase one of these games you need to keep your eyes peeled to avoid purchasing a fake. Now you might be asking “Why should I care if it’s a bootleg if it still plays?” Well I’ll tell you why! Bootleg Gameboy Cartridge’s use very short lived batteries to retain their save files instead of having flash based memory as DS games do and a handful of Gameboy Games. So after a period of time the battery will die and you will lose everything on the game. You can change the battery out yourself, and there are plenty of wiki’s to show you how, but the meat of the matter is that the quality of the bootlegs are incredible bad.

It really sucks just getting to Zerumus and being told your Save is corrupted.

Now if you are an avid EBay shopper like me than you should know that eBay is overflowing with bootleg games, most of them come in the form of incredibly cheap versions of popular games (as mentioned above). Some will charge an exorbitant amount of money for multiple fakes.

It’s a sad day when you wind up shelling almost forty dollars for a fake game.

Now not all cheap games on eBay are bootlegs, but you still have to watch out for several signs:

1. Label Art – Quite often with bootlegs the label art will be different from the original. Things like the color of the label or the picture which is supposed to be in the background will be different from the original and often times bootleggers will just put the box’s image on it and call it a day. In recent years bootleggers have upped the quality of their fakes and now some have begun to use design of the legitimate label. So you may be ask me “If they have the original label image and text than how will I know its fake?” Well I would direct you to the lower right side of the label, if you see a set of numbers and and/or letters there (if in the US it should start with AGB and end with USA) that means that its legit also look for the Nintendo Seal, which should read: “Official Nintendo Seal”

On the upper Right side of the label should be two sets of double digit numbers stamped into the label as well.

Class, can you tell me what’s wrong with this cartridge?

2. The back of the game cartridge – The back of your game cartridge should have a Tri-Wing screw in it, these screws look like a “Y” and can only be removed with a special screwdriver. Some bootleggers will instead opt to use a regular Phillips screw which looks like a “+” this is a tell tale sign of a bootleg, as all Nintendo Licensed games use a Tri-wing screw. Another thing to look for is the where its made, bootleggers sometimes replace the “Made in Japan” with “Made in China” (they aren’t all that good at masking things.)


3. Finally and most definitely is the contacts and board of the game itself. If you open up the game by taking out the screw you should be greeted by a regular board and DEPENDING on the game a possible battery with a red ring around it. Certain GBA games do not use a battery for saves and instead use flash based memory which means it saves directly to the carts memory so if you were to find a game which should save in that manner but instead uses a battery you can tell that it is a bootleg. If you look on the bottom of the board near the contacts in white lettering you should clearly see Nintendo, and a product number which shows that Nintendo manufactured it.

Real.

Fake.

Another thing to watch out for are those “175 (or 250, or whatever amount) games in one” those are typically modified flash cartridges (Cart’s used to bootleg games). They tend to be limited in ability and the “Games” they come with are typically multiples of a single game and are all quite illegal (especially if you live in the UK).

You zany Canadians.

Now I’m going to get very specific now and target the Pokémon series as this franchise has been hit the worst by bootleggers. There is no reason to ever pay money for that which is free correct? Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free, right? Pokémon fans love making their own Pokémon games, there are so many Pokémon hacks and homebrew games on the internet that it’s absurd. Consistently bootleggers will put out these hacked or homebrew games and claim that they are actual Nintendo releases and will sell them on places like eBay, iOffer, or flea markets. The truth of the matter is that many of these games aren’t exactly finished, and they are not stable, meaning that corruption and game breaking glitches are regular.

Not pictured: Human Decency.

If you are a fan of the series it is best that you realize that if it wasn’t announced by Nintendo, then there is a good chance the copy of “Shiny Gold” you picked up is a fake.

What you don’t remember Quartz? Why it was only the best Pokémon game of 2005!

Now you may wind up going your whole life without ever having a bootleg game fall into your hands, but there is credence to the saying “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”. Ben Franklin really knew what he was talking about and I’m sure he would agree that to arm oneself with knowledge is the best way to avoid disaster later on (by disaster I mean getting a bootleg game that winds up being a waste of money). If you follow the above rule for identifying a game you should be golden, especially if you avoid ordering North American games from non-North American regions (i.e. China, Mexico, etc.). Well I wish you all the luck in your shopping and stay tuned for my tips on how to avoid purchasing any bootleg Nintendo DS games.

There will be complaints, lots of them.

Advance Wars

Wars of an Advanced nature?

Advance Wars, quite possibly the simplest and most colorful take on war to ever exist. Advance Wars is a turn based strategy game for the Game Boy Advance where you take charge as the adviser to the Orange Star Army as you both wage war against your enemies.

Santa?

However did you know that this game is actually a fleshed out port of a much older game? Super Famicom Wars was a simplistic turn based strategy game where up to two players could choose from either the Red Star army or Blue Moon army and battle on many maps. The game was fairly shallow in regards to content but made up for it in gameplay; this is one of the things both of these games share in common the riveting gameplay. With over ten units, many maps, and lots of CO’s to play as every battle is a test of wits and tactics.

They do look vaguely similar.

These games were made by Intelligent Systems, you know the company that created the Fire Emblem series, and Paper Mario (but who cares about that?). If you were to compare the older Fire Emblem games to Advance Wars you would notice similarities in the battle systems and map systems the game runs on (because they kind of do).

Its like all they know is micromanagement and chess.

The game surprisingly enough has a story mode aptly titled “Campaign Mode”. Throughout the game you play as the adviser to Orange Star, battling your way through the Blue Moon army as you attempt to reclaim Orange Star territory that was taken from you and later the mysterious Black Hole army. Campaign mode is the main mode used for unlocking things in the game like extra CO’s, and maps. You basically choose a battle on a large map and then choose the CO you wish to play as, from there you battle wits with your computerized opponent sometimes with crazy conditions. Before you get into the meat of the game though you have to first prove yourself in “Field Training” mode, unfortunately for veterans of the series this is an unskippable part of the game you have to go through which teaches you the basics of the game and sets you up so that you are ready for the actual campaign mode.

You will become a master of war!

Nell who is the leader of Orange Star will literally hold your hand through the entire training mode, where she will teach you unit movement, how to capture bases, and even how to use terrain to your advantage (makes you wonder why she isn’t just leading the army…). This forced training mode actually serves a plot purpose as well, throughout training mode you are introduced to the leader of Blue Moon and given the reasons why you are at war with both him and his country.

Nyuk nyuk nyuk.

There is also some rather hilarious dialogue exchanged between the characters as well, so Campaign mode is something that by no means should be passed up in exchange for its other equally glorious modes.

As mentioned earlier there is a mode called War Room this mode allows you to play against up to four opponents on any stages you have unlocked. Your opponents can only be CPU opponents though, for human battles there is a VS. mode set aside for it. Both modes allow you to use any unlocked map and as I already mentioned the only major difference is that one lets you battle against a human opponent and the other against computer opponents. There is also a link mode which allows you to link up with another of your Advance Wars playing buddies and battle via that, though in all honesty it’s a tad pointless as the regular VS. mode serves that function and requires only one gameboy and only one copy of the game.

The objective of any particular battle (barring special campaign battles) is to either destroy all of you opponents units, or to capture their main base. This isn’t as simple as it may at first seem as the game has a fairly intricate system of battle with certain tiles of land offering more defensive cover then others, and the opportunity to use your “CO power” which is a special ability unique to each CO that helps them gain a slight edge for about two turns; you can’t use your CO power until enough of your units have been destroyed. You also need to gain money to continue funding your war machine this is done by capturing cities and keeping your opponent from taking them from you. You can only do that by sending infantry units (the weakest unit) to go and capture it. Then you have the fog of war mechanic and the fact that placing units on forest tiles makes them invisible unless a unit is right next to it. I personally have had battles go on for hours with some of my friends due to the overall intricacy of the strategies you can use… or you can mech rush.

Well you did kind of lose…

Advance Wars is one of those games with a lot of replay value if you have friends who are big into strategy games. This may not offer super detailed 3D graphics, but what it does offer is a deep and complex strategy game which can offer many hours of enjoyment as you attempt to create tactics and strategies that are undefeatable (or you can mech rush). I highly recommend this game for all fans of turn-based strategy games, its has a nice quirky campaign mode, and an amazing multiplayer mode that one can easily get lost in for hours at a time (I know I have). If there’s one thing I’d feel it would be my duty to say its that the characters in the game are very easily not representable as actual military generals; I’ll be damned though if I didn’t fall in love with them anyway.

Of War and Ice Cream

Animal Crossing

Animal Crossing, the lovable simulator of blinding debt, and the fulfiller of simple dreams of owning your own home in a town filled with talking animals. To this day Animal Crossing has garnered a rather large popularity with as of the post two sequels and a third poised to be released in the near future; but did you know that Animal Crossing is a sequel in itself? Animal Crossing is the sequel to the game Doubutsu no Mori (Animal Forest). Now Doubutsu no Mori believe it or not was a game for the Nintendo 64, and surprisingly enough had similar graphics to that of the GameCube sequel. Graphics aside that’s where the games start to get different, Doubutsu no Mori was more or less caked in Japanese culture and as such wasn’t viewed as being fit for American audiences, as such the sequel was heavily localized with many things being changed to suit American audiences. The localizing however by no means made the game unwieldy or awkward to play, the game was reinvented for western audiences with items and holidays being changed to be more familiar for the public.

The game has no plot, it’s a game which in theory never ends; you play the game as either a boy or girl and buy a house, from there you go about paying off your house loan and actively striving to get all the furniture and fish/bugs/fossils. The game runs on actual time working off the internal clock of the GameCube and the clock saved onto the memory card with your town. This adds a great deal depth to the game as during different times of the day you can encounter different bugs/fish and the people of your town will over the course of the day perform their own rudimentary day to day tasks. Over the course of the week certain special people will visit your town and by interacting with them you can usually obtain rare pieces of furniture, or items.

Oh and a singing dog pops up every Saturday evening.

Animal Crossing has much to offer in the ways of things to do, you can catch bugs or fish, dig for fossils, or run errands for the people in your town. Though the more interesting option would probably be to collect all the furniture and upgrade your house. There are over hundreds of different furniture items in the game ranging from modern furniture to show pieces with little features like the Master Sword that plays the item finding theme and even to full NES games which you can play at any point in time. You can also find clothing ranging in over hundreds of designs with which you can customize your character aside from just buying clothing, you can also design your own patterns and you can wear them or use them to make umbrellas, wallpapers, or signs.

There's a lot of stuff in this game.

Now if just collecting furniture isn’t your thing there are other things to do, like work on expanding your towns museum,You can go about doing this by donating bugs, fish, paintings, and fossils you find. This doesn’t just give you a great museum it also helps to attract more people to your town increasing its population over time. Another thing you can do in the game is plant/cut down tree’s and flowers, you literally can completely change the landscaping to your will, by doing this you attract more people and if you can get the town to be perfect for a few days you will be awarded with the coveted Golden Shovel.

Which you can use to do the exact same thing you were previously with.

Animal Crossing also contains a secret which you can only access if you have a Gameboy Advance and a Gameboy to GameCube link cable. If you hook the cable to your Gameboy and talk to Kapn’ by the dock, he will offer to ferry you to Animal Island. Animal Island is a small island you can access from your Gameboy where you can get items of varying rarity, exotic fruits, and you can even have the islander(s) potentially move into your town. The best part is that when you unhook your Gameboy you can still access your Island as it is available for you to mess around with until you shut your Gameboy off in which the island is saved onto the Gameboys ram. You can go back and forth as much as you want as many times as you want (it’s an easy way to get coconuts).

Many fun times are to be had.

When I got this game back in the early 2000’s I recall spending my afternoons blissfully catching fish and shaking tree’s for fruit to pay off my house. The day I got my first NES game in it (it was Excite Bike) I nearly exploded with giddiness, and fervently checked Tom Nooks store every day hoping to find a NES game there, unfortunately only Crazy Redd ever seemed to get them once in a blue moon… naturally I bought them.

I firmly believe that I can trust his face.

Animal Crossing is a game is a game that can be played either casually for about a half hour or an hour. or you could spend your entire day playing it. It is the kind of game with no end, so you can play it without stop. Since the game operates according to real time even when you aren’t playing it the people in your town will still go about their day to day lives; also since the game moves according to real time if you don’t play for a while your town will inevitably suffer (Weeds EVERYWHERE!!11!1!111!?!/1). The game has an infinite amount of replay value (so long as you are into reality simulating games) and as such holds up well to its sequels seeing as only in the first game can you find full NES games built into furniture, travel into a special island town which can be saved to your Game boy, or partake in holidays that are exclusive to the original Animal Crossing game.

Tote’s bro.

The Original Pokémon Trilogy

Choose your destiny!

Pokémon, or as it is called in Japan Pocket Monsters. What started as a simple game about catching animals and making them fight for our amusement turned into a massive ever expanding multibillion dollar industry with no foreseeable end in sight. Having come a long way since the days of the Gameboy these newer Pokémon games boast 3D graphics and moving sprites. However with all this glam do they still contain the heart that was put into the first trilogy? That what I’ll be reviewing today the first three Pokémon games, Red, Blue, and the special Pikachu Yellow Edition.

Though before we get on that subject lets talk about its history seeing as the series been going strong for more than a decade. When Satoshi Tajiri was young he lived in a suburb outside of Japan where during his free time he would spend his days catching bugs and tadpoles. As he grew older Satoshi decided that he wanted to share this experience with other young people who live in urban areas with no access to nature. From this idea the concept of Pokémon came about. Satoshi gathered up several of his friends Shigeki Morimoto a programmer, and Ken Sugimori an artist, together with them they put together the prototype of the game called “Capsule Monsters”. Satoshi pitched his game and idea to Shigeru Miyamoto of Nintendo, Shigeru loved it and pitched it to Nintendo’s President gaining Nintendo’s support.

These are some of the draft’s for the prototype of the game.

Godzilla battling King Kong? I swear I’ve seen this in a movie somewhere.

Its good to know the game changed a bit from the prototype.

Lapras looked a lot cooler back then.

When Pokémon was being designed Shigeki Morimoto decided to add one additional Pokémon to the games original 150. He made the Pokémon a secret and was planning to use it for post-launch events. Once the game was released it received average sales until it was announced that there was a secret Pokémon which would be given out at an event. This Pokémon was Mew. The games sales skyrocketed and the Pokémon series achieved total popularity with the Japanese people. Later on the idea of bringing the game overseas to other countries was pitched and the localization teams began to work on the games feverishly. In Japan there were three Pokémon Games out, Red, Green, and the third one in the series Blue. Blue was the version that was ported overseas due to it being a more streamlined version of the game as it had better sprites, less glitches, and a better musical score. In 1995 the games were released overseas as Pokémon Red, and Blue. Originally the localization team wanted to change the sprites believing the “cutesy” sprites would never be popular with Americans, Nintendo said no. The game became an overnight success and games flew off the shelves throughout the year.

A year after the games release the Anime adaption of it aptly called Pokémon was released in America and translated by 4Kids entertainment. The show proved to be a huge success and Nintendo followed by creating a new game based on the series. This game was Pokémon Special Pikachu Edition (or Yellow version as it was also called). The game featured a new story in which you played as Ash as he traveled the land seeking to be a Pokémon master, it also had newer sprites and a slightly altered score. It was upon the release of this game that the Pokémon series began to form a multi-million dollar franchise out of it’s popularity.

*Now for some reference seeing as Red, and Blue are the same game I will mostly cite differences between them and Yellow version while ultimately reviewing them as one thing.

Now the overarching point of the games series is to catch all 151 Pokémon which can only be done through trading across games, though in order to get Mew you need to either own a copy of Pokémon Stadium or you needed to go to one of the Nintendo events where Mew was given out. At first this may seem daunting as no game has all the Pokémon but with the incredible popularity of the series just getting one version and trading for the Pokémon exclusive to the other version was and still isn’t that difficult. In order to catch them all linking up with your friends or with a second Gameboy is a necessity and it is stressed that you do this to attain your ultimate task. Now each game on average is missing about eight Pokémon from its roster and has a host of super rares you will spend a lot of time trying to get a hold of.

For your viewing pleasure here are the lists of Pokémon exclusive to certain games and what games have what. Generously prepared by Bulbapedia.

Not only can you trade you can also battle with that spiffy link cable you will be using, Battling is a pivotal part of the game as well as a great deal of skill needs to be developed in order to battle effectively. . . or you can just throw a bunch of legendries in your party and call it a day. The core mechanic of the game centers around battles and the deep system which comprises it. In order to save both time and space I will use a chart previously prepared by Bulbapedia.

Click to Enlarge

Now the battle system in the games based around types and their respective weaknesses. In the series a battle is won by utilizing the advantages and disadvantages of a certain type or types of Pokémon to win a battle. Such as having a Fighting Type battle a Rock type, the rock type is weak to fighting therefore the fighting type should win. There are in some cases situations where this may not occur such as when a critical hit has occurred or if the attacking Pokémon has a negative status effect.

Despite the overly simplistic menus battles are for the most part very deep and require some thought.

Switching between Pokémon is paramount towards victory as having even one Pokémon on your team faint can easily tip the scales when you are trying to battle through hordes of Team Rocket thugs. Now I could go on for hours about the battle system but instead I shall give you my abridged talk on how it works;

• Each Pokémon has strengths and weaknesses according to its type
• All attacks have a type assigned to them, i.e. Tackle being a Normal type move and Flamethrower being a Fire Type move.
• Utilization of these moves and using them against Pokémon which are weak to that type of move typically discerns the victor.
• Its key to understand the weaknesses of your own Pokémon and not send a Water type out to fight an Electric type.
• Its Paramount to understand your Pokémon's strengths like sending a Rock type out to fight an Electric type.
• Having a diverse range of Pokémon types on your team and making sure they know a diverse range of moves for use in different occasions.

A bad matchup if I’ve ever seen one.

Pokémon isn’t just about battling there is also the act of catching the elusive Pocket Monsters.

No relation.

You do this by walking in tall grass, typically after 4-5 steps you will be stopped by the screen flipping out and a change in music. Then the battle screen pops up and you are made to weaken the Pokémon before you can capture it. You do this by battling it and reducing its health to around less than 25%, then you have to toss a Poke Ball at it. From there it’s a matter of waiting to see if the Pokémon is caught and if it happens to break free from the ball you toss another. Sometimes when walking through tall grass you will encounter Pokémon you do not want. You can circumvent them by choosing the Run Away command, or you can defeat them and get yourself some experience points.

Prepare yourself for capturing knave!

Now in this game Pokémon gain strength and evolutions through a leveling process typical of most all RPG’s you gain experience entirely through battle and the only shortcut through the process is through the use of the elusive “rare candy” item which nets you a free level. Now I’m sure you may have just thought “well I’ll just get myself some Rare Candies.” Now that is a foolish idea, for that free level you pay a price, you gain few if any stat yields and as a whole it does more harm then good. The leveling process is simple you defeat Pokémon either through a random battle or through a trainer battle and you level your Pokémon up; now the only real difference between this level system and any other RPG’s is that only the Pokémon that participate in battle gain Experience and those who participate share it meaning that however much you gain its split amongst however many Pokémon you use per causing a opponents Pokémon to faint.

 

Wut?

Here’s where we begin to find differences in the games, the story Red and Blue follows and the story Yellow follows are completely different. So I shall discuss them in turn:

In Pokémon Red and Blue you play as a young upstart from Pallet Town (whom you name) and your dream is to become the best there ever was, and to catch them is your real test and to train them is you cause. You will travel across the land, searching far and wide, and release from you hand the power that’s inside

POKEMON! Its you and me, I know it’s my destiny!

Sorry. I couldn’t help myself. Seriously though your objective is to become the best by defeating the eight Gym Leaders scattered through the region of Kanto and to ultimately defeat the Elite Four while catching all the Pokémon to become a master. Along the way though you will encounter the sinister Team Rocket who will unceasingly do bad things, which forces you to beat them badly and eventually face their leader. Back onto the topic of the Gym Leaders there are eight of them and each one has a theme, Rock, Water, Electric, Grass, etc. So you will need to adjust your team accordingly to face them. There are also other mysteries in the game to seek out, like the meaning of a journal you find in a burned out building, where the cruise liner disappears to, or the true reason behind your rivals appearance in Pokémon Tower.

Now in Yellow the premise remains mostly the same only you are playing as Ash from the television series. You advance through the game where you experience events similar to that which is had in the show itself. These include meeting Jessie and James of Team Rocket, gaining one of each of the original starter Pokémon and having Pikachu follow you around.

D’aaaaaaaaaaaaaw.

Your objective of being the best remains unchanging as you continue the journey of catching all the Pokémon and beating the Elite Four. Two of the Gym Leaders Brock, and Misty have dialogue from the show, but the do not follow you around like faithful Pikachu does.

Now one of the differences between the games is the Rival, he talks more like his counterpart from the Animated Series then he does in the previous games but ultimately still acts the same. He appears in all the same places,and the only major difference is that he has an Eevee on his team. He still appears everywhere though, everywhere. . .

Dude I’m tellin’ yah those graves had totally been robbed before I even got here.

These Pokémon games have a very deep story to them and for younger players things may go completely unnoticed, one of these things is Gary. Over the course of the game you see Gary change as a person as he experiences many different things aside from the feeling of being beat down. Gary is a fairly tragic character throughout the game as he never gets to achieve his own dream regardless to how hard he tries. You also find a journal which talks about the experiments a scientist performed, and put to rest a resentful ghost. This game is really deep, surprisingly so deep that I had to replay these games to fully take in everything.

The game also has its flaws, these come in the form of glitches and battery life. There are a large cabaret of glitches that I won’t go into length about, but its these glitches which one can deliberately cause or accidentally cause that can ruin your game and make you lose everything. The most notably is Missingno. which is a glitch caused by talking to the old man in Viridian and then flying to Cinnabar Island and surfing up and down the coast. Missingno. Will give you 99 of whatever item is in your sixth slot if you beat it, but if you catch it and put it in your PC your game file will become corrupted. The other glitches aren’t nearly as useful and a majority will just ruin your game.

These glitches are usually caused by you doing something the game didn’t intend and an overflow of data occurs where the game searches for something which doesn’t exist. What the game produces is a glitch in either the form of glitch city, or a glitch Pokémon. If you are really interested in these glitches you can find a list of them Here.

All of the Pokémon games up until the fourth generation have an internal battery inside them to store save data, and as all batteries do eventually they will die. The worst part about the battery dying is that you lose everything as a result and are treated to this beautiful screen. . .

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

This isn’t a regular problem as the the batteries generally last a very long time, some people boast that they' to this day have never had to change their batteries out; and even if it does die you can easily get a replacement battery at your local convenience store.

Pokémon Red, Blue, and Yellow are all great games and are enjoyable to play either casually or in one go. The games have a charm to them that is practically immortal from the silly dialogue to the catchy tunes, you know after a while you will be humming the beats to at least one location.

That’s why he’s paid the big bucks.

The game even periodically rewards you for attaining feats without spoiling you, for every certain amount of Pokémon you catch you get a Key Item which will aid you; despite this the trainers and battles you will face will be challenging but not to hard so long as you grasp the basic strategy of type disadvantages and advantages. I can easily say these are the greatest three games for the Gameboy only closely followed by Dragon Warrior and the the Sword of Hope series. I’d recommend anyone who’s either looking to connect(or reconnect) with Pokémon's roots or wants to give the series a go for the first time, these are the games for you. What makes them even better is that they are all relatively affordable mostly being in the $12 to $18 bracket. I’d recommend you pick up a copy of either and while you are at get yourself a copy of Pokémon Stadium (or a Super Gameboy) so that you can play it on your TV

Not only are the games in color they each have their own respective borders, pretty cool, eh?

I bet you thought I wasn’t going to end with that, well you were wrong.