Though composed of hardware considered limited even at release, it didn’t stop the Game Boy from becoming a force who’s lifespan would overtake many of its more powerful big brothers.
In our last adventure, we explored some of the unusual and/or unexpected ports to hit the humble gray brick. Games whose very ideas, graphical stylings, or mechanics would seem impossible for the portable console to pull off. And yet, here they are.
Now we arrive at Part 2, where the journey continues with torch-in-hand. We venture once again into the darker corners of the Game Boy library to dust off a new set of underdog oddities.
While plenty of ports were only jammed onto the system for a quick buck, we’ll be looking at titles with some form of real merit. Fun gameplay is most ideal, but even barring that, each game will have an interesting or historical quirk worth discussion. And thus elevate each beyond the all-too-common stain of shovelware.
Another note you’ll catch along the way is how none of these titles were developed by their original studio. No LucasArts or Midway on this list, as while those legendary developers were responsible for the original classics, the job of portable adaptation was handed to outside studios for Game Boy hardware. These studios deserve an extra nod, as not only were they tasked to scale down titles intended for more advanced consoles, but had to maintain the spirit of the originals while they were at it.
Let the quest continue! Make sure to pack extra AA batteries.
Bonk’s Adventure
Perceptions of Bonk and his titular adventure vary depending on what type of gamer you are. For the niche Turbografx 16 enthusiasts, Bonk essentially serves as your mascot. Your Mario or Sonic-esque system representative. For NES fans, Bonk’s foray onto Nintendo was late into the console’s lifespan. So much so that it’s become a Holy Grail-level collector’s item, with a loose copies commanding thousands of dollars on the open market. This thankfully doesn’t apply to the Game Boy version, which released before the NES version and remains relatively inexpensive over thirty years later.
Though the Game Boy obviously wasn’t able to carry over Bonk’s vibrant palette of colors, sprites remain large and incredibly expressive. There’s tons of character in the game’s presentation. Developer Red Company was really able to capture the spirit of Hudson’s original in 8-bits.
The chibi-style is strong with this one, as wacky expressions and cartoonish slapstick is the name of the game, especially considering your primary weapon is your oversized noggin. Bonk attacks via head-butt, either in a straight-forward manner or by leaping into the air and dropping head-first onto adversaries.
You’re able to partially ‘float’ by repeatedly spinning your rock-hard head around in circles, extending jump distance considerably. This can actually be too much of a good thing, as you can breeze through many levels via this strategy alone. Not that the baddies out to get you are that intimidating, either…
Enemies are easily vanquished, especially after consuming form-altering powerups, but bosses provide a bit more challenge. I was able to fly through the game without defeat on my first playthrough until reaching the final boss – King Drool – who oddly posed an incredible challenge to defeat.
As an overall experience, I’d mark Bonk’s Adventure on the Game Boy as one of the console’s easier titles, but that can be a good thing if you’re looking for a swift play session. And unlike its more powerful console counterparts, the Bonk on Game Boy is an entirely original adventure, so even if you’ve played other versions, this title is still worth checking out.
Super Return of the Jedi
The Star Wars franchise had an interesting journey on the Game Boy. A New Hope and Empire Strikes are based on the NES versions and retain much of their gameplay and aesthetic. Return of the Jedi never got a game for the NES, which is strange, considering the film came out only a few years before the NES exploded in popularity. We’d have to wait for the SNES’s Super Star Wars action-platformer series to reach Episode 6 in late 1995 before we’d finally get Jedi on the Game Boy.
The Super Star Wars series is infamous for difficulty, but the limitations of the Game Boy help scale down the intensity. A bit. Bottomless pits and leaps-of-faith are no less copious than they were on the SNES. In fact, they’ll often be the main source of your death.
Enemies are a different story. Sprite limitations curb how many enemies can be onscreen at one time, easing back potential sources of damage. Making up for that are the myriad of environmental hazards. Everything from flame jets to simple falling spikes whittle away at your health if you’re careless.
Levels can still be sprawling, with multiple areas to explore before you find the correct path to progress. Unsurprisingly, SNES-standby Mode 7 stages are removed, but it doesn’t affect the overall experience.
Each stage gives you a choice of characters, all of whom vary in playstyle, which gives the game a solid degree of replayability. Characters like Chewie and even the Ewok Wicket favor projectile attacks, which are weaker than the melee abilities of Luke, but allow for enemies to be tackled from safe distance.
And you’ll need that distance, for while most enemies take only a few hits to vanquish, bosses are absolute damage sponges. Some bosses are original to the game, while others are scaled up from minor film moments into full-on behemoths. Remember that cranky door robot that pops out of Jabba’s Palace like a desk lamp to question Luke before letting him in? He’s the boss of Level 1, and let’s just say he’s been hitting the gym.
A health meter at the bottom of the screen will give you an idea to how much progress you’re making, but said progress is maddeningly incremental. When you hear the boss music, carried over quite faithfully from the SNES version, get ready to settle in for a minutes-long battle.
If you’re signing up for the Super Star Wars series, you’re in for an endurance test, and the Game Boy port, despite being scaled back, is no exception.
Hone your Jedi reflexes for this one.
Mortal Kombat 2
Fighting games and two-button control schemes go together like porcupines and waterbeds. The array of special moves, forms of striking, and character variety often requires multiple buttons to map out. But that didn’t stop multiple developers from porting fighting games over to the Game Boy.
The early 90’s saw an avalanche of fighters hoping to hop onto the wave started by Street Fighter 2 and Mortal Kombat. The portable realm was no exception, but while most attempts fell flat, one such title was able to scale back the formula while retaining fun gameplay.
Mortal Kombat 1 on the Game Boy was a noble attempt, but the digitized graphics become muddied in the transition to 8-bit. Worse, the controls became sluggish, making fights appear to occur in slow motion. It’s certainly not the worst of the Kombat series ports, but leaves a lot to be desired.
The sequel is a whole different story. Not only did Mortal Kombat 2 improve on appearances, but most importantly: it optimized controls. Characters are far more responsive, speeding up the pace of each round. This also means special moves are much more reliable, leaving your fighter less open to counterattack when their spear/fireball/ice/etc. fails to launch. Normal attacks are limited to only Punch and Kick – no High/Low variations – but it doesn’t impact the experience in a negative way. Uppercuts and roundhouse kicks remain ever-useful, and now come with an incredibly satisfying ‘BAM’ sound effect upon contact. Blocking via the Start button is a bit awkward at first, but you adapt to it quickly.
Sure, cuts still had to be made. The original roster of twelve characters is reduced to only eight. All the ninjas are included via the power of palette swaps, but Johnny Cage, Baraka, Raiden, and Kung Lao stayed home for this party. There’s also no Kentaro sub-boss before you face Shao Khan, which is actually an area where MK1 has a leg up on its sequel by including Goro.
There are fewer overall stages and music, and each character only gets one Fatality rather than the standard two. A bummer, but I still get a chuckle seeing Reptile’s 8-bit tongue pop an enemy’s head off their shoulders. Limitations are there, but the game manages to retain the mix of martial arts and cheesy, over-the-top violence. We might lose the stage fatality where you uppercut an opponent down the pit, but you can still impale them on ceiling spikes.
Difficult as it may be to translate the fighting games onto limited hardware, Mortal Kombat 2’s execution is remarkably solid. Later in the Game Boy’s lifespan, both Mortal Kombat 1 & 2 were rereleased together on a shared cart. Though I vastly prefer MK2 over its predecessor, it’s nice to have both titles side-by-side for comparison (and collection!) purposes.
Alien VS Predator: The Last of His Clan
This one’s an odd duck. When most folks recall Alien vs Predator, their minds either go to the stellar Capcom arcade beat em’ up, or the first-person shooter for the Jaguar. This is a port of neither. Taking things a step further, it’s also not a port of the SNES Alien vs Predator, which is also a beat em’ up, but has nothing to do with the aforementioned arcade version. The SNES and Game Boy titles share the same box art, but the SNES version was released in Sept of 1993 (in the US), whilst the Game Boy version was released that November, the same month the SNES version dropped in Europe. Confused yet?
Don’t be. Despite the myriad of AvP options running around the early 90’s, Game Boy’s rendition of Alien vs. Predator is a port in name only. It’s an entirely original adventure that plays out in more the Metroidvania style than it does either beat em’ up or first person shooter.
Alien vs Predator: The Last of His Clan sets the stage simply enough. You’re the sole surviving Predator left after a swarm of Xenomorphs overtake a human colony. But before you start attributing heroic attributes, note that Predators are the ones who planted the Xenomorph eggs onto the planet in the first place.
Humans would provide the perfect host vessels for the Xenomorphs to propagate, providing the hunt-crazed Predators with ample prey. They were basically using us as incubators.
So when the humans fell and a group Predators arrived for a bit of sport, their underestimation of Alien reproduction isn’t exactly easy to sympathize with. I suppose we can hope our protagonist has learned an important lesson from the experience, but I guess that means we’ll need to survive the game first.
Alien vs Predator is broken into maze-like levels which you traverse in a classic platforming style. Our character sprite is gigantic, which provides a high level of detail for a GameBoy protagonist, but at the expense spacing issues.
Jumping most often results in hitting your head on the ceiling. And most corridors are tight to begin with. It’s an odd case where the controls are responsive, but the level design provides restriction. Alien enemies are just as large and detailed, but they’re insane speed means we’ll need to be quick on the draw when they pop into view. They’ll come barreling straight towards us, and because the spires are so large, it’s easy to collide into an enemy without meaning to.
Fortunately, our arsenal of weaponry is flexible. Projectiles come in throwing disc and shoulder-cannon varieties, providing pivotal reach to safely dispatch enemies. Our primary wrist blade weapon gets the job done, but we must get precariously close to enemies in order to use it.
We also move at a slower pace compared to enemies, warranting careful exploration as we traverse the large, winding maps. In addition to health, we’ll need to keep a close eye on our energy meter.
Alien vs Predator goes the extra mile to draw out a map of each area we explore at the top corner of the screen. This is incredibly helpful, as it allows us to note our location without even needing to pull up a menu screen. An auto-map may not sound like much these days, but older games of this style seldom had mapping systems.
The dilemma is how this map consumes an energy meter. You’ll need to find energy-replenishing pickups to keep it powered, or your map display will flicker out of existence. What’s worse, our invisibility-system also runs on the same power, making its usefulness clash with how much we need a map.
Despite these flaws, I applaud Alien vs Predator for its unique approach. Rather than try to emulate another title, it decided a better way to roll with the hardware limitations was to craft an entirely original adventure. One that take patience, yes, and has its share of frustrating quirks, but provides an early example of a genre that would go on to be loved as it refined the formula. Before Symphony of the Night could run, games like Alien vs Predator for the Game Boy walked.
Oddworld Adventures
It’s a testament to the Game Boy’s lifespan that new games were still getting released in 1998. The hardware was already considered old upon its introduction in 1991, so by the time ’98 rolled around, it was positively ancient in technological terms. This is was the 5th console generation, the era of Playstation and N64. And yet our plucky gray brick was still chugging along, in no small thanks to an electric mouse and his 150 buddies.
Oddworld Adventures is an 8-bit take on the Oddworld series, an array of cinematic puzzle-platformers released on the PS1. You play as Abe, one of the many enslaved Mukodons who toil under the tyranny of the Glukkons, the game’s primary villains.
Despite a meek nature, you’re the prophesized hero destined to save your people, which is done via lighting all the Holy Fires within the Paramonium Temple, where the entirety of the game takes place. Your adventures are perilous, with equal parts vicious enemies and lethal environmental hazards to contend with. And all your got at your disposal are your wits, a bit of chanting, and some random meat lying around.
True to its title, the gameplay experience is quite strange. Upon booting up the Game Boy cart, you’ll note a ‘Gamespeak’ menu, where different button pushes result in squeak, hum, and fart sounds. These will be your password clues, folks. And they’re just the tip of the bizarre iceberg.
Each screen essentially poses a ‘solve or die’-style puzzle, with the objective communicated to you via a text at the top of the screen. Sometimes, you’ll be sneaking past sleeping enemies, who’ll instantly devour you upon waking. Other times, you’ll be chanting a spell to possess machine-gun toting enemies. Make sure to only take control of baddies from a safe distance. Get too close, and they’ll riddle you with bullets.
Death comes easily and often, and coupled with the game’s stiff control scheme, slow and steady is the best tactic. It’s all too easy to over-or-underestimate a jump and end up face-first in a bottomless pit. Take your time before each and every move you make.
The puzzles are obscure, made especially so by the game’s unique button layout. Without a manual, you’d have no idea how important the Select button—often ignored entirely in most other Game Boy games—is to your success. Not only is the Select button necessary to reveal in-game passwords to open gates, but it’s how you activate your Chant ability.
Another important move is the Sneak ability, which is activated by holding Up while moving Left or Right. Not unintuitive, but utterly necessary to stay alive. Oddworld Adventures might not be the most straightforward game, nor one you can barrel through quickly, but if you like cinematic platformers and aren’t afraid of puzzles with unusual solutions, the game offers an memorable challenge.
Conclusion:
Another round of pixelated misfits brought out of obscurity and (hopefully!) into your brain. It’s interesting to look back at a bygone era of gaming and observe how even the most cutting edge title was considered for 8-bit adaptation. While the success rate was hit-n-miss, you can’t help but appreciate the boldness of these developers. Quick cash-in’s of popular titles are one thing, but each of the entries we discussed today has some real thought put into it. Be it via playability or sheer creativity, these Game Boy ports meant something to the smaller development teams working on them.
What are some other games I missed? Feel free to let me know in the comments.
Thanks for reading, and stay awesome, fellow retro gamers.
-Matt-
@Intrepid_tautog