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        <h1><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b><i><a href="../../index.html">loonygames</a><br>
          <font size="1">a <a href="http://www.bluesnews.com">blue's news</a> 
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<p>&nbsp;</p>Vol. 
                2, Issue 2<br>
                November 17, 1999<br>
                </b>
              <b> 
                </b>
              
                <b><i>Pocket 

                  Full o' Love:</i></b></p>
                <b><i> 
                  GBC Love</i></b></p>
                by 
                  Jason &quot;loonyboi&quot; 
                  Bergman</p>
              
              

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               Hi 
                there! Welcome to Pocket Full of Love. This column is a direct 
                result of our Put a Little Love 
                in Your Pocket cover story from Volume 
                1. In that article, I looked at all the different forms of 
                handheld gaming, and had a total blast doing it. The article was 
                so popular, and I enjoyed it so much, that we here at loonygames 
                decided we needed more on pocket gaming...so here we are. </p>
              </p>
              The problem 
                these days with handheld gaming, despite their overwhelming popularity, 
                is separating the crap from the really good games (and believe 
                it or not there are lots of great games available). Handheld games 
                don't take too much effort to create if you don't care about the 
                quality...so there's a ton of really bad games out there. Also, 
                believe it or not, there is more to handheld gaming than just 
                the GameBoy and GameBoy Color. In this week's column I'll be focusing 
                entirely on the GBC, but next time I'll talk exclusively about 
                the NeoGeo Pocket Color, the latest and greatest pocket system 
                out there. In the weeks to come, I'll look at some older systems, 
                including a whole bunch of forgotten gems out there for the Atari 
                Lynx and Game Gear (and I'll even tell you how to get one for 
                yourself). </p>
              </p>
              But this 
                week we're going to talk about the GameBoy Color. The GBC is basically 
                a color version of the original GameBoy. It's backwards compatible 
                with all the old black and white (or rather, green) games, and 
                has some cool, if underused features like the IR port that are 
                exclusive to the new system. There are GameBoy Color exclusive 
                titles, but for the most part, the entire GameBoy library works 
                on every GameBoy system. That includes the original system released 
                a decade ago (yes, it's really been that long), the newer GameBoy 
                Pocket, and the Super GameBoy (the adapter for the SNES that allowed 
                you to play games on your TV. A must have for GameBoy fanatics). 
                </p>
              </p>
              If you 
                own an older GameBoy, and are wondering if it's worth upgrading 
                to the new edition, it's ultimately your call. Obviously, the 
                difference between the two is the color, but also, the GameBoy 
                Color has a remarkably long battery-life (I haven't changed mine 
                in six months, and that's with fairly heavy playing). </p>
              </p>
              But the 
                real issue is the games, and that's what this column's for. I 
                play a lot of different games, and I'll be reporting on several 
                of them per issue...so let's look at a few, shall we? </p>
              </p>
              First 
                of all, there are a number of games out there that say &quot;GameBoy 
                Color&quot; on the side bar of their box - try not to be fooled 
                by this. That does not mean the game won't run on your legacy 
                system! It's just a way of letting people know that it's enhanced 
                for the GBC. The enhancements usually mean a native color mode, 
                although some games, like <b>R-Type DX </b>have other features 
                as well. I've noticed that several games (<b>Pokemon Pinball</b> 
                being the most surprising) actually work just fine on my Super 
                GameBoy despite having the &quot;only for GameBoy Color&quot; 
                stamp on the box. </p>
              </p>
              <b>R-Type 
                DX</b> is interesting though. When you pop <b>R-Type</b> into 
                a legacy GameBoy, you're given the option to play either <b>R-Type 
                1</b> or <b>R-Type 2</b>. If you play it on your GBC, you have 
                the option of playing either of those, but also you can play <b>R-Type 
                DX</b>, a special version that takes both games and melds them 
                into one. </p>
              </p>
              <b>R-Type 
                DX</b> is a good 
                game, but it suffers from the same problem it did in every previous 
                incarnation - it's way too hard. And I mean way too hard. I've 
                come to the conclusion that bringing it with me on airplanes is 
                just a bad idea...I don't need to get that frustrated when I'm 
                trying to relax (a serious issue for me when I'm up in the air). 
                The game, if you've never seen it, is a side-scrolling space shooter. 
                And like all side-scrolling shooters you go through the game shooting 
                lots of little enemies, and picking up power-up after power-up, 
                making your weapons bigger and bigger as you go. But<b> R-Type</b> 
                distinguishes itself by its &quot;power pod&quot;.</p>
              <br>
              </p>
              &nbsp; 
              The &quot;power 
                pod&quot; is a power up, but it's more than that. What it does 
                is follow alongside you ship, and when you fire, you fire from 
                both your ship and the pod simultaneously. You can call the pod 
                back to your ship, and it will dock onto the front or rear depending 
                on where you catch it. When you do this, you'll double your firepower, 
                but there's also another advantage - the pod is invincible, so 
                you can plow through enemies (so long as they don't touch you 
                anywhere but the front...it can be very difficult to do that). 
                </p>
              </p>
              Also at 
                your disposal is the ability to charge up your shot by holding 
                down the fire button before firing. If the enemies are weak enough, 
                you can kill a whole line of them simultaneously with a sufficiently 
                charged blast.</p>
              </p>
              Graphically 
                it's beautiful, and has some of the best looking images you're 
                likely to find on the GameBoy Color (particularly the cool looking 
                bosses at the end of each level), and it's definitely worth a 
                checking out, but be warned. It's a serious bitch to play.</p>
              </p>
              <b>Pokemon 
                Pinball</b> on 
                the other hand, is fun, easily accessible, and pretty much a staple 
                of mine on airplanes these days. The game has gotten a lot of 
                press for its rumble pack feature, but don't let that be a factor 
                in your purchasing it - you'll probably turn it off really quickly. 
                Also, the rumble feature only works on the GameBoy Color, although 
                the game itself can be played on any of the GB systems.</p>
              </p>
              The game 
                is a strange mix of <b>Pokemon</b> style gameplay and traditional 
                tabletop pinball. The idea is weird, and it works fairly well. 
                You play pinball like you always would, but every now and then 
                you enter &quot;capture mode&quot; where you have a certain amount 
                of time to catch a specific Pokemon. Also, once you've got the 
                creature, you can evolve it later by hitting the right parts of 
                the board. </p>
              </p>
              The rumble 
                feature is built into the cartridge itself (and requires its own 
                batteries) and it'll shake every time you hit the ball. This part 
                is pretty good, and if all it did was that, I probably would have 
                left it turned on...but the problem is Pikachu. Yeah, Pikachu, 
                that ultra-cute Pokemon that all the kids are crazy about. He's 
                very prominently featured in the game, and he can catch your ball 
                if it rolls off the side (assuming you're quick enough to get 
                him there). When he gets your ball, everything stops, and there's 
                a digitized, &quot;Piiikaa!&quot; (which is scratchy in that way 
                that only GameBoy speech can be) and throws the ball back with 
                an electrical charge. And the rumble pack goes nuts. I mean nuts. 
                You can hear it going off from the opposite side of the room, 
                so even if you're minding your own business with headphones, everyone 
                around you is going to hear this thing. But fortunately it can 
                be turned off, although it does jack up the price of the cartridge 
                by a few extra bucks, meaning you're paying for a feature you 
                probably won't use...but it's not that much extra (only about 
                five dollars or so) and the game is really fun, so it's worth 
                it.</p>
              </p>
              My other 
                game of choice these days is <b>Chessmaster</b>. Yes, <b>Chessmaster</b>. 
                There isn't much to say about this game - it's chess. But, it 
                is a fairly decent chess simulator. You can play multiplayer with 
                two GameBoys via the link cable (an IR feature would have been 
                great, but it's not an option) or by having both people share 
                the same GameBoy. This would seem to be the more practical way 
                to play it, since it is chess...it's turn based, people! It's 
                not exactly exciting real-time gaming here.<br>
                And of course, then there's the single player game, which is good, 
                although if you suck at chess like I do, you'll find it very challenging 
                even on the easiest setting. There's a training mode, which teaches 
                you the rules of chess, and you can also tell the CPU to solve 
                it for checkmate if you're curious at any point in the game how 
                a real chess player would handle things. </p>
              </p>
              The game 
                runs on every GameBoy system, and is pretty cheap, even for a 
                GameBoy game (it's almost always under $20). As games for the 
                system go, this is one of my favorites, and I'm guessing that 
                it would make for a nice introduction to chess for someone who's 
                never played it before. Since the game has a ton of difficulty 
                settings, you can always make it harder as you get better (I've 
                been playing the game for a month now, and I'm still on the easiest...guess 
                I'm just a dolt) so it's definitely worth checking out.</p>
              </p>
              Well, 
                that's it for this week...check back next week, when I'll take 
                a look at some games for the new NeoGeo Pocket Color system!</p>
              <i>- 
                Jason &quot;loonyboi&quot; Bergman is the editor-in-chief here 
                at loonygames.</i></p>
              <i><br><p>&nbsp;</p> 
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<p><i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-2">Credits: Print CGI is 
  &copy; 2000 <a href="http://www.square8.com">Square Eight</a>. Used with permission. 
  Article is &copy; 2000 its original author. All other content is &copy; 2000 
  loonyboi productions. Unauthorized reproduction is prohibited. You got that??</font></i></p>
 