Game Boy Turns 25: Our Favorite Games

Today, April 21, 2014, Nintendo's successful Game Boy originally released. Since then, the Game Boy line has sold over 200 million units in total, and has single-handily built Nintendo's portable empire, beating every competitor that tried to dethrone the handheld king (even more technologically advanced hardware). Since the Game Boy is now 25, does this mean that the Game Boy should be referred to as the Game Man? Holy cow, that joke was terrible.

Anyway, the staff here at SuperPhillip Central would like to take this special date and anniversary to look back at some of our favorite titles for Nintendo's handheld wonder, sometimes sharing some of our personal memories of these games. If you have any titles from the original Game Boy that you have fond memories of, please share with the community in the comments below.

- Super Mario Land
On 3DS Virtual Console: Yes

The first Super Mario Land game is rather strange. There's an absence of recurring Mario enemies, and even Bowser and his perpetual prisoner Princess Peach are nowhere to be found. Instead, Mario ventures outside the borders of the Mushroom Kingdom to Sarasaland in hopes of saving Princess Daisy, in her debut game. It's also the only mainline Mario game to include her in the cast. Super Mario Land featured capable platforming, bizarre vehicle segments (but they were by no means bad), and a challenging enough difficulty to keep new Game Boy systems owners a lot to come back to.

- Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins
On 3DS Virtual Console: Yes

While Super Mario Land introduced Tatanga as the one time villain of the series, Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins introduced the world to Wario. Not only that, but 6 Golden Coins featured a nonlinear game progression, quite unlike Super Mario Land. After the initial opening stage, Mario could visit one of six zones surrounding his shanghaied castle in any order. Once all of the bosses of each zone surrendered their given golden coin to Mario, the portly plumber could enter the castle, participate in a crazy difficulty jump of a level, and retake his home from Wario. Super Mario Land 2 improved the visuals immensely in comparison to its predecessor, and the results were nothing less than spectacular.

- Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3
On 3DS Virtual Console: Yes

It wasn't enough that Wario had to steal Mario's castle from him. In 1994 he went ahead and stole his rival's own series from him! Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 was the first game of the Wario Land series, and obviously it starred everyone's eventual favorite nose-picking, butt-scratching, fart-unleashing, garlic-eating plumber in an entirely new platforming adventure. Wario Land featured a new means of attacking: ground pounds, charges, chucking foes into other enemies, and more. Of the Super Mario Land games, the third installment unquestionably had the most replay value, with its secret levels, hidden treasures, and different ending castles for Wario that depend on how much coinage players gathered. Wario's debut starring role was a force to be reckoned with... just like one of his farts.

- The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening
On 3DS Virtual Console: Yes (The DX version)

There was nothing quite like getting an expansive world to explore like The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening's Koholint Island. The fact that you had a Zelda game with the same echelon of content as a Super Nintendo title, A Link to the Past, was mind-blowing to many. Sure, we take this for granted nowadays, as handhelds have improved exponentially over the years, but Link's Awakening is one of a prestigious group of Game Boy games that simply stand the test of time. Its unique combination of items, side quests, and areas like towns and dungeons to explore allowed players to become fully consumed by Koholint Island and its many wonders.

- Pokemon Red/Blue/Yellow
On 3DS Virtual Console: No

I remember reading about something called "Pocket Monsters" in an issue of Nintendo Power. The two page or so article showed the series of games launching in Japan and the ensuing ruckus that followed. A year later, I received a video tape in the mail from the magazine, all about Pokemon. When the games hit North America, I was in middle school, and I was completely immersed into the series. I played the games like an addict, I watched the anime, I collected the playing cards, and I even drew my own comic books based on the franchise. 15 years later and the Pokemon series is still going strong. I might not have anywhere near the amount of attachment to the series as I once had, but I can't fathom ever disliking it.

- Tetris
On 3DS Virtual Console: Yes

Before Wii Sports, there was a game that introduced plenty of non-gamers to the gaming side for just a brief moment. It was a bona fide system seller for many, and once players of all ages got their hands on it, minutes turned to hours in quick fashion. This Russian-made concept was simple: falling blocks of seven different shapes (five, if you don't count mirrored shapes) fell slowly from the top of the screen to the bottom. The goal was to piece blocks together to form a complete line, thus eliminating those blocks and giving the player points. Tetris has since had multiple ports and iterations on essentially every platform under the sun, and has gone on to sell over 170 million copies, most of which are digital. To say that Tetris is the most prolific puzzle game around would be no understatement whatsoever.

- Metroid II: Return of Samus
On 3DS Virtual Console: Yes

Samus Aran made her second appearance in Metroid II: Return of Samus. Her objective this time around was to eliminate every specie of Metroid on a harsh planet. Along the way Samus would uncover upgrades and abilities to increase the number of areas she could traverse in. While it's true that like the original Metroid before it, making a map is certainly helpful due to all of the identical-looking corridors and rooms, Metroid II: Return of Samus was still a fantastic first portable entry for Nintendo's femme fatale.

- Donkey Kong Land I-III
On 3DS Virtual Console: Yes (Japan Only, save for III)

You might scoff and sneer at the visuals of the Donkey Kong Land series today, but back then the trilogy wowed Game Boy owners with its impressive graphics. The original Donkey Kong Land implemented nearly everything concept-wise from the Super Nintendo's Donkey Kong Country. However, the levels and worlds were entirely different. Even new enemies showed up that were exclusive to that game. The sequels of Donkey Kong Land would utilize similar stories to their SNES counterparts, but the levels would be designed differently, despite sharing the same names. While the games haven't aged as gracefully as many of the other games on this list, we still hold a fondness for Rare's portable Donkey Kong Land trilogy.

- Donkey Kong
On 3DS Virtual Console: Yes

Not a straight up port of the popular arcade game but an entirely new challenging puzzle platformer, Donkey Kong released on the original Game Boy in 1994. While its first four levels were modeled after the four levels of the arcade game, once those were completed, the game showed its stuff. Levels consisted of Mario jumping, climbing, and hanging through obstacle-laden courses, with the goal of finding and carrying a key to a locked door somewhere in the level. The amount of new gameplay concepts constantly kept this 1994 version of Donkey Kong from becoming stale. The Game Boy Donkey Kong remains one of the best puzzle platformers ever devised, and if you're looking for a more recent take on the genre (but only after you've played this Game Boy game, of course), check out the Game Boy Advance's Mario vs. Donkey Kong.

- Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters
On 3DS Virtual Console: Yes

Pit returned to gaming with the Game Boy's Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters. The game was a marked improvement over its NES predecessor. For one, the challenge was more reasonable and fair. Climbing up the vertical levels and accidentally falling did not usually mean a lost life. Going off the screen at the bottom didn't kill you. Instead, the screen scrolled with you like a typical platformer. Of Myths and Monsters contained multi-room dungeons set up like labyrinths to keep players engaged and exploring. It was a shame that we didn't get to see the Kid Icarus franchise return to the public eye until decades later with Pit's appearance in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and his first starring role in 20 years with the 3DS' Kid Icarus: Uprising (great game, by the way).

- Kirby's Dream Land 2 
On 3DS Virtual Console: Yes

One of the hardest classic Kirby games is right here-- Kirby Dream Land 2. The game was a much longer game than what Game Boy owners had previously seen of the Kirby franchise. It implemented multiple animal pals to help Kirby in his adventure, and offered optional collectibles to unlock an alternate ending to the game. The real challenge came from keeping the necessary ability to unlock the way to said optional collectibles. Kirby's Dream Land 2 was a terrific title to give players who mock the difficulty of the Kirby series.

- Mole Mania
On 3DS Virtual Console: Yes

Shigeru Miyamoto was the brainchild behind this puzzle game. Mole Mania had players controlling (if it wasn't already obvious) a mole, as they played through eight worlds, venturing between the surface and burrowing underground in order to solve puzzles and make progress through the game. Mole Mania was deceptively simple at first, but even then, the concept was recognizably clever right from the start. Later worlds introduced harder puzzles, new mechanics, and plenty of head-scratching gameplay for all players of all skill levels to enjoy. It's about time we see a return to this game. You listening, Nintendo?!

- Final Fantasy Legend series
On 3DS Virtual Console: No

The Final Fantasy Legend series gave players an RPG adventure that was as meaty as a Behemoth. An embarrassment of class, equipment, and ability riches were available for players to outfit their characters in a myriad of means to best suit their play style. Although the three games of the series were obviously a little watered down compared to their console brethren, Final Fantasy Legend was an incredibly capable and competent RPG to engrossed in either on the go or at home.

- Mega Man V
On 3DS Virtual Console: Yes (Japan Only)

The wholly original Mega Man game for the Game Boy was Mega Man V. It had all original levels and Robot Masters to contend with, each based on a planet of the Solar System. The fifth and final Game Boy installment also showcased a new means of attack for Mega Man, the Mega Arm. Throughout the game, Mega Man could return to Dr. Light's laboratory to purchase items with special chips that were sprinkled about the game's eight initial levels. Also new was the ability to select from all eight stages upon the beginning of the game instead of just four at first (and then once those were completed, the other four opened up). Mega Man V may be only available on Japan's Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console service, but next month Capcom is releasing a slew of Mega Man games, including Mega Man V, for the service here in North America.

SuperPhillip Central's Favorite VGMs - A Fascination With Roman Numerals Edition

SuperPhillip Central is here on this lovely Monday morning to pump up the jams-- video game jams, that is. This week we're all about games with roman numerals in their titles. All of these games are sequels to well known series. We have Saints Row, Street Fighter, God of War, Breath of Fire, and Final Fantasy to satiate your thirst for great video game music. If that somehow doesn't, however, why not check out our VGM Database? It contains every theme we've ever put under the spotlight in this weekly segment.

v606. Saints Row IV (PS3, 360, PC) - Main Theme

What better way to kick off the first morning of the work week than with some dubstep? Now, we must admit that we aren't the biggest fans of this more modern musical genre, but we can't help but enjoy Saints Row: The Third's main theme given a dubstep makeover.

v607. Street Fighter II (SNES) - Guile's Theme

This is apparently the song that goes with everything. You've most likely heard or read that if you frequent the Internet and its underbelly. This triumphant theme for the patriotic American fighter Guile, gets the body energized and primed for battle! Now excuse us while we go home and be family men.

v608. God of War III (PS3) - Rage of Sparta

We need to drop a bomb on you. Kratos of the God of War series is the type of antihero that we absolutely despise. He's always angry, he's always a jerk, and he does both of those things obnoxiously well. Still, it is way too much fun hacking and slash foes into huge combos, exploring majestic palaces, temples, and mountains, and hearing all of it backed by this chilling score.

v609. Breath of Fire III (PS1) - The Insane Warriors

Played in the battle arena, Breath of Fire III's The Insane Warriors definitely has a 90's feel to it. This jazzy piece has a really nice beat to it, consists of quick motifs, and gets the toes a-tappin'. A port of this PlayStation One classic arrived on the PSP. However, only PAL and Japanese markets received it. All others needed to import, which could be rather expensive.

v610. Final Fantasy XII (PS2) - Ending Movie

Longtime series composer Nobuo Uematsu only wrote one piece for Final Fantasy XII. The majority of the rest of the music was composed by Hitoshi Sakimoto, whose credits include Final Fantasy Tactics, Vagrant Story, and more recently Valkyria Chronicles. This symphonic masterpiece does Final Fantasy XII's climactic ending supreme justice. It's stirring, riveting, and makes one's pulse pound with its excitement.

Kirby: Triple Deluxe (3DS) North American TV Commercial

What an interesting approach to a Kirby commercial! The music selection sounds more like something to be heard for a Zelda game or Fire Emblem game. Somehow, though, it works really well and put a smile on our faces. Kirby: Triple Deluxe releases May 2 in North America, the same day as Mario Golf: World Tour. Nintendo is pulling off a one-two punch to kick off the month of May.

Resistance: Burning Skies (Vita) Review

The first dual analog shooter on a handheld device... Should be great, right? Well, it's not great, but it did show a lot of promise for the genre on Sony's portable system. Here's our review of Resistance: Burning Skies.

Resistance is Futile. And Passable. 

One of Sony's more recent franchises that certainly hasn't been giving its worthy due is Resistance. Instead, Sony has been more focused on Killzone, another first-person shooter franchise, albeit one that predates Resistance. That said, we've always cared more about the PlayStation 3 debuting shooter series rather than Killzone. Perhaps the setting of Resistance, the story, the characters, the action, the weaponry, and no Rico have something to do with that. Regardless, Resistance finds its way to the PlayStation Vita, serving as the first ever handheld first-person shooter with dual analog controls. While Resistance: Burning Skies does make it clear that Sony's PlayStation Vita is perfect for first-person shooters, it doesn't make it a great game in the end.

Short animated comic book cutscenes chronicle the plight that the U.S. and humanity in general is currently facing with the Chimeran horde. You take the role of Tom Riley, a firefighter who simply wants to be reunited with his loving wife and darling daughter. Of course, this journey meets various speed bumps, mostly because Riley wishes to save every person he ever encounters. Then again, you have to make things interesting in a story, right? Unfortunately, Burning Skies' story does little to entertain regardless. It's mostly dull, uninteresting, and the characters do little to make you care about them.

It's sometimes a challenge to write captions for
FPS screens, since all you're doing is shooting stuff.

What is also rather dull is the gameplay. Now, while Resistance: Burning Skies definitely proves that the PlayStation Vita with its dual analog sticks are great for first-person shooters, the game is by no means a textbook example of how a portable shooter should be. This is mostly to do with most enemy encounters and level design.

In the console Resistance games, the Chimera are very aggressive in taking you down. This is not the case in Burning Skies. Enemies are much smaller in number, they seldom come after you, and really, all one needs to do to vanquish them is to lay low behind cover and occasionally pop up to fire. You can alternately simply run up to them and use your one-hit KO move, an axe strike, to put the Chimera in their place. The fact that you are invincible in the KO animation makes battles much easier to regain your health in.

The problems go into level design as well. Far too many times you're battling in the confines of corridors and hallways. When the action happens in more open areas, Burning Skies' action shines more brightly. Enemies, though as seldom as they do so, can run over to where you're hiding and shoot at you. The first 3/4 of the game relies heavily on corridor design. The latter quarter of Burning Skies has much more interesting rooms, offering unique offensive and defensive options for players to utilize. The variety of foes that you face at one time also gets a boost, making confrontations less of a grind and more of an exciting proposition.

Okay. I'll try to come up with a caption here.
Uh... "These bullets in your face will make it look better!"
...I don't know if that one went well or not.

Of course, you can't just take down the whole Chimeran army with just Tom's axe. There are eight weapons to acquire throughout the duration of Burning Skies' campaign. There's the traditional Resistance fare, such as the Auger, which fires bullets through walls; and the Bullseye, an automatic rifle that can tag enemies and thus home shots in on them.

While most of the guns aren't really as inventive as past Resistance games, where the real fun comes in is with the secondary fire functions of each weapon. One weapon's secondary fire has a drone launching from it, shooting at all enemies until it hits a wall. Others allow you to target multiple enemies at once with a rocket launcher, or a crossbow that grants you an explosive shot. The more complicated battles require you to shuffle between multiple weapons to survive. This is all the while moving from cover to cover, dodging a barrage of bullets in the process.

Let's try this again.
"Nice arm. Lose a bet?"
Ehhhhh......

These secondary functions all require the player to interact with the touch screen. For example, the aforementioned rocket launcher can blast out a deluge of rockets at a number of enemies simultaneously by dragging your finger over each desired target. The crossbow gets armed with an explosive round by sliding your finger in a downward diagonal direction. This is also how grenades are thrown, and while these mandatory touch screen moments may seem gimmicky and difficult to ascertain, once you've gotten them down, they feel completely natural, and dare I say even fun.

Through acquiring hidden blue cubes strewn across the campaign levels, you can customize the various guns of the game. You can only have two cubes equipped to a single gun. Therefore, of the six different upgrades available, you can only have two equipped on a gun at the same time. Whether it's faster reload speeds, greater explosions, or less recoil (just to name a few), you can tailor your arsenal to fit your play style.

The campaign itself spans seven missions with multiple chapters to them. The game can be completed in about five hours, but there's collectibles in the form of files to obtain. Though these simply add more background  into an already boring story. Multiple difficulty levels are also available to attempt. However, these just make Tom Riley less of a bullet sponge and do nothing in the way of making enemies smarter or the level design more interesting. Heck, there's not even much enticement in playing on any mode than easy due to the fact that there are no difficulty-related trophies, if you're into that sort of thing.

There is, however, multiplayer to keep players coming back if they so wish. This offers up to eight players the chance to participate in three modes for online play: standard deathmatch,  team deathmatch, and a survival mode where every killed player turns into a Chimera, and the round ends when all humans are eliminated. As you play and win more matches, you earn experience that grants you new weapons from the campaign to use in battle.

One could say multiplayer adds some value,
but there's now better offerings available on the Vita.

Maps are generally small, but they are interesting in their design, something that surprised me considering the campaign's less than impressive approach to its levels. There's always a feeling of pressure in the multiplayer, as your character can die within a few shots, but at the same time, other players can be killed just as quickly, too. This ends up with less experienced players seeing their character down on the ground dead more than seeing them standing upright.

When it concerns Resistance: Burning Skies' visuals, there is nothing here that pushes the Vita hardware at all. Downed enemies have their corpses disappear soon after hitting the ground, levels are full of drab colors, and character models aren't very exciting to look at. As for sound, the majority of what plays during the campaign and multiplayer is purely ambient, environmental noises with little in the way of music. This simply adds to the dullness of the entire game, unfortunately.

I guess if I were to try to pinpoint the biggest problem area of Resistance: Burning Skies, it would be that it by no means at all translates the riveting urgency and gravitas of the original Resistance trilogy well at all to the PlayStation Vita. Encounters aren't anywhere near as compelling and as tense as what can be found on the PlayStation 3's installments, and even the terrific PSP entry, Resistance: Retribution. That's not to say that Resistance: Burning Skies is a bad game. It's really not. It's just not that good of a game either. Now with Killzone: Mercenary out, there's really no reason to pay any attention to Burning Skies anymore, unless you are a big fan of the series like I am. Even then, I can't help but feel that Nihilistic's take on the franchise is anything but a disappointment. These skies burn more like annoying hemorrhoids rather than with any kind of interesting passion

[SPC Says: 5.0/10]

ModNation Racers: Road Trip (Vita) Review

Our month of the PlayStation Vita continues with this review of the latest in the ModNation Racers series. This second portable title boasts more features, a better presentation, and lots of options for players. Here's our review.

Cocky little speed freaks!

The PlayStation Vita's launch lineup consists of some exceptional titles, all building up and adding together to create one seriously powerful library of games right from the get-go. While some are better than others, there's no doubting the quality of what the Vita came out with right out of the gate. Various franchises that hit the PlayStation 3 have seen Vita versions, such as Uncharted, Hot Shots Golf, WipEout, among others. Another such series is that of ModNation Racers. With powerful hardware behind it, increased customization options, and the unique features of the Vita to work with, ModNation Racers: Road Trip should be an exceptional kart racer. Unfortunately, Road Trip hits a few speed bumps along the way, not quite crossing the finish line in first place.

ModNation Racers: Road Trip forgoes the story of starting off as a nobody racer and slowly becoming champion that the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portables games contained. Instead, there is no story to speak off. Biff and whatever that other guy's name was don't even do commentary anymore. They aren't even in the game for the most part, outside of billboards.

Don't mind me, I'm just a Sunday driver.

Anyway, what is present now is Tour Mode. This encapsulates five different tours of five races each. (There's a sixth unlockable tour that is unlocked when certain conditions are met.) The objective is to come out with the greatest amount of points after all five races are complete. However, this isn't set up like Mario Kart, where it's one race after another. No, you simply choose a race and you can retry it as many times as you like. You can even choose to come back to that race and try it later.

Like past ModNation Racers games, each race has three challenges to complete in order to unlock Mod parts, kart parts, and track pieces for the creation sections of the game. These challenges include things like not hitting a wall for one lap, hitting five opponents with items, racking up a special amount of drift points, and other things that will make you not just race for the checkered flag, but to do so with some style.

Take three shortcuts in a race?
I've got this.

Racing is what you'd expect out of an arcade style kart racer with some alterations to make things feel fresh. For one, the racing controls feel tight and responsive. You don't really feel like you're out of control unless you're taking a boost at a strange angle. When you drift around corners and turns, not only are you slightly faster and able to take these corners in a better way, but you fill up a special meter. This meter stores energy that allows you to either boost or shield yourself against oncoming attacks. Yes, even those that go after first place can be avoided if you have enough meter juice to shield yourself with.

Additionally, pulling off midair tricks
also helps to fill your meter.

Of course, you can unleash attacks on your fellow ModNation racers yourself with weapon pods strewn about each of the game's thirty tracks. There are different categories of items, each represented by a different color. Speeding across one weapon pod will give you a level one attack. Collecting a second weapon pod (which will always be the same color as the first pod you drove across) will beef that up to a level two attack. A third weapon pod will obviously strengthen your item to a level three.

Eat my dust!
It's high in fiber.

For example, collecting a red weapon pod will give you a missile shot that shoots straight out and explodes when it hits another opponent or a wall. Collecting a second red weapon pod (pending you haven't used your level one attack) allows you to use a lock-on missile that serves as a homing attack to one racer. Finally, a level three attack fires a barrage of homing missiles on every racer in front of you. Weapons from pods can also be exchanged for meter energy instead of being used on other racers.

The biggest asset to ModNation Racers: Road Trip is its abundance of features that allow you to create creative Mods (the racers that drive vehicles), karts, and tracks that can be shared and downloaded online by different players. The thing here is that in order to get the really good customization options, you need to complete the numerous challenges in Tour mode.

There are about eight different themes
for Road Trip's tracks.

Mod and kart creation is simple enough, offering a myriad of customization options, parts, and color options to make sure that no two creations are ever alike. You can really create some truly incredible stuff. The community has made various Mods, karts, and tracks based off of other video game franchises, comic books, film and TV, and much more.

Hmm... You look familiar.
Did we go to high school together?

Creating tracks in this installment of ModNation Racers has never been easier thanks in part to the various technology featured in the PlayStation Vita. For instance, placing down props like trees and buildings is as easy as sliding your finger across a section of the landscape. Hills and props can be enlarged and shrunk down via putting two fingers on top of the feature and either spreading them apart or pinching your fingers together.

Track creation itself is a breeze. You can either create the track by driving around, making a path behind your driving path, or you can simply use your finger on an overhead view of the available land mass to draw a track. I prefer the latter option. If you're feeling lazy, you can even have the game auto-populate your track with props. I use this method myself, but I think tinker with the track's surroundings and props to suit the type of track I want to make.

One of my own creations,
Central City Circuit.

The biggest downside to this edition of ModNation Racers is that there is nothing in the way of simultaneous online play. What made the PS3 original and even LittleBigPlanet Karting so fun was that you could create your own designs, whether they be Mods, karts, or tracks, and race with or on them with other players. It was an absolutely awesome experience. While owners of Road Trip can download, rate, review, and play with or on your creations, you just can't play online with others. Instead, the developers have included asynchronous gameplay, even going so far to say it's an experience just like an arcade but without losing all those quarters. This pretty equals glorified leaderboards on tracks, and that is pretty much it. It's rather disappointing.

You just couldn't wait until the end
of May for your own kart racer, could you?

ModNation Racers: Road Trip also suffers from severe pop in, poor draw distance, and extreme cases of slowdown, where the frame-rate noticeably chugs during races. These performance issues certainly didn't ruin my enjoyment of the game, but they will bother other players much more than they did with me. However, one part of the game that did bother me was the sometimes unresponsive menus. I recall having to tap on icons more than once to get them to register. Highly annoying, as you can't use the d-pad or the buttons in most menus for a much nicer user experience.

Still, what ModNation Racers: Road Trip lacks in polish, it makes up for with all of its customization options and solid gameplay. It's genuinely fun to race on your own designed tracks as well as the game's already built Tour mode tracks, and speed through turns and shortcuts with your created Mods and karts. The omission of true online play is indeed a glaring one, but I still believe ModNation Racers: Road Trip is definitely a worthwhile kart racing game that does the ModNation Racers series and the kart racing genre as a whole due service. Rev up your engines and take to the pavement, as this Road Trip is worth taking.

[SPC Says: 8.0/10]