CiB Game Boy Theater - Muhammad Ali's Boxing and Dennis the Mennace (Episode 30)
0The Original Game Boy is one of the biggest 'game changers' in the history of video games, and essentially ushered in the popularity of handheld games. There are many games that will be classic forever. There are, however, a much, much higher number of simply awful, forgettable, or downright weird games. CiB Game Boy Theater shows you some of the games you might not (and shouldn't be...) familiar with.
Oh great, another boxing game. Let's start with the good - tons of fighters to choose from (I would bet 5 US Dollars they are almost exactly the same gameplay-wise), the graphics are pretty nice, and the ring scrolling when you move around it really -is- a nice touch.
The negatives - WHAT is this gameplay? Why can I throw 500 punches, land 75, and not get a knockout. What am I supposed to do??? Stand farther away? Stand closer? There are two buttons - A and B. Start pauses it, select does nothing (that I can tell). So, I ask you, ever developer that made a boxing game for the Game Boy - HOW are you SUPPOSED to WIN???? *screams internally* NEXT!
Dennis the Menace - I wanted to say something positive about this game - I mean, the controls aren't... the worst. The graphics are... okay.
But look at this, ANOTHER game where they could have made it just a fun platformer. Too bad no games have ever been fun platformers before 1993. OH WAIT, EVERY MARIO GAME.
But no: they had to make it one of those 'where do I go?' games. 1 minute in, and I am already frustrated. No mini-map, no obvious idea as to where to go (hint: it's not straight to the right). I mean honestly, look at how many Game Boy games ended up being pretty decently fun, just because they were standard platformers --- Speedy Gonzales, Animaniacs, Taz --- games that by all accounts are very average, were, dare-I-say-it, FUN because they were simple platformers.
But if you take a game that would be averagely fun, and make it a 'where do I go?' game, you just ruined the game. It's ruined. No kid is going to want to play it, it stinks, it's bad, it is terrible, and I'll turn it off in 2 minutes.
Hopefully... things will get better (they... won't....). Thanks for watching!