Episode 303: Game Boy Color

Secret best MGS game.

Great episode. Something that is overlooked when people talk about the Game Boy Color is that it was a rare time when Nintendo really became a publisher. If you go through the release list of all the games released on the platform, the games mentioned in the podcast stand out, of course, but you also come across a surprisingly long list of titles that Nintendo took it upon themselves to publish in each territory. You can see similar patterns with Nintendo-published games on the N64, but I feel it's even more pronounced on the GBC. Among many others, you get Kaijin Zona (Phantom Zona) and Monster Tactics--two unique games from two unknown Japanese developers. In the US, Nintendo published a lot of licensed games, such as Rare's Mickey racing games, Digital Eclipse's Disney games, and Star Wars Episode 1: Racer. as well as the Left Field and Software Creations' sports games. And then you had games like the European exclusive Pocket Soccer, plus other games such as Pocket Bomberman, Warlocked, Shadowgate Classic, and Quest for Camelot, among many others. Sure, you can argue that this was not really a magnanimous move by Nintendo to help small- to mid-size developers; the realities of the market around the time of the N64 and the GBC probably drove most of these decisions. Still, despite some average games in there, I'm glad that Nintendo chose to publish these games. I really wonder if we'd have gotten to play games such as Monster Tactics otherwise.

David

Growing up in broke ass Bulgaria Game Boys were a thing only for the rich kids or those whose parents worked abroad. The others had to make the best of their gaming childhood with NES clones at home and the occasional Sega Mega Drive club until PC and PSX gaming overtook everything with illegal game clubs in the basements of basically every post-socialist living block in your area. However, when I was somewhere around 10th grade a friend went to work on the seaside and she found a green game boy color on the beach with Tetris inside. She came back and she gave it to me as a gift. Couldn’t believe it, after all these years. It’s still working and I’m still loving it; if it weren’t for the GBA SP it would’ve been the console with the most epic battery life ever. As you said in the end of the episode GBC for me is kind of a part of the lifespan of GB and it’s such a beautiful one. From all these years of watching video ads about it on German television to the very moment when my friend gave me the one she found buried in the sand on a Black Sea beach... GBC forever. Thanks for this episode, inspiring as usual.

Angel S.

My first system I ever owned. I played plenty of SNES/Genesis/N64 thanks to relatives & my local Best Buy, but my parents didn't buy me one out of fear that I'd be too distracted from my schoolwork. In December of 1998, during Pokémania, they finally got me one as a goldfish test of sorts. Unfortunately, since aunts/uncles got me my starting library, I didn't get Pokémon Red until early the following year.

Bennett Billard

It’s synchronicity! Just started digging into my GBC backlog this month. Finally started MGS yesterday after letting it sit in a drawer for the better part of a decade. My loss for having not played it sooner.

James Ryall

Had the see-through Atomic Purple GBC. It solidified my love for see-through cases on handhelds and consoles.

Jared Blankenship