The reason I played this is because it was made available on Nintendo Switch Online. Now, I'm not stupid. Okay, having an NSO sub is kind of stupid, but ignore that for now. I know that there are endless different ways to play old games for free. I have multiple different programs and modded consoles for this exact purpose. Right now, if I wanted to, I could play literally any Game Boy game I wanted to on my PC or my Vita or my 3DS. But if there's one thing that a subscription service can be useful for, it's curation. Very little subscription services actually do this, and Nintendo definitely doesn't always do it well, but it can make all the difference to have a service actually care about what it's providing to the user. A lot of times I stare at a giant list of ROMs on my PC to play and end up playing nothing, sometimes I need someone to tell me "well why don't you play one of these games" and Nintendo did that. I probably would have never given the Game and Watch Gallery games a shot because from the outside they seem to just be what the title says, compilations of old Game & Watch games, probably not anything all that engaging. But now, I think I need to play all of these games.
You know how people talk about graphics peaking at the PS2 and everything afterwards being unnecessary? I think I'm becoming that person but specifically in regards to pixel art and the GBC. I adore the look of this game, the colors are so vibrant and the pixel art is all incredibly expressive and detailed while working within the limitations of the system. This not only makes for a great looking game, but one that can also showcase how expressive the original LCD games managed to be despite being made up of a very limited amount of still images. That also extends to how they play. Each minigame, while having a simple premise, has a lot little nuances, ways to get bonus points, ways each one encourages you to take more risks while always keeping the player engaged and changing things up. The best minigames in this collection are the ones that are essentially spinning plates: having to maintain multiple parts of the screen, having the player constantly switch their attention to different parts of it and punishing them for being negligent to any part of the minigame. Mario Bros and Greenhouse are the stand outs for this reason, and it makes sense since their classic versions are already great as well (Greenhouse Classic even has more score bonus opportunities than the modern version). The other minigames are mostly good, thought I'd argue Egg and Turtle Bridge have better classic versions, and Donkey Kong Jr feels like an even more ungraceful version of the arcade game, so it's better to just leave that one alone.
Where this game is more consistent is in its soundtrack. In a game that encourages playing each minigame up to the score limit, the music better be good enough to be listened to over and over again, and it most certainly is here. No track slacks, and it's nearly all original stuff as far as I can tell, so it doesn't really on playing the usual Mario fare either. This game also does a great job at providing context for these Game and Watch games, and helping the player appreciate them more than they would if just handed a boring port of the original, something a lot of game compilations fail to do. There's a museum with light trivia, but I mean more in the way that the modern versions of these games highlight what was already great in them, and so going back to the classic version doesn't feel like a downgrade so much as just another way to play. It helps the player see why these LCD games were popular, what made them stand out as games, it gives them value that could be lost if you engaged with them outside of this compilation.
This game was such a surprise, I never would have guessed how fun I found this. Hey, if you have an NSO sub, this is worth checking out, and hopefully they add more to the service. Or I mean, I could just go play them right now myself. Or play literally anything ever, actually. Or I could just sink more time trying to get all five stars in Greenhouse. Life is full of decisions, is the lesson here today.
You know how people talk about graphics peaking at the PS2 and everything afterwards being unnecessary? I think I'm becoming that person but specifically in regards to pixel art and the GBC. I adore the look of this game, the colors are so vibrant and the pixel art is all incredibly expressive and detailed while working within the limitations of the system. This not only makes for a great looking game, but one that can also showcase how expressive the original LCD games managed to be despite being made up of a very limited amount of still images. That also extends to how they play. Each minigame, while having a simple premise, has a lot little nuances, ways to get bonus points, ways each one encourages you to take more risks while always keeping the player engaged and changing things up. The best minigames in this collection are the ones that are essentially spinning plates: having to maintain multiple parts of the screen, having the player constantly switch their attention to different parts of it and punishing them for being negligent to any part of the minigame. Mario Bros and Greenhouse are the stand outs for this reason, and it makes sense since their classic versions are already great as well (Greenhouse Classic even has more score bonus opportunities than the modern version). The other minigames are mostly good, thought I'd argue Egg and Turtle Bridge have better classic versions, and Donkey Kong Jr feels like an even more ungraceful version of the arcade game, so it's better to just leave that one alone.
Where this game is more consistent is in its soundtrack. In a game that encourages playing each minigame up to the score limit, the music better be good enough to be listened to over and over again, and it most certainly is here. No track slacks, and it's nearly all original stuff as far as I can tell, so it doesn't really on playing the usual Mario fare either. This game also does a great job at providing context for these Game and Watch games, and helping the player appreciate them more than they would if just handed a boring port of the original, something a lot of game compilations fail to do. There's a museum with light trivia, but I mean more in the way that the modern versions of these games highlight what was already great in them, and so going back to the classic version doesn't feel like a downgrade so much as just another way to play. It helps the player see why these LCD games were popular, what made them stand out as games, it gives them value that could be lost if you engaged with them outside of this compilation.
This game was such a surprise, I never would have guessed how fun I found this. Hey, if you have an NSO sub, this is worth checking out, and hopefully they add more to the service. Or I mean, I could just go play them right now myself. Or play literally anything ever, actually. Or I could just sink more time trying to get all five stars in Greenhouse. Life is full of decisions, is the lesson here today.
2 Comments
This isn't really an important part of the review, per se, but the reason you played this game is why I appreciate the way NSO retro games are structured/curated. There's definitely a lot of people who both have and will be trying games they never would have given the time of day otherwise-- and I think that's awesome.
Vee
1 year ago