Posted by Brad.
Why gameboy love? Well, because with all the fuss over the new consoles and the DS/PSP, it should be realized that gameboy still has some lovin’ left to do. That and I love the gameboy advance so very much. I can say I’ve spent more time playing gameboy games than any other games… Several of my games have over 100 hours actual gametime on the clock.
So enough about my lack of a life up until a few years ago, let’s get to these new little pieces of love.
First we have the stateside release of Summon Night: Swordcraft Story. Brought over by Atlus, it’s a rock-solid dungeon crawler with heavy emphasis on weapon creation, as the name suggests. It’s pretty hefty, as I’m about six hours through it and I feel as though I’ve only finished about a quarter of the storyline. After that there’s apparently plenty of play value in collecting weapons, and finishing the 100 level basement. Overall the controls are tight, the gameplay good as gold, and on the whole of it has a feel of Tales of Phantasia. The casting system is easy to use, and the whole thing just flows. Seldom do I feel so compelled to play a game, just to get a character stronger. In that sense, it’s got a sort of MMORPG growth feel to it. Little storyline to accompany the action, but the game doesn’t need it, and in that it’s spot on.
This time I actually provided my own images!
Next we have the wonderful, wonderful bit generations series. I’ve picked up the titles Digidrive and Coloris from my friendly neighborhood importer, and they are very fun despite being described as basic.
Digidrive is my favorite game among the second installment in the bit generations line. It’s a game based on directing traffic. The controls are simple, the only buttons used are the D-pad and the occasional press of the A button. There exists a playfield resembling a four-way intersection, where pixelated traffic comes and goes. It’s your job to direct the traffic into the correct lanes with icons of the same type. When you get five of a kind stacked in a lane, the affinity of the lane is made to that icon type. Continue to get stacks of five of that type, and a gauge fills. Muck it up with a different icon, and your gauge is kaput, and drained into other gauges you may have running. If you have no other gauges, tough luck. The progress of the game is displayed on the right, where you have disc and a sort of rotor thing. All guages that get put into play propel the disc forward away from the rotor fiend. The rotor moves forward with time. Gauges are put into play either through a trance stage or an ambulance. A trance stage occurs when all four lanes hold an affinity. Traffic moves swiftly, making it your job to sort through them. All icons go directly to the gauge, rather than waiting for four of their comrades. This mode is excellent for building gauges, and it’s over when you mess up (and you will, it gets speedy quite quickly). The gauge you mess up is put to propelling your disc, and you’re rewarded with an ambulance piece. Ambulance pieces allow you to put any lane into play you choose. Simply press A to activate your piece, and put it into the lane you want to play. That’s the beautiful game in a nutshell.
I sacrificed my white lane for this screenshot, be thankful.
It plays like a champ, and it’s addicting as all get out. All that you’re going for is a high score of how far you’ve propelled your disc. There’s a good amount of unlockable color sets as well. If you’re a fan of arcade-type games where there is no final boss besides your own high score, you’ve come to the right place. The game holds potential for different strategies, and could be a cult favorite in a few years.
And then we’re left with Coloris. Coloris is a fairly simple puzzle game where your task is to put tiles in groups of threes on a large playfield. Think bejeweled. Play comes through color. Every turn you have a different color swatch, and it’s up to you where to decided to put this color. As can be understood, play your red swatch on a yellow tile, and it becomes organge. Blue and yellow to green, so on and so forth. But take a tile and a swatch that are across on the old color wheel, such as purple and yellow, and that tile goes out of play until you can free it up. There’s level clearing and score modes, and it’s quite fun.
Brame thinks I’ve typed an ungodly amount already, so I’ll stop while I’m ahead. Until next time, when I’ll take a look at bit generations: Dialhex, Rhythm Tengoku, and Yggdra Union, this is Brad, signing off.
Import Sites I use. I usually go for NCSX, as the shipping is cheaper as the warehouse is in the states. The others have a larger selection and stock, though.
NCSX / Play Asia / Lik-sang
And I say hey~ hey~ hey~ he~yay~ What’s going on?
