The adventures of Solid Snake continue as you take your adventure to the depths of Africa to find the stolen Metal Gear prototype.  In what is a nice blend of the original Metal Gear for the MSX and Metal Gear Solid for the PlayStation, Metal Gear Solid (GBC) brings a unique take to the Game Boy Color.  You control the game from a top down/isometric view utilizing all the tricks you’ve learned from every game.  You will also fight crazy bosses, escape life and death situations, and deadly traps.  Along the way you will also meet a crazy crew of characters to help you on your path.  Above all, though, this is a sneaking mission so try not to get caught!

Visuals:

Man this game looks so fucking good for it being on the Game Boy Color.  Not only is the animation of Solid Snake super fluid but the cutscenes are super detailed for what they’re able to show.  The screen also gives you all the necessary information needed to complete your mission.  Your HUD includes your life, a soliton radar, and two items.  The environments, while sparse, can be super detailed depending on the situation with Snake being a nice scale figure to show how open the world is.  I really can’t get over how this game looks.  I think it looks incredible.  Especially for being a GBC game.  I would have loved this back in 2000.

Audio:

Here is where the game takes a little bit of a hit.  Gone is the voice acting done in the last game, obviously, but you do get some pretty nice music.  You also get the typical “dubadubaduba” when people are talking but it gets kind of annoying with how much talking is in the game.  Back to the music, while there are some pretty cool beats they do get repetitive after a while.  Luckily there is enough variety to not make it entirely monotonous but some of them are quite a lot to take in.

Completion:

I FINISHED THIS GAME!  This game was so cool for being on the GBC.  It’s a shame it is looked at as the black sheep of the franchise because it doesn’t deserve it.  It was doing something highly ambitious for the system and could have added more to the fiction of Metal Gear but that isn’t the case.  The design of the characters also look super cool and completely different…kind of more anime.  It’s nice to see that the GBC got this game but it was stuck on the system for a quarter of a century.  It really is nice to see it will be getting its roses when it comes out for the Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 2.

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A three-click golf game involving Mario and friends. When I mean “three-click” I mean that you press the A button once to begin your swing, press it again at the zenith [or the max you want to hit], and press it one last time to set your accuracy. All of these clicks will allow your hit to go the furthest possible while maintaining a straight line. On the GBC this makes sense since analog swinging really wouldn’t work for this tiny little handheld. You also have all types of modes to play but I always tend to stick to the stroke play.

Visuals:

For a portable golf game it’s not really bad looking it just really doesn’t have any flash to it. The characters are big and the holes do what they need to do but it’s just boring in general. There are little cutscenes sprinkled throughout the game depending on what you do but they become very repetitive.

Audio:

Just your basic bleeps and bloops as well as normal jaunty background music to make the game not seem tedious. I do love the little noise when a new hole tells you it’s going to be windy. That’s fun.

Overview:

I did alright in the 9 holes I played. I made a few birdies, one bogey, and the rest were pars. It’s not a particularly hard game but rather there’s just so much information they’re trying to fit on the little screen. The greens, specifically. As I said at the outset, it’s doing what it can for the GBC.

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DKC is a side scrolling platforming game where you take control of Donkey Kong & Diddy Kong as you go through levels/lands to get back your banana horde which has been stolen! If you’ve played DKC for the Super Nintendo you know what you’re getting into. I think all of the levels are represented as are all the bosses and such. There really isn’t anything new to add except it’s on the Game Boy Color.

Visuals:

This is where the game shines, for what it is. It’s a faithful reproduction of DKC on the GBC…BBD. The sprits and backgrounds can get lost a little bit with each other but that’s to be expected when a game of this magnitude is scaled down. It was already pushing the limits on the SNES. The use of color is well done as everything is distinct based on what it is: a banana is yellow, Diddy Kong’s hat is red, etc. It also runs really well with no slowdown at all. Not bad for the little hardware that could.

Audio:

Like the visuals, this is also a great scale down of what was done on the SNES. All the tunes are there in their chiptune glory. It’s DKC.

Completion:

I FINISHED THIS GAME! It took a long time and a bunch of restarts, redos, frustration, and patience…but I completed it. It made me realize how much of a shit DKC is as a game. It’s borderline unfair as so many things are just one hit kills and just death traps. It doesn’t help the characters get lost in the environments one too many times. Either way, it’s done. I’ll get to see how the SNES version compares when I eventually get to that game in the future!

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