One Less Thing To Make You Go Blind - Game Boy Player
Written: Sep 14 '03
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Play thousands of Game Boy games on your television
Cons: Only one color for 3 different colored Cubes? Ya idjits...
The Bottom Line: For the Cynics that call the GameCube an accessory for the GBA - this probably proves it.
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| awoolcott's Full Review: Game Boy Player for Gamecube |
In theory, the Game Boy is probably the greatest creation for gamers, especially the ones who are on the go a lot. Letting you take games on the road or to *ahem* work is a great way to pass time and keep playing when you're away from your game systems. However, what becomes of the Game Boy while you're home? Sure, you could play it (in bed, during a power outage, when someone is occupying the television watching Lifetime or something), but when you have your television and systems available, the GB tends to collect plenty of dust (well, mine does anyway) while at home.
Many years ago, Nintendo saw this need and created the Super Game Boy, a SNES cartridge that played all Game Boy games, putting many of the black & white carts into a crude form of color as well. The device was a tad clunky and fairly underutilized, and the rise of the Game Boy Color (which had a library of color games that were incompatible with the B&W Super Game Boy 75% of the time) pretty much eliminated the need for the device.
Here in the present though, Nintendo has tried again with much better results, with the GameCube accessory called Game Boy Player. By allowing hookup to a Cube, all 1 billion or so GB carts, color or not, along with the library of Game Boy Advance software are playable through your television and in excellent fashion. This is no cookie cutter hardware - the GBP works beautifully and brings all your GB/A games to life on your television. At $50, it's even cheaper than a GBA or a GBA SP, so if you have no interest in playing the games on the actual Game Boy, but would like to play many GBA games, the Game Boy Player is the best thing that could happen. It's a great device that harkens back to the day when Nintendo did no wrong.
You get 2 items within the GBP package (one of those Godforsaken blister packs that is unopenable without the use of power tools and a vast knowledge of the 4 letter words) - the Game Boy play disc, and the actual player itself. The player is the same footprint as the GameCube, as it easily settles underneath the Cube using the matching attachment port next to the slot for your online adapter (har, har, Nintendo online adapter, insert your own jokes here). A couple of screw tightenings later, your player is up and running. All that's needed is for you to pop in the disc to boot up the player, insert the GBA game you want to play, and power on the Cube. It's mind-bogglingly simple.
The only thing I dislike about the GBP package is the decision to not release the thing in different colors. In Japan, there was a GBP released for every color that the Cube has been made in, but here in the US they passed on it. So, I have a huge black brick under my platinum Cube, creating a two-tone finish that I'm not sure looks good or not (after all, there's also a black broadband adapter that I wasted $35 on adding a weird design to the mix). The only workaround is to buy a platinum Japanese Player, and use the US boot disc to make it work (or Freeloader), and that costs a bit too much money for a silly Game Boy converter. Hopefully Nintendo will get the hint and release in platinum later on, long as the device actually sells.
Other than that, there's little really wrong with the Game Boy Player. Playing the games is simple, as all the buttons on the Cube pad are on the GBA with the exception of Select (which is mapped to Y or X on the Cube controller). If the Cube pad isn't what you want to use, you can hook up a GBA to use as a controller, but that wipes batteries. The best idea is to import a Hori controller from your favorite import store; shaped like a Super Nintendo controller, this $20 wonder makes playing your Game Boy Player feel more like playing the SNES.
Switching carts is easy as well, as the GBP stays on while you hot swap the cartridges, using the eject button on the side of the device (please though, no vaulting carts out of the slot; as fun as it is to see crappy Game Boy games like WWE Road to Wrestlemania X8 go flying across the game room, it could put an eye out). As soon as the new game is plugged in, the game starts up automatically.
The only other thing that needs attention is the graphical translation and how to manage it. By default the game has a border around it, to create an image of playing it on a Game Boy. You can however stretch the screen to make the game play without the borders, but it looks stretched out and crappy, so you'll go back to the 20 different borders pretty fast. You can also adjust the sharpness of the image, though from what I could tell, it isn't all that noticeable. Finally, many games seem awfully bright and faded. Naturally, the reason for this is because they had to brighten up the games to be visible on the GBA, and since a TV doesn't need this, the effect is created. This can be solved by adjusting your television, making it a pretty moot point.
The Bottom Line
Really, the only thing to mention about the quality of the Game Boy Player is this - it works. And it works well. Nintendo did an excellent job of creating hardware that plays thousands of other games on your television, and enabling many to actually finish their Game Boy games that might never have been beaten due to near-blindness of looking a tiny screen all the time. The only "flaws" with the Player are mere nitpicks that probably won't apply to many (such as those who have a jet black GCN), as the Game Boy Player simply does what it promises - play Game Boy games. For $50, this is pretty much a steal if you're a Cube owner.
Recommended:
Yes
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awoolcott
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