Nintendo Handheld Gaming Thread (Game Boy to DS)

[Tanooki]

I've stopped gameboy play for the time being.

A week ago I put an order in for a frontlit GBC grape system to replace mine along with a 40 pin adapter ribbon cable to put a 101 screen in my GBA. The package got shipped and never tracked by the post office and lost. I feel sorry for the guy but he's mailing a second set of things tonight/tomorrow to me. Once I rig up the screen into my GBA i"ll play Duke. I did the first stage on it and hunched over my LED bulb light just wasn't that comfortable. Duke never gets boring and it really takes advantage of the engine as you've seen with height, aiming, and the rest.

[ExedExes]

Duke never gets boring and it really takes advantage of the engine as you've seen with height, aiming, and the rest.

The engine is simply amazing. FPS on a portable system. No surprise they also used it on Doom II.

[ChrisHaha2049]

Been playing Mario Hoops: 3on3, on DS, the past couple weeks. FINALLY got a bronze trophy in the Hard Rainbow tourney... Ugh! That AI is so cheap! It goes from stupid easy in the early tourneys to cheating (but I guess that's standard Mario sports tradition) ... Gold trophies were easy in normal level tourneys, and not too bad in Hard Mushroom/Flower. But to hell with that Hard Rainbow crap! Bronze is good enough for my patience... I'm calling this one done...

[ExedExes]

That sounds about right. I played Mario Tennis on the N64 for a while and I could do well until I had to play against YOSHI. That bastard.

I had no idea there was a Mario basketball game, so thanks for that.

[Tanooki]

Yeah that has become a sad tradition with Nintendo at least this century. I'm not saying there weren't moments of questionable stuff on the NES/SNES and Gameboy era, but more recent stuff from the DS/GC period forward there's a big shift. You have blatant cheating, extreme rubber banding AI, just Mario Party single player like bullshit non-random(but made to look so outwardly) abuse of the gamer in the name of being 'hard.' I miss when hard was a fair hard where if you got good enough you did it, it wasn't up to playing some vegas like odds. It's a big reason what has turned me off a few of their franchises that I just don't play them really anymore. I liked the Mario Golf of the N64/GBC vs the GC/GBA because it got stupid, less focus on the true development and RPG into some Mario Party lite antics, which later got more blatant like Mario Kart DS where on 150CC they force you into 2nd place, and kart 1 and 3-last only beat on you so you're stuck which is a joke. Given me the equally nasty way Super Mario Kart, 64, and Super Circuit handled the 150CC courses any day.

[ExedExes]

At least 150CC on the first SMK you were given a chance to win.

As we do Mario Golf for Together Retro this month, I'm sure I'll see some of those crazy antics again on Advance Tour & Toadstool Tour.

[Cronozilla]

The only Mario Kart I felt legitimately cheated by in faster classes was Mario Kart Wii. Every other one, if I felt like that, I left the game alone and went back to it later and realized the mistakes I was making.

Now, I've 100%'d Mario Kart 7 and 8 (prior to 200cc) and I explicitly thought 7 was unfair, now it's not a problem. I don't think Nintendo sent out a game balancing update in that time period, either.

[RyaNtheSlayA]

Ever since then I've leaned more towards handheld since I'm not TV bound, it's easier to play privately, you can do it wherever, and they get far less respect and due to size too both factor into costing less new and much more so used.

That's a big reason as to why I enjoy this now. I find collecting for handhelds easier as far as selection and better prices than most console stuff these days

These two things are what have caused me to gravitate largely towards handheld devices in both gaming and normal computing even (my phone is my main avenue of browsing the Internet these days for instance).

I can't speak for everyone but as I get older and in my current situation it's very hard for me to be able to sit down for several hours in front of a TV; and chances are I will end up being interrupted in numerous ways even when I think I have the time. The easy on-off and portability mean I can keep my gaming hobby alive more so than I otherwise would be able to. I'm grateful I've been able to find the time to sit down a bit recently and play the PS4 but the Vita and especially the 3DS are my bread and butter for gaming these days. Not to mention that even brand new handheld games are up to 50% less expensive than the average console release.

Also more on topic - I have a real soft spot for GBA Doom. I beat it a while back on it even, I'm sure with some digging I could find my previous thoughts on the port. I don't think I'd be able to finish it on nightmare like I can with the pc release though. I recall some framerate issues.

[ExedExes]

Also more on topic - I have a real soft spot for GBA Doom. I beat it a while back on it even, I'm sure with some digging I could find my previous thoughts on the port. I don't think I'd be able to finish it on nightmare like I can with the pc release though. I recall some framerate issues.

Both GBA Doom ports look amazing. I'll pick them up eventually but I'm really enjoying the heck out of Duke Nukem Advance right now.

[Tanooki]

Loving this thread. Going by post here with a dash -

- Totally agree on Super Mario Kart, but the other 2 I didn't feel screwed with either. At times with Mario Golf I could think of it for some it being personal taste with better imagery/audio being a fog to it, but I felt both generations handled the same way it's just that the later 2 felt lacking how I said. Graphics aren't always it, still why Pac-Man is a draw and it's not the blue bars and 6 other colors going on.

- Mario Kart I felt increasingly cheated by the game from the Gamecube forward, but it really went into this Mario Party on wheels nosedive on DS and Wii was even worse and that's not even getting into online cheaters. I only did MK7 on 50cc and a little of 100cc before I let it go, I didn't think it cheated but I got bored for some reason but I have been tempted lately to give it another go after doing so with New SMB2 which I found cheap.

- Ryan/EE -- Add me into that. Price is as equal a draw to me as is what you all bolded I said about the privacy and anywhere anyhow type play where you're not anchored down. Throw that in with a far better wide selection of games both in style and design and it's a winner to me. There's notable less variety these days with console games, especially if you jerk away the stuff ported to the PC/Steam/GOG. You don't feel overwhelmed with FPS, sports, 1v1 fighters, and racing games on handhelds but you do find stuff consoles and computers have relegated to the garbage bin or the discount dumpster of digital download/rental stuff for a few bucks.

As to DOOM I grew up with it. My first PC was christmas of 90 and very shortly after was my first shareware being Wolfenstein 3D and my first pay game was Konami's somewhat sorry (and harder) Simpsons Arcade Game. As soon as DOOM reared its head with a few floppies/BBS download I was all over that every damn day and regular use at least by the week for more years than I can remember well through Ultimate DOOM and DOOM 2. I know speaking from years of play the GBA games are stunning, and while the 1st is a Jaguar map port it's solid, and the sequel is a green blooded(T rating) piece of near perfection. Duke is nothing to laugh at but the DOOM games are an equal (D1) if not better (D2.)

And like I said before you want to really get into trippy 3D stuff, v3d engine games are a must. V-Rally is like Sega Rally as it renders basically the same way, and then blueroses with WIng Commander Prophecy being that close of a conversion is mind blowing.