Nintendo Handheld Gaming Thread (Game Boy to DS)

[Tanooki]

Yup it's a surprise. I will say if you want another 'mode 7' style pixel 3D racer that does its job stunningly well, while released in the US, get the Japanese versions of Advance GT and Advance Rally (AGT2 basically.) MTO made them and they're fantastic. The first plays like a pocket gran tourismo lite not so heavy on the options/cars and the other is just a damn good rally game (top3 for me with VRally and TGR.)

I would strictly avoid at all costs Sega Rally, horrid game with a very painful way it handles stuff. The best way to describe it would be that the car doesn't take turns on the course but the course pivots around the car like some old stationary toy with a scene around it and it sucks. The handling isn't good, the gameplay is poor, it should be scrubbed from history.

Sticking with that if you're not a GBA person but have a GBC Top Gear Pocket 2 is fantastic (1 is the same in style just not as much quality/substance worth owning both) as is V-Rally 3 too. Colin McRae 2.0 is supposedly excellent but I never owned it for some reason.

[ExedExes]

I have the Racing 4 Pack which includes GT Advance 1-3 and MotoGP. I was initially impressed with the quality of those games a while back. Of course I need to play them still.

[Tanooki]

Yeah that's a badass package. I have strongly considered it, but I just refuse to deal with that mess of a password as it's long and I don't want to write it. That was such a slap in the face by the US publisher and it wasn't just on those games they cheaped out. Both THQ, Bam!, and Ubisoft on the GBA did a huge amount of cheap out corner cutting. Thankfully two of them no longer exist. Batteries, and even in some cases ROM chip sizes were cut just to save a buck. Wolfenstein we went over went down a size so they had to remove the music to fit it...no excuse. Ubisoft cut corners on batteries outside of Japan like PInball Challenge Deluxe in the UK, game saves on a pirate cart/emulator though (I own it, emailed developer in the day and they were furious and not timid about sharing their opinion of it.) Ubisoft also would ship broken software, like Super SF2 which if you unlock Akuma permanently ruins the save data of the game (no battery to remove.)

Some stuff you just have to look out for. The JP versions of those MTO games have a battery and everything but a pop up screen before the title is in english too.

I just got done running Top Gear Rally for like a 1/2 hour. Did a quick race which I bombed on 11/12 checkpoints, did 2 test laps, then the first set of 3 courses on the amateur cup first course (won it.) I forgot how that game handles and once you get it down sliding those curves, pumping the gas and brake to keep from over steering is fun. It's just a well made game and doing its 3D Duke/IceNine/Doom style vs V3Ds polygons in V-Rally etc.

Oh and if you want V-rally, get it from Europe. There's a 2 pack that sells cheap on ebay which has Stuntman on the same cart. I'd have bought that but I dislike stuntman and it's picky timed courses/tricks. You really can't enjoy that one just screwing around doing crazy moves with the car. Nailing it as it wants to get funding to advance or you fail is the name of that game.

[ExedExes]

So that's the difference between the NA/JP release of GTA? I'm already not happy scores aren't saved on Pinball Challenge Deluxe. Now I see the companies to be careful of. Good to know about SSF2. I have V-Rally 3 too.

TGR looks really good. Those Aussies know how to make good portable games.

[Tanooki]

Well here's a tip if you don't have the games from Capcom. Buy Super SF 2 Turbo Revival X from Japan, and also buy Final Fight One from Japan too. Ubishat (yeah I went there) crapped on both of them. The first with the permanently broken save (which also 999999s out all the challenge scores etc) and the second has as much if not more censorship than FF did on the SNES. Sure you won't be able to read the senseless useless plot pop ups with the bosses before fights, but you gain blood, weapon hits that spray blood, women (poison and roxy) versus 2 stickboy trannies in jeans, and I think there was something else but I forget...but to do that in 2001 vs 1991 was insulting. Pinball that one is a shame, the game is stunning -- it's an Amiga to GBA port of Pinball Dreams and Pinball Fantasies, all 8 tables in one cart in fine form and no battery to save a buck, but warez it (bootleg cart, flash kit, emulator) and your scores will save.

MTOs games, all of them in Japan have batteries, and in the US they hacked them out to again save a buck with a long annoying password (THQ in this case.) Battery and that one text of screen I think it is before the title splash pops up is essentially it, you're losing nothing buying the Japanese game other than a readable manual which you don't need anyway.

With games where I learn about mutilations, I'll buy the Japanese version if it's not text heavy. Also the Ubisoft poisoning of Capcom games includes EU/PAL regions so they didn't get off any better.

[ExedExes]

I'm still happy to have Pinball Challenge, it's a fine set of ports there, but I can understand why it stayed in Europe. The GBA being region-free is one of the best reasons to collect anywhere you can.

Final Fight One has been on my radar, and I'll definitely get the non US version. I've seen Japanese and European GBA and DS games in the local places I go, but maybe 1 or 2 titles at a time, so that might be a positive sign that maybe I'll run into something like that.

[Tanooki]

Ahh I had no idea you had that one. It's fantastic, but I personally don't get why it didn't show up. Pinball had a good run during that life of the GBA so there was room for it, and the games had also already been out on the Gameboy and the SNES, also since then have shown up on PS3/PSP minis as well.

Did you know that along with 21st Century Entertainment/DICE who did those two, they also worked with another group called Spider Software that did more of those pinball packages after DICE backed out? One of them was called Pinball Mania. While for some reason not called that, and I didn't even realize it until this month, but Pinball Advance from EU only too is Pinball Mania. The look and feel of the PC version is well captured and looks notably more advanced than Pinball Challenge Deluxe. I lucked into buying it a year ago as some dude from TN just south of me posted it for like under $10 shipped, no one on ebay wanted it so I got it. It's a cool package of tables.

Take a peek, this features all 3 tables which have a cool 3D rendered depth to them.

Pinball Mania is part of that Pinball Gold Pack up on GOG which also has Illusions, Dreams, Fantasies and Dreams 2. Everything from that group of games from the earlier/mid 90s.

[ExedExes]

I'm a big fan of the DICE pinball games. I got Pinball Challenge Deluxe early this year from an eBay seller in the UK complete & boxed for around $25. With all the American ports of the previous games out there (SNES/GB/Jaguar/PC), it's a bit of a letdown that we couldn't get it on the GBA.

I have the Pinball Gold Pack from GOG, picked it up during a Rebellion sale they had. I also had the Capstone CD-ROM known as Pinball Arcade which had Pinball Dreams 1 & 2 in the 90s.

Spidersoft handled the ports of Pinball Dreams & Fantasies to the consoles as well as the PC. Pinball Mania was their own game, done in the DICE style. Pinball World is also on GOG, another Spidersoft-developed only game.

But a big thanks for passing on that tip about Pinball Advance, now I'll be actively seeking out that one too. Tarantula looks a lot better in 3D.

[Tanooki]

Had a feeling you were a fan of the old DICE/Spidersoft stuff seeing the post so I figured why not. I've owned PBC twice, both times CIB but I lost the box the 2nd go around (don't really care anyway.) I do have Pinball Adv complete though. I don't keep boxes anymore and if I get them they either sit sideways on a shelf or I sell them if someone needs them.

I think I snapped at that same sale on GOG, then months later they broke it up into 3 packages which I re-downloaded very recently and reinstalled just to be up to date on that.

I don't remember if I'm familiar with Pinball world, must look into that.

Here's another, if you don't mind finding warez since it's not for sale and hasn't for ages, but EPIC Megagames back in the day of the very badass Solar Winds DOS game also made this really fun set of tables called Silverball. There's this really cool table with a dragon, another which was like gambling, and more...awesome stuff, maybe 1-2MB download but it's quality up there with the DICE stuff. I wish GOG would get a contract to get EPICs old games as I'd so so play Solar Winds and Silverball again.

[ExedExes]

Pinball World is an interesting concept. One hub "table" that leads to country-themed tables, most of them are square in size. Check out the HG101 article on the DICE games; Spidersoft made a few others not available on GOG yet.

I played Silverball a very long time ago. I picked up the Epic Pinball CD from Amazon, it has the 3 packs they put out plus a bonus table only available on this CD. GOG certainly needs the Epic stuff, Solar Winds, Jill of the Jungle, etc. At least some of their games like Overkill, Kiloblaster, and ZZT are totally free now.

As for portable stuff, I'm gonna go back to Mario Golf this weekend.