Welcome to a new edition of Retro Corner Reviews and we start the Spring season with Game & Watch Gallery 3 for the Game Boy Color. The series which spans through GB, GBC and GBA were remakes to Nintendo’s first handheld lineup called the Game & Watch. They were small portable devices released in the early 80s that only contained one game each. These releases were considered arcade platformers akin to Donkey Kong and Mario Bros. The Gallery series are remakes of those classic portables that modernizes its gameplay from the slow clunky originals. Even the visuals saw an update that instead of using Mr. Game & Watch, Mario characters would take his spot. I remember watching the Nintendo Direct in February and many people in the community were dismissing it as a throw away game. While Nintendo could have done a better job showcasing G&W3, there is more to it than you think. I’m sure many would rather have the first Super Mario Land or Donkey Kong Land. However, there is a saying “don’t judge a book by its cover” and so far, many are doing just that all because this isn’t the typical genres. They would rather rant with their fifty “ha ha’s”, using ten laughing crying emojis and posting memes then try something else and give proper criticism. That mentality probably lets them think they are being “kewl” but in truth this only makes these users come off like a bunch of tools. That is where my review comes in, so you are informed about the quality of this game. Gameplay We start with the modern versions that contain five games of Egg, Turtle Bridge, Mario Bros, Greenhouse and Donkey Kong Jr. The objective of each one is to score as many points as possible even when the activity gets faster. For each one gives the player three chances to miss an enemy or a mishap before retrying from the start. In Egg, Greenhouse and Mario Bros (not the same gameplay as the 1983 Arcade) takes place in one screen. Yoshi in Egg will need to eat the cookies coming down the conveyor by simply moving his head in four different spots. The other one is about Mario and Luigi making sure cake plates move up the conveyor system until the items are packaged at the top. Greenhouse tasks Yoshi to keep shy guys and monkeys from destroying the plants by shooting melon seeds at them. Here the player has to watch the top and bottom screen by moving Yoshi through a pipe while defending both sides. The one thing both Egg and Greenhouse commonly do is give players a temporally special ability. It happens when you eat Yoshi Cookies cooked right and collect ten melons that will allow fire breathing to burn the ropes. While Mario Bros doesn’t have such luxury and the two also have to deal with Bowser’s spitefulness where he reverses the conveyors. The best thing about racking a continuous high score is the game will give us a chance to remove any misses. That is the reward it should offer to encourage us to obtain a high score no matter how fast the challenge gets. In the Greenhouse title, it is one of the two that grants Yoshi temporary power ups once ten melons are collected. The first caption shows the Orange Yoshi obtaining the fire breath, and he uses this on the ropes, completely stopping the monkeys for a moment. It helps a little when the gameplay starts getting faster since you will have a hard time keeping up. The next caption showcases an altered version of Donkey Kong Jr with a similar but different level design. The gameplay was updated to allow a third area where Mario type enemies from munchers to bullet bills will attack DK Jr. As mentioned previously, the quality of life features made this more engaging even compared to the 1981 Arcade game. It might not be on the same level as the 1994 Game Boy release — seriously it was a puzzle platformer — on the G&W’s own, this was fun to play through a different version. The last two of Turtle Bridge and Donkey Kong Jr (not the same as the 1981 arcade sequel) takes you across multiple screens. Turtle Bridge has Mario task Toad to deliver gifts to Peach on the other side by crossing a bridge of seagulls called turtles. The challenge takes Toad through two screens while avoiding any turtle that gets distracted by a balloon. That will cause them to have the urge to pop the balloon leaving him open to fall. One thing that was a good recovery is using the middle platform and three clouds to avoid the seagulls getting distracted. It’s even better when the side Mario is on lets Toad stand there to avoid the seagulls ducking down for a second before going forward. The last one has a similar challenge to the original arcade game, but the layout is vastly different. Across three areas DK Jr tries rescuing his father from Mario by collecting four keys in a loop. Once four are collected, it moves on to the next screen offering a different scenario before restarting at the first area. The studio called Tose (who developed this title) did a fantastic job changing up the original as Mario enemies get in the way of DK Jr. We all heard the stories of what the Brothers were doing prior to their plumber business taking off in the Mushroom Kingdom. From demolition to a Circus Tamer, the bros certainly tried stacking their resumes up. The caption shows both Mario and Luigi being employed as cake builders by making sure the plates don’t fall off the conveyors. Even Bowser is working on top of the conveyor belt system by walking along the tread in the oddest position seen possible from the Koopa King. How often do we see these guys working together in such a strange job with no problem, despite their history? When you garner enough stars by getting over a thousand points in multiple difficulty modes, other features will get unlocked. There are five more G&Ws to play, however; none of them were modernized like the main ones in this collection. Each G&W plays exactly as it did from those old handhelds with no changes. My only criticism here is Tose should have updated these and still offered the original versions. It is lazy on their part not to go the extra mile considering this is a remake of the collection. Despite the first five being remade in 8-bit the rest included should’ve also been updated. After playing these old versions once or twice never really encouraged me to go back to them again. That is because the classics are truly dated to the point, they feel clunky to control. It is the reason Nintendo needed to remake these too to keep me engaged thanks to modern designs. Rating: 8.2/10 Graphics/Presentation The visual follows the quality standards of the handheld from the intro to the entire presentation. Using 8-bit graphics gives the visuals a unique charm that modernizes it just like the gameplay. The new presentation really does bring life into these G&Ws now that the Mushroom World is used. It’s funny seeing the cast do odd jobs, however; these are the same people that participate in other events like sports. The thing about this series always gave me a chuckle considering the strange scenarios being played from the cast. In Egg and Mario Bros, the Plumber returns to cooking like any other occupation he had. We already saw him take roles of wrecking buildings, taming animals and somehow getting a PhD in medicine. Seriously, how many jobs do the brothers need when they already have a career as Plumbers?! For the Yoshis, it is not surprising to see them here when Egg is obviously based on Yoshi Cookie on NES and GB. Then Greenhouse has the Orange variant fend off Shy Guys and Monkeys just like his parents did in Yoshi’s Island. That brings us to the then portable version of the arcade hit Donkey Kong Jr and the same three characters resume their roles once again. There isn’t much to this that is revealing when it is a retreaded scenario. Now, the graphics for the games featured here were the updates needed to get away from the often generic layout. These oldies in the classic appearance truly is the definition of outdated that this is up there with the Atari 2600. I mean, what else is there to say when a blank grey screen and a limited overlay of backgrounds is all that is designed? Most of the titles included here do reward players beyond extra points when keeping a continuous counted score. If two to three hundred points are obtained without messing up and you have a miss, this next caption shows Lakitu giving Toad a heart as the reward. That will help encourage us to continue when the miss is removed thanks to rewarding the player. Now, despite these oldies being well for their time, playing them today was absolutely boring. I nearly fell asleep playing these on Classic Mode thanks to the sterile blank screen with no music. The beep and clacks from Mr. Game & Watch or the actions from the generic characters only added to the boredom. These noises got very annoying that muting my TV was the only option, so the beeps wouldn’t drive me insane—When the first Zelda’s heartbeat plays during Link’s health being low sounds pleasant in comparison then you know something is wrong. Using the 8-bit hardware does its job in making the environments colorful. That also helped by the Mushroom World being used to present a livelier world. Thanks to better hardware and modernizing the concepts gave these classics a colorful theme. No longer were any of the main titles featured here had bland dated themes that should’ve never been used back then. Unless the concept was from Mario or Donkey Kong during the early 80s was the only attempt at creative ideas. Even a soundtrack was put together to help engage the player rather than bore them. The OST isn’t the best the Mario franchise has seen when the upper tier spin offs have better soundtracks. However, the music still offers good sounding chiptune tracks that have the charm all on its own. Similar to the gameplay, the additional five G&Ws weren’t graphically updated to the 8-bit flare. Tose drops the ball here because every one of these extra titles looks like something straight out of Tiger Electronics. It is true these were released in the early 80s long before the Game Boy was even a thought from the late Gompi Yokoi. However, seeing a sterile blank screen with limited still visuals and no music will get old very quickly. That also isn’t considering how dated the theme in these originals truly were. These concepts were absolutely dated even during the 80s which won’t help the presentation. Featuring the classic aesthetic isn’t the issue however, not remaking them using the GBC’s hardware is still downright lazy. Rating: 8.3/10 Features/Content When talking about content G&W3 does offer enough to play through and keep you engage after. As you complete both modern and classic modes in the five games the player earns stars. Depending on if they earned over a thousand points in either mode or across three difficulties will grant users extra areas in the View Gallery. I loved how a mini map was designed here that has you control Mario to five places available. The first building is the sound studio that plays all tracks from the game and even increasing or decreasing the speed of the tempo is allowed. Now, the Gallery Museum is a building that showcases past G&Ws that includes small descriptions of each one. It was really enjoyable to find out some things about the handheld titles when these launched in the early 80s. The last place of significance has Mario, and Peach tell the player they unlocked the other five classics under the games’ menu. The last addition to go over is the very hard mode that becomes unlocked when you get five stars on either easy or hard. It definitely ramps up the challenge right from the start without any slowdowns. Of course there is the extra five games to play through as well as the classic versions from main ones. It is safe to say these oldies could never engaged me for very long due to the near ancient visuals. The only reason to play these is to unlock other features in View Gallery by earning stars. Rating: 8.0/10 The next caption is from the Museum found under View Gallery where it gives a short description of previous G&Ws. Unlike in Smash Bros for the Nintendo 64, these descriptions are too short, and the GBC’s hardware is to blame for that. It is true that there are texted based titles on this system, but they were often the exception. Unless this was an RPG like Pokemon were the only times text was used heavily. Then there is unlocking the extra titles and this last caption has Peach giving the player Spit Ball Sparky. In retrospect there is little, they could have upgraded for games like Flag Man and this one featured here. However, nothing was still stopping them from remaking Lion Tamer. Even replacing the loins with Chain Chomps in cages as Mario and Luigi fend them off would’ve been ideal. Final Rating
The third entry in Game & Watch Gallery has proven itself as a successful spinoff. It might not have the notoriety of Mario Kart or Party in terms of longevity but a fun experience that brings life into those old portable titles. The gameplay getting remade from those clunky controls into faster mechanics truly engaged me. While the challenges remain the same, the fast pace coupled with each game rewarding the player when earning points always made me come back. Now, the visuals were another feature that was also updated from the Tiger Electronics style detail. Designing the graphics around an 8-bit art style depicting the Mushroom World in each G&W is what was needed from those old devices using generic themes—When a cartoon wolf stealing eggs and a stick figure crossing a bridge made from floating turtles was the original design then you know these were generic. G&W3 offers plenty of content for a low tier spinoff thanks to unlocking extra stuff like a sound test, a museum and additional games. The issue that was presented since the first title on GB is how Nintendo didn’t remake the other five hidden G&Ws included. Playing something akin to a Tiger Electronic device hardly kept my interests no matter how good the gameplay was. While the originals will always have a place in history for being the first portable gaming, it is hard going back after all these years. Gameplay: 8.2/10 Graphics/Presentation: 8.3/10 Features/Content: 8.0/10 Final Rating: 8.3/10 Very Good
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Retro Gamer is an avid Zelda fan who has enjoyed the series for nearly 30 years ever since she first touched the NES. Whether its the official titles or fan produced stuff like Zelda Classic, there hasn't been a game she missed.
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