Welcome to a new edition of Retro Corner Reviews and this time we are going over the Super Game Boy adapter for the Super NES. During the Golden Age, CDs were slowly considered as a potential format for gaming consoles. However, producing a CD based system in the early 90s was expensive and the console providers weren’t consistent with the library’s quality. Despite the historical importance of these CD add-ons for the TurboGrafx/Genesis, the additional devices would flop in sales thanks to their expensive price tags and shoddy software. That leads us to Nintendo who after having a fall out with Sony and the Play Station add on went a different direction. In 1994 Nintendo released the Super Game Boy as a cartridge add on for the Super NES. It allowed users to play their Game Boy games on TV with extra features. While it is true that the other extra systems for TurboGrafx and Genesis added better tech, they also were cumbersome and expensive. The SGB was inexpensive, and many at the time could play $20 GB titles under the Player’s Choice logo. Sega was too busy giving the Genesis life support by releasing the 32X cartridge adapter with a library that barely compared to the base system. There was also the fact that the Saturn was planned to launch in January 1995 which in turn didn’t help the 32X. Compared to Nintendo, the SGB came out when the N64 was the Ultra 64 as a concept. The SGB is one of the best add-ons Nintendo ever produced and the fact it gives old Game Boy games new features is amazing. Similar to the 32X for Genesis, the SGB cartridge is placed on top of the Super NES. Then the GB cartridge is placed in the Super Game Boy slot. Even though the 32X displayed better graphics than had software in 3D, the SGB offers variety in its features. It lets the player add color, apply different borders, and play them on the TV. Some of you kiddies don’t realize how good most have it today between their 3DS, smartphones and the Switch. Back then us Golden Age Gamers had to deal with no backlit screens while leaning into any light source to see what we were doing. The puke green screen didn’t help and even when Nintendo released the GB Pocket — giving a bigger and cleaner picture in black and white — we still had to lean into a light source to see the gameplay. The SGB relieved these issues by giving us more than a great backlit thanks to the TV. Another thing is this accessory didn’t need its own power outlet or any cables to connect to the Super NES. Then there is also the fact it could play black cartridge GBC titles with the exception of the clear carts—That really shows how much longevity the SGB had during the 90s and worked well even going into the 2000s. When playing a Game Boy game on SGB, it offers special features accessed at any time by pressing the L and R buttons simultaneously. Here a menu prompts on the low center screen using a cursor as several options are shown. You can add and change four shades of color or the themed borders from different backgrounds. These features also enable multiplayer modes using one pak (another word for cartridges according to Nintendo Power) and offering a border that has the games’ theme. In the Killer Instinct and Street Fighter II ports, if these two were played on SGB would allow a two-player match without additional wiring. Most tournament fighters that were ported never supported this feature unless you hooked up the handhelds via the link cable. It is better to play KI and SFII on the Super NES or experience them on Rare Replay and Capcom Stadium. However, the fact these studios added this in when they didn’t need to was unique. Another feature is how this adapter would enhance the sound effects using the Super NES hardware in certain games. Kirby’s Dream Land 2 and the handheld version of Space Invaders gave effects like the wind blowing that wasn’t possible on the monochrome handheld. Due to this adapter being released in 1994, previously released games didn’t have these extra features, and the accessory would only give the default stuff. On these SGB boxes and on the cartridges’ covers will have a symbol on the right upper corner that indicates it will have extra things. The original monochrome version of Zelda: Link’s Awakening didn’t have a border — it was released a year prior to the adapter coming out in 1994 — that EAD made sure to include this in the DX Edition that now features an overhead view of Koholint Island. This edition does not take advantage of the SGB like the Pokemon titles do. It was great for these developers going into the fifth gen to still have ideas for an adapter that few knew existed. That brings us to the first gen Pokemon games as seen in the second caption showing the Blue version’s border. The reason these games are SGB titles is because they originally came out in Japan in 1996 as the Super NES was still on market. That is why the original Red and Blue have this feature along with some aspects of full color beyond even what the GBC could do. Of course, we can’t forget how the adapter even plays black cartridge GB Color games. It still doesn't use more than four shades of color despite coming from the GBC The interesting thing is the custom borders were also put into these colored games especially in the DX editions of earlier releases. Tetris DX and Zelda: Link’s Awakening DX provided special theme borders that were missing. Some things are also inaccessible if used on SGB instead of the GBC. An example comes from the Color Dungeon in Zelda: Link’s Awakening DX that doesn’t allow the player to access it even after the level is unlocked. Only through the GBC, GB Player on GameCube and the GB Advance lineup are the other ways to access this level. From 1998 to 2001 Nintendo and third parties would release these black cartridge titles. A reason for this programming is there were some who didn’t upgrade to GBC right away. Now, the clear cartridges that displayed on the cover “Only for GBC” means you could not play these on any monochrome systems and the SGB. It made sense for Nintendo to do this, and they still had to sell the current model. That is especially true instead of an add-on that came out in 1994 on a last gen system. It was a little annoying in the early 2000s for us being stuck with no back lit screen when engaging in exclusive titles. Unfortunately, we would have to wait until the GBP was released in 2003 to play these on the TV. There are more borders to choose from if the default classic Game Boy or the custom ones from SGB titles are not doing it for you. The left caption shows the movie theater with Final fantasy Legend III playing as several people in the front watch. Another feature present in some of these environments is if the player pauses the game or doesn’t touch the controller, it starts an idle animation. The two boys will start playing a multiplayer title on their Game Boys using the link cable. Now, the next caption is the camp setting that shows the gameplay on a sign board as a cabin surrounded by a forest and a field is present. If you halt your play session, the background’s time of day slowly changes from morning, afternoon, and evening in a cycle. It’s amazing that Hori (the company who produced this) did more than design generic ideas. As for any GB games that supported the Super Game Boy, this next part we will go over recommendations. Starting with Donkey Kong 94, with its arcade style border — reminiscent of the pre-Rare days — uses color overlays to match the environments, making this a true sequel to the 1980 game. If the classic DK style doesn’t suit your taste, that brings us to the Land Trilogy developed by Rare. Unlike the many console to handheld ports at time most were usually mirror images of these releases minus the downgraded visuals. The DKL series follows the format of the Mario Land Trilogy where they played identical to the Country games. These were still different entries featuring “director’s cut” style content. Through proper color use for the visuals and their custom boundaries makes this another series to experience via SGB. We also can’t forget about Kirby who started on this handheld and was giving plenty of releases despite being a new character throughout the 90s. Hal Labs treated Kirby’s Dream Land 2 or any of his spinoffs like Star Stacker and Pinball Land as if they were on the Super NES. Despite not getting Kirby’s color right — something the later portable lines corrected — using four shades of pink and purple mixed in with actual color for certain things still gave the vibe of his world. The next one is Mega Man V, and this isn’t a downgraded NES port. Much like its predecessors (Mega Man I-IV) these were developed originally on the GB using different level design. The special border was utilizing the Mega Man VII sprite work as three mets are placed around a blue tech backdrop. This is probably the best out of the lineup to run smoothly that uses a different level design from its console counterparts. The Bomberman series might not be the greatest compared to other mascot type characters as even Kirby received far better games. Wario Blast: Featuring Bomberman was changed from Bomberman GB and is not actually a Wario title. It plays no different to a typical Bomberman title in the series. The gameplay has one or multiple players and CPUs battle on a grid trying to blow the other up. Not much color was used except for a single shade to represent an area’s theme. The frame was designed as an audience of Bombers watching a fight in an arena. The sequel titled Bomberman GB (Bomberman GB 2 in Japan) did a much better job using color for the story, level introduction and end. Despite using one shade like its predecessor did, the presentation here had more life. The frame showing a theater of Bombers and an ancient style tablet when the game starts did more. The first Gen Pokemon main titles are considered the best JRPGs on the handheld. Now, the greatest thing about playing these here is it takes advantage of the device’s color output. For an odd reason, the GBC and later portables only give the games two colors. The SGB does more by using better tones to represent the terrain and Pokemon better. All three versions use unique borders to give the life needed to make the world of Pokemon colorful. The next feature that highlights the SGB is the sound effects being boosted using the Super NES. The first caption shows the dark fortress area of Kirby’s Dream Land 2 as the wind is heard blowing hard in the background. In fact, several places have this effect and if played on the handhelds the same sound font is absent. That is because the GB/GBC doesn’t have capabilities of the Super NES and the GBA/GBP simply emulates the GBC’s emulation. The next caption is how Pokemon Silver really takes advantage of the adapter more than the first gen games could. It even got the right colors for the night settings when most on this handheld didn’t have a day cycle. While the border doesn't have the same colorful appearance as its predecessors' vibrant styles, SGB did a much better job presenting color this time around. I can’t stop being amazed at Game Freak taking the old adapter into consideration. The fact we are playing a game from 2000 on the Super NES continues blowing my mind. The next thing is obviously the black cartridge GBC releases that secretly supported this adapter. It’s hard to understand why Nintendo and third parties didn’t sell this feature even on the back of the boxes. It was probably done out of fan service knowing some people would love playing these on dated hardware. When the GBC came out in 1998, Nintendo started to re-released old GB titles but now in full color with extra stuff not found originally. Tetris DX (now given color far beyond its NES version) and Wario Land II were giving simple tweaks to their monochrome counterparts. Despite not having full color when on SGB, it does make use of what the palette the system could allow. Tetris DX’s theme borderline is placed around the screen and this version also has different modes from the original. Wario Land II was also giving a DX edition a year later from its monochrome version. Certain areas will have full color aka the titles screen and the scroll between chapters. Now, the custom borderline featuring a castle with Wario watching the screen on top is what makes this worth playing here. Surprisingly, enough Dragon Quest I & II was not only developed around the GBC but also supports this device. Its coloring was handled the same way Square did for the Final Fantasy Legend Trilogy. The thing that makes this version of the first DQ games interesting is depending on where the character is the border changes. On top of that at least the first two DQ titles came to the portable, and it surprises me Enix didn’t do one earlier in the 90s. Now, we come to the big ones between the DX Edition of Zelda: Link’s Awakening and the second gen Pokemon series. To begin, Zelda: Link’s Awakening was giving a custom frame around the screen showing Kolinint Island from far in the sky. Originally this was missing from the 1993 GB release, however, the downside is you can’t access the color dungeon. Even the default monochrome version’s green palette was left in, and no additional colors were added to take advantage of. Before we dig into the Pokemon Gold/Silver versions, Trading Card Game came out after the massive success of the first gen. It’s an RPG similar to how the card game is played and the battle uses this system instead of catching Pokemon. You take the role of the player and go through the world building your deck. The player defeats gym leaders to collect gym badges until he earns enough to face the champions. TCG also uses more colors on the SGB than the first gen titles were allowed. A feature that makes this worth playing here is there are a couple of special borders that change. Every time you earn a badge, the frame on the sides adds to that in a unique way. For the Gold/Silver versions of the main line needs no introduction to why they are fondly remembered till this day. The frames appear a bit generic compared to the first Gen. Game Freak worked more with the SGB palette to give as much color as the device could allow. It truly is a treat to play Second Gen games on Super NES that takes advantage of the adapter’s system. I’m sure some of you were wondering what the icons on the side of the box covers stood for when booting up the Game Boy NSO. These icons were the SGB labels telling the players that they are capable with the adapter. Here is a close up of six games that were SGB cartridges. Only the first gen Pokemon games like Yellow Version and the monochrome Wario Land II never had these labels despite having extra features. Remember some of the GBC releases hit the market when the Super NES was phased out in 1998 and had to sell the new color model. For non-SGB, these never received updated versions like some got in the late 90s. Most of these have no special frames and had no default set of hues programmed in like Zelda: Link’s Awakening received. The first thing I noticed when playing Non-SGB carts is that it usually gave the generic red coloring. Of course, the player can always change this in the settings under the shader icon—In honesty, most of the shades still make experiencing the lineup rough. There might not be special theme frames either, but I can still give recommendations if you want to try the non-SGB library on this device. We begin with Final Fantasy Adventure, a prequel to Secret of Mana that has similar mechanics to Zelda. The remake called Sword of Mana is available on the GBA so this might make it a little harder to experience an inferior edition by some gamers. Kid Icarus: Myth and Monsters was a rare gem of a sequel for Pit to get on the portable. If anyone has either watched Let’s Plays or experienced it through the Virtual Console and NSO knows what to expect. Then there is Sword of Hope and its sequel that plays like Shadowgate. This is considered somewhat of a text based RPG where the player explores the world through screens of the areas. Then there is Metroid II, a game that should’ve been saved for the Super NES or at least on the NES. It might be a good game for its time but similar to the Original NES Metroid, the sequel hasn’t aged that well. I do give props to Hori for creating a default shading to match some of these early GB releases. On the other hand, it still doesn’t create what later SGB titles had. The next images are a list of six GBC titles that don’t have the icons or are mentioned on the back of the box and in the instruction manuals. These offer the same functions as the previous monochrome Game Boy games with custom colors and special borders. I can’t state enough how these studios designed the SGB around the black cart GBC titles out of fan service. It might be better to experience Zelda: Link’s Awakening DX and Pokemon Gold/Silver on the GBP however, the option to play these on SGB will always have a place. The last list of games to go over is the Mario Land Trilogy, Mega Man I – IV and the first Kirby Dream Land. Much like any non-SGB cartridge they nearly share the same red generic shading that is given automatically. You will see this often in the first Mario Land and the four Mega Man titles. Even though the Blue Bomber’s portable lineup wasn’t NES ports, they still shared the level design and robot master’s despite being different entries. It is best to create a custom blue color in the paint setting, so this at least can match the Blue Bomber’s theme. Another thing is the GB lineup runs much slower and uses a reduced screen resolution. The Mario Land Trilogy in comparison to the Blue Bomber was handled better compared to Mega Man. The first Mario Land was using similar mechanics and level design to the NES SMB. Due to being a launch title for the GB, it gives the presentation a bland appearance that was saved by the OST. It wasn’t until Mario Land 2 that EAD took advantage of the handheld’s capabilities. SML2 coloring does look strange here between using a pink and green shading. Now, the Wario Land games probably had the best development compared to previous Mario Land entries. The first one went for a Mario style gameplay but now uses Wario’s brute nature to give this a twist. Its level design is similar to SML2 however, there is another twist as Wario can find hidden areas that contain treasures. The Super Game Boy is easily the best accessory to come to the Super NES. Its longevity was something no additional device ever replicated regardless of how much tech was behind them. That was the reason Turbo CD/Sega CD/32X slowly moved to bargain bins by 1995. Another good reason this adapter lasted for years comes down to the library of games. The Game Boy lineup can’t match the Super NESs’ massive catalog of hit games, but it had enough bangers to play even into the 2000s. While the GBP on GameCube allows full screen, the SGB has custom features that help give life to the lineup. Using the Super NES’s hardware would enhance the visuals with coloring, shading and ten borders including the specialized ones depending on the game. In fact, the adapter went beyond that thanks to including two player options and enhancing the sounds the monochrome handheld couldn't do. It doesn’t stop there because the developers secretly supported the SGB through the black cartridge GBC lineup. That did help earlier entries that weren’t SGB paks thanks to the extra things that were missing prior to this device coming out. Many in the GB’s library might not have been adapted into DX editions. Hori did enable themselves and third parties to add some form of shading to match the themes. Metroid II, Zelda: Link’s Awakening, Pokemon Gold/Silver, and the Kirby series were the best in bringing out their themes using the right tones. After thirty years this is still the most fantastic device that Nintendo ever brought to the market. The Game Boy Player is the only true successor to the SGB in many ways that would continue this tradition. Rating: 9.5/10 Amazing
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Retro Gamer has over 25 years of gaming experience and played many classics since the Golden Age. She has been an avid fan since the day the NES graced her life and changed it forever.
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