Tag Archives: monochrome

Wario Land, Virtual Boy

Wario Land on the Nintendo Virtual Boy (aka Virtual Boy Wario Land) was developed by Nintendo R&D1 and first released in 1995. It’s a platform game that was designed to utilise the Virtual Boy‘s stereoscopic 3D capabilities, and therefore features objects that swing in and out of the screen, and also allows the player (as Wario) to explore foreground and background areas.

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Street Fighter II, Game Boy

Developed by a company called “Sun L” (who are uncredited in the game itself), and published by Capcom in Japan, and Nintendo in the West, Street Fighter II on the Game Boy is a cut-down, monochrome version of the famous Street Fighter II arcade game. It was initially released in 1995.

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The NewZealand Story, ZX Spectrum

The ZX Spectrum version of Taito‘s The NewZealand Story was programmed by Gerald Weatherup of Choice, and was published by Ocean Software in 1989. And it is a decent port of the cute and colourful arcade game – except without the colour…

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Choplifter III, Game Boy

Choplifter III on the Game Boy was developed by Teeny Weeny Games and published in the UK only by Ocean Software in 1994. It is essentially a straight port of the Game Gear version – except without the colour.

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Choplifter II, Game Boy

Choplifter II on the Game Boy is where the concept of this classic helicopter rescue game first began to fulfil its potential. The overly simple and repetitive gameplay of the original Choplifter has been expanded, making the game much more fun to play.

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Kid Dracula, Game Boy

Konami‘s 1993 Game Boy game, Kid Dracula, is a cutesy spin-off from the Castlevania series. It’s actually a remake of the 1990 Famicom game, “Akumajō Special: Boku Dracula-kun“.

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The Sword of Hope II, Game Boy

The sequel to the first Sword of Hope, The Sword of Hope II was developed and published by KEMCO in Japan in 1992, but wasn’t localized and released into North America until 1996. Europe (and the rest of the world) didn’t receive a release of the game at all.

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The Sword of Hope, Game Boy

This first-person adventure/RPG was developed by KEMCO (a subsidiary of Kotobuki Engineering & Manufacturing Co.), and published by Seika Corporation in Japan, North America and Europe in 1989. In it, you play as Prince Theo, who is on a quest to challenge his insane, power-mad father for rule of the kingdom.

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X, Game Boy

This game – called simply “X” – was a Japan-only release, in 1992, on the original black and white Game Boy, but its conception and development would later have a profound effect on Nintendo‘s confidence in producing 3D-based games.

X was created by British developer Argonaut Software (specifically, by Dylan Cuthbert, who was later infamously ‘poached’ by Nintendo from Argonaut), and was a demonstration of their ability to produce 3D-based games on home video game systems. This impressed Nintendo, who then tasked Argonaut with creating a new 3D game on their Super Nintendo console, which eventually became the classic Star Fox. And the rest is history… Sort of.

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