Ah hello there...

Well I haven't really written in here in ages, which is a shame. I suppose that I got so wrapped up in collecting ROMs and emulators that I never really got around to playing them really; and then there was the recent obscession with my IPhone....so I suppose I was too busy in a way. Also I was kinda hung up on a few 360 games lately too. Streetfighter 4 is still great craic, even though I've pretty much clocked the shit out of it with good old Ken, Saints Row 2 was good fun, and lately I've been having joyless adventures with Splinter Cell.

So I ended up neglecting my beautiful ROM babies, and it was only after watching AVGN savage the Ghostbusters games on the NES that I started to remember loving an old Ghostbusters game...so I went through all the NES and SNES ROMs but I couldn't find anything that rang a bell really, until I realised that it must have been a Gameboy game.

As far as I remember, I briefly swapped my SEGA Gamegear for an old Gameboy when I was a kid, and I was surprised to learn that I'd overlooked the old Gameboy in my ROM collection. You see, the Game Gear was essentially just a hand held Master System, so most if not all of the Game Gear's library are just hand held ports with little changes; whereas the Gameboy was truly a stand alone system in it's own right compared to the NES. In fact there were tonnes of classic Game Boy games never released on the TV consoles, and many of the popular games franchises like The Simpsons were just way better on the Gameboy. It had it's own unique Mario and Zelda series, introduced us to Wario and still remains the quintessential handheld platform for innovation and playability in my opinion. Sure I have a slight bias toward Nintendo, but that's just because they've almost made the best games and systems.

So I dug out a few games and first was Ghostbusters 2. Unlike the unmitigated tragedy that was the NES version, this is a completely different game, made by Activision. It's a top view shooter, and you have to go around various areas like libraries shooting the ghosts with the lazer, while your trapper mate traps em. It's one player and you control the Ghostbuster with the gun, while you're followed by your trapper. A controls the Gun, and while zapping ghosts B causes your other Ghostbuster to throw the trap.

Overall, the graphics are sweet and round, like zelda, the controls are good and it's fun and addictive. Like many games of of it's generation it's pretty hard, but a solid 7 out of ten.

The controls on both Mario Land 1 and 2 are lovely, just like you'd expect, and both games have lovely original features that would surprise anyone who's used to the NES or SNES versions, like the rabbit ears or the Indian head dress to show you've got firepower. 2 is probably better because the graphics and features are nicer and more developed, but as a pair they're flawless for playability. 8 out of ten for 1, and 9 out of ten for 2. Nuff said.

It took nintendo a while to realise that people loved the traditional top view Zelda games, and happily threy're all like that on the Gameboy. I remember spending months trying to clock Lik's awakening on the old Gameboy as a kid, and it's just brilliant, challenging and always keeps you interested. 9 out of ten.

I'm just kid of skimming over a few of the classic titles for now, and I plan on writing more in depth reviews later, as well as reviews of the Simpsons games and a few other gems...I didn't realise that there were 5000+ Gameboy games including all the bullshit and PD games, so I've got a lot of work to do.

Love as always,
eelfacexxx