Game Boy Color |

Release Date: 11/18/1998

Colors: Atomic Purple, Berry, Grape, Kiwi, Dandelion, Teal

MSRP: $79.95

The GameBoy Color wasn’t something I had growing up. My parents couldn’t afford one. I had the DMB GameBoy, but that was it until the GBA SP was out. I did play some classmates’ GBC in school here and there and did experience Pokemon Blue a few times, but my GBC experience has mostly been as an adult, and mostly as of the last few years. See, the GBA SP could play GameBoy games, but I always felt they were “old and dumb” being 8-bit titles. I had very little money growing up and I didn’t want to waste it on older titles. I only owned a single GBC game and it was The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening DX which I never finished.

Fast forward over a decade later and I appreciate the system a lot more. While I have a modded GBC with a backlight modern LCD, RGB buttons, and USB-C charging, I still remember what the system was like as stock. One thing that kept me from wanting one was the lack of a backlight. The GameBoy Lite had a backlight why couldn’t the GBC? I understand it was a budget system as the hardware inside was dirt cheap at this point to produce, but come on Nintendo! You still needed a worm light or had to play with a flashlight under the blankets. This makes playing today nearly impossible and unbearable with all of the modern LCD display techs we have today. Some like this and get a more nostalgic feeling from it, but I didn’t play my original DMB Gameboy much because of this when I got it for my 7th birthday back in 1997.

Not much else is improved over the original model. The Gameboy Pocket had already been out at this point, but it did feel lighter and was slimmer than the original model. However, the screen was smaller at 2.3″ compared to the DMG 2.6″, but it was in color so there was a trade-off. It did have more RAM which was needed for the wider color palette, and the sound was slightly improved, but we still had the same 10-year-old processor. We got square wave channels which made the system less “bleepy” than the original model but not by much. The only other I/O was an infrared receiver which could be used to beam digital data across to other consoles. The battery life was also cut back by 1/3 due to the color screen.

Some might say there are more drawbacks and improvements, but just being color alone was incredible. Many later DMB games were released with GBC compatibility and later there were hundreds of GBC-only games released. The system still feels great to play to this day. It’s clearly the best Gameboy to have as it can play original games with a slightly better screen. However, if you own both the slightly larger screen for the original games might be preferred. It’s all down to personal taste, to be honest. We mostly judge these older systems on their libraries and the Gameboy and GBC libraries are some of the best. Classics like Tetris, Wario Land II, Pokemon, Metal Gear Solid, Super Mario Land, and many more are engrained into millions of people’s minds. As for the original hardware, the only setback is that screen. I wish it had more improvements, and it feels like it could have had more, but at this point, the GBA was probably deep in R&D and only a few years away.

If you get one today I suggest getting an LCD upgrade at the bare minimum. USB-C and any other mods are optional and not really needed because the system has great battery life already. You can do the mod yourself or buy one custom-built from many shops online. There are so many aftermarket shells, buttons, silicone pads, and even sound mods for these handhelds that have blown up over the last 5 years. It will get to a point where you will have trouble finding someone with an unmodded Gameboy.

Publisher: Midway

Developer: Eurocom Entertainment Software

Release Date: 6/23/1998

Also Available On

Mortal Kombat 4 was probably the most carefully watched game in the series due to abandoning the 2D root and going for 3D. No one knew what was going to happen to the series, and a lot of fans lost hope thinking the silky smooth controls, and excellent digitized graphics would go by the wayside in 3D. However, the game featured excellent visuals (for the time) and the silky smooth controls stayed despite some slippery and awkward animations. The fourth game also introduced some new characters who I thought were some of the weakest in the series. So despite the weaker roster, we got some pretty good Fatalities, and excellent stages to fight in.

The new characters like Kai, Jarek, Fujin (a weak attempt at making another Raiden), and Tanya were pretty “blah”. They didn’t have that impact that the classic characters did, but some returned like Scorpion and Sub-Zero, Sonya, and Johnny Cage came back for the first time since MK2. The run button and combos were carried over into 3D which were smooth as well as a first stab at moving in a 3D environment. You would hit a button to kind of strafe to the side to avoid attacks and this added a whole new level of strategy. Weapons were introduced in the free form now and every character had one. Get hit though and you lose the weapon until you can pick it back up.

The fatalities were extremely brutal and some of the best the series has seen and looked even better in 3D. This leads to a new level of detail and creativity that can’t be done in 2D. This was also the slow departure from other “-alities” and the series stuck with just Fatalities. A new boss was introduced as Shinnok and Goro returned as the mini-boss. The game carries over a lot of elements that make it still feel classic but then injects some new stuff as well. I really felt the game was well balanced and was exactly what the first MK in 3D should be. Overall MK4 is a classic and did an amazing job of transferring over to 3D which was very difficult. This, of course, paved a path for all future MK games, but we can always look back on MK4 as a child.