I have recently dug up some old games for the Gameboy and have been wasting spending some quality time replaying them. The two games in question, Pokemon Blue and Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, reminded me why the old Gameboy had dominated the handheld games market for such a very long time. There was, and still is, a wealth of very engaging and addictive games for that console.
If your old Gameboy has been *kaput* for a while, don’t fret yourself. Yet. Some of the older, more popular games have been ported to the PC. Illegally, true, but if Nintendo no longer supports the device, do we actually have a choice? Besides, if you legally own the original ROM … I will not link to those download sites here, but I’m sure you know how to find them yourself *nudge* *nudge* *wink* *wink*. Just a note of caution: those sites are festooned with advertisements and some may try to infect your PC with spyware and viruses. Visit them at your own risk, or use the free Firefox browser with the (also free) Adblock plug-in and make sure your computer’s anti-virus software is up-to-date.
However, it is not always necessary to wander around the more questionable side of the law. The old classics are classic for a good reason – they sold well and made their owners (i.e. developers) a lot of money. That means there is a good chance they may have been ported to the newer generation of handheld consoles like the Nintendo DS. How do you find out? One way is to ask your friendly neighborhood games store, you know, the shop where you bought most of your games. Another way is to nose around Amazon. For example, although there is no DS version for Pokemon Blue, there is Pokemon Platinum for the Nintendo DS. For Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, the upgraded version is called Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift.
If you have never played these old handheld games before, why not try them out now? These old games are fun to play, and now that they have been updated to use the much better graphics of the new model portable consoles, they have become even better. They are far better than some of the newer games that rely only on the power of the new graphics to provide eye candy. And if you have played the old version of the games on the Gameboy, do try out their newer versions for the Nintendo DS as well. You will often find yourself pleasantly surprised.
Tags: final fantasy, nintendo ds, pokemon