The Gameboy Player is available in Jet and Indigo in Australia and Jet black in Europe, and released four days before America. Perhaps this is Nintendo's way of giving something back to the PAL gamers who usually wait months for conversions? PALGN, and the wider PAL community aren't complaining - take note, Nintendo!
Ahh, Screw It!
Installing the Gameboy Player is surprisingly simple. It requires you to turn your GCN over, pull out the cover to the High Speed Port, slot the base into place, and screw it into place with the provided screws. Then all you have to do is pop in the start-up disc whenever you want to play, stick your game into the GBP's game slot, and you're set!
During gameplay, you use the GCN's Z Button to bring up the GBP's options menu. This allows you to:
· Choose one of twenty pre-made borders to surround the gameplay screen,
· Stretch the image to fill the screen entirely (although visual distortion is more apparent in Full mode),
· Change controller configurations. The GBA can also be connected to the GCN with a GBA-GCN cable to act as a controller.
· Choose a filter: Sharp, Normal, or Soft. These can fix visual glitches,
· Use a timer, which visually alerts you after a user-defined timer period,
· and Swap games without turning off the system.
Here's Something You Weren't Expecting...
The visual quality is quite amazing. You'd probably expect a horribly pixellated, distorted rendition of your GBA game to appear, but instead you have a clear, vibrant, and faithful reproduction. Games like Metroid Fusion and Golden Sun really shine on the GBP - all of the visual detail is produced as if it were made for the big screen.
When games are stretched using the 'Full Screen' option however, they can appear distorted, washed out, and slightly muddy, but they do fill the screen.
On 4x3 TV's, there's always a slight border regardless of mode, because the GBA is in a widescreen format. The Gameboy Player has a 60Hz option for those with compatible TV's, although the difference is barely noticeable as per usual.
The Screen Filters included in the GBP's options menu are slightly puzzling. Whilst some have complained that they don't seem to do anything, they are supposed to fix visual glitches that occur in certain games, and soften or sharpen the picture. I've tried out eight games on the GBP, and none of them required the use of a filter; although it's nice to know they're there if needed.
Bleep! Bloop! Smash!
If you've bought a GBA SP and have been missing full stereo sound, then the GBP will come as a godsend to you. All sound is output in 2.1 channel stereo, so you won't have to put up with a crackly speaker no longer!
The GBP has an EXT Link port on it's face, so you can have multiplayer gaming with a combination of GBP's and GBA's. For example, you could have one GBP and 3 GBA's playing at once, or 2 GBP's (on seperate TV's) and 2 GBA's. This is also an interesting way of trading Pokemon...
Unfortunately, you can't use the Gameboy Player for GCN-GBA connectivity, unless you have two GBP's and two TV's: one for the GCN game, and one for the GBP. Nintendo have been really pushing their connectivity ideology, and this technicality seems likely to confuse the mainstream audience. Heck, it even confused the PALGN staff - a bunch of hardcore gaming nuts!
Not So Portable Gaming... But...
If you don't own a Gameboy Advance and are interested in a few GBA games, then the Gameboy Player is definately for you. Its attractive price of AU$99.95/GBP£40/60 Euros means that it's an affordable (and official) way to play your favourite GBA games on a large screen.
Loading...
