Star Wars: Episode I - Obi-Wan's Adventures

The Good
Well this was a pleasant surprise. It's not as boring as many would have you believe. Although not very long, it's a ride worth taking if you have any interest in Star Wars.

Gameplay-

All the levels are linear, so there is no need to worry about getting lost. And just because all the levels are linear, don't expect something that'll force you down one path the entire game. The linear level structure gives the game focus, without strangling the fun factor. Most of your missions consist of opening locked doors, rescuing citizens, or just getting from point A to point B. Sound fun ? Well it wouldn't be unless you got to blow stuff up ! Battle droids abound in the levels and you'll often be surrounded. This comes to my favorite part of the game.

The weapons at your disposal are a blaster, the Force, and (here it comes !) a lightsaber ! Got your attention ? Good. Although you can't do anything fancy with it, it's still fun to whale on a group of battle droids with it. And best of all, it deflects any laser blast. The pistol is rarely useful, but necessary at some points. The ability to use the Force is somewhat limited though. You'll mainly use it to move boulders, boxes and the like. You can use it on battle droids, but you have a limited supply of it, and it's best to use it on move able objects. But not to worry. There are Force power-ups hidden all over the levels.

The locations are surprisingly varied for a game like this. From the Trade Federation gunships, to the swamps and palaces of Naboo. It makes a great showing for the Game Boy Color. I liked the swamp levels the best. So overall for gameplay, rock solid.

Sound-

Da da da, DA ! Da da da DA da, da da da DA da, du du du duuuu......Oops ! I've got that stuck in my head. (Thank you John Williams.) For as underpowered as the Game Boy Color is for sound, it does some spectacular renditions of the music from Episode I. Everything from the main theme, to the Duel of Fates (partially) when Darth Maul shows up is amazing. Spot on eight-bit renditions.

The other sound effects are almost as good as the music. Obiwan's footsteps can be heard throughout the game when he walks. The laser blast sound nothing like they do in the movies, but hey, this is the Game Boy Color we're talking about here. The most impressive piece of sound is Obiwan's light saber. It doesn't quite match the actual "whoosh" sound, but close enough. For sound, excellent.

Graphics-

Here we go ! The Game Boy Color really shows off what it can do here ! All the back grounds, structures, and textures for this game are widely varied and almost never the same. Something the Game Boy Color isn't exactly known for. The textures are detailed, colorful, and varied to the extreme. The colors used for the game could have been a bit brighter, but it's OK.

The animation is what's really stunning. Screenshots do not do it justice. You literally have to see the game in motion to see how smooth, and lifelike it is. Especially Obiwan's light saber.

The other thing that stands out are the beautifully digitized photos from the movie. You see one before each level, when Quigon instructs what to do in the level. The opening movie is really cool, with super bright, wide screen stills from the movie. It's far beyond what even I thought Game Boy Color was able to do. So in short, (Short. Ha ha, right.) these are the best graphics I've ever seen on the Game Boy color.

Control and Save feature- From Now on, I'll put what kind of save method is used for a handheld title.

The A button is attack, the B button is jump, select switches between weapons, and start pauses. Enough said. The password feature is good and short. Everybody hates long passwords.

The Bad
Gameplay-

Even though the light saber can deflect everything, PLEASE stop throwing destroyer droids at me ! In the later levels they abound. And it takes FOREVER to destroy one ! And the Force feature, while cool and done well enough, is underused. They could have even put more Force puzzles in and I would have been happy. And it's only nine levels long. I want some more !

The Bottom Line
For Star Wars geeks, and non-geeks, this is a game that's worth playing if you love Star Wars at any level. Heck, I might just play it again today !