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 !

The Good
Obi-Wan's Adventures is actually pretty good. Game Boy Colors don't have the best graphics or sound, but this game game seems to get around it. You play Obi-Wan Kenobi, a Jedi in training, who is on a quest that follows closely to "Star Wars: Episode 1- The Phantom Menace. You journey through Trade Federation ships and Theed, among other places. You can use a conventional blaster, use the force, or use your trusty lightsaber against battle droids, droidekas, or (in the end) Darth Maul. First, I really liked the gameplay in general. It was fairly simple, although most Game Boy games are. There wasn't a lot of distractions here, just pure, simple gameplay. It made the game a lot of fun. The weapons are few, again making it simple.

The Bad
I think that firing the blaster was difficult. You can't shoot behind you, you can only shoot in the direction you are facing. Thats OK, but it made things a bit more difficult. I also didn't like the way the whole thing ends. You have to defeat Darth Maul by yourself. If you are a Star Wars buff, you'll already know that Qui-Gon should be there somewhere.

The Bottom Line
I think that this game is pretty good. I would recommend it to a couple people only, because it's one of those games you just pick up and play. All in all, it's a well done game and fun to play. Not too bad at all.