While I don't think the NGPC is a bad handheld by any means, I think it's not quite as good as it could (or should) be...
Didn't you just agree it was "kinda crap" , and say it was "underwhelming", lol.
Maybe you just mean the hardware is OK, and the games suck? I don't know.
It's true that if you don't want to play a fighting game, there's hardly a point to owning a NGPC.
Without it, I was stuck with Fist of the Northstar and Mortal Kombat for Gameboy as portable fighting. What a disaster my life was.
In any event, I find that comparing any handheld crap in emulators is kind of stupid. You need to be comparing the real-things. It's like people playing Virtual Boy games in an emulator and going OH I DIDN'T GET A HEADACHE.
Lucky you, lol.
Half this crap, if you're playing it an emulator, you're literally playing a watered down version of a different game you could also be emulating.
The magic was in the fact that this thing was in your pocket, and you could play it at holiday functions instead of listening to your weird cousins talk about dumb shit. It's rare that I ever used SuperGameboy or GBA player for anything outside of an RPG at home.
The modern equivalent of that is how I plug my PSP into my TV so I don't have to sit staring at my crotch for 12 hours while I play an RPG on that thing. otherwise, I'm probably just playing a PS3/4 game.
The fighting games are nice, I like them, but the bland graphics with almost monochrome sprites really drag it down to me... The 2nd BG layer is nice, but instead of wowing me whenever there is parallax, I just get more disappointed whenever there isn't, and there often isn't...
And again, the soundchip, why so weak? Why only square waves? Give me a more robust sound!
(You don't need 2 BG layers for parallax. Parallax and layered scrolling aren't the same thing. They just go together nicely.)
All handhelds basically had goony sound until the GBA. The Wonderswan was a bit exceptional but still not like it was mindblowingly better than even the regular Gameboy.
Lynx and GameGear sounded blerpy too. It all sounded blerpy. Even Wonderswan's sorta ho-hum.
When you're hearing this stuff blaring out of a handheld speaker without headphones, this stuff mostly doesn't matter.
The screens were tiny, not backlit, and often played in poorly lit living rooms or cars, or outside in direct sunlight. The things you are complaining about are things you only notice when you sit and compare them in an emulator.
I think if you had these in your hands, you'd barely give two shits either way and would mostly care about which games were better. You'd probably be unimpressed with all of it compared to an SP.
The fighting games on NGPC , and stuff like cardfighters clash had really clean, contrasty, nice looking visuals on those screens. It definitely had a nice visual pop to it while playing, and ultimately, that was really important. Later games and stuff on the GBA actually became more difficult to see because it was still not backlit, but now you have more shading and such. The pop went away.
Neither the NGPC (outside of the fighting games) or Wonderswan is really that amazing. They had their interesting/neat games, and they were fun enough to have.
Though, I didn't like Wonderswan's buttons. They are gross.
however, ultimately, everything generally fell back to the original gameboy. Everything came and went, the original Gameboy somehow kicked everything's ass, and then the GBA showed up, wasn't backlit, we all still bought them with Xmas/Birthday money like the dumbf*cks that we were, and it was fun even though we could barely see these new fancy graphics.
and then, you put it in your pocket and scratch the screen and go "ah shit", and then you see the SP release and want to lay down on a freeway.
The Gameboy Color was stupid. I bought that thing the day it came out, and it was stupid. I shoved Final Fantasy Adventure in and went "This is it?". Links Awakening DX ? "Why did I buy this, this is stupid", lol.
but then I sat and played it for hours. and hours. and hours. It was fun. It was also small. and it was that cool clear purple stuff.
I do not understand how/why the Gameboy+Pocket+Color basically annihilated everything in it's path. It just did. It didn't look or sound the best, but it won. I think it was mostly because of the sheer number of available games that satisfied people's need for some kind of coherent action / whatever game on the go. The library had it all (except fighters, lol).
Maybe we were dumb. I don't know. I used to hold a flashlight in my mouth to see what the f*ck was going on in games. Those click on lights/magnifiers were idiotic as hell. I remember trying to play in the dark, using passing streetlights to fumble through FF Legend #1.
Show a less-informed gamer a Game Gear and an NGPC and ask them "Which one do you think is 8 bit and which is 16 bit?" and chances are they'll say the Game Gear is the 16 bit one, because at least that one has the 4bpp graphics to back it up, even if the colour count is actually lower and it lacks a 2nd scrolling plane...
So, PC-E is 8-bit, and it looks better than both.
but, chances are they will say Gamegear because it's backlit, they can see what the f*ck is going on, and you're probably showing them Columns or Sonic, so they'll just assume things.
(Oh hey, NGPC had a cool Sonic game)
A less informed gamer probably has no idea what 4bpp or background plane even means, so I hope you wouldn't expect to even say those words at them.
Here's my take on the NGPC and Wonderswan (I used to have both)
vs.
Visually, Wonder Stadium looks a little better, but that music is itchy. and Baseball Stars played better.
Looking back, I played alot of Golf on Gameboy. Just plain ass Golf. and Baseball. Some real in depth naming from Nintendo there.
Mario Golf on GBC didn't look great at all compared to Nice On or Neo Turf Masters, but that didn't stop me from playing it endlessly, either.
and I don't even like Golf. I hate golf. I don't know why I like Golf games.
anyway, I think the takeaway is Wonderswan's just another thing that got steamrolled by gameboy, with a handful of cool shit, and gross buttons.
