*days may or may not be concurrent.

So the Game Boy had reigned supreme in the handheld market throughout most of the 90's. It had beaten off all completion despite being graphically inferior then the other handhelds at the time. However by 1998 it was looking very very dated, which in itself is very impressive that the system had lasted 9 years before an upgrade was required. So 1998 brought us the Game Boy Color, while not a totally new system (we would have to wait another 3 years for that) it was a significant power up to the previous hardware boasting 4 times the memory and twice the clock speed. But thats not what we cared about at the time, what we cared about was the colours. Gone was the 4 simple shades of grey and into a world of colour we stepped. I didn't have many GBC games until recently, maybe only 5 or 6. But out of all the games for the system, this is the one I usually think of first when I think Game Boy Color.



I don't think this was my first Game Boy Color game, may have been 2nd or 3rd, I know Turok 2 was my first one but it hasn't stuck in my mind as this game has. I remember seeing heaps of screenshots and previews for this game in the various mags at the time (and there where a lot that came out for the Game Boy Color). For some reason it just jumped out and grabbed me ahead of the rest. Thinking about it now maybe it was cause unlike a lot of GBC games at the time which where either old games given a colour reskinning (Zelda DX, Wario Land 2, Pocket Bomberman) or games based on existing licenses (Turok 2, some Loony Toons games) it was something brand new. A new franchise, something I hadn't played before and I just became interested in it. Plus I didn't have any fighting games at that stage being that all I had was my GBC and a N64 I needed something to cure the fighting game itch I had.



As far as Fighting games on the Game Boy go, Power Quest is really good. It does feel rather basic when compared to say a console fighter, but at the time this came out it would have had to be the best fighter on the Game Boy. Playing it now it still feels pretty good. The controls are solid, you only have 2 buttons to attack with so one is Weak and the other is Strong. You have the usual moves you see in most fighting games to pull off attacks, like for the main character like down, down/forward, forward attack to use your projectile attack. Its all pretty basic stuff but it works well on the system. When you start the game you get a choice of 5 robots they are, Max you usual middle of the range standard character. Speed the token female who funnily enough by her name is also the fastest but also the weakest. Gong your token big guy who is slow as a tank but hurts when he hits you. Lon who looks like an old martial arts master kind of robot, has some very nice long range attacks. And Axe who is like Lon but more focused on close range then distance. There is also a secret joke character called Borot who is an older looking robot with tracks instead of feet. Can't jump and is very slow, its just there for fun.



So the game has your usual 1 Player vs CPU play through as well as multiplayer via link cable (something I never got a chance to try out), also what makes this a lot more deeper then your usual fighting game is that the Story part of the game is presented as a RPG. Its not a very indepth RPG but hey its something. The storyline is thus, your a young kid, there is an upcoming robot tournament coming up but you don't have a robot to battle with. Out of no where you win a free robot and then your quest to be the robot master or something begins. I guess its like a very watered down version of Medabots or Nintendo's Custom Robo games. You fight battles against other people, win money, buy new parts, all in the lead up to the big Robo tournament.



To be honest I don't think I got that far in the game for one reason. Being an RPG and all the game is too long to play in one sitting, so naturally there has to be a way to save your progress. Well not really and here comes out everyone's fav forgotten relic of the 8bit era, password saves. WTF is this crap why the hell in 1998 where they still doing god damn password saves, its stupid. The problem is even more compounded by the fact that its a portable game, I might be elsewhere and want to play but I can't cause I don't have something to write a stupid sodding password down on. I should be able to play some of the game, save and then come back later when I get the chance. The whole idea of handheld games should be games that can be played in bite size chunks and be able to come and go as I please. There is no excuse for this game to not have had a battery save, none at all.



Password problems aside this is a very good game and one I think I'm gonna try and finish once I've finished this 20 days thing. Hell even with out the RPG mode its still lots of fun just as a fighting game, the RPG I guess is just extra material to flesh it out. I don't see this getting any love anywhere which is a shame, its a freaken great game. It looks amazing and yet even when played on a normal Game Boy its still lots of fun. If you see this around on ebay or at your local second hand stores I say pick it up.