Jeremy Parish

Game Boy Works #125: Klax (Hudson), Klax (Tengen), & Ginga (Patreon)

Published:

2021-07-21 13:00:01

Imported:

2024-04

Tags:

game game boy works hot-b hudson

Content

One last Game Boy video before I hop over to a trio of NES Works episodes. This week, it's—wait for it—more puzzle-type games. Unlike last episode, these are traditional matching puzzle and solitaire games, not character action games with puzzle mechanics. And one of them is actually two games, or rather two takes on the same game—a detail that slipped beneath my radar until I sat down to produce this episode. Game Boy still has plenty of surprises up its sleeve, it seems.

Files

Klax / Klax / Ginga retrospective: Double draggin' | Game Boy Works #125

A curious case here on Game Boy Works: A game that is somehow two games. While Klax on Game Boy plays about the same as the Klax we've already seen on Atari Lynx, it takes two very different approaches to its presentation depending on the region you bought it from. The American release from Mindscape, which actually shipped in 1991, has the same vanishing perspective seen in other versions of the game. The Japanese cart from Hudson, on the other hand, looks like no other rendition of Klax to be found on competing platforms. It's two separate takes on the same property by two different studios. Ah, but which fares better on Game Boy? As for Ginga, the game's full title is Card & Puzzle Collection: Ginga, and that's exactly what it is. It's a video version of all the disused traditional games your grandparents kept in a storage bin in their basement. But you can call it Tornado Appetizer, if you're nasty. Video Works is funded via Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/gamespite) — support the show and get access to every episode up to two weeks in advance of its YouTube debut! Plus, exclusive podcasts, eBooks, and more!