I got the Gameboy Player for my Birthday. Might as well thank Art for getting it for me, so, Thanks Art. (I know you don't know who This Art is, but let me assure you he's a cool guy who plays Mario Kart 64.) Back to the Gameboy Player, when I saw I got it, I immediately wanted to try it out. (I didn't know much about the Gameboy Player, except that it plays all Gameboy/Gameboy Color/Gameboy Advance Games, as well as the e-reader. And of course it is a device that hooks up to the Gamecube and allows you to play Gameboy Games on the TV.) Well, I quickly tried to pull apart that hard plastic they put it in, I failed, so I tried a knife, which I suggest NO ONE try. I then used some scissors and carefully cut it open. I then ran to the Gamecube and attached it. I thought it was quite cool how the Gameboy Player fits perfectly under the Gamecube, and raises it 1 inch. I then saw that it comes with a Gamecube disc. By seeing this I knew that you need this disc inserted into the Gamecube to be able to use the Gameboy Player. This is very true, if you lose this disc, then you can't play the Gameboy Player, So be careful, and if you get a Gameboy Player, or already have one, keep this disc safe. You do get a little plastic case to put it in. Well, I then put Mario Kart Super Circuit in and turned on the Gamecube. I didn't bother to read the instructions at first, which I suggest you ALWAYS do before installing the Gameboy Player, and using it, the same goes for all other Hardware and Games.

Well, I turned on the Gameboy Player, which for the rest of this review I shall call GBP for short.
I saw the good ol' Gameboy Logo come on, just like on a real Gameboy Advance, that was cool.

I then looked at the features by pressing the Z Button, even though Mario Kart had already started.
I saw a bunch of different features. First I went to the Frames Setting, and looked at all 20 Frames. (I'm not going to show them all here in this review, you can visit them all in my Gameboy Player Screenshots Pages. I'll give a link to them at the end of this review.) It was cool to see all 20 frames, there were a lot of cool looking frames. I like to switch to different ones from game to game. Some frames feel better with some games than others.

I then saw a Screen Size Setting, this gave me the choice of selecting between a normal and full size screen.
Normal would give me more of the frame and less of the game, and full would give me just the edge of the frame and more of the game. You may ask why I wouldn't just leave it on full, well Normal gives it a more clear, crisp look. Don't think the picture is all blocky and fuzzy and bad, it is actually quite good. I will make the screen bigger on some games, but I tend to leave it on Normal for the most part.

Then I went to the Controller option, I saw that it allows two configurations for the Gamecube Controller.
Both are slightly different, and one player might want one configuration over the other. I would say the configuration the GBP started me on is the best, I never really use the other.

I then went on to the Screen Filter Setting. This gives you three options, Normal, Sharp, and Soft. This will change the look of the game being played, some games may look better on one option and some games may look better on another. If the game doesn't look as good as you think it could look, you can give this a try. This is a nice feature; when games that are made to be played on a small screen are converted to the Big Screen, they may need some adjustments, such as this.

I then saw the Timer Setting. This setting has basically nothing to do with playing the games. It is just a cool setting. A Timer that goes up to 60 minutes. Lets say you are going to play Mario vs. Donkey Kong on the GBP, BUT, you need to shut it off and go somewhere in 15 minutes, then simply set the Timer for 15 minutes, play the game, and when 15 minutes has past, it will remind you. This really is a useful option, when I have to go somewhere, and I start to play a game, I get so involved into the game that I forget to glance at the clock and see the time. So this can come in handy.

Then I saw the last setting, the Change Game Pak setting. This is when you want to change the game pak that is in the GBP or insert a game if you turned the Gamecube on without inserting a game. ALWAYS USE THIS!!! Don't just take the game pak out, or insert one without using this setting. This is a great setting, it would have hurt the ranking of this device if this setting weren't there, and you had to turn off the Gamecube just to switch games. Very good to have.

Well, after I viewed all these options I started to play. I switched it to the frame I wanted and then started to play. I was so excited. I then picked Yoshi, which I guess is not important to say, but I do love to race with Yoshi. I then started on the first cup in GP mode. It was amazing as I drove through the tracks. I could really enjoy the backgrounds more than on the Gameboy Advance. The controls were great, they weren't hard to learn, I was just instantly right into the game. To be quite honest, I have never been that good at Mario Kart Super Circuit, I just couldn't play on it as well as other Gameboy Games. But now I could play much better, the controller felt much easier to play with, then playing on the actual Gameboy Advance. I then played that for awhile, but I soon wanted to play F-Zero Maximum Velocity on it. To see if I could play better on it, since I was even worse at it than Mario Kart Super Circuit. I then used the switch game pak setting and removed my game and inserted F-Zero, the GBP has a nifty little ejection switch on the side, that you should use to remove your games from the GBP. Then I started to play Z-Zero I could play much better! I was so happy, I still sucked, but I was much better than before.

If you wonder if the GBP can use an e-reader or link up to other Gameboy Advance's, than yes, of course it can. it has the little port on the front that lets you connect to other Gameboy Advance's, and you insert the e-reader into the game slot, just like you would on a Gameboy Advance. But don't get your hopes up and think you can hook up a bunch of Gamecube Controllers and both play Mario Kart Super Circuit on the 1 TV, with some sort of split screen. Trust me, that was one of the first things I did. But you can still link up with other Gameboy Advance's.
There is yet another nifty feature. You can connect a Gameboy Advance to the GBP, using a Gameboy Advance Gamecube Link Cable, sold separately of course. (I gotta say sold separately, I don't want people buying the GBP and getting mad at me when they see there's no Link Cable.)  Well, once you connect the Gameboy Advance to the GBP, you can use the GBA as a controller on those great Gameboy games. You may be wondering why you would want to use the Gameboy Advance as a controller, well it can give the games a different feel. You may want to use this option sometimes. But your Gameboy Advance does have to be turned on, don't think you can leave it off and to save some power.

Now Comes the matter of playing NON-Gameboy Advance games, playing Gameboy and Gameboy Color games. This plays them of course, just like a Gameboy Advance would. And they do give you the different color options, just as they do on the Gameboy Advance and the Gameboy Color. These different color options change the look of the black and white Gameboy games. For example, I loaded up Super Mario Land, one of the first Gameboy games made, and the color looked blue, so I switched the color setting and it looked more normal. Gameboy Color Games play great on it as well.

Now it comes to the conclusion of my Gameboy Player Review.
Well, I think the Gameboy Player can be cool to have, even if you already have a Gameboy Advance. For one, playing games on a TV can make it a more enjoyable experience, it might also help you play the game better. So if you are playing a Gameboy game, that you think you could play much better with a bigger screen or different controller, such as the Gamecube Controller, or both of these, then the Gameboy Player may be a great thing to have. Even if you already play great on all Gameboy games, then this may still be a cool thing to have, playing games on a big screen can just make it seem more fun. Now, if you don't have a Gameboy Advance already you may want to think of getting this instead of a Gameboy Advance. For one the Gameplay Players are generally much cheaper. Also, you might be a gamer who doesn't really like to play games in different places, you just like to play your games in front of your TV. I myself, whenever I play a Gameboy game on my Gameboy Advance system, I mainly just sit on the couch and play it, I hardly ever bring it in the car, or outside. If you are one of these people, who doesn't really like playing games in other spots than in your room where your TV is, then this can be the thing for you. It turns over 1000 games that are hand held, and that you would never play, into console games that you can play. There are so many fun Gameboy Games out there that you can now experience.
In conclusion, the Gameboy Player is a great device to have. I am glad I got one. I am not a big fan of Hand Held Games, but now I can play all of them. There were, and still are so many games that I have missed out on, that I can now catch up on. So, Thanks Nintendo for Making this great device, and Thanks Art again, for getting me this great device.

Written By: Joey Anderson
Date Written: August 6th, 2004