Game & Watch Gallery 2 | Refining the Old-School
Over the past few months, I’ve gained a newfound appreciation for Nintendo’s Game Boy. I’d played many of its games before, but it wasn’t until experiencing them through Nintendo Switch Online and its incredible filters that I really understood the appeal and reverence. That was enough to get me to pick up a Game Boy Pocket and an Everdrive to dive into the library, and I’ve had an amazing time so far! But if I had to choose my favourite new-to-me series, it would easily be the throwback to Nintendo’s earliest handhelds: Game & Watch Gallery.
The Game & Watch Gallery series is one of those unabashedly Game Boy ideas, like turning Balloon Fight into a platformer or remaking the original Donkey Kong and turning it into a wholly new game after the original ending. It’s a concept that only really could’ve been done in that specific period, where Nintendo owned the market and were free to experiment without compromise. I adored the original Game & Watch Gallery when I played it back in early-mid May, so I was eager to hop back into the series a few weeks later. And somehow, despite my sheer love for that first game, Game & Watch Gallery 2 managed to blow its predecessor out the water in almost every way!
Following in the footsteps of its predecessor, Game & Watch Gallery 2 compiles a selection of games from Nintendo’s old Game & Watch series of handhelds and brings them to the Game Boy, featuring a Classic mode that faithfully ports them alongside a Modern mode that features updated gameplay and members of the Mario cast.
In the previous game, these updates were kept to a minimum and mostly amounted to an extra mechanic or two, but there seems to have been a concerted effort to include more meaningful differences in the Modern versions this time around, and I think they nailed it. I’ll go through each of the games one-by-one, as that’ll let me focus on their individual strengths and give you a clearer view of what they present.
Parachute falls into the same trap Fire does for me, where it takes so long to get going that I’m utterly bored by the time it picks up. But while Fire's juggling of pedestrians is enough to keep slower sessions tense and exciting, Parachute's simplicity makes it mind-numbing after a while. You're literally just catching characters as they fall, and while it can be exhilarating to zoom across the screen and catch someone just in time, it's not enough to curb my boredom.
The cannon and varying fall speeds of the parachuters in Modern add some much-needed variety, but they don't stop Parachute from being my least favourite game here.
Helmet’s exactly what I want out of a Game & Watch game; fast-paced arcadey action right from the outset! It took a while to get good at Classic (the stilted animation made it hard to anticipate when tools would fall and knock my little guy out), but the smoother movements of Modern made it much more palatable. I love the risk & reward mechanic added by the coins in this version, as you’ve got an incentive to stay out for longer with the risk of getting hit, made easier by the fact that grabbing too many coins will slow Mario down.
But now that I have gotten good, I think I prefer Classic. The frame-by-frame movement adds a really fun challenge to weaving through the tools, which makes building up a high score incredibly satisfying. Even if I still end up losing my lives quite quickly, the fast-paced gameplay and my gradual improvement is enough to keep me coming back.
Chef’s the prime example of a game where the Classic and Modern versions are similar yet distinct and equally worthwhile. Classic’s a fairly standard juggling game in the same vein as Ball, which Modern expands upon with new mechanics like cooking the food for extra points, fitting the general theme quite nicely and adding some extra depth.
I was honestly blown away by just how much I loved Modern Chef in particular, to the point where it’s become my favourite game in this collection (and possibly the series as a whole)!
Vermin's probably the most mindless game here, but that's not a bad thing! Having a game where you can mostly just shut your brain off and whack enemies serves as a nice contrast to the deeper and more nuanced games in the collection.
And for what it’s worth, Modern Vermin adds a nice bit of strategy with the eggs and their damage system, requiring you to occasionally prioritize certain enemies over others.
Donkey Kong’s the one game where I went from disliking it to absolutely loving it, and that gives it a unique edge for me! It’s structured similarly to the arcade classic, but places a higher emphasis on positioning and strategy, a logical fit for the frame-by-frame movement of Game & Watch games.
That movement was what initially put me off; it felt awkward and incredibly unsuited for the Modern mode. But once I did adjust and everything clicked, it became one of my favourites! I don't think it's quite as replayable as some of the other games here, but the process of falling in love with it is enough to keep it in my mind.
Rather than simply unlocking unplayable goodies for the Gallery Corner by getting stars, Game & Watch Gallery 2 does something pretty awesome. After collecting a total of 15 stars, you’ll unlock a sixth game: Ball, the very first Game & Watch!
You can also unlock four Modern versions featuring the Mario cast, although I found them much harder due to their smoother animations. Ball’s pretty simple and not one of my favourites, but I’m glad it’s here as a more tangible unlockable.
One final thing I want to touch on (or rather gush about in a dorky fashion) is the presentation. Game & Watch Gallery 2 released at a transitional point in the Game Boy’s life; it was a launch title for the Game Boy Color in English-speaking countries, and came on a special black cartridge that denoted its compatibility with original Game Boys.
You’d think they would’ve simply recoloured the existing assets, and while character/object sprites are identical, nearly every background was redone to take full advantage of the wider colour palette, resulting in totally different looks depending on the hardware. It’s something I organically got to experience as I switched from the 3DS VC release to my GB Pocket and Super Game Boy, and seeing the different approaches they took was really neat!
The GBC visuals tend to be flatter to emphasise the colours, while the original GB uses dithering and lighter shades to keep the gameplay readable on that monochrome screen. Most black cartridge GBC games use the same graphics across both versions, so seeing the developers go out of their way to create visuals that play to each system’s strengths is really commendable!
While I hold more personal affinity for the original Game & Watch Gallery, I don’t say that to take away from any of the improvements made here. Like any good sequel, Game & Watch Gallery 2 builds upon its predecessor’s foundation in ways you didn’t know you wanted, refining the concept and bringing it to new heights.
It’s become one of my absolute favourite Game Boy games, and I really hope it and the rest of the series come to NSO before too long. They’re the perfect games to relax with and play in short bursts, and I think the Switch’s audience would really appreciate that.
