January 2023: Jeep Jamboree (1992)

Happy New Year! I’m eating a bagel sandwich and resolving to eat more of them in 2023. We’re back to member submissions and this month we’ve got Jeep Jamboree picked by D’arcy Briggs! They wrote up a bit about it so tell you what… I’m going to extend my holiday vacation and let them take over:

“I’m a big fan of racing games, but rarely am I any good at them. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is the racing game that I’ve sunk a sizable amount of time into, but otherwise my most played racers are likely Horizon Chase Turbo and Episode I Racer. You may notice, these racers are all from the mid-90s forward. The 8-bit generation of consoles aren’t known for their racing games, and the pool of above average to excellent ones shrinks even more when we move over to the monochromatic Game Boy. Let’s shrink the pool even more and get official licensing in the mix.

Jeep Jamboree: Off Road Adventure is a 1992 release from Gremlin Interactive. The game is… incredibly average. The graphics are totally acceptable, but the frame-rate is about what you would expect for a 1st-person racer on the handheld (though it’s certainly not the worst frame-rate for this style of game). The controls are a little wonky, but there’s also a good number of things to like about the game. 

The races themselves are pretty short, perfect for racing on the go. There’s also a decent amount of variations and options in the game itself, from full seasons with a variety of difficulties to practices and 2 player sessions.

To some degree, these sorts of games are perfect for Yokoi Kids. There’s plenty of hidden gems and plenty of garbage, but the Game Boy thrives on those games that made up our collection as kids- those games that were completely fine, but we kept playing because they were what we had. Aside from birthdays or gifts of the holiday season, we needed to cling to the games that made up our small collections.”

Thanks D’arcy! I’m looking forward to this. I like simple racing games a lot. For instance, I genuinely enjoy F-1 Race on the Game Boy as well.   OK folks! ZOOM ZOOM IN THE NEW YEAR. -IF

Alleyway: The Shape of Bricks To Come – D’arcy Briggs

Alleyway is an interesting launch title for the Game Boy. It’s basic, a simple Breakout clone, and only offers bonus levels and a few variations in levels to keep things interesting. It doesn’t hold onto your high score and honestly, it’s not pretty.

However, it perfectly fits its intended purpose: to act as a bridge between the even simpler Game and Watch games, and games that would offer more dynamic and nuanced play. As basic as it is, it’s from a time when handheld gaming was in its infancy and much cruder in design. Alleyway cracks the window open a little to show what the future held. The fact that there ARE bonus levels, the fact that there IS a variety in levels means a lot in terms of the evolution of handheld gaming.

D’Arcy is an educator and gamer from BC, Canada. He’s been gaming his entire life and enjoys both new and retro games. His consoles of choice are Game Boy, PS3, and Switch.You can follow his gaming online @darcyska_gaming