#bit generations

I’ve been playing a lot of GameBoy Advance games lately.  The whole discovery of people modding the original GBA with better and backlit screens that put my GBA SPs to shame made me excited about getting a new one, mostly because it seems traditional Nintendo handhelds are both dead and thriving thanks to the Switch.

Because I have issues, I also bought a lot of new games.  Local stores have some old cartridges, but my quarry of the bit Generations games from Japan remained elusive. So I spent too much money on a set of them, boxed, off eBay. They come in smaller square boxes with a little slipcover and fold-out instruction sheet.  And they’re almost always reviewed and discussed as a group, which is a pity.  As of my writing this I’ve opened 3 of the 7, one of which has locked itself into my brain and become a new obsession.  It’s Coloris, the lowest-rated of the seven according to Japan’s Famitsu.  It’s a riff on “match 3″ puzzlers.

Coloris may be named for “Color” and “Tetris,” in that there are lots of little colored tiles and Tetris is also a puzzle game.  The graphics are generally the kind of thing  you could have seen on the Atari 2600, with the occasional background that isn’t just a black screen.  The music is by Japanese musician Cornelius, who you probably recognize if you also have a lot of 1990s indie records in your collections or hung out at a CD store staffed by a man named Timmy.

The entire history of GameBoy is so jam-packed with puzzle games, especially variations of “match 3,” that you probably don’t know why you want another one. I certainly don’t.  I popped this one in and it grabs me like nothing else.  It’s slow, colorful, and engaging.

If you wait too long, the tiles turn grey and stop you from advancing until you get rid of them.

Your cursor changes colors.  The cursor color will tint the tile.  So if the tile is blue, and your cursor is yellow, the tile will shift to green.

The music is a low hum, punctuated by blips and bloops and beeps as tiles change and disappear.  It’s very charming.

If you’re colorblind or are afraid you might be, the game can be a challenge. Some reds, yellows, and oranges all look very similar to me - even if side-by-side on some screens.  It can be maddening, but it certainly adds to the challenge.

I’m on level 34 of at least 35 of “clear mode.” I’ve been skipping around “Score mode.”  If there’s another mode I’ve not yet unlocked it.

The game is entirely in English except for the safety warning splash screen.

The cartridge is black rather than dark grey. The label is a metallic foil.  It’s beautiful and matches the title screen.