The Video Game Critic

About a decade ago, when handhelds were still generally the only hold out of 2D gaming, ports of popular 3d games would be released--only as a 2D game that would 'approximate' the gameplay of the original. I was curious what ones I should look at besides those I mention here--

I was recently playing Max Payne -- for the Gameboy Advance -- as well as the original, as part of a package deal for Max Payne 3. The original strikes me as quite bland now -- but the GBA version is really quite a lot of fun. To make a lame pun, it puts a new 'perspective' on things -- it was the only major overhead shooter released around the time. It's a bit lacking, but it's actually more entertaining to go back and play through that version if one were to play through the series today.

It caused me to take another look at Killzone Liberation on the PSP -- the original Killzone was completely forgettable, but this is just an excellent game. To see where the enemies are and form a strategy of attack, combined with an FPS style physics engine -- excellent.

I grabbed the new Halo Spartan Assault on Steam, which is recent but clearly a homage (knockoff?) of Liberation -- it's pretty good as well.


Curious what 2Dized / overhead "ports" I should take a look at besides these -- I'm guessing the Gameboy versions of some of the overhyped "graphics games" of a decade or more ago might be more fun than the originals. ( Tony Hawk? Splinter Cell? )

The only games I can think of are portable versions of games. I remember Tony hawk pro skater for the gba was a ton of fun. At the time it seemed like a solid port of the original PlayStation game. Also star wars racer for the gbc was insanely fun back in the day. They crammed the n64 title into a small gbc cartridge and it was awesome. Might be worth downloading or tracking down.

Honestly, I think for most movie licensed games released during the 6th generation, the GBA versions were superior to the console versions. The console games were often standard, generic licensed game fare, while the "inferior" GBA ports were often fun throwbacks to the 16 Bit Era, with a cool license to boot.

Can we count Rayman? If so, it's the clear winner. It went from 2D to 3D, and then back to 2D again. Each instance was very successful.

How about Spyro Orange? That game was really fun, even if I prefer the PS1 games. I never played Crash Purple, though.