Editor’s note: Welcome to a new type of feature! Sometimes we wanna play old games so that means we’re reviewing whatever the fuck we want. How does it feel to play Spawn for the GBC in 2021? Ray will tell you! As a notable change, you won’t get a real recommendation on whether or not to buy this for retro reviews. Instead, we hope our opinions are enough to convince you to get these games through totally legal means.
-Rich
Author: Ray Mcgill
I have no idea why I started to play this game. I think I wanted to justify the insane amount of games I have on my Anbernic 351M, and play something that wasn’t just one of the greats. So I found Spawn on my list of GameBoy Color games and decided to give that a whirl. After playing this title, I can say...I made a mistake and wasted a lot of my time. This is a bad game, and really there is no reason for anyone to play this.
Spawn (Gameboy Color)
Developer: Konami
Publisher: Konami
Released September 15, 1999
MSRP: $34.99
Developed and published by Konami in 1999, this title somehow looks worse than many GBC titles that came out before it. The backgrounds are bland, with repeating urban landscapes, uninspired visions of space, and a boring, conveyor-belt heavy version of Hell. As you could probably guess, you play as Al Simmons, also known as Spawn. In this game, you have few combat options. You have your basic punch, if you hold down the attack button, you can charge up your magic and shoot a chain out. Sometimes you get a gun, and sometimes you get a machine gun. Oh, also you have this weirdly floaty dive kick that really doesn’t seem to follow any sense of physics. Now the chain sounds great, and something very Spawn-ish if you have any familiarity with the character. The issue with that is your magic meter and your life total are the same. So by using the chain attack, you’re hurting yourself. A lot of the game is pretty generous though with health restores, so it’s really not the end of the world if you use your chain attack, you just don’t have any real reason to.
Every level, save one (Level 2), is some form of the same basic level layout. You have to jump up, or down floors, and eventually get to the end of the stage, with no real clear indicator of the right way to go. Throughout the levels there are enemies are haphazardly placed on platforms, with no real thematic tie-in to the level, or any real reason why they’re even there in the first place. The only good level in the game, Level 2 is actually played on a motorcycle, and you’re knocking other cyclists off of their bikes, or fighting cars. This was truly the most fun and variation the game had to offer, it was pretty much the anti-Battletoads.
Verdict: I couldn’t really recommend this game to anybody unless they were actively looking for bad games to play, which in that case I would offer up this title readily. The GameBoy Color was truly a great device and had a ton of great titles. Konami’s Spawn was not one of them.