GB 12 in 1: Sports Collection for Game Boy

Game List

1. Fifa '98
2. NBA Jam
3. Olympic Summer Games
4. Side Pocket
5. Mini Putt
6. NBA Allstar Challenge
7. World Socer
8. Battle Pingpong
9. Super Volleyball
10. World Bowling
11. Tennis
12. Kung Fu Master







Cartridge Comments

Here we have a pirate cart that actually got it right. As evidence that not all pirates are bad, I present "GB 12 in 1: Sports Collection". Before I get on to talk about the games, I'll first talk about the cart itself. As far as unlicenced carts go, it's fairly standard. The cartridge is one of those "plain" types, with no text in the oval area near the top. Overall the cart feels well constructed and secure, with no circuit board rattling on the inside. The label art is quite nice. It features a montage of fairly accurate images, 12 in all, which represent the games that are included. There are a few errors, the biggest being near the top, where it says "Special Colluction" instead of "Special Collection". Another thing I noticed is that Mario is present on the "Mini Golf" image. Of course, this was probably just a scheme to draw attention with a familiar face. Being as the cartridge label is identical to the actual box it came in, I will describe it in more detail below.

Game Selection

As stated above, this is not a bad cart. That is, if you're a fan of sports games. As you have probably guessed, this cart contains 12 different sport-related games varying from Table Tennis to Karate. I'm not a fan of any kind of sports, though I still find some of these games to be enjoyable and I can see a sport enthusiast really liking this cart. Of course, I'm talking about the kind of sport enthusiast who also likes to play video games from time to time. The game menu is simple, with the games from 1 to 10 listed on the screen. The select button skips to the next screen which has games 11 and 12. At the top of the screen is the title, "GB 12 in 1: Sports Collection". Yes, collection, not "colluction" as on the label art. The game titles are sometimes shortened or have a few incorrect letters but it's close enough. The choice of games is very nice and actually sticks to the sports theme, which is surprising.

There is a downside to this cart however and it's quite a big one. It will not work on a Gameboy Advance SP or a Gameboy Color. The only way to play this thing is either on the original Gameboy, or on a Super Nintendo by using the Super Gameboy adaptor. I'm not sure about a Gameboy Pocket since I don't have one to test it on. I think this has something to do with the size of the cartridge slots, since the same problem occurs with my "Super 181 in 1" cart. It may be that the casing is slightly too thick, so that it has some sort of effect with the connectors not touching properly. There may be a way to resolve this, but for now I use the methods previously mentioned.



Box Comments

The box for this cart is well made and actually looks quite nice. Except for the obvious spelling mistake, everything is layed out nicely. The whole box is bright yellow. Not exacly a colour I would have picked, though I wouldn't usually pick a sports game either. There seems to be a catalog number, which is "FGB-058" and for some reason it says "Hand Game", probably to signify that the game is for a handheld. The front of the box is exactly the same as the front of the game cartridge, which would have saved them having to design two seperate things I guess. The only other problem I have with the front is that there is some tough looking guy at the top, obviously from some wrestling type game, but there is no wrestling game included.

Anyway, moving on to the back of the box we are yet again greeted by the tough looking guy and also the spelling mistake in the bottom left corner. The games are all listed in the center with the English titles on the left and the Chinese titles on the right. For some reason, possibly to make this seem like a legitimate product, there is a warning in the bottom right about choking hazards for children below 36 months old. This is written in various languages and not surprisingly the English section has a spelling error. This time the word "because" is wrong. Finally, somebody has written "Gut" in the top left corner. I don't know what that is about.

Cart Dissection

Unfortunately, there is a security screw on the back. Until I obtain a means to undo said screw, then the inside shall remain a mystery.

Overall

A nice selection of sports games featuring a few lesser known games as well as more popular ones.