When I used to be engaged on my MFA in Game Design, I referenced Urbz: Sims within the City in a gathering with my thesis advisor, and he requested if I had performed the console or the hand-held model. I used to be assured that I’d performed the console model rising up. I might recall the reminiscence fairly clearly—sitting towards a research pillow on my childhood mattress with the controller’s too-short wire pulled taut towards the GameDice throughout the room, furiously rushing by the sport in an try to complete each aim earlier than Hollywood Video’s three-day rental interval elapsed.
It’s exhausting to clarify the cognitive dissonance I felt when my advisor began speaking about in-game materials that was fully unknown to me, that was definitely not what I remembered taking part in however had an eerie sameness to it, like the sport I knew however in an alternate actuality.
After that assembly, I received my fingers on a duplicate of Urbz for my GameDice and booted it up. I used to be within the minigames I liked taking part in as a child and needed to take some notes for my thesis. The sport loaded to a cinematic I’d by no means seen of a sim with large purple hair strolling round a metropolis in low-cut denims attempting to impress membership bouncers with aerial dance strikes. I launched the character creator and it was apparent that this was a unique sport than I remembered. The graphics alone have been in a very totally different ballpark, not to mention the comparatively wealthy collection of hair and clothes choices.
When I tracked down a duplicate of the hand-held model of Urbz, every thing got here into focus. It was the sport that I remembered— blocky graphics, ridiculous minigames and all. It turned out that I had performed Urbz on my GameDice as a child however solely by means of the Game Boy Player, a genius contraption that clipped to the underside on the GameDice and enabled play of Game Boy and Game Boy Advance video games proper on my TV display screen.
Double take
Urbz was removed from the one title within the early 2000s to have distinct variations for handheld versus residence consoles. 2001 was a giant yr for Nintendo with the discharge of each the Game Boy Advance (GBA) and the GameDice. These cousin consoles shared a library of titles that, regardless of sharing a reputation, have been typically fully totally different experiences relying on what console you performed them on. Tony Hawk had a number of main releases through the PS2/Xbox/GameDice era, together with Pro Skater 3 and 4, the primary two Underground video games, and American Wasteland/Sk8land. Two of my all-time favourite video games on the GameDice, SSX Tricky and Super Monkey Ball, had GBA ports that met with various approval compared to their residence console counterparts.
Games with handheld ports like SSX Tricky made the GBA expertise really feel like a comfort prize in lieu of the actual deal on the GameDice
Taking a sport from the console to the less-powerful handheld might be in comparison with a translation of types, like bringing a e book to the display screen or envisioning a sport as a tv sequence, both retaining as faithfully to the unique as doable or making changes to swimsuit the brand new format. The GameDice’s Super Monkey Ball obtained a port to the GBA beneath the identify Super Monkey Ball Jr. a couple of yr after its console launch. Super Monkey Ball Jr. contains ranges which are direct ports from the console model and a few that have been made particularly for the hand-held model. The mechanics are largely the identical between the 2 video games, however the GBA after all isn’t blessed with an analog stick like that on a GameDice controller which made for far more tough navigation on the hand-held model.
The Game Boy Advance outsold the GameDice by an unimaginable quantity — 81.51 million models versus 21.74 million — a dichotomy in gross sales developments for Nintendo’s residence and handheld consoles that continued into the Nintendo DS and Wii period, albeit with Wii closing the hole. Yet, many video games that have been made accessible for each the GameDice and GBA have been clearly designed with the house console in thoughts. That’s why now we have cases like SSX Tricky, the place the hand-held model is a severely watered-down, practically impossible-to-play facsimile that stubbornly makes an attempt to recreate the console ranges and mechanics with far worse graphics and body fee. Games with handheld ports like SSX Tricky made the GBA expertise really feel like a comfort prize in lieu of the actual deal on the GameDice.
The video games that got here out of this period of growth say quite a bit in regards to the capabilities of various platforms on the time, but in addition converse to who the supposed audiences have been for console versus handheld gaming.
Take Urbz, for instance. The handheld was rated ‘E for Everyone’ and had extra of an action-adventure really feel to it when it comes to style. The console model of Urbz was rated ‘T for Teen’ and admittedly pushed at these boundaries with social interactions like ‘Strip Tease,’ ‘Grab Booty,’ and ‘Suck Face.’
The handheld ports for each SSX Tricky and Super Monkey Ball may be stated to take care of the spirit of the console variations they’re derived from, showcasing the upsides and potential detriments of such an strategy. Urbz falls into a unique class, virtually extra adaptation than translation. At this level, I’ve logged dozens of hours in each variations of Urbz, and they’re two video games that really feel like they’re drawing from a shared concept and supply materials as an alternative of 1 sport based mostly on the opposite.
The identical however (very) totally different
Their shared components, like minigames, repute, social teams, and goal-oriented plot traces make them seem to be comparable video games on paper, however in actuality they could not be extra totally different.
You begin out incomes cash by squeegeeing home windows whereas dodging hen poop.
In the hand-held model of Urbz, I used to be tasked with taking down dangerous capitalistic forces as represented by the comically evil character Daddy Bigbucks. Goals are a giant a part of the house console’s Urbz as effectively, however they’re extra formulaic. Everything is geared in direction of getting the best garments, impressing the best individuals, and progressing into increasingly neighborhoods as your repute will increase.
The minigames in each variations focus on getting cash. Whether you are incomes money as skateboarder, mannequin, or piercing producer within the residence console model, the identical mechanic is at all times current: hitting a sequence of 4 buttons within the order proven to spice up your efficiency as shortly as doable.
The handheld model’s minigames are extra distinct and are what drew me again to Urbz within the first place. You begin out incomes cash by squeegeeing home windows whereas dodging hen poop. My favourite was at all times being a comic the place I’d inform jokes to refill fun meter, often promenading to both aspect of the stage to keep away from tomatoes from the gang.
Urbz on GameDice offers you every thing it is advisable interact in social roleplay, from piercings and tattoos to finish your look to all of the weird social interactions that enable you to climb the repute ladder. Handheld Urbz offers you neighborhood and a grand function the place the social components are tied into a reasonably linear plot. They’re two fully totally different solutions to the identical immediate.
Worlds collide
The Game Boy Player helped to bridge the hole for residence console house owners who didn’t have a GBA and needed to have the ability to play main, handheld-only titles (like the principle Pokémon sequence). I don’t even have my GBA anymore; I simply play all my Game Boy video games on my GameDice.
But the prevalence of GameDice video games with handheld ports created the likelihood for unusual experiences just like the one which I had with Urbz, particularly if we take into consideration porting as a sort of translation. Playing a handheld sport that may be a port of a GameDice sport on the Game Boy Player is much like studying a e book that has been translated into one language after which individually translated again into its unique language. It’s a weird sport of phone that dabbles within the uncanny.
In 2023, there isn’t such a definite separation as there was between handheld and residential console gaming. I can take a Nintendo Switch sport from my fingers to the tv with out ever having to vary out a cartridge. The problem for builders tasked with making one thing that labored on a number of techniques with fully totally different processing capabilities and participant expertise expectations resulted in some really iconic video games. Today’s builders have their very own challenges that proceed to result in beneficial properties within the gaming world, however I’m wondering if we’ll ever see the likes of 2001 once more: translations that confuse as a lot as they delight, doppelgangers that get farther from the unique the extra they materialize, the reflection within the mirror winking simply as you flip away.
