The greyscale nature of Game Boy made some graphics look nicer or even higher fidelity than NES. Link's Awakening felt to me like I was playing an SNES game. The best way I can explain it is the limited palette of the NES meant you couldn't really do nice shading unless you picked the blues and purples. Think the Batman games. But on the Game Boy every sprite can have an outline, shading AND highlights. Your brain fills in the gaps. It's harder to do with something already colored like NES. Also it's funny how Link's Awakening has you collect 8 different instruments to play a song when it only has 4 channels. But young me swore he was hearing all 8 of them playing at once! Haha
The smaller screen also helped. Compare Super Mario Land 2 to Super Mario Bros. Deluxe. They would use larger sprites than on NES, even though the resolution of the Game Boy was lower. And they had less to render on screen. The SNES also played with larger sprites than the NES commonly used.
@@ZipplyZane What was also neat were games that made use of the LCD lag time to display flickering graphics as transparent- I always thought that was so neat
@@ZipplyZane Indeed - counterpoint is a wonderful thing! Also, you can imply multiple voices even with just one voice by e.g. alternating a sustained higher note with moving lower ones, giving the impression there's a higher melody repeating a single note and a lower one moving around. I've always loved the idea of "limitation breeds creativity" and older consoles embody that really well.
7:07 "Developing puzzle games like *Dr Mario which is perfect for the system*" Look, I love Dr Mario but the fact they made it work on the monochrome Gameboy is a miracle considering it's a game that's all about matching colors.
Dead right. Dr Mario was a terrible choice to port over. There’s a ton of puzzle games on gameboy, Dr mario ended up being the line between this game sucks and this game is just barely playable.
It will always be my favorite one. It's unique in ways that haven't really been duplicated, it's charming and quirky, and the story and tone are fantastic. Of course, it doesn't hurt that it was one of the first games I ever beat
@@echobase6372 back in the day some of its puzzles and dungeons got me going in circles for weeks. The story is one of the best the franchise ever had, I’m still getting the chills to this day
I will never stop thinking that "Super Mario Land 2: Six Golden Coins" and "The Legend Of Zelda: Link's Awakening" at a programming level are eucharistic miracles 😅, they are still great to look at and play today ...excellent work as always!!!
your videos have a quality that makes them relaxing and easy viewing that I dont find in other videos. I think part of it might be the professional narration, combined with a tight script. The visuals are always top notch, and are the most important thing to me, but the combination of the well done narration and script make them always incredibly pleasing. This is really high quality stuff.
This channel and "Gaming Historian" are my two favourite video game documentary channels... you guys are the best!! Such high quality!! A masterpiece of a video!!!
Another well researched and informative video with so much love put it into it that it made me feel all giddy inside while watching it. Thank you, Strafefox!
All these games have a special place in my heart. This brought back memories of sitting in the back of my parents car, playing Links Awakening hoping my batteries didn’t run out. Or me and my two childhood friends beating Tatanga and watching the Super Mario Land credits with a glowing sense of achievement. Thanks so much for paying homage to them with such wonderful videos.
Came to the channel to share the Donkey Kong and Killer Instinct video with a friend, stayed for the new video. As usual, a great small documentary. Thanks!
Coming into this video as a graphic designer, your impeccable use of complimentary colors is stunning. They don’t overpower the simple, yet charming, monochrome Game-Boy graphics. You also have some nicely understated bevels that vary in color depending on the gameplay you show, increasing in complexity when you display SNES gameplay. Throughout the video you always show what you’re talking about, which is something that even recent movies forget to do. On top of all of those high tier visuals, you then layer an on an informative and smoothly delivered script to round out this video. The end result is something that’s far beyond everything else on TV and RUclips in terms of gaming history. Thanks for another great video!
Thanks so much! It's really cool that you recognize the design work I do on these videos :) Along with writing the scripts, this is the aspect I spend the most time on each video. And yes presenting the Gameboy gameplay was a bigger challenge compared to the Snes or Mega-Drive themed episodes. I always want the backgrounds to ad some extra immersion and feeling but also completing the gamescreens and not taking away the focus.
I consider myself extremely lucky to know about this channel, by far the best gaming documentary content on RUclips and it blows my mind that the algorithm doesn't promote it at all. You deserve better!
I don't think I've ever been as fascinated by a game like I am Six Golden Coins. While it is slower compared to the home console iterations, it's a wonderful game and I'd love to see Nintendo give it the remake treatment like they did with Link's Awakening
My mom bought me a Gameboy (with links awakening) because my older brother would never let me play the NES. That was the day my love for handhelds began. It wasn’t the NES but it didn’t matter. My friends and I experienced so many great Gameboy games in those days. It was magical
I do like the music and it looks good too. The game itself is fun but seems like a knockoff Mario. The gameplay just seems clunky. I'm not saying it's a bad game... Just different from nearly all other SMB games.
I'm reminded of the days I would play my mom's gameboy. She had Tetris, Super Mario Land, and a mahjong game I could never figure out. Kids these days need only wait a few hours to recharge whatever it is they're playing with, but I remember all too well the days or weeks I had to wait for my parents to buy me some AAs, not to mention the chores I had to do for them.
Cool video! I hope that SML 1 will come to the Switch someday! Link's awakening is to this day my most favorite Zelda game, even better in it's fantastic remake!
The original monochrome Game Boy, and specifically these three titles, will occupy a place in my heart until my dying day. They also are the only three video games that my mother ever beat, besides finding the "ending" to Tetris long before I was skilled enough to do so. Link's Awakening and the Mario Lands are *my* Mario and Zelda games. Sure I've played and love the rest, but those feel like home.
these two games are the atomic core of my gaming experience. Zelda particularly was an incredible piece of storytelling made even more poignent by it having taken me literal years to complete (I didn't even know walkthroughs were a thing back then). The ending is still one of the most affecting and emotive pieces of ludo-narrative I've ever had the pleasure of engaging with.
The original Game Boy will always have a place in my gaming heart 😭 just like Strafefox will, too haha! I really do hope you guys release your videos on physical media format. The work and production quality that goes into these episodes deserve to be on disc!
Another banger in the books. Link's awakening is one of my all-time favorites. I was nine when it came out. Two of my friends also had a copy and we raced each other who could finish it first. 😂
The best part of those gameboy Zelda and Mario entries is that the devs felt free to completely throw out everything associated with mario and zelda. Whole new tone, whole new weird settings and enemies and style. It was fantastic.
Didn't expect both Mario Lands and Link's Awakening to share such a similar development story and direction, but it makes a lot of sense. All three of them strived from hardware and colour limitation to different new creative heights. Another outstanding video as usual!
Always a good time when a new Splash Wave video drops. Kudos to your dedication to high production values. Even if it does take longer to make, it's much appreciated and has definitely garnered you a lot of fans.
Summer 93 will always be about me getting excited about Link’s Awakening. It finally got released in October 93 in my area of the UK and I was blown away. A masterpiece.
Even though I am used to your slow-cooked upload deliveries, I still have to say that you are missed and I am always excited when you upload a video no matter the topic!
It's always a good day when a new strafefox video drops 🙂 Love SML, I'm positive I finished it close to a hundred times over the years but I still keep coming back to it from time to time. It's like putting on your favorite pair of sweatpants after you've come home from a hard day at work XD
Amazing video again! How we took things for granted back in the day and how you show with this video how much work and intelligent minds were needed to provide the given art. Bedankt weer!
A comment from the 999th like's owner: There's literally not enough of likes to convey how sofisticated and awesome this video is!! Keep up the good work!!
I don't often drop everything to watch a newly released RUclips video but I do for strafefox
Agreed, the visuals are amazing, and most of the times very rare footage added as a bonus.
(on top of the great story telling)
Exactly. This channel is so goated and underrated.
the BEST video game channel and that's saying a ton w/ the thousands there are on YT!
I love how you go that extra mile with these by doing a lot of 3D animations and stuff in your little documentaries.
The greyscale nature of Game Boy made some graphics look nicer or even higher fidelity than NES. Link's Awakening felt to me like I was playing an SNES game. The best way I can explain it is the limited palette of the NES meant you couldn't really do nice shading unless you picked the blues and purples. Think the Batman games. But on the Game Boy every sprite can have an outline, shading AND highlights. Your brain fills in the gaps. It's harder to do with something already colored like NES.
Also it's funny how Link's Awakening has you collect 8 different instruments to play a song when it only has 4 channels. But young me swore he was hearing all 8 of them playing at once! Haha
The smaller screen also helped. Compare Super Mario Land 2 to Super Mario Bros. Deluxe. They would use larger sprites than on NES, even though the resolution of the Game Boy was lower. And they had less to render on screen.
The SNES also played with larger sprites than the NES commonly used.
Oh, and with careful arranging, you probably were hearing eight parts. They just interlocked in ways that only four played at the exact same time.
@@ZipplyZane What was also neat were games that made use of the LCD lag time to display flickering graphics as transparent- I always thought that was so neat
@@ZipplyZane Indeed - counterpoint is a wonderful thing! Also, you can imply multiple voices even with just one voice by e.g. alternating a sustained higher note with moving lower ones, giving the impression there's a higher melody repeating a single note and a lower one moving around. I've always loved the idea of "limitation breeds creativity" and older consoles embody that really well.
Or just poor eyesight..
7:07 "Developing puzzle games like *Dr Mario which is perfect for the system*"
Look, I love Dr Mario but the fact they made it work on the monochrome Gameboy is a miracle considering it's a game that's all about matching colors.
Damn straight
They created the third color with dithering, it was nothing new at the time. It’s what they do on newspapers to give the pictures shading
And they got it notably wrong, too, the red pills and red viruses use different shading.. definitely a bad line!
Dead right. Dr Mario was a terrible choice to port over. There’s a ton of puzzle games on gameboy, Dr mario ended up being the line between this game sucks and this game is just barely playable.
Bro you got a fuckin point 😂
most underrated gaming history channel on youtube
To this day Link’s Awakening is still one of the best TloZ games
Link's* is* still Zelda games*
It will always be my favorite one. It's unique in ways that haven't really been duplicated, it's charming and quirky, and the story and tone are fantastic. Of course, it doesn't hurt that it was one of the first games I ever beat
@@echobase6372 back in the day some of its puzzles and dungeons got me going in circles for weeks.
The story is one of the best the franchise ever had, I’m still getting the chills to this day
@@RetroHousecrI'm* still
I'm usually good at pointing out AI voices... But damn, I can't tell! Editing of all your videos are amazing!!!
When you get a notification of a Strafefox video! Can't wait to get home, make dinner and enjoy the best channel. So much quality!
I comment this every time, but damn it’s worth repeating. Best gaming channel on RUclips - no question. Another masterpiece Jeroen, thank you!
Thanks so much! Really appreciated!
You deserve a billion more subscribers!
Thanks so much! :)
@@strafefox Thank you for your awesome videos! 😊
I will never stop thinking that "Super Mario Land 2: Six Golden Coins" and "The Legend Of Zelda: Link's Awakening" at a programming level are eucharistic miracles 😅, they are still great to look at and play today ...excellent work as always!!!
These videos are too good 🎉
your videos have a quality that makes them relaxing and easy viewing that I dont find in other videos. I think part of it might be the professional narration, combined with a tight script. The visuals are always top notch, and are the most important thing to me, but the combination of the well done narration and script make them always incredibly pleasing. This is really high quality stuff.
I recently played Link's Awakening (DX) for the first time and it still holds up. It's such a marvelous gem!
This channel and "Gaming Historian" are my two favourite video game documentary channels... you guys are the best!! Such high quality!! A masterpiece of a video!!!
Another well researched and informative video with so much love put it into it that it made me feel all giddy inside while watching it. Thank you, Strafefox!
Thanks! That's cool to hear!
I have such a soft spot for the Gameboy; everything about it is charming and endearing. It's the little console that could.
2:11 "Instead of rushing it to the market, they took the time to develop..."
Immortal fucking life lesson here, folks.
The Sonic series could learn from this
All these games have a special place in my heart. This brought back memories of sitting in the back of my parents car, playing Links Awakening hoping my batteries didn’t run out. Or me and my two childhood friends beating Tatanga and watching the Super Mario Land credits with a glowing sense of achievement.
Thanks so much for paying homage to them with such wonderful videos.
Every new video from this channel is simply magical. It reminds me of why I enjoy retro gaming so much. :)
That's awesome! Thanks so much!
Came to the channel to share the Donkey Kong and Killer Instinct video with a friend, stayed for the new video.
As usual, a great small documentary. Thanks!
Just sat down with my lunchtime sandwich and this pops up on my feed - its going to be a good day!
Underrated channel.
One of the classiest retro gaming channels on RUclips. Another banger, of course.
Coming into this video as a graphic designer, your impeccable use of complimentary colors is stunning. They don’t overpower the simple, yet charming, monochrome Game-Boy graphics. You also have some nicely understated bevels that vary in color depending on the gameplay you show, increasing in complexity when you display SNES gameplay. Throughout the video you always show what you’re talking about, which is something that even recent movies forget to do.
On top of all of those high tier visuals, you then layer an on an informative and smoothly delivered script to round out this video. The end result is something that’s far beyond everything else on TV and RUclips in terms of gaming history. Thanks for another great video!
Thanks so much! It's really cool that you recognize the design work I do on these videos :) Along with writing the scripts, this is the aspect I spend the most time on each video. And yes presenting the Gameboy gameplay was a bigger challenge compared to the Snes or Mega-Drive themed episodes. I always want the backgrounds to ad some extra immersion and feeling but also completing the gamescreens and not taking away the focus.
A new strafefox video makes a Monday feel like Saturday
I consider myself extremely lucky to know about this channel, by far the best gaming documentary content on RUclips and it blows my mind that the algorithm doesn't promote it at all.
You deserve better!
Omg ... my childhood flashing before me right now. These masterpieces gave and still give me the feels.
I don't think I've ever been as fascinated by a game like I am Six Golden Coins. While it is slower compared to the home console iterations, it's a wonderful game and I'd love to see Nintendo give it the remake treatment like they did with Link's Awakening
Best channel on youtube💯👊
Another masterpiece! The amazing animation and level of research continue to amaze me. Thank you so much!
Thanks so much! Really awesome to read!
Always a pleasure to watch these cultural revolution presentations 📺
Peak has returned!
Insane production value and very well documented as always. Another incredible video!
Great insight into the development of Super Mario Land and Link's Awakening!
Nintendo can really do magic with their own ip's and limited hardware.
Thanks mr Fox 👍🏼
Strafefox uploads a video
Day AUTOMATICALLY GETS BETTER!
My mom bought me a Gameboy (with links awakening) because my older brother would never let me play the NES. That was the day my love for handhelds began. It wasn’t the NES but it didn’t matter. My friends and I experienced so many great Gameboy games in those days. It was magical
One of the only channels I have notifications on. Can’t wait to watch this!
Super Mario Lands OST is fantastic. Great video as usual!
I do like the music and it looks good too. The game itself is fun but seems like a knockoff Mario. The gameplay just seems clunky. I'm not saying it's a bad game... Just different from nearly all other SMB games.
It's always hype whenever you upload!
Thanks! That's really cool to hear!
I'm reminded of the days I would play my mom's gameboy. She had Tetris, Super Mario Land, and a mahjong game I could never figure out. Kids these days need only wait a few hours to recharge whatever it is they're playing with, but I remember all too well the days or weeks I had to wait for my parents to buy me some AAs, not to mention the chores I had to do for them.
Another masterclass video production, keep it up guys 👏👏
Glad to see not only these videos coming but the raise in subs and viewers. Your attention to detail is top notch to say the least.
This channel has amazing videos. It's the first time that i feel interest on the Game Boy. Nintendo should pay well for this video!
Geweldige video weer! Jaren lang plezier gehad van super marioland 2 in de auto richting zuid-frankrijk. Bedankt Jeroen.
Dankje! Bedankt weer voor het kijken! :)
As usual, Jeroen you outdid yourself! I watched it twice while traveling on the Shinkansen, thank you very much!
Hearing the soundtracks for the first time in decades but still humming them besides.
Cool video! I hope that SML 1 will come to the Switch someday!
Link's awakening is to this day my most favorite Zelda game, even better in it's fantastic remake!
The original monochrome Game Boy, and specifically these three titles, will occupy a place in my heart until my dying day. They also are the only three video games that my mother ever beat, besides finding the "ending" to Tetris long before I was skilled enough to do so.
Link's Awakening and the Mario Lands are *my* Mario and Zelda games. Sure I've played and love the rest, but those feel like home.
these two games are the atomic core of my gaming experience. Zelda particularly was an incredible piece of storytelling made even more poignent by it having taken me literal years to complete (I didn't even know walkthroughs were a thing back then). The ending is still one of the most affecting and emotive pieces of ludo-narrative I've ever had the pleasure of engaging with.
So glad I get that notification. Absolutely professional-grade narration and presentation.
the best creators on RUclips are back
This is a hugely important video you made! :)
The original Game Boy will always have a place in my gaming heart 😭 just like Strafefox will, too haha!
I really do hope you guys release your videos on physical media format. The work and production quality that goes into these episodes deserve to be on disc!
Another great piece of work! I particularly liked all your 3D replicas of the Game & Watches.
Another quality video. Thanks! 🤩
Another banger in the books.
Link's awakening is one of my all-time favorites. I was nine when it came out. Two of my friends also had a copy and we raced each other who could finish it first. 😂
These are amazing! Keep on going, we love these vids. Greetings from the Netherlands.
The best part of those gameboy Zelda and Mario entries is that the devs felt free to completely throw out everything associated with mario and zelda. Whole new tone, whole new weird settings and enemies and style. It was fantastic.
Thank you for covering the LCD ghosting on the original Game Boy, a topic omitted in most videos about the system
Didn't expect both Mario Lands and Link's Awakening to share such a similar development story and direction, but it makes a lot of sense. All three of them strived from hardware and colour limitation to different new creative heights.
Another outstanding video as usual!
Brilliant. The production on these videos are amazing. Thank you
Awesome work as usual. You spoil us.
I always look forward to your videos. Thank u so much
Great monday everyone!
Always a good time when a new Splash Wave video drops. Kudos to your dedication to high production values. Even if it does take longer to make, it's much appreciated and has definitely garnered you a lot of fans.
Wake up, babe. New Strafefox video!
Keep sharing the knowledge. 👍
Perfectly said quality video
Summer 93 will always be about me getting excited about Link’s Awakening. It finally got released in October 93 in my area of the UK and I was blown away. A masterpiece.
As always, another amazing videos by Strafefox
YEAH NEW CONTENT!!!
How lucky we all are that your uploads have become so much more frequent! Strafefox, you and your team NEVER disappoint.
Great video as always, Thanks.
Another great video. Thanks for all your hard work.
Amazing content, as always. Love this channel
its a good day now 🔥
Love it. Can't wait to watch the entire thing when I get home from work. Keep these awesome videos coming.
Thanks Dean, that's really cool to hear!
Always a pleasure to watch theze video's/ Dank je :)
Weer dank voor het kijken! :)
I was missing this channel! Another superb video!! Loved it!!
I'm not a 3D guy but I can tell whomever makes these videos enjoys it. The effort is noticed.
Even though I am used to your slow-cooked upload deliveries, I still have to say that you are missed and I am always excited when you upload a video no matter the topic!
These videos are a treat, I can’t get enough of them
Great to see a video on the Gameboy of such quality. Thank you.
Strafefox team thank you, for making top tier RUclips video game content !! 🙏👏👏👏
ooohh yeaaaaahhhhhh a new strafefox video !!!!!!
Excellent video!
It's always a good day when a new strafefox video drops 🙂 Love SML, I'm positive I finished it close to a hundred times over the years but I still keep coming back to it from time to time. It's like putting on your favorite pair of sweatpants after you've come home from a hard day at work XD
I have many fond memories of my Gameboy. Great video yet again!
I always looking forward to your videos. Once again you've done an AMAZING job, thank you.
Easily RUclips's most underrated channel.
Heerlijke Shalamar intro met die sample. 🎵 Ik zat er meteen goed in. Verder weer prima video Jeroen. 👏🏻
Dankjewel :)
Yess. I love your vid
Amazing video again! How we took things for granted back in the day and how you show with this video how much work and intelligent minds were needed to provide the given art. Bedankt weer!
Great to see your subscribers climbing… you deserve a million!
Thanks so much!
OMG when the RUclips warn me about something new about Strafefox, makes my day!!
A comment from the 999th like's owner:
There's literally not enough of likes to convey how sofisticated and awesome this video is!!
Keep up the good work!!
i love this freaking channel and for some reason the ending kinda made me tear
Yay!
Fantastic work as always, and now I really have an urge to play Super Mario Land 2 again!