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After I was engaged on my MFA in Recreation Design, I referenced Urbz: Sims within the Metropolis 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 examine pillow on my childhood mattress with the controller’s too-short wire pulled taut towards the GameCube throughout the room, furiously rushing by way of the sport in an try to complete each objective 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 enjoying however had an eerie sameness to it, like the sport I knew however in an alternate actuality.
After that assembly, I acquired my arms on a duplicate of Urbz for my GameCube and booted it up. I used to be within the minigames I cherished enjoying as a child and wished 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 making an attempt to impress membership bouncers with aerial dance strikes. I launched the character creator and it was apparent that this was a special recreation than I remembered. The graphics alone had been in a totally completely different ballpark, not to mention the comparatively wealthy number of hair and clothes choices.
After I tracked down a duplicate of the hand held model of Urbz, every little 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 GameCube as a child however solely by the use of the Recreation Boy Participant, a genius contraption that clipped to the underside on the GameCube and enabled play of Recreation Boy and Recreation 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 dwelling consoles. 2001 was a giant yr for Nintendo with the discharge of each the Recreation Boy Advance (GBA) and the GameCube. These cousin consoles shared a library of titles that, regardless of sharing a reputation, had been typically fully completely different experiences relying on what console you performed them on. Tony Hawk had a number of main releases through the PS2/Xbox/GameCube era, together with Professional Skater 3 and 4, the primary two Underground video games, and American Wasteland/Sk8land. Two of my all-time favourite video games on the GameCube, SSX Difficult and Tremendous Monkey Ball, had GBA ports that met with various approval compared to their dwelling console counterparts.
Video games with handheld ports like SSX Difficult made the GBA expertise really feel like a comfort prize in lieu of the actual deal on the GameCube
Taking a recreation from the console to the less-powerful handheld could possibly be in comparison with a translation of kinds, like bringing a ebook to the display screen or envisioning a recreation as a tv collection, both conserving as faithfully to the unique as potential or making changes to swimsuit the brand new format. The GameCube’s Tremendous Monkey Ball obtained a port to the GBA underneath the title Tremendous Monkey Ball Jr. a couple of yr after its console launch. Tremendous Monkey Ball Jr. contains ranges which are direct ports from the console model and a few that had been made specifically for the hand held model. The mechanics are largely the identical between the 2 video games, however the GBA in fact isn’t blessed with an analog stick like that on a GameCube controller which made for way more tough navigation on the hand held model.
The Recreation Boy Advance outsold the GameCube by an unimaginable quantity — 81.51 million models versus 21.74 million — a dichotomy in gross sales developments for Nintendo’s dwelling and handheld consoles that continued into the Nintendo DS and Wii period, albeit with Wii closing the hole. But, many video games that had been made obtainable for each the GameCube and GBA had been clearly designed with the house console in thoughts. That’s why we’ve got cases like SSX Difficult, the place the hand held model is a severely watered-down, almost impossible-to-play facsimile that stubbornly makes an attempt to recreate the console ranges and mechanics with far worse graphics and body fee. Video games with handheld ports like SSX Difficult made the GBA expertise really feel like a comfort prize in lieu of the actual deal on the GameCube.
The video games that got here out of this period of improvement say loads concerning the capabilities of various platforms on the time, but in addition converse to who the meant audiences had been for console versus handheld gaming.
Take Urbz, for instance. The hand held was rated ‘E for Everybody’ and had extra of an action-adventure really feel to it by way of style. The console model of Urbz was rated ‘T for Teen’ and admittedly pushed at these boundaries with social interactions like ‘Strip Tease,’ ‘Seize Booty,’ and ‘Suck Face.’
The hand held ports for each SSX Difficult and Tremendous Monkey Ball might 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 method. Urbz falls into a special 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 recreation primarily based on the opposite.
The identical however (very) completely different
Their shared parts, like minigames, fame, social teams, and goal-oriented plot strains make them look like comparable video games on paper, however in actuality they could not be extra completely different.
You begin out incomes cash by squeegeeing home windows whereas dodging chook poop.
Within the handheld model of Urbz, I used to be tasked with taking down dangerous capitalistic forces as represented by the comically evil character Daddy Bigbucks. Objectives are a giant a part of the house console’s Urbz as effectively, however they’re extra formulaic. Every part is geared in the direction of getting the best garments, impressing the best individuals, and progressing into increasingly more neighborhoods as your fame will increase.
The minigames in each variations focus on getting cash. Whether or not you are incomes money as skateboarder, mannequin, or piercing producer within the dwelling console model, the identical mechanic is at all times current: hitting a collection of 4 buttons within the order proven to spice up your efficiency as rapidly as potential.
The hand held 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 chook poop. My favourite was at all times being a comic the place I might inform jokes to refill fun meter, often promenading to both aspect of the stage to keep away from tomatoes from the gang.
Urbz on GameCube offers you every little thing it’s essential interact in social roleplay, from piercings and tattoos to finish your look to all of the weird social interactions that allow you to climb the fame ladder. Handheld Urbz offers you neighborhood and a grand goal the place the social parts are tied into a reasonably linear plot. They’re two fully completely different solutions to the identical immediate.
Worlds collide
The Recreation Boy Participant helped to bridge the hole for dwelling console house owners who didn’t have a GBA and wished to have the ability to play main, handheld-only titles (like the principle Pokémon collection). I don’t even have my GBA anymore; I simply play all my Recreation Boy video games on my GameCube.
However the prevalence of GameCube 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. Enjoying a handheld recreation that could be a port of a GameCube recreation on the Recreation Boy Participant is just like studying a ebook that has been translated into one language after which individually translated again into its authentic language. It’s a weird recreation 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 Swap recreation from my arms 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 programs with completely completely different processing capabilities and participant expertise expectations resulted in some really iconic video games. Immediately’s builders have their very own challenges that proceed to result in good points within the gaming world, however I ponder 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.