Game Boy Camera

"Pure madness..."

Oh ho, this is one useful little trinket. I got this for my 12th birthday. When I finally shoved it in my GBP, I loved it. I played with it for hours upon hours, and snapped shots of me and distorted them. I mainly used the camera for screwing around with shots of me, and in a year or so I realized how useful and amazingly fun little toy this is. At the end of this review, I am going to put up a neat list of crazy fun stuff to do with this nifty little device.

Apparently Nintendo had one hell of a field day making this.
The camera lens can be rotated 360 degrees (Please tell me if this is wrong) so you are able to point and shoot yourself or a person in front of you. Once shot, you can save the picture to an album and later look at it and screw around with it. Just shooting a plain old picture is no fun, right? Wrong! You can also use special stuff such as the Mirror shot, the Mini-Brady Bunch shot (A four tiled shot, much like the one in the opening credits of the Brady Bunch.), Stretch Shot, and many more. These special shots are a joy to play with. Want to take a picture of yourself in a pose, but you have no one around to operate the Camera? The brains at Nintendo thought up a solution. You can set the auto timer for up to 60 seconds, position the camera, and pose and wait for the shot to be taken. Or, you can set it for a time lapse. This allows a picture to be taken every few seconds, and allows you to make a sort of slide show-like movie if you want. They also have put a whole bunch more things in this camera, such as the Hot Spot maker (No, that hot spot, you pervert.), Picture Fuser, picture borders, some pretty fun mini games, and much, much more. A special neat little thing they added was an ID Card in the Camera that you fill out, so if the Camera gets lost and someone finds it, they can pop it in their GBC and see who owns it. Also, I think Nintendo went crazy making this. Some of the things in this game are pure madness. You have a RUN option that shows a picture of some weirdo, a dancing Mario at the start of the game, and strange characters. The menus are nutty, too. This is one crazy fun game.
GAMEPLAY SCORE (10/10)

Smile! Your on less then candid camera!
The camera technology has its ups and downs. You must take pictures in well-lit rooms, and have the angle and lighting exactly right to get the best picture. Most of the time, the pictures come out in fairly good quality and look as good as they could for the time this was released. The camera is durable, as mine as been through hell and back and still takes pictures. Wait, there’s more! Want a sticker of your picture? Get the Gameboy Camera Printer, hook it up, and print away! The sticker quality and borders when printed look pretty good. The Printer is worth the cash, but good luck finding one. I remember I had a hard time setting up the printer, and I even had to call Nintendo Customer Service for help on it. Setting it up was worth the wait, though. As a special bonus, a lot of the newer games for GBC have printer capability. This means you are able to print special things in the games, like pictures (Zelda DX) or Pokemon (Pokemon Yellow, Gold, Silver, and Crsytal.). Also, good luck finding refills for the printer sticker paper. I still can’t find any refills to this day.
CAMERA AND PRINTER SCORE (8/10)

Sandy and grainy isn’t just for beaches anymore.
The pictures are sandy and look grainy, but this was the best that they could do for the time this was released. The pictures don’t look bad, though. You’ll still be able to identify what the picture is. The character drawings and animation look detailed, fluid, and smooth. No slow down here, baby! The clip art, letters, and stamps look spiffy and funny. Overall, fairly good graphics that gets the job done.
GRAPHICS SCORE (8/10)

Rap, race, shoot, and juggle.
These are the basic premises of the mini games here. The way the mini games are handled is pretty cool. When you first choose the play option, you enter a space shooter Galaga like game. First, you see three little ships fly down. Each one corresponds to the other mini games on the camera. You shoot the ship of the game you want to play, and you get taken to the game screen. Or, you can let those ships fly away and play the space shooter game. Want to add some fun to the games? Shoot four faces of you, and you can put your face on the character’s bodies in the mini games. Following are the mini game review scores.
OVERALL MINI GAME SCORE (8/10)

Rap master Mega is here to say “Hey everybody, have a nice day!”
God, that was terrible. Any way, DJ is a really cool game once you get the hang of it. Playing as a DJ, you mix and create your own tune. Mess with anything you want! This game takes a while to learn, but is insane fun for those who understand it.
DJ SCORE (10/10)

On your mark… get set… GO GET A GAMEBOY CAMERA!
Next you have the Run mini game. In this one, you race against a mole and a bird and you want to be first, of course. You must be fast jumping over hurdles, or you’ll slow down considerably. This game is okay, but there are better games on the Camera.
RUN SCORE (8/10)

I got the fever! Space Fever, that is!
Space Fever is the space shooter game. Mindless fun.
SPACE FEVER SCORE (9/10)

Juggle your balls.
The Juggle game is a repetitive, boring game. While fun for the first minute, the game gets boring fast.
JUGGLE SCORE (1/10)

Pick up. Play. Repeat.
Pick up and play controls mean easy moving around. Simple menus except the animation menu. If the controls were easier, you wouldn’t need your fingers.
CONTROL SCORE (10/10)

Screwy music makes this a pleasure to listen to.
Some classical music in this game shows that it doesn’t take itself too seriously. The sound effects are the usual beeps, etc. The music is pleasurable to listen too, but by no means will you hum it.
AUDIO SCORE (9/10)

You waited. You read the review. Now, here is the Ultimate List of Fun/Mean/Crazy/Sneaky stuff to do with the Gameboy Camera!
-Taking pictures of your teachers, distorting them, printing them out and sticking them all over his/her desk is a sure fire way to get suspended, but hey, you’ll become a legend in your school.
-Catching family and friends doing something they don’t want other people to know about and taking pictures of them is a great black mail device.
-Take pictures of your pets, and make them PET-ZILLA!
-Taking picture of “naughty” scenes in movies and selling them around school is a good way to earn some extra moolah.
-Take pictures of your parents. Make them look like beautiful angels. Show them pictures. Get raise in allowance. Smile, and go spend your cash.
-Use the split screen feature, and get someone to hold the Gameboy. Post kneeling down in the corner of the Gameboy, and look really happy. Once the shot is taken, get a picture of your crush and take a picture of it so it appears on the opposite side. Using the clip art letters, spell out some romantic message and put it on the top of the picture. Print it out, and secretly stick it on his/her folder or personal item.
-Spy! Use your imagination, and spy!
-That kid from that terrible movie “Bring It On” has the right idea. Sneak in cheerleading practice, and take pictures of the cheerleaders doing their stretches.
-Yes, I know that this isn’t an ultimate list, so if you got any more neat stuff to do with the Camera email me with it!

NOTES:
If this wins ROTW, I’ll dress up like a giant tomato and poke a rattlesnake.
Derek Zoolander is my idol. Go see his movie.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 09/19/01, Updated 09/19/01