Driver [GBC]

When i say this might be one of the systems best games, you might disagree, and thats fine you dont have to agree with me but, Driver is nearly a flawless conversion of the PS1 classic, a 70's cop chase inspired, hard as hell racer/crime simulator with 4 open cities to drive recklessly around at your leisure or try to beat intense missions at the skin of your teeth! It's not perfect and it hasnt aged all that well but its still a great time!

Now the game boy color version may just be a masterpiece. Whilst being easier in some regards (cops wont chase you unless you cause damage to other vehicles, cops in driver were a bit too realistic in the PS1 game, that mad tutorial mission is gone and so is the entirety of San Francisco) but without all those texture warping early 3D PS1 Graphics, this has probably aged better graphically, soundtrack bumps too. And its still an open world crime simulator with 3 massive cities, tons of missions and bonus extras like mini-games!

Obviously this is not a 3rd person 3D affair, this is a top down 2D affair like the early GTA games, but unlike those title's game boy versions, this puts gameplay first and graphics second, cars are not very detailed and people are basically ants, but that means theres more screen real estate for you to see whats ahead of you and to make according turns and manouvers, keep in mind the game boy color's screen is at a tiny 160x144p resolution so every pixel matters! So it makes dodging obstacles, cars and the fuzz way more possible than GTA on the same system, its still hard as nails but not in a terrible way, turning is smooth as butter once you get it right and beating a hard level is SO REWARDING... And once you're done with the story or free roaming the mini-games are really fun to pick up and play.and will always keep you coming back to beat your best time, which does lead me to my very minor complaints

There is no save battery, only a password system, so everytime you want to free-roam LA or NYC or pick up back from where you left off on the Missions, you'll need to use the password screen. This also means the high scores in the mini-games will reset once you turn off the game which sucks, and maybe a bit of a stretch, there is no multiplayer as far as i know. Which the idea of 2Player free-roam or Cops and Robbers is too tantalizing for me to not imagine, but theres always Driver 2 Advance for that!


Despite the minor flaws, Driver is one of my all time favorites. And should be a good example for anyone wanting to demake a game for hardware like the GBC, its everything that you liked from the Ps1 version but on a Game Boy Color! Without too many compromises or flaws, this is a must have for a game boy color collector! and thankfully its REALLY cheap!