This Game Boy-era design choice deserves a comeback
The year is 1999. Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace is in theaters, and LucasArts is overseeing the release of a slew of games themed after the movie.
When you look back at games inspired by the first of the prequel films, the most obvious one that jumps to mind is Star Wars Episode I Racer. The podracing game was a smash hit, eventually going on to sell 3.12 million units across PC, Dreamcast, Nintendo 64—and Game Boy Color.
If you weren't around then (oh god some of you reading this were born in 1999 that's not fair), or just plain forgot, the Game Boy Color version of Episode I Racer did not play like its other cousins, as no Game Boy console was ever really great at rendering 3D graphics.
It traded the more thematic third-person races for top-down one-on-one duels. Players began the game only able to play as movie hero Anakin Skywalker, and needed to unlock other racers by winning different maps.
Upgrading your podracer was a more streamlined affair, and plenty of attention was paid to the built-in rumble pack—one of Nintendo's early methods for making controller haptics.
My brother and I were already obsessed with Episode I Racer on PC, and at some point we were gifted a copy of the Game Boy Color port. At the respective ages of 7 and 9, neither of us were exactly skilled at games like Racer. It was normal of us to repeatedly play the first few levels of a game over and over again, and never make it to the end.
But with Racer on the Game Boy Color we made it all the way to the Boonta Eve Classic—the climactic race seen in The Phantom Menace. It's the final stage in all versions of the game, featuring a map that plays as close as possible to what you see onscreen (and later in the Disney+ show The Mandalorian season
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