GameBook Color: The Unofficial CGB Companion hits Kickstarter goal

Who loved the Game Boy Color? After taking the portable gaming world by storm in the early 1990s, The GameBoy started running out of steam. More powerful home consoles were arriving, and gaming experiences were beginning to expand beyond what the diminutive platform’s limited architecture could handle. Rumours had abounded that Nintendo were working on a new handheld to take over the reins, which - when launched alongside the Western release of the Pokémon franchise - saw players snap up the new console in a flash. Once again seeing off more powerful handhelds with ease, this newer portable system also amassed a huge library of games in the process. But which of these games are the best? Do they still hold up today? Do you wish there was a hardback book dedicated to the device that fawns over the platform like you do? That’s where GameBook Color: The Unofficial CGB Companion comes in.

Having already covered the original GameBoy platform in 2023’s GameBook: The Unofficial DMG Companion, Paul Murphy is back with a follow-up book, dedicated to the GameBoy Color and revisiting many games from the vast repertoire available. What you get here is pure, unadulterated love for the successor in the GameBoy line.

As well as a quintessential list of the best GameBoy Color games, there will be a historical dive into the platform as well as more in-depth retrospectives on many of the titles that defined the handheld. There’s a tribute to Satoshi Tajiri (creator of Pokémon) and a look at everything that made the GameBoy Color so fantastic. The retrospectives on iconic franchises will be written by some outstanding freelance writers which go into more detail about the definitive GameBoy Color titles. These features will be accompanied by some mesmerising artwork, as also happened in the first book. If you loved that, then you’ll both love this and know what to expect.

A wide range of contributors will be chipping in with the writing, including:

Aaron Potter (Analogue Pocket and GameBoy Color Music), Nathan Ball (The Legend of Zelda), Megan Bidmead (Rayman), Tom Chaplin (GameBoy Color as a Tennis machine), Ryan Craddock (Pokémon Gold and Silver), Mike Diver (Tetris DX and Mr Driller), Nathan Ellingsworth (Pokémon Gold and Silver), Stuart Gipp (Super Mario Bros. DX), Josh Goldie (Mobile GB), Shaun Hughes (Metal Gear Solid), Liam Robertson (TBC), Andre Segers (TBC) and many more to be revealed.

The illustrations that accompany the features will be beautifully created by:

Jay Cobs, Jonathan Traynor, Gran ‘Beetlerots’, Ulisses Mateus, Thiago Radice, Paulo Gazola, Iago Machado, Darren Palma, Viviane Nicolin, Aryel Meireles, Gregory Alecsander, and again, many more to be revealed. The first book featured more than 20 retrospectives, all of which were beautifully illustrated, and the plan is to have even more this time.

GameBook Color: The Unofficial CGB Companion will cover the GameBoy Color era, which runs from 1998 to 2001. So that begins with the coloured CGB-001 models and goes up to the launch of the GameBoy Advance. There’s also a small section on the Analogue Pocket, for probably obvious reasons, and if we meet the stretch goals, smaller sections on the Virtual Boy and the Pokémon Mini.

As well as some interesting pieces alongside the best games, it’s also going to have some brilliant photography inside the book as well. The book will be 21cm x 21cm in size, identical to its predecessor, the GameBook. Coming with a hardcover, the book will be finished with high-quality, uncoated paper stock and all sorts of cool content across a target of at least 200+ pages.

The funding target for the book is set at £20,000 and has already been reached. This will cover all the production costs and ensure that the project breaks even. If we surpass that initial target, we have set some additional targets to add additional content or add more things to the package. These will include a bookmark (with a different design to the limited-edition tiers), an art print, some badges and additional game entries.

It missed the stretch goal last time around so there’s even a potential section for the Virtual Boy. Well, there’s probably not enough content for an entire book on one of Nintendo’s only gaming disasters… And at the top, there will be a piece on the Pokémon Mini, the smallest standalone portable device that Nintendo ever made.

The planned launch for the GameBook Color is March 2024, meaning that the book should be backer’s hands within a few months of this campaign ending.