Game Boy Color Import Music Games

by Rory

Macross 7 Instruction Manual

After a brief break I am back to share a couple of Japanese music games. The first game is Macross 7: Ginga no Heart wo Furuwasero!! (Let’s Reveal the Galaxy’s Heart!!) and the second is Dance Dance Revolution GB. Yes, DDR on the Game Boy Color.

Macross 7 Box Back

As far as I can tell Macross 7 is about a j-pop supergroup of fighter pilots who battle against evil robo-alien overlords. Brilliant. For the most part the game is a typical side-scrolling, R-Type-ish shooter. What makes Macross 7 truly unique are its boss fights. A rhythm track is displayed along the bottom with A and B areas. A sound wave flows across this track and as the player presses the corresponding buttons the boss will take damage. It is a very basic mechanic but a nice break between levels. Here is a video showing the first boss fight:

DDR GB Cartridge

Dance Dance Revolution for Game Boy Color. There isn’t a whole lot of dancing going on in this port of the game unless you want to use an action figure or doll on top of the pad.

DDR GB Instruction Manual

The sound is easily a standout amongst other GBC games and the tracks are faithful versions of classic DDR songs. The following video gives a good rundown of the available music.

DDR GB Clip Front

The game can be played with or without the clip-on dance pad. The pad moves the A, B, and two d-pad directions into the traditional DDR dance pad format. It is surprisingly responsive and durable which is more than I can say for most DDR pads, but then again you hopefully won’t be standing on your Game Boy.

DDR GB Clip Isometric

Here you can see the clip from a better angle.

DDR GB Clip Attached

This is the clip attached to the GBC. If you want to play the game with the pad, you must press Select at the title screen in order to switch to that control mode. Like most DDR titles, DDR GB has a decent selection of songs and several difficulty settings. The higher settings are ruthless but with some practice they aren’t completely inaccessible.