https://darth-azrael.tumblr.com/post/705583275891130370/p>
Heroes of Might and Magic II, released by The 3DO company for the Game Boy Color in 2000, is a handheld conversion of the turn-based strategy game of the same name that was originally released for PC. In reality, the game play is a mix of the original three games for the PC with a good portion of the graphics converted from the third game in the series.
In Heroes of Might and Magic II, players take on the role of a hero (at least from your own perspective) leading armies in battles, managing resources, exploring a large world with towns, dungeons, and other places, and generally doing the things you would expect in a tactical strategy game with a fantasy theme. You have a choice of four towns to control, each represented by a different character class. You can choose either the Knight, Warlock, Sorceress, or Barbarian town. This game includes a variety of campaigns with each having its own unique story and objectives.
The combat in in this game is turn based which is what I prefer in this type of game. Battles take place on grid-based maps, where players control various fantasy creatures. Each town/character class has its own special abilities that can be used. Each town also has seven different troop types, most of which are taken directly from the PC version of Might and Magic III. There are many strategic elements that are important to being successful in this game including the positioning of units, taking advantage of terrain, leveraging the strengths of different creature types, and of course exploiting the weaknesses of your opponent.
The game also features town and resource management. Players must build and upgrade various structures to recruit troops, research spells, and generate other resources. This leads to perhaps the most important strategic aspect of the game… Figuring out the right balance of town development, enemy battles to fight and territory expansion.
This game got mostly positive but mixed reviews. While it is perhaps not as good as the PC version of the game, it is really as good of a conversion as you can reasonably expect on the Game Boy Color. While the graphics may be relatively simplistic by comparison, they are good enough. The game play, which is the most important aspect, remains largely intact. It’s really just a matter of how well you tolerate the small screen and whether or not you like this type of game. Personally, I was never a big fan of the non-backlit Game Boy and Game Boy Color.
It’s not a perfect game by any means. It sometimes suffers from slow down but more importantly, the interface is more awkward because of the limitations of the Game Boy Color. However, these flaws aren’t enough to ruin enjoyment of the game. If you are a fan of this series of games on the PC or a fan of fantasy, tactical, turn-based strategy games in general, then there is really no reason you wouldn’t like this game. On the other hand, unless you really want a version to play on a Game Boy Color on the go, then you are really better of with the PC version.
At the end of the day, while it is a solid game for those that like the genre, unless you are a Game Boy collector and/or actively play games on the Game Boy, you are better off with the PC version. The only real options for the Game Boy version is to find an actual cartridge on eBay or elsewhere, or emulate. But why emulate the Game Boy version when you can play the PC version instead?
