Heroes of Might and Magic

Strategy enthusiasts can now slake their thirst for even more Heroes of Might and Magic via the Game Boy Color. HOMM is a popular turn-based strategy series on the PC, with several games and expansion packs under its belt. It is a complex game, with big maps, lots of units and many strategic elements to consider when making your moves. How did all this translate to a portable? Very well!

The gameplay is fairly close to that of the PC versions, especially to HOMM II. The graphics are much the same as in HOMM II, but are more simplistic and harder to distinguish between types of units. Only repeated playing can ascertain which critter is which. But once you've gotten that figured out, the in-depth gameplay will soon engross you as did the original's. Your goal is to gather as many spells, resources and units as you can in as short amount of time possible, before your 3 other enemies do the same. Then it's on to conquer their castles and take over their units! Be careful, as you'll need to make sure you have someone guarding your home, while you're out ransacking others'.

The scenarios are ranked in order of difficulty and size of maps. Options include the ability to change the enemies' AI and the amount of initial resources. The interface is difficult to figure out in the beginning, even for people who've played this game before. That said, once you do learn it, it works very well and accomplishes what it's designed to do. Your heroes' and castles' stats are readily available and easy to see; the only thing really missing from the game is the ability to know if you've already visited a "power-up" site yet (in HOMM, it displays an "already visited" message above sites).

I bought a GBC for my youngest for Christmas, and frankly, bought this game for me to play on her system. I thought it might be fun to have one game that I would want to play on it when away from home and bored. I was right, it is a lot of fun! I'm thoroughly enjoying yet another romp through the beaches, deserts and forests collecting stuff and conquering neighbors. I foresee many hours of relaxation ahead of me, whenever I've managed to wrest the system away from her.