Heroes of Might and Magic 2

Heroes of Might and Magic 2 is a lot of game to fit into a Gameboy, but it works well. There is a big learning curve, though not a great deal more than in the PC version of the game. In both, the player has to deal with switching between modes to move the hero, make castle improvements, switch control between heroes, and so on. My kids (10 and 12) expect to be able to pick up any Gameboy game and play without reading the instructions. They were daunted at first by not being able to do that this time, but were comfortable with the game after being shown the basics (I read the manual).

This is a turn-based strategy game (a nice change from all the arcade games for the Gameboy!) in which you control a hero and his or her troops (the latter are only visible in battle mode). The objective is to explore the fantasy world, find resources and treasures, win castles from other warlords and build up castles and their defenses. Play in English, French or German and start playing either a Scenario or a Campaign (a Campaign is simply a set of 7 Scenarios played in order).

There is a choice amongst 28 Scenarios - Easy, Medium or Hard played on Small, Medium or Large maps. The objective is to take all opposing warlords' castles and to defeat their heroes. Pick a Scenario or start a Campaign and select a hero. They come in different varieties from Barbarians and Beastmasters to Knights and Druids. There are 40 to choose from (8 new types over the first HMM game) and they have different characteristics, such as spellpower, pathfinding abilities, luck and experience. Hero characteristics are hard to read - one issue with putting this sort of game on a small screen device like Gameboy is that many of the little icons are hard to distinguish, especially at first.

Start with your selected hero, a map with only a small region visible, and a castle. Go into the castle frequently and move to its Town Hall, where you create creature dwellings to build up recruits, and other structures like a Tavern, Shipyard and Mage Guild - the former is a good place to recruit new heroes. Aside from the resources that your heroes find through exploration, castles generate most of what is needed for conquest. Move around your territory, open up new map areas, collect what you can, and avoid battles with superior forces (during battles, creatures that are beaten simply disappear). Save the game frequently (3 games can be saved at a time) so that you can continue a saved game when battles are lost - this happened to me often.

I would recommend Heroes of Might and Magic 2 for older children who can deal with the learning curve and the complexity of this kind of strategy game. Note that, if you have the first Gameboy HMM, you might not find this one a big change - the difference seems to be mainly additional hero and monster types, as well as the Campaign play mode. This is one game that adults can enjoy as much as kids, as long as their eyesight is good enough for details on the small screen :-). Overall, it's an addictive challenge that provides many hours of entertainment.