Scotland Yard

There are a few games that I am sure next to no one has heard of and Scotland Yard is certainly one of those games. This is actually more famous as a board game and it is a strategy board game that many people have a lot of love for. It has been released many times over the years, but today I am checking out the version that was created for the Nintendo Gameboy in 1990.

Find The Criminal

Scotland Yard is a one or two-player game. You play as a detective trying o capture a mastermind criminal. That is the basics of the story. What is cool about this version for the Gameboy is that while it is called “Scotland Yard” you are not just confined to London. Instead, the game features five different levels with each one being a different place.

You have New York, Paris, Tokyo, Cairo, and then lastly London. I thought this was a nice touch as the board game has been remade in many different variations featuring different locations other than London.

Gameboy or Tiger?

Wow, ok so I know that this is based on a board game and it is at its heart a strategy game. However, the visuals in this game are really basic and when I say basic, I am probably overselling them. The whole game is played on a map that you see from above. Given the nature of the board game, this actually makes sense. For someone coming to this with no knowledge of the board game, I am sure they would probably turn this off after about five minutes based on how unappealing it looks alone!

One thing the game does have going for it is these cut scenes that pop up. These do have some charm to them as does the soundtrack, but it is not enough to make you look past the basic look of the main game screen you will be looking at most of the time.

Finding The Criminal

Ok, so I am not sure what to say about Scotland Yard when it comes to the gameplay. I get that this is a strategy game, but you are thrown in at the deep end without any indication fo what to do, how to do it, and what everything on the map is. As a result, unless you have played the board game before or have the instructions, this game is near unplayable unless you are willing to spend hours selecting every icon and trying to figure out what it does. The goal of the game is to go from city to city, trying to capture the criminal. You have a limited amount of moves and things such as police dogs and what I think are guns to make use of.

Pros:

• The cut scenes are fun
• It has different cities
• The music is kind of catching
• If you like the board game you might like this
• It has actually made me interested in checking out the board game

Cons:

• One of the most basic looking Gameboy games I have seen
• It has no tutorial at all making it unplayable if you do not know the game beforehand!