The Swan Crystal on the left with the Wonder Swan in the middle and Game Boy Advance on
 the right.
 Bandai's Handheld Adventure into the gaming market!




I Released in Japan by Bandai on March 4, 1999.
Wonder Swan Review
      Gunpei Yokoi before his untimely, and unfortunate, accident that led to his death, ended up leaving Nintendo and working for Bandai. For those of you who don't know, he is the creator, and designer, of the Nintendo Game Boy. His resulting work at Bandai was the marvelous portable video game system, the Wonder Swan. The series of systems were only released in Japan. It is sad, to me, that it never was released into the US market place. I really feel that it would have been more successful.


      There are three models of the Wonder Swan, the original Black & White, the Color, and then there is the Swan Crystal. Debuting in 1999 it was made to compete with the Neo Geo Pocket and the Nintendo  Game Boy Color. The Color edition was released in 2000 with the Swan Crystal being released in 2002. The line of the Bandai systems were sadly discontinued in 2003. They were only able to make a small scratch in the Nintendo dominated portable market, more so that previous attempts by other systems. Their only advantage, at first, was that they had Square Soft making Final Fantasy games for their system. That was quickly smothered when Nintendo and Square Soft kissed and made up after being at odds with each other since Squire Soft ran off with the Playstation.

     This review is for the original Black & White version. It is smaller in size, length wise, than any of its predecessors. The outer casing came in a variety of colors. As you can see the one that I have is what is called "Skeleton Blue."

Pros:
The 30 to 40 hours of battery life for only one AA
Capcom's "Pocket Fighter"

Cons:
No headphone jack, except by  separate accessory
No backlight
Hunting games that are playable for non-Japanese speaking gamers is tricky
Only plays the Black & White gaming titles
No traditional D-pad, this could be an issue for some gamers
Screen is not recessedX

 Games:
     I am not sure how many games are in the Black & White system's library. It can only play the Black & White games, which puts it at a disadvantage. And a big factor to consider is that everything is in Japanese. I have only ran into a smattering of English with something like "push start button." I, at the time of this writing, have only 5 games, Puyo Puyo 2, Buffers Evolution, Puzzle Bobble, Pocket Fighter, and Klonoa: Moonlight Museum, all excellent games that are fun. Another game that I do not have but would seem to be playable from a non-Japanese speaking person would be , Final Lap 2000 Race. I hope to be able to purchase more games and maybe do a list with small reviews. That will be a slow process. One has to be reminded that this series of systems was very heavy RPG loaded in its game library. An "RPG lovers dream portable" if they knew Japanese. That is why I wished that they had marketed this thing in the US. There was a rumor at one time that Bandai was talking to Mattel, but either they came to no agreement or it was just a rumor. As we can see now looking back, nothing ever happened.
 Controls:
    There are a lot of buttons. The left-hand side of the unit has two groupings of buttons with the top grouping being marked as “Y” and the bottom marked as “X.” The “X” group is used as your directional pad, no traditional D-pad here gamers. The top can be used as special moves, etc, depending on the game and how the developer intends to utilize them in the game play. You only have on the right side an “A” and “B” button for the game play of jump, fire, etc. The on and off toggle switch in on the left side and is recessed. The start and sound buttons are on the front under the screen. The sound is controlled by software and is mono with one speaker. Unless you hunt down the attachment that allows you to use headphones, then you can enjoy stereo. When you turn the unit on, it is always at full volume. It has the expansion port on the side that was a main feature of all models, but with no accommodation for sharing that port with other accessories. Meaning that if you used the port for the headphone attachment, you could not use a link for two player gaming.


Power:
    It is powered by only one AA battery giving you a monstrous 30 to 40 hour play time. The battery is uniquely stored in a drawer-like compartment in the unit. It is a design that was to be used with all of the series of systems.
The GBA cart next to the Wonder Swan and
 Swan Crystal carts. The soft plastic dust cove
 fits like a glove on the carts.






Nice Black & White 2.5 inch diagonal LCD with a high resolution. Pocket Fighter pictured here.
 Screen:
      It is a Black & White 2.5 inch diagonal FSTN reflective LCD with a 224 x 144 resolution. It has a contrast control at the bottom right hand edge that seems too easy for me to hit. For example, I thought that my battery had ran down during this review, I had only hit the contrast wheel knob by mistake. I see only a slight blurring in the screen when the action is fast in a game like Pocket Fighters. Nothing that would be irritating, to me. Probably the best B&W LCD that I have seen on a portable, exception of the Nintendo Pokemon Mini . The screen is very sharp with a lot of detail. The screen is not recessed so it is easily subject to scratches. And there is no backlight, so you will need a good light to view the on screen action.


      The unique battery drawer design that was used on every model is nice. Later, on the Swan Crystal, a lock was added. I like the way the cart blends in with the case design of the system. The game cart is well integrated with a tongue and groove guide on each side of the cart and cart slot, so the cart slides into place when inserted
Final Thoughts: Really to be honest, there is no reason for any one to want to pick up one of these unless they, like me, enjoy collecting portable gaming systems. The Swan Crystal is the one to have because it is backward compatible with all of the games, Color and Black & White. Plus it has the best screen of all of the models. The B&W is nice if all you wanted to do was tract down the B&W games. And with the long battery life on this thing, it is a lot of gaming to be had on one AA. The Wonder Swan stands as a memorial to Gunpei Yokoi who influenced portable gaming forever. I love the Wonder Swan series of portables.

 


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