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Game Boy Camera - TV Tropes

  • ️Wed Jul 02 2014

Game Boy Camera (Video Game)

Game Boy with Camera (right) and Game Boy Printer (left).

Smile! You're on Game Boy Camera!

The Game Boy Camera was a peripheral developed by Nintendo themselves for use with the Game Boy and its later revisions, and released in 1998. It's a somewhat bulky cartridge, with the actual camera inside a round "head" that can swivel 180 degrees, so you can either point it towards you to take pictures of yourself or turn it forward to use it like any other digital camera. Because the Game Boy was limited to black, white and two shades of gray with a specific resolution, that also applied to pictures taken with the Game Boy Camera. While it doesn't have the color or quality of an actual digital camera, taking pictures is just a small part of what it can do. Navigating all the wacky menus and submenus allows for things like creating short musical beats, making animations with stored photos, snapping pictures with different lens effects, playing minigames with your face inserted onto an in-game character, trading photos between others with a Game Boy Camera, and printing photos with a Game Boy Printer.

This game contains examples of:

  • 100% Completion: Most of the included pictures in the B Album have to be unlocked in various ways, like doing well enough in the minigames, or taking/deleting/trading some number of photos.
  • Button Mashing: To finish Run Run Run!, you have to mash A to run, and mash B to flap when jumping over hurdles. If you win the race, you can even mash A to raise the flag in the background.
  • Creator Cameo: A number of the dev team show up as photos on the creepy error screens (albeit buried under the doodles), with the most infamous one (the cross-eyed figure with the star on his forehead) likely being product designer and former Creatures Inc. president Hirokazu Tanaka (who sports a similar hairstyle).
  • Early-Bird Cameo: A rare case of this happening due to localization. Stamps for Pikachu, Meowth, Mew, and the 3 Gen 1 starters were available in the device for use, along with a picture of Venusaur, Charizard, Blastoise and Mewtwo in the B Album, 4 months before the English release of Pokémon Red and Blue.
  • Easter Egg:
    • WHO ARE YOU RUNNING FROM? Disturbing vandalized faces of Nintendo employees can appear labeled with the caption "Who are you running from?" alongside an unsettling noise. Even creepier, it can very rarely appear alongside another picture with the caption "Don't be so silly!".
    • A more friendly and harmless one occurs with the associated Game Boy Printer. If you press and hold down the big red "FEED" button the printer will eventually print a cute little Mario icon with the message "Hello!".
  • Endless Game: Ball and Space Fever 2 will go on until you lose.
  • Golden Ending: Sort of. If you select "Credits" by default, you'll just get a repeating animation of a man dancing. To unlock the "true" credits (with the names of the actual staff and a friendly message from them), you'll need to complete (and win) the "Run, Run, Run" minigame in less than 22 seconds.note 
  • In Name Only: "Space Fever" 2 has little in common with the original Space Fever other than being a SHMUP.
  • Nightmare Face: The manipulated and vandalized faces of Nintendo employees from the aforementioned Easter Egg.
  • Perfectly Cromulent Word: Advertisements for the Game Boy Camera referred to it as "Fun-tography".
  • Press X to Die: The B button in Space Fever 2 immediately kills you.
  • Shout-Out: Although restricted to the English version, the "Who Are You Running From?" screen popping up when you press "Run" might be a reference to EarthBound (1994), where pressing the "Talk" command when there's no one to interact with will prompt the line "Who are you talking to?". Furthering the connection was that the head of development of the Game Boy Camera, Hirokazu Tanaka (who likely makes a Creator Cameo as the face on the most infamous error screen), was one of the composers of Earthbound.
  • Surprisingly Creepy Moment: You wouldn't expect this innocent peripheral with some cutesy minigames to have such unsettling easter eggs, would you?