GBAtemp Recommends! Boktai: The Sun Is in Your Hand

[shaunj66]

GBAtemp Recommends! Boktai: The Sun Is in Your Hand
G.R. Issue #2 (GBA)

Welcome back! This is the second issue of GBAtemp Recommends! - a weekly magazine feature in which we share our favourite Game Boy Advance titles. The games we recommend may be top titles from the GBA library, or they may be sleeper hits that missed the radar, but one thing's certain, they're all great games that are worthy of a play through!

This week, to tie in with Halloween, we've picked a great game that ties in with the horror theme quite nicely...

GBAtemp Recommends!

Boktai: The Sun Is in Your Hand

Spoiler: Gameplay Video

Promotional Trailer:


Gameplay:

Published by Konami and produced by Hideo Kojima, Boktai: The Sun Is in Your Hand created a lot of hype when it was originally announced. The original game cartridge included a built-in sensor that could measure the amount of sunlight the cartridge is exposed to. This played an important role in the game, as it was used to charge the Gun Del Sol - a weapon that fired bursts of sunlight at undead enemies.
The game featured great stealth gameplay and an interesting story line to boot. During the game you are entertained by your side kick "Otenko" - a floating sunflower.

During E3 of 2003 a beta copy of Boktai was leaked online. This beta version only featured a short portion of the game. When the community got their hands on it, people soon realised that the game wasn't playable due to the light sensor requirement. Some time later, release group BATMAN released a patch for the ROM that allowed you to play the game on flash carts by manually specifying the amount of sunlight within the game by pressing a button combination. This patch was later re-released by the Independent when the final retail copies of Boktai were released. Many players of Boktai actually preferred using the sunlight patch rather than actually playing it from the retail cartridge because it made the game a lot less of a chore (allowing you to even play through on cloudy days!).

Boktai: The Sun Is in Your Hand is overall a very enjoyable and unique game. We definitely recommend it to anyone that enjoys a good adventure game with a solid amount of action and stealth.

In a place not too far from here and now... The End of the World approaches... The Undead appear, breaking the natural cycle of life and death. The evolution of species ceases... and one by one they become extinct. In the age of darkness in which people have forgotten the sun, the "Immortals" -- the beings of the dark -- have appeared and turned San Miguel, the City of the Sun, into a land of death. The dark curse has turned all species into the "undead". "Dark matter" has brought about the "undeadening" of all life. The man who was known as the strongest vampire hunter has fallen, and the people's hopes have been shattered. But one day, a boy who left San Miguel. This boy is Django -- the heir of the solar gun "Gun Del Sol" and the last hope for humanity. In him flows the blood of the greatest vampire hunter of all time. He heads for Istrakan -- the City of Death, to pursue his father's murderer. Can Django avenge his father's death with the use of sunlight as his weapon? Can he stop the undeadening that threatens the lives of all? Can he bring back Our Sun?

#1161: Boktai - The Sun is in Your Hand (Eurasia)

#1483: Boktai - The Sun is in your Hand (Rising Sun)

#1102: Bokura no Taiyo (Eurasia)

Genre: Action Adventure
Publisher: Konami
Dumped on: 18/09/2003
ROM Size: 128Mbit

View in G-Online

Game Walkthroughs and FAQs

Light sensor patches @ No Frills & Pocket Heaven

Discuss

Spoiler: GBAtemp Recommends! History

Issue #1: Golden Sun

 

[JPdensetsu]

Boktai

I thought this will come. It's a very good game.

 

[Maikel Steneker]

I remember buying this, just for the solar sensor

I didn't really like it at the time, maybe I should play it again some day.

 

[AXYPB]

I would have liked to play this when it was originally released because I live in a temperate zone so sunlight was never an issue for me. I don't get how it could feel the same if the sunlight could be manually adjusted in-game.

 

[Doomsday Forte]

All I have to say is FUCK YEAH BABY.

I actually have the cart. Beat it once. Yeah, it's difficult to play in the sun and all, but it was a pretty neat experience. I wish we could've had the third localized here, it's a great series and it's so...sad that we got Lunar Knights the way we did.

Metal Gear Solar.

 

[mastermanna123]

OMFG!!!
I loved this game when it first came out.
In my opinion, it kinda seems underrated.
Ive beaten the game several times just to get the 100% completion, and every new game produces a new set of parts, guns, accessories, enemies, and more!

 

[pilotwangs]

Cool,I think I have the second one somewhere.


Still need to play this,actually.

 

[DeMoN]

Heard of this game a lot but I've never actually gotten to playing it. Now that it's a GBAtemp essential, I'll give it a shot on my new EZ-Flash 3 in 1.

 

[raulpica]

This game is FREAKING awesome!

I played all the three games in a row... and they're awesome

The 2nd and the 3rd one are even better

I didn't like Lunar Knights too much, tho... :/

 

[Wabsta]

Does it really have a solar sensor? o.o

 

[DeMoN]

Does it really have a solar sensor? o.o

The actual cartridge did have a light sensor built in to it. As a result, the cartridge itself was clear rather than black. It was one of the weirder GBA gimmicks.

 

[Wabsta]

Does it really have a solar sensor? o.o

The actual cartridge did have a light sensor built in to it. As a result, the cartridge itself was clear rather than black. It was one of the weirder GBA gimmicks.

Hmm, maybe I'll look for it on ebay or something someday..

 

[layzieyez]

Is there a link to the patches?

 

[shaunj66]

Is there a link to the patches?

I added a link to the first post

 

[VatoLoco]

here is another link to the patch

 

[Hadrian]

I've entered bizzarro world because someone up there listened to me

 

[Law]

I hope Megaman Zero gets some showtime soon.

Also, pretty fun game. Never completed it, though. Perhaps I'll get around to it again someday...

 

[Psyfira]

I still haven't started it

Got a second hand copy dirt-cheap from GAME earlier this year. I'd planned to play it outside in the summer, but it kept raining!

 

[jolanar]

Oh Yeah!! this game is soooo amazing i've had hours of fun playing this, also on a few occasions i had gotten sun burnt whilst playing.

 

[Toni Plutonij]

I've entered bizzarro world because someone up there listened to me

Everybody listen to you Hadrian!

Besides, this is the great game, I think it really fits this period of the year, and it's really well presented in that article!