The new WonderSwan Color will ship in Japan on December 30th for 6800 yen, or just about 65 dollars. There will be five units available: Crystal Blue, Crystal Black, Crystal orange, Pearl Blue, and Pearl Pink, all shown below:

The unit itself is an upgraded version of the WonderSwan released exclusively in Japan in 1999. It'sslightly larger than the original system, but retains all of the functionality as well as adding color functions. The unit has a tiny bit larger reflective LCD screen (no backlight), and it's very efficient with battery consumption: on one AA battery, the unit will last up to 20 hours.

The unit can display up to 241 colors on-screen at once, and have as many as 28 sprites per line. Compared to the Game Boy Color's 56 color and 10 sprites per line limitation, the WonderSwan is easily the more powerful system. However, the Game Boy Advance is more powerful than the Bandai system with its 32-bit processor and sprite-scaling capabilities. The full list of WonderSwan stats, supplied by Bandai, is attached at the bottom of this story.

Bandai plans to have the WonderSwan link up to the PlayStation 2 using the USB port, and had the interface on display at the company's press conference. The company plans to have downloadable WonderSwan Color games through the PlayStation 2 (and USB-enabled PCs) using this interface. By mid-2001 we should see the first game to employ this console-to-handheld link capability in a game.

Of course, the WonderSwan Color will continue to use the recently-launched WonderGate cell-phone interface that allows gamers from all over Japan to dial-up and play multiplayer WonderSwan games. All that's needed is a communications peripheral and a J-Phone compatible cellphone...as well as payment for the service.

More than twenty games were announced for the WonderSwan system for release by March 2001. Bandai will releaseGunpey EX andRaimu Rider along side the system when it's released in December.

The biggest game release for the system is definitelyFinal Fantasy from Square, a remake of the original Final Fantasy game with upgraded backgrounds and sprite graphics.Final Fantasy II andFinal Fantasy III are also in the works and will be released later in 2001.

We contacted Bandai of America to get the scoop on a possible US release of the system ¿ we've been keeping track of the company's intentions since the release of the original WonderSwan system last year. Currently the US branch of Bandai isn't sure what's going to happen with the unit in the US ¿ the company entered a deal with Mattel last year giving the toy company rights to release Bandai product in the US...including the WonderSwan. Will this deal move over to the WonderSwan Color? When we find out, we'll let you know.

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Sound Capabilities

Other Functions

-- Craig Harris

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