ECTS 2003 | Boktai

The game uses a special additional light sensor on the Gameboy Advance pack to essentially aid the main character who's aim is to rid the game world of various different creatures who gain strength without light and with the additional light from the sun, the lead player grows stronger, and the enemies, weaker.

Entering a series of vampire strongholds, the game's hero, Django, must battle his way to the catacombs of a number of castles, before exposing their inhabitants to the fatal rays of the sun. It is by adding a solar sensor to the cartridge, however, that Kojima-san adds an incredible twist to the game: in order to actually defeat the vampiric hordes and their undead underlings, the player must use actual sunlight to destroy them!

The idea of a light-sensitive game comes from Hideo Kojima's desire to combine the natural and gaming worlds in some way. As such, Boktai's solar sensor encourages the user to play the game outside to stand a better chance of defeating its vampire adversaries. It also ties in beautifully with the fatal effect of light on the vampires, with exposing the sensor to direct sunlight infusing rooms within the game with deadly light, thus killing anything it touches. As such, the player can form strategies wherein they can lure adversaries under holes in the roof and then expose the sensor to sunlight and thus the enemy