I think it's high time I give you fine folks another peek at some of my favorite games, by console. In the past, I've talked about what are probably still essentially my Top 10 Favorite Games of All Time. I've also in more recent years gotten more specific, talking about many of my favorite games for my Favorite Console of All Time (NES), as well as favorites for what is probably my Second Favorite Console of All Time (SNES). So NOW, I think it's about time I dive in a bit to talk about some of my favorite games of all time, to what is most likely my Third Favorite Console of All Time...the Game Boy!
Similar to the NES and SNES, growing up a poor kid, I obviously never got systems when they were new. Hell, when the NES first launched and first became popular in the mid-80s, I had no idea it even existed. I don't think I really knew about it until around 1988, at the earliest, possibly not even until 1989. Simply because I didn't know anyone who had one until then. I didn't get my own NES until probably around September 1990, and didn't wind up getting a used SNES from a cousin until around Christmas 1995. As for the Nintendo Game Boy, the first true dedicated portable video game console, while it originally launched (to great acclaim and success) in 1989, I didn't get one until Christmas 1993.
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The original "Gray Brick" Game Boy, which I owned.
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I suppose the big difference, though, is that I got the NES as it was starting to become "old news", as the SNES was about to launch the following year (though I was SUPER thankful that the system continued getting games, including some GREAT games, until 1994), and likewise I got the SNES when the N64 was on its way in 1996,. With the Game Boy, I got it probably at the peak of its popularity. Nintendo was weird with the Game Boy, in that it launched in '89, but they didn't release a true successor to it until 1998 (the Game Boy Color), which in this man's opinion was about two years too late. But regardless, that original "Green Screen" (Black & White graphics) hardware, was going strong for most of the 90s. So when I got mine, it was at the height of its powers.
That said, the circumstances surrounding my getting it were odd, to say the least. The grandmother who raised me, as I've related and impressed many times in the past, was a real piece of work. She could be cool at times, but she could also be a real nightmare. And you could never quite tell when "nightmare" was going to come into play. I found myself grounded from video games (except ironically PC games) for two whole months (a lifetime to a kid, especially a sheltered kid who didn't have friends that lived anywhere close to me), in the fall of 1993, because I got caught *GASP* playing Super Mario Bros. 3 for multiple hours. As you might well imagine, I was fairly miserable during that stretch, as the NES was a huge part of my life then. And it was compounded by the fact that I discovered I would no longer be getting Kirby's Adventure, a game I had just recently rented and loved, as a birthday present. I was pretty devastated, to say the least. I was allowed a couple of hours moratorium on that grounding, on my birthday in late November, so that I could play NES with my friends who came to town for my party. But the grounding was back on until probably almost mid-December. Practically almost Christmas!
So imagine my genuine surprise, come Christmas Eve (we always woke up around midnight to open our presents), when I got a whole GAME BOY and at least two or three games, as Xmas gifts! She would, for no good reason at all, later inform me that she was sending a copy of Pac-Man back, instead of just letting me have it (more of her inconsistent logic), but I had beauties like Tetris and Link's Awakening! All told, I only came to own six Game Boy games, along with a Game Genie and a Light Boy peripheral. Which was hilarious, because you could only plug one of them into the system at a time, so you had to choose whether you wanted to cheat, or see the screen! I also didn't get to leave the house a whole lot, and didn't really feel like playing the games out in the yard, so the vast majority of my Game Boy playing was done in my trusty bean-bag chair, in my little book-shelf nook in the corner of my room, behind my bed. I would play it, plugged in so it retained power, and usually with the aid of Light Boy so I could see the goddamn screen, sometimes for hours, though I rarely got away with that.
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The clunky Light Boy attachment, both a light AND magnifier!
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Sufficed to say, it's not hard to understand why at least some of the games I owned back then, are still to this day some of my top favorite games for the system, period. While I only had a handful of games, even compared to my beloved NES treasure trove (I wound up with 20 something NES games as a kid, mostly thanks to a couple local stores going out of business, before my grandmother passed when I was 13), I was very fortunate in that NONE of them were crap. In fact, some of them were some of the best games on the system! So let's waste no more time, and dive right into what precisely some of my All-Time Favorite Game Boy games are!
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1 – Game: The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, Publisher: Nintendo, Originally Released: 1993
The game that I spent the most time playing, both because it's a big adventure game, but also because I wound up loving it the most, was also the game that to this day is still my overall favorite Legend of Zelda game of all time, Link's Awakening! This was the very first Zelda game, I'm fairly certain, that I ever played as a kid. I would experience Zelda II at a friend's house at some point, but I didn't really get to play it myself. And while I am certain that I borrowed or somehow played the original "Zelda 1" at a young age, I don't think that predated this. Link's Awakening was my own true "First Zelda", and I got swept up in that fantasy world, quickly and easily.
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Still beautiful, in the preferred original "Black & White".
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Everything about this entry in the storied series, from its quirky humor, to the several Mario cameos (such as being able to temporarily have a CHAIN CHOMP as an ally!), to my beloved Roc Feather for manual jumping. Everything was/is great about this game, and it's my preferred favorite Zelda experience. To me, because I played this first, by the time I got A Link to the Past (what many consider the "best" game in the series) years later for Christmas 1996, because it had many of the same mechanics, but didn't have jumping, wasn't as imaginative and quirky, etc., I LIKED it, but it almost felt a bit passe, compared to Link's Awakening.
And truly, they did an AMAZING job, translating the ALttP experience to the Game Boy's limited hardware. It really looks and feels QUITE similar, the graphics even having an almost "16-bit" look to them. No matter how you shake it, from the gorgeous graphics, to the excellent soundtrack (still my favorite version of the main "Zelda Theme"), to the large, enchanting dream world, this is hands down one of the very best games the Game Boy ever received. And it is easily my very favorite Game Boy game of all time. If you've never tried it, or even if you've played the recent Nintendo Switch remake, I'd say you need to go back and try this original masterpiece. You'll be glad you did!
2 – Game: Mega Man V, Publisher: Capcom, Originally Released: 1994
As for what is probably my second favorite Game Boy game, that would have to be Mega Man V. Not to be confused with Mega Man 5 on NES, the Game Boy had its own MM series, after a fashion. Except that while they had some new content, the first four games in that series, were made up of parts of the NES Mega Man games. For instance, Mega Man II featured four bosses from Mega Man 2 on NES, and four from Mega Man 3. This would continue for Mega Man III and IV. But for Mega Man V, Capcom finally stopped being lazy, and gave Game Boy its own FULLY original Mega Man game, a wholly unique experience! Not only that, but MMV holds the distinction of being the ONLY traditional Mega Man game in the entire ridiculously expanded franchise, that doesn't hold with the OG series' convention of all bosses being named "____ Man" (like Heat Man), or the X spin-off series' convention of every boss basically being "Adjective Noun" (such as Chill Penguin).
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On the magical Super Game Boy!
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In Mega Man V for Game Boy, the Earth is invaded by "Stardroids", allegedly robots from space! And while Dr. Wily (SPOILERS!) is of COURSE involved, the robots he builds THIS time, are made of stronger "space metal", and based on an ACTUAL space robot he discovered, the final boss "Sunstar". Regardless, these "Stardroids" are named after the nine (yes 9, Pluto's still a planet, dammit!) planets of our solar system. Mars, Mercury, Neptune, etc., all except Earth, which HAS an equivalent, but he's a boss you face more than once, named Terra (because I guess "Earth" didn't sound cool enough). MMV also featured a couple other elements unique to it, the first being the "Mega Arm" upgrade for your traditional Mega Buster, which as you can see above, shoots out a big FIST instead of a blast of energy. This fist is useful, because it can be used to snatch hard to reach items, and there's even an upgrade you can buy from Dr. Light's workshop, which basically makes it attach to a given enemy, and punch them to death! The OTHER unique element, is a new robo-pal, who for some idiotic reason is ONLY featured in this one, sadly more obscure entry in the series: Tango, the robo-cat! Tango is a special weapon you can summon onscreen, who essentially turns into a big buzzsaw, bounding around the screen, killing enemies for you. Plus he's adorable!
As you can also see above, Mega Man V was one of several later Game Boy releases, that were extra-compatible with the Super Game Boy peripheral for the Super Nintendo. While all Game Boy games were playable on the SGB, which was a cartridge that you slapped your tiny Game Boy carts into, which allowed you to play them for your Super NES on TV, only some of them were made with the SGB specifically in mind. Normal GB games you could still "colorize" with limited palettes, and choose from several generic borders. With games like MMV, they came programed with their own palettes (still limited, but some looked MORE "colorized" than others), and their own unique screen borders. When I got the Super Game Boy, quite randomly as I recall, in 1996, I was stoked, because now my handful of old Game Boy games had new life, as I could play them and enjoy them on a bigger TV screen. Though, as a side note, I DO generally prefer to experience my Game Boy games in the original "black & white", just as I dislike "colorized" black & white shows or movies. There's something about those "colorless" GB graphics that I find quite charming!
Overall, while Mega Man 2 on NES is my top favorite MM game of all time (and 2nd favorite game of all time, period), Mega Man V on Game Boy is my 2nd favorite Mega Man. It's just a really fantastic game, a great soundtrack, cool and actually useful boss powers (especially the Black Hole you get from Saturn, which sucks enemies into it, and politely drops any items right onto you), just a fun and unique entry in the franchise in general. If you've never played it, go dig it up somewhere (even if you have to find it on the "side of the road"), and give it a whirl!
3 – Game: Kirby's Dream Land, Publisher: Nintendo, Originally Released: 1992
As I related earlier in this article, my first experience of Kirby, was actually the sequel to this, Kirby's Adventure on the NES. I'm going to going to guess that I probably rented Adventure sometime in the summer of '93 (it released in May), but either way I didn't even own a Game Boy when I played that. I was aware of this original game, however, through gaming magazines, and the neat claymation commercial which I'm sure I saw on TV. But I'm eternally grateful that HAL Laboratories made Adventure for NES. They could have made it for Game Boy, a logical sequel to one of the most successful games on the portable powerhouse (they would later make Dream Land 2 for Game Boy in 1995). Or they could have made the sequel in full-blown 16-bit, on the still fairly new Super Nintendo. But instead, Nintendo decided that the old, now mostly "defunct" NES, deserved a sequel to Dream Land instead. And not only did they make a sequel, they absolutely went nuts with it!
This original game is simple, but brilliant. However, it lacks many of the conventions of the series that most people are used to, such as copying enemy powers, hell, even a simple act like being able to slide (which for some stupid reason you STILL can't do in Dream Land 2). In Kirby's Dream Land, which was made as most early Game Boy games were, with "bite sized", shorter portable gaming sessions in mind, all you can do, is suck up enemies, and either swallow them, or spit them back out as stars. Seems very basic, compared to the rest of the series. HOWEVER, while short and simple, Dream Land IS still a very funny and whimsical experience. When it first launched, there was really nothing quite like it. While sadly I never got to play this game when I first had my Game Boy as a kid (for some dumb reason rental stores just didn't want to rent out Game Boy games), I still got to play it later in life, and my abiding love for Kirby makes me love it more than even some gems I actually owned and got to play in my pre-teen/early teen years.
This game was somewhat remade as "Spring Breeze" in the SNES Kirby Super Star game, but I would still highly suggest experiencing Kirby in his original Game Boy form.
4 – Game: Super Mario Land 3: Wario Land, Publisher: Nintendo, Originally Released: 1994
Another Game Boy gem I spent a lot of time playing, was the original Wario Land. Wario first appeared as an oddball new big bad in Super Mario Land 2. He's a greedy, fatter, vulgar, almost doppelganger of Mario himself, and "Evil Mario" if you will. But, he also proved to be quite popular with fans, so much so that similar to what they did with Yoshi, Nintendo took a chance, and gave him his very own game!
Technically speaking, this game, and the rest of the Wario games that follow, is a spin-off of the Mario series. It does, in point of fact, have almost nothing to DO with Mario. But, much like the original Yoshi's Island on SNES, they still titled it "Super Mario Land 3", because corporate marketing logic says that that type of thing, retaining a name connected to something that has already succeeded, will somehow make the new product more of a success. As far as I'm concerned, this isn't "Mario Land 3", and Yoshi's Island most definitely is NOT "Super Mario World 2", and I don't think either needed those confusing titles. I think they would have done JUST as well, had they simply been called Wario Land and Yoshi's Island.
But as for the game itself? It's certainly an odd duck, but then you'd expect it to be, centered around an odd character like Wario. Where I suppose you could state that Mario games tend to have more "classic" style enemies, Wario's enemies and bosses were quirkier, more out of left field. Where Mario games tend to have often brighter, bouncier and energetic music, Wario Land features a very off-kilter soundtrack. In fact, one of the games musical idiosyncrasies, is that many of the tunes in the game, are different variations on what you could call the "main theme", differing in tone and "flavor", to fit the differing worlds you traverse.
I wouldn't say that I LOVE Wario Land, or his series in general, certainly not like I love the classic Mario titles. But given how much I played this as a kid, I AM rather fond of it, and they definitely didn't skimp. Wario Land is a high quality product, and a sizable adventure well worth playing for the portable powerhouse.
5 – Game: Donkey Kong, Publisher: Nintendo, Originally Released: 1994
Another game that I'm including in large part because it was one of the handful of games I actually owned when I originally owned a real Game Boy (and didn't play them on other platforms, via emulation), is the 1994 remake of Donkey Kong. Yes, yet another '94 hit for the gray brick. 1994 was an excellent year for gaming in general, but especially so for the Game Boy and Super NES. Even the old NES still got some love (the last year, in fact, that it received new games in North America), with releases like Star Tropics 2, Mega Man 6, and Wario's Woods
In fact, '94 could also rightly be called the "Year of DK", because not only did the Game Boy get this great exclusive, but the SNES also received the super-popular Donkey Kong Country. However, DK on Game Boy is more than just a straight remake. While the game does in fact begin with versions of the original four stages from the arcade classic, once you beat those, the adventure explodes into something else altogether. There's actually a nice graphical touch, where those classic stages look simple like the arcade did, but once you dive into the MAIN adventure, the graphics become more snazzy and elaborate, with more detail, backgrounds etc. All told, DK '94 features a whopping 101 total stages, spread across 9 worlds. And in each world, you are faced with new (sometimes quite sinister) types of puzzles and obstacles to overcome, but you're also taught new moves or abilities to use in overcoming them.
This game is elegantly simple, like its arcade forebear, but it's also deceptively deep, and can become quite challenging. Nintendo didn't skimp when it came to the content of this game, any more than they did with Link's Awakening or Wario Land. This was truly a golden era, in the late 80s and early to mid 90s, when companies like Nintendo, Capcom, Konami, etc., actually gave gamers their money's worth, regularly releasing high quality games, often stuffed to the gills with more content than they honestly needed to pack in. We were spoiled in those days, but I'm glad we were.
If you've somehow never had the classic Donkey Kong experience, I'd say that there is no better way to rectify that, than with this game.
6 – Game: Tetris, Publisher: Nintendo, Originally Released: 1989
Another game I'm including in part because I owned it back then, and thus played it a fair bit. But it also deserves to be included, because it is, simply put, one of the finest puzzle games ever created. In fact, it innovated and established conventions that countless other puzzle games would emulate, for decades to come! Created just for fun in his spare time by one Alexey Pajitnov, Tetris first blessed the world (or rather, Communist Russia), in 1984. Through licensing via the Russian government (poor Alexey wouldn't see a penny for his mega-ton creation until the 1990s), versions of Tetris made their way outside the "Iron Curtain" by 1987 and 88, for various platforms. But it was Nintendo, winning the "licensing lottery" if you will, who secured the full rights to make their own version of Tetris (not to be confused with the unlicensed Tengen Tetris), exclusively for their own gaming platforms, in 1989.
Tetris on the NES was a major hit, even though it nonsensically didn't include 2-player gameplay. But Tetris on the Game Boy, was not only THE major launch title of the Game Boy's debut in the summer of '89, but for many the pack-in game included with the system itself. That not only made the Game Boy an instant smash success, further spreading a love of video games to many people who otherwise didn't "game", it was also THE version that helped make Tetris a household name. Tetris on Game Boy went on to become one of the top best selling video games of all time, and as stated, people from all walks of life who otherwise didn't play video games, would often buy themselves a Game Boy JUST for Tetris, and would be addicted to JUST that game, for years!
As for my own Tetris experience, I first played it when we rented it on NES, probably in late 1990 or into 1991. It's very possible that my grandmother may have rented it more than once, which she did with multiple games she liked, though for some reason she never just bought us a copy of it. It wasn't until receiving the Game Boy for Christmas 1993, that we finally owned a copy. And wouldn't you know it, she would go on to regularly annoy me by keeping ME from playing my Game Boy, because she was spending hours playing Tetris herself. She really should have just bought it on NES. But as for me, while it may have been one of my lesser played GB games, I did still spend a fair bit of time playing it. And for my money, while I'm quite fond of the NES version, and certain later iterations of the game, I am quite nostalgic for this OG Game Boy game the most. Not the least of which, because unlike the NES game (who knows why it lacked it), the GB version has THE classic tune that most people just call "The Tetris Song", a fantastic 8-bit rendition of "Korobeiniki", a Russian folk-song.
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7 - Game: Avenging Spirit, Publisher: Jaleco, Originally Released: 1992
One of the games that I first wrote about for my Forgotten Gems series, Avenging Spirit was originally a somewhat obscure but ahead of its time arcade game by Jaleco. And surprisingly, the ONLY port of any kind, was to the Game Boy (the same was true for fellow arcade classic Tumblepop). As I impressed in those pieces a decade ago, these are games that should have been ported to NES, and/or even the fairly new at the time Super NES, or Sega Genesis, or PC. But nope. Game Boy was it. Which, on the one hand, sucks that those other platforms didn't get ports of what is a really unique, fun game. But I guess, on the other hand, it IS neat in a way, that GB had some oddball exclusives like that.
Originally titled "Phantasm" in Japan, this quirky arcade hit really was ahead of its time in a way. Specifically, the core mechanic of the game is that you play the ghost of a dead man, who is trying to save his girlfriend from the same fate. To do so, you must possess enemies, and use their abilities to fight their fellow henchmen, on your way to rescue her. For one thing, it's very unique for a 1991 game, or hell, ANY game, to feature your main hero being a ghost who's already DIED! Meaning, in some sense at least, the hero of the game already lost before the story begins. But it's also unique in that, unlike Mega Man or Kirby, where you absorb/gain a defeated enemy/boss' power, in Avenging Spirit, you literally BECOME the enemy themself. The enemy abilities aren't SUPER varied, but you can become many different things, like a high-kicking punk chick, a magic-wielding wizard, a gun-toting mobster, or even a fire-breathing dragon!
The Game Boy port is a bit different, naturally, than the arcade original, having its own graphical look, and somewhat different (but similar) levels. I'm not sure if EVERY enemy/power from the arcade is present in the GB version, but there are still a fair few. All in all, it's a good port, and a game I'd highly recommend (on arcade OR GB). It's another game I wish I'd been able to play as a kid, because I would have loved it (though the hero already being a ghost would have made me a bit sad).
8- Game: Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle 2, Publisher: Kemco, Originally Released: 1991
As I covered in depth when exploring the history of one (technically TWO) of my favorite NES games (Bugs Bunny Birthday Blowout and Kid Klown), the history of Kemco's Crazy Castle series is a somewhat confusing one, and pretty unique in gaming history, to boot! When I rented The Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle on NES, I had no idea that in Japan it was a Disney game that starred Roger Rabbit! I just rented it because I loved Bugs Bunny and Looney Tunes. I also had no idea that in Japan, there were multiple Game Boy entries starring another childhood favorite of mine, Mickey Mouse, or that in America, those too were transformed into Bugs Bunny games. All told, because of different licensing deals for different international regions, this Kemco franchise featured Roger Rabbit, Bugs Bunny, Mickey Mouse, Garfield, the Real Ghostbusters, the European character Hugo, and Woody Woodpecker. I don't think any other franchise can make that kind of claim.
I like Crazy Castle on NES, in fact if I had made the list even longer than it is, I'm fairly certain it would be in my Top 30 or at least Top 40 NES games, for sure. But it isn't in my Top 10, or even Top 20 (though Bugs Bunny Birthday Blowout, and Kid Klown, are). But this is another case where I really wish I had been able to rent Game Boy games as a kid, and had been able to play at least one of these Game Boy Crazy Castle games, because the series grows and improves over time. The first Game Boy entry, which again was a Mickey game in Japan, is extremely similar to the NES/Famicom game.
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Same game, different characters.
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My favorite entry (excluding Kid Klown, which was technically Mickey Mouse III in Japan), is Crazy Castle 2 on Game Boy. It sticks to the same core set-up and gameplay, wherein you guide your hero through a series of rooms, collecting keys (originally carrots, or hearts in the first Mickey game) while avoiding enemies. In the earliest Crazy Castle entries, you merely collect all of the items in a stage, and once you have, the stage is clear, and you move on to the next. A very simple, arcade-like experience. In Crazy Castle 2, however, it gets a bit deeper and a tad more complicated, as while you do collect keys, this time around you actually use them to unlock doors, one key per door. There are also non-locked doors, and each contains some kind of item, whether it be another key, or a weapon you can use against enemies and obstacles in the stage. You eventually get all the keys, and unlock the exit of the stage, moving you on to the next.
It's just good, simple fun, perfect especially for Game Boy's "bite-sized gaming on the go" motif. Crazy Castle 2 has a nice variety of enemies and stages, more, I think, than the first NES or GB games. If you've never played any of the Crazy Castle series, I highly suggest playing at least the original NES game. But if you get a chance, check out Crazy Castle 2 on Game Boy, I think you'll have yourself a dang blasted good time!
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I'm going to make a quick admission: PART of the reason that I'm only listing 8 games, besides saving time (and you more reading), is because, sadly, in ALL the years I've had access to Game Boy roms, there aren't a ton of original GB games I've sat and played through, and beaten. There are MANY I've played, and liked, but not enough that I feel confident in saying "THIS is one of my favorite GB games". I absolutely need to change that, and thus I'm certain I will expand this list in time. One game I actually owned and played a fair bit as a kid, that I DIDN'T list, was Kirby's Pinball Land. It's a good game, probably one of the best pinball video games ever made, in fact. But while I like it, I don't LOVE it, so thus I didn't list it. I've also beaten, and quite like, Super Mario Land 1 & 2, but I left them off this time around, because they're not TOP favorites, over those I did list.
Here are some other GB games I like, however, that may well be considered candidates for an expanded Top Favorite Game Boy Games list (as well as other games you should definitely check out):
Super Mario Land
Trip World
Kirby's Star Stacker
Metroid 2
Super Mario Land 2
Gargoyle's Quest
Kid Niki (different from the NES game)
Knight's Quest
Mickey's Dangerous Chase
Kirby's Dream Land 2
Battletoads (different from the NES game)
TumblePop
Bonk's Revenge (different from the TurboGrafx 16 game)
etc.
