What Game Boy game do you love that you never hear anyone talk about?

Donkey Kong. I think people just think it's a port of the arcade game because it has the same first few levels but it becomes something more afterward and is incredibly fun.

Metal Gear Solid for GBC is never mentioned in all time lists for the series, but it’s my favorite, straight up.

I can’t believe they managed to cram a true MGS experience onto a GAMEBOY Color cartridge.

Pocket Bomberman is also legitimately great.

Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins

Great game

As a kid I got a lot of mileage out of The Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle. It was honestly nothing special but it was a fun if very basic game. Password-based and not all that difficult for an adult.

Dragon quest monsters (dragon warrior monsters in America)

This game was the bomb, I loved the monster breeding mechanics, you could breed monsters of different types to get entirely new ones.

Final Fantasy Adventure. Zelda style top view. Absolutely loved it. Music scope and story.. Played through at least a dozen times. A decently high quality remake came out for phones a few years back. I still love it.

As a kid, I found Gargoyles Quest infuriatingly addictive. I wasn't good enough to do well at it, it annoyed me, but I kept going back for more.

Survival Kids

It's a bit of a silly survival game that starts with you being stranded on an island. I got a kick out of it because there were a few different game endings that were dependent on the actions you took earlier in the game.

This Beyblade game that was like an obstacle course on checkered platforms. I practiced a lot to beat the par times on each course.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone and Chamber of Secrets.

Are they good games? No

But they are well themed and have chiptune version of Jeremy Soule’s soundtrack. I like replaying the, from time to time.

Took me a while to find the name. Have you played Quarth?

Qix

Kirby Pinball. Just a chill and fun game.

Pokemon TCG for GB was arguably the best Pokemon RPG. I've not played the English fanlation of 2 yet though, so maybe that's better.

did anyone else play bonks adventure

Here's one that came to mind: Heiankyo Alien for the Gameboy DMG. I remember playing this a ton in the car as a kid. It's a game where you have to dig holes for aliens to fall in and bury them to kill them.

https://youtu.be/vY3qVBkIu74?si=YqByQWmw6R-Mo36G

This is a little off topic for "RetroGaming", but my favorite new soon-to-be-hidden gem for Gameboy Color is "Grimace's Birthday".

https://www.grimacesbirthday.com/

The overall game is only about ten minutes long, but it's just so dang well made for a silly throw-away advertisement, and I just adore that it's a Gameboy Color game released in 2023.

Edit: To be clear, I have no association with anyone involved in the game. It just gives me the giggles to get a new retrogame for a licsned property, for actual classic hardware in 2023.

I ahem acquired a copy of Hamtaro: Ham-Ham Heartbreak from my elementary school lost and found, played it whenever I had a minute for the next few weeks. I don't know if I'd have the patience to play it today, but it's still an adorable little puzzle game. The sound and animation of the actions was spot on.

Home Alone. Then again I haven't played it since back then lol

Gotta go with "skate or die: bad n rad"

Donkey Kong. Not Donkey Kong Country. The original arcade Donkey Kong, until you realize after beating the original levels that there is SO MUCH MORE to it!

Just one thing. Fuck that level with the long bridge of disappearing floor tiles. That was the worst!!

Bubble Ghost. I had it on a 99 in 1 cart. Might just be that it wasn't popular where I'm from.

Gonna have to be Kirby and the Amazing Mirror and MegaMan Battle Network 6 for me on the GBA.

Permanently Deleted

Azure Dreams

I'll throw Boxxle on the list. It's one of the earliest GB games, so the graphics are pretty much what you'd expect. But it's a great puzzle game that has a very simple premise, but requires you to perspective-shift and learn new strategies many times over as the difficulty progresses.

James Bond: 007 was a surprisingly good game that I enjoyed way more than expected. I don’t know why I got the game, I was and have never been a fan of the series.

Heiankyo Alien. It was the cheapest game in the store, so that's the one my parents let me buy. For a long time it was one of only a couple games I owned--that one and whatever it shipped with... Tetris?

The Machine (2021). It’s not so much obscure as it is just niche. It’s wonderful. Multiple playthrough, knowledge retains between runs, so you can unravel more and more of the mystery of The Machine. Highly recommend for anyone interested in political games. I bought the actual cartridge, but you can also buy the rom for like $1, and there’s a demo on itch.io I’m pretty sure.

Aside from a few classics I'm sure you've already played, I remember playing Wario Blast and Taz-Mania fairly often.

I haven't played either one in years, so I don't know how well they still hold up.

Alfred Chicken. Impossibly difficult, with a ridiculous plot.

Sneaky Snakes!

Warlocked for GBC - it was ambitious as hell, and has some quality scenario ideas.

God Medicine. Genuinely one of the best classic style JRPGs and the best RPG on Gameboy in my opinion. Absolute travesty that the west never ended up getting it originally.

I had an Itchy and Scratchy game (from the Simpsons). It was a mini golf game that was a lot of fun.

Radar Mission. I can hear the music in my head from both game types whenever I think about it, right down to the music when the carrier launches the fighter. I enjoyed both game types a lot, though I remember getting frustrated as a kid until I learned the nuances of the opponents.

Vegas Stakes - simple casino games, perfect time-killer for the format.

Wendy Every Witch Way - concept of reversing gravity has been used in other platformers since, but this might be the OG, and is very solid.

Boomer's Adventure in ASMIK World

Gameplay

Review & Explanation

I never figured out why they gave the world such a weird name, or didn't just call it Boomer's Adventure

A whole back when I got a Miyoo Mini, I went looking for original GB games that I missed. I found Cave Noire and it quickly became my favorite ways to kill time. It's simple (but not easy), being a Roguelike offers some variety, and it's just fun.

James Bond 007 was one of my favorite Gameboy games.

I spent countless hours as a 4 year old trying to solve the puzzles and got through it by sheer determination.

I can still probably remember every path in the desert mission.

https://youtu.be/z7VzLtnm2G4?si=jooUp5cOUnbAP9AS

Cosmo Tank. Got it as a gift from my dad and loved it when I was a kid. I may have to revisit it myself.

Ninja 5-0 for the GBA. I got out my collection recently and had no idea I owned it. It's Elevator Action, but you're a ninja.

Wario Land 2 + 3 Were the first games I ever played on a Nintendo handheld. I still play them through once a year because of nostalgic reasons. Plus they are one of the most enjoyable Jump and Runs for me.

I only ever really had the basics with my Gameboy sadly, but I had a lot of fun with Pokemon Red and Zelda Links Awakening (which I prefer to the DX version where they removed the fun teleporting glitch). Now I went this thread for other systems like PSX, lol.

Here's one I played a lot of and loved that I never hear about anywhere... Bionic Commando - 1992. A port of a Nintendo game I only got to try a few times, but the game boy version was better to me.

Elevator Action, fun platform shooter made in 1983. I spent countless hours playing this game with my babysitter.

MegaMan Battle Network series was by favorite GBA titles and currently has a modern port for Switch PC and PlayStation

Rebelstar: Tactical Command, In a nutshell it's X-COM for the gameboy advance.

Dragon Warrior Monsters.

I think I'm the only person who's beaten the Monster Master fight enough times to know there's a bug in it where he eventually gets strong enough that you get one shotted by him even if you're cheating and using a Gameshark to keep your health in the 1024 hp range...

You know what was great and gets no love? Q*Bert for GameBoy was a really solid game that had a LOT of stage variety and even silly cutscenes. Literally the only thing it was missing was color. Highly recommend.

Quest for Camelot was a banger. I think it's in NSO actually. The sword swing sound effect is burned into my DNA.

Great Greed!!!

Lighthearted RPG with a really neat combat system, funny writing, and food puns everywhere! So awesome and I never see anyone talk about it.

Shout out to Hungry Goriya for her excellent review on this gem.

Falling sand games, specter supreme, escape velocity, gyromite.

Probably doesn't hold up anymore, but no one really talks about "Kingdom Conquest Crusade". It's like a really tight minimalist version of the combined live action melee and big battle strategy of the Dynasty Warriors series - compressed to fit on a classic Gameboy.

I didn’t have a Gameboy, but I did have an Atari Lynx and I would say for Atari it was Batman in color.

(and its ) are pretty good Zelda-like action adventure games. They're not going to stand up to Link's Awakening but still, I remember them fondly.

Pac in Time was a great game, came bundle with my red original Game Boy. Turok 1 and 2 for Gameboy were loads of fun too

My favorite GBA game is The Urbz: Sims in the City. The console version of the game wasn't received very positively, but the GBA/DS version is a completely separate game, and a very good one. It's a very goofy game with a lot of stupid (read: amazing) jokes, RPG elements, mini games, some of the best music in any GBA game and a lot more. I still revisit this game once in a while.

I even played the predecessor "Sims bustin out" for the GBA a few years ago. Urbz is way more refined than bustin out, but if you liked Urbz and you want more, Bustin Out is a great way to scratch that itch.

Ambitiousamphibian did a great video on this game a few months ago. He seems to feel exactly the same about this game as I do. Because of that, I will link it, but be aware that it contains a lot of spoilers and going blind into the game is the best way to play IMO.

Konami's Motocross Maniacs

Permanently Deleted

Penguin Wars

Pinball Tycoon was one of my favorites. great music, solid no-nomsense pinball gameplay. it even had a multi-player mode! never seen another soul talk about it.

I always thought the Triple XXX game was awesome as a kid.

Gargoyles Quest was awesome. Love the music from Ocean games too - Hook and RoboCop come to mind.

Weirdly enough, my favorite Zelda game of all time is The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening. Weirder still, it's the story that I really love, driven almost entirely by the fact that it's the least Zelda Zelda game. No, I don't know what's wrong with me.

I mean it's probably entirely nostalgia, but I still hear the in-game ballad in my head from time to time.