what's your favorite Gameboy game that isn't Pokemon or Mario?
what's your favorite Gameboy game that isn't Pokemon or Mario?
I've just rediscovered my childhood Gameboys, I grew up in the 90s and had an original, a color, an advance and an sp. My game collection has whittled down over the year to the usual suspects, Pokemons, Zelda's, Mario's and some other standards. But I want to dive into some games that 7 year old me would have brushed over. So what's your favorite game?
The non-pokemon ones I played the most were:
DMG: Kirby's Dreamland 2
GBC: Shante
GBA: Drilldozer
Platformers to me always felt like the best suited games to handheld games, and I love the bright colorful art styles. Drilldozer is definitely my all time favorite. If you can find a copy, I'd highly recommend it! The rumble pack cartridge is so cool.
If you're playing Gameboy specifically, and not including Advanced, then I played a ton of Marble Madness. I never beat it, but it is pretty fun physics-y platformer.
I really enjoyed Kirby and the Amazing Mirror
Golden Sun GBA. GBC, Wacky Racers and GB it was Tetris because I had nothing else, lol.
Advance Wars for GBA was up there for me (below any Zelda game). I've got my eyes on the Switch remake, but holding until I can find it on sale.
Never sleep on Wario land
One game I never see get talked about it daedalian opus on the original game boy, I used to love that little puzzle game when I was young. I wonder if it would hold up haha.
Wario land, Metroid 2, Donkey Kong 94 are all great
- Metroid II is one of my favorite games of all time.
- Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge and Operation C are both highly polished and fun, but quite challenging.
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall of the Foot Clan is a relatively easy, short, polished action game.
- Kirby's Dream Land is my favorite game in the series. And if you think it's too easy, turn on Extra Game mode. It will wreck you, I promise. ;)
- Ninja Gaiden Shadow and Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge are amazingly polished challenging but fair action games.
Every game I mentioned has excellent music, is an original game (not a port), and I have played in their entirety again and again throughout the years.
Let me know if you're looking for a genre other than an action game. XD
Does Yoshi's Island count? I loved that game to death and it's ending makes me tear up as well.
Tail 'Gator is my hidden gem OG GB game, fun platformer with a great soundtrack.
I will never not shill advance wars 1 and 2 Great gameplay, great artstyle, great everyting
Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. Has to be one of the best GBA games made
Dragon Warrior Monsters for the Gameboy Color was fantastic. It was somewhat similar to pokemon, but had some features that pokemon didn't get for several iterations, like having your monsters follow you around, monster breeding, and multi-monster fighting.
Magi Nation was also good, similar vein to both of them, but felt darker in tone. Although maybe that's just how it seemed to a much younger me.
Metroid II: Samus Returns & Gargoyles Quest (such a bloody hard game) on the OG GameBoy were my favs. I played a lot of *Battletoads *on it too but that game was so bloody frustratingly difficult, especially for a kid, so played it mostly out of spite to get past the stupid brain ball chasing you level. Also loved Parodius (parody side scrolling SHUMP from Konami) but never owned it, so borrowed it from friends to play. Naturally I also played Tetris to the point that the music still haunts my dreams. There was also a pretty decent Spider-Man game for it, but can't remember it's name & it's not showing up on lists.
The OG GB also had a lot of bog awful licensed property (movie/tv/cartoon) tie in games too, as well as generally terrible releases. To see them all, check this list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Game_Boy_games
I unfortunately never owned an Advance, so only got into games on it later via official emulators (the Wii U control pad was the best GB Advance out there), so got to play Golden Sun later but enjoyed it as a fairly unique take on the J-RPG genre. The releases of Breath of Fire 1 & 2 on the Advance was also a great thing, since they were my favourite SNES games.
For GBA games, here's a list but so many shitty licensed games there too: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Game_Boy_Advance_games
Advance Wars
@NoHardshipInPancakes Link's Awakening is still my favorite game of all time. I got stuck on the second dungeon for literal years because I didn't put together that you had to defeat enemies in a specific order to get the boss key. That was way before the Internet had every answer to every question. 😋
Monster Max. It's an isometric exploration platformer/puzzle game with a rock'n'roll theme that I absolutely adored as a kid. It was only released in Europe, so it might be interesting to all you US guys 😁
Final Fantasy Tactics Advance GBA, Links Awakening OG Gameboy
I played thru Kirby about 3 times I. A road trip from California to Texas so I'll go with that
Advance Wars.
Kirby's block ball was a great Gameboy game. I remember one I liked a lot called lock n' chase, name could be wrong but I'm sure it's close
Mole Mania is pretty fun. And Gameboy donkey Kong is pretty fun, and it's way more than just an arcade port. It's has way more levels and the format is different. It also has a pretty fun move set.
Metroid 2, because there's a reason there have been so many fanmade remakes of it...
But I also dug Ultima Runes of Virtue 2... If you ignore the canon. Superior to the SNES version IMO.
Mysterium was also nifty.
The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age for GBA, I had so much fun playing hotseat with my friends.
Honourable mentions for: Tetris, Battlebots and The March of Penguins.
Been playing road rash (GBC) and its nice
Kirby games are nice too
Pocket Bomberman (GBC), Wario Land (GB), Wario Land II (GBC), Bubble Bobble Old and New (GBA), Donkey Kong '94 (GB), Kirby's Dream Land and Kirby's Dream Land 2 (GB), Kirby's Nightmare in Dreamland (GBA), Kirby and the Amazing Mirror (GBA), Dr. Mario (GB), Tetris (GB), and Tetris DX (GBC), Mario's Picross (GB).
Gunstar Super Heroes. Yeah, Gunstar Heroes had a full on sequel on the GBA and only like 10 people bought it. It's fantastic too.
Shantae. Metroidvania-esque. It's hard as nails. View distance is pretty short. But it's got a lot of cool stuff in it. While it technically has GBA features, it's a GBC cart and works just fine on a good ol' grey Gameboy.
The dungeons are pretty well designed, and I love the fact that while you're exploring there's even a day/night cycle changing things up. Also, love the music in this game.
I was given a copy of Azure Dreams for the Gameboy Color, this thing had no picture on the cartridge anymore and was a piece of paper with the word Azure Dreams written on it. I remember playing the absolute shit out of that game. I still have it, but haven’t played it in decades.
Advance wars, I just picked up the reboot for the switch
Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. I prefer it to the sequels on the DS.
I have been playing Motocross Maniacs off and on for 30 years or so. Back when we had a magazine rack in the bathroom we eventually just left the Game Boy sitting in there.
That strange Lord of the Rings turn based strategy game.
Sonic Advance for Gameboy Advance...
Runner up is Super Momotaro Dentetsu II. A game that makes zero sense if you can't read Japanese, but it is very hilarious if you can and are familiar with the culture. In a nutshell, take the absurd length and buying property element of Monopoly, then the bullshit luck-based elements from Mario Party, mix together with a healthy dose of recreational drugs, and you get this game.
Trailer, Bit of Gameplay... Funny thing is they announced their 24th instalment in the series this year for the Nintendo Switch:
Fire Emblem 7 a.k.a The Blazing Sword
Does GBA count? Cause FF Tactics Advanced games were awesome.
Apart from Zelda and Pokemon: Castlevania, Metroid, Fire Emblem
I loved kid Icarus. Played the shit out of the game when I was a kid. That a Kirby's Dreamland were my two favorites that I can recall right now.
Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets (GBC). I'm convinced it's what got me into JRPGs because of the similarities, despite being a western game. It was localized to my language (Swedish) which was not the case for most games (like pokemon), so young me could actually understand what was going on for once. I really like the art in it too.
If we're allowed GBA then Zelda Minish Cap or Lego Star Wars.
If we are talking about the original Game Boy
Gargoyle's Quest and WarioLandThe Urbz: Sims in the City for the GBA (and also the DS).
This is such a hidden gem on the GBA and my favorite GBA game I had. Had great music as well!