I never owned a Game Boy, or a Game Boy Color, so this isn’t a nostalgia post about games that I played when I was a little kid. I’ve also never played a Pokemon game, so none of those games are here either. All the games here are ones I’ve downloaded over the last few weeks and played for the first time. The main criteria for whether I’ve included a game here is whether you can start playing within a few seconds. I’ve also tried to include only games that I’ve actually felt the need to play more than once.
The Backstory
A few weeks ago, I picked up an Anbernic RG350M. It was an impluse buy after I’d confirmed it’d play up to PlayStation 1. I thought I’d use it for the odd bit of PS1, NES, SNES, GBA emulation while out and about. After a while I realised I didn’t have any Game Boy games. So I checked out a few posts similar to this one and started trying some out.
I’ve got to say, the 3.5”, 4:3 ratio, 640×480 pixel display on the RG350M really makes GB, GBC and GBA games look great. All of the screenshots were taken using the RG350M, with Retroarch Gambatte core for the Gameboy (GB Colorization: SGB / Internal Palette: GB Pocket). For Game Boy Color I used the Gambatte OPK (gambatte-dms-multi-r572u4-20231203.opk).
Game Boy
Mega Man I-V
These games are hard. Very hard. But, thanks to emulators and save states, your chances of beating them are better now than ever! If you’ve got a retro handheld, you need all five of these, it’s that simple.
Classic Bubble Bobble
Shoot bubbles at enemies, then pop them and collect the fruit they leave behind. I’m a big fan of games that can be explained in one sentence. You might as well grab Bubble Bobble and Bubble Bobble Part 2 as well.
Kirby’s Block Ball
If you like Arkanoid or Breakout, you’ll probably also like this game. I find it quite a nice, relaxing game with great music.
Donkey Kong
You need this. Everyone does.
Balloon Kid
Galaga (Arcade Classic No. 3)
I love Galaga on the NES and Galaga 90 on the Turbo Grafx. I wasn’t sure if this port would be worth bothering with, but it’s actually really good. Plus Galaxian is the other game on the cartridge (another classic).
Catrap
I don’t think I’ve seen one list of the best GB games that hasn’t included Catrap. It really is a great puzzle game.
Game & Watch Gallery
Boxxle 1 and 2
In this one, you’ve got to push the boxes into the squares marked with a dot. Sounds easy but it isn’t.
Nemesis 1 and 2
Game Boy Color
Frogger 1 and 2
Game & Watch Gallery 2 and 3
Mega Man Xtreme 1 and 2
Micro Machines 1 and 2 Twin Turbo
Mr Driller
Mario Tennis
Space Invaders
Pac-Man
Conclusion
There are some great games for the first two Game Boy systems. The Game Boy Advance took things to the next level of course, but I’d recommend anybody to spend a bit of time building a libray of GB / GBC games. My main aim with this post is just to recommend a few games that I’ve found enjoyable and think you will too. I may do a part 2 in the future when I’ve tried out some more of these classics.
