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?
Buncha youngins with your GBAs.
My favourite OG gameboy game was Kirby’s Dream Land. Played and replayed it many times. Even had one of those attachments to magnify it and light up the screen when it got dark :)
I highly recommend Pleasant Dreams: The Welcoming Play of Kirby’s Dream Land. I got it in one of the mega Itch.io charity bundles and was intrigued. It was the highlight of the bundle for me, unexpectedly.
I’d never played Kirby’s Dream Land, but I loaded it up the next chance I got, and Couture nailed it. It’s an absolutely perfect introduction to gaming for non-gamers.
Ooh thanks for pointing it out. Looks like I have it from a bundle too, haha. I will give it a read.
I remember the day I got my worm light for the gbc. Everyone was peasants.
I still have mine! Found it the other day
Tetris change my mind
First video game I ever played
The Megaman Battle Network series on GBA is awesome. Replayed a few of them last year and they are still great.
Do you know if the Steam remake was any good?
I have not played the steam remakes, but they appear to be the exact same games. So that would be a good way to play them if you don’t have the original games or ROMs for them.
I know you mentioned Zelda, but there were actually a ton of pretty good Zelda games like Oracle of Ages/Seasons. Advance Wars was pretty fun. Golden Sun too. I also have to agree with MMBN from the other commenters.
Oracle of ages/seasons was waaaay too hard. I tried to play it as a kid, got stuck, and gave up very early on. As an adult, I decided to come back to it just to see what I missed out on. Still had to check guides a few times and abused save states.
I can’t remember the details, but there was some kinds puzzle or something that depended on sound and my adult, hearing impaired self could not complete it without save states galore.
I can’t believe I’m the first person to mention Link’s Awakening in this thread. Still one of my favorite Zelda games. It’s bizarre quirkiness felt just like all the strange aberrations that manifest in dreams.
I was also going to say MMBN, but since that’s been said, I’ll say Golden Sun. Loved both of those games to death.
Breath of Fire 1 and 2 are also great (although technically SNES ports).
Golden Sun is my all-time favorite! I wish I could relive the thill I felt for the first and second games
Same here! They made a DS one as a third installment, but the story leaves off in the middle, and the sense of awe just isn’t there. Not the same anyway as 1&2. Especially 2, when you [SPOILER] play the “bad” guys
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.
The 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.
@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. 😋
You are not alone. Any time a thread brings that game up there’s someone like us who got stuck there because that’s literally the only dungeon in the entire franchise that requires you to defeat enemies in a specific way based on lore that isn’t provided to you by the game. Not even in the manual does it say “This is a stalfos, this is a Pol’s voice, this is a keese.” I found out through an old NES Zelda manual, that does give names and pictures of the enemies - ten years after my initial romp through bottle grotto.
I will never not shill advance wars 1 and 2 Great gameplay, great artstyle, great everyting
Golden Sun GBA. GBC, Wacky Racers and GB it was Tetris because I had nothing else, lol.
Never sleep on Wario land
Does Yoshi’s Island count? I loved that game to death and it’s ending makes me tear up as well.
Kirby’s Dream Land (the original, and still the best)
Final fantasy Tactics Advance Fire Emblem the Sacred Stones
The only thing I disliked about Tactics Advance was I felt like they really cheaped out on Ritz’s plot. I’m thinking maybe it comes off better in the context of a japanese culture where standing out like she does really IS culturally frowned upon, but it made very little sense to me in the west and I still feel like she got done dirty. Everyone else has a really good reason to stay, Doned doesn’t have functional legs, and she’s complaining about her hair.
Other than that one single thing, yeah, still one of the best games I’ve played. I’ve never seen a game tackle it from that angle before or since.
Yeah! I’ve seen a lot of people give it some undeserved grief but I agree, it’s a fantastic game! Totally agree with you about Ritz.
Wario land, Metroid 2, Donkey Kong 94 are all great
I second this! Donkey Kong 94 is a must play, and I feel like Wario is the true Game Boy mascot.
Mole Mania also deserves a shout out. Another Shigeru Miyamoto game that gets even better on the Super Game Boy.
I second Metroid 2. Fantastic isolation game and pretty disturbing too.
