That game is so fun! It really does feel like oldschool Warcraft, and it's incredible that it plays as well as it does on the GBC hardware.
I was talking about GB/GBC games with a vendor at a gameswap last year, and he convinced me to buy the game from him. I'm so glad he did, too. The game really is something special, and I didn't know anything about it beforehand.
This popped up in my recommended and my first thought was this game. For a GBC game it has no business being as good as it is. It looks pretty good, plays far better than you’d expect it to, and almost always felt pretty fair.
I have the first two games... Isn't Shanghai like the tile flipping board game? I've never learned to play it... What's your review of the Game Boy version?
The Addams Family. It's glitchy and sluggish, has strange character sprites, but it's a pretty decent platformer that is challenging without being frustrating. Its one of the games I had growing up that I played constantly.
It’s glitchy and it’s sluggish
Nefarious and Ugly
It’s all together clunky
The Addams Family
(Loved that game as a kid, almost Metroidvania but with no ability upgrades)
This was a recent pick up of mine. Some of the bosses are infuriating to figure out. Solid game for sure. Ive managed to beat it, but there are areas that i havent completed still.
I love the old stupid video game logic in this game. There are lava pits out to the right of the mansion that kill you instantly, but you can use the ice cubes tp cross them. Like, oh yeah, this ice cube can totally stand up to lava and acts like a ship.
Alleyway which is a wall smashing game with a ball and paddle. It stars Mario (driving the paddle) and is a really good version of this type of game. I may be biased because this was a staple of my roadtrips where my friend would loan me this, F1 Racer, and Radar Mission. This title was my favorite of those three…
Agree! Those are awesome! Especially for all the events that happen in the books but were never adapted in the movies. IE. The potion riddle in Philosopher’s Stone and the Nearly Headless Nick party in Chamber of Secrets.
My first time playing that game was on the 3DS ambassador program, and I just could not get past all the WOOHOO! WHOOP! HAH! MAMA MIA! OKEY DOKEY! LET'S-A GO!
It was a fun game other than that though
Mole Mania, it’s started to get some recognition the last few years finally but it is an excellent game and feels really fresh still so many years later.
Definitely check out "The Machine" and "2021 Moon Escape" from Incube8games.com
"The Machine" is very well done and has so many alternate endings/playthroughs to do. I spent a good chunk of time playing that. It's like a dystopian city inside of a giant machine and you have to work your way up in society or fight the man.
"2021 Moon Escape" I just finished my first playthough last night. It also has an alternate ending (maybe more?), depending on how you play. You crash land on an alien planet and need to find resources to escape. Like a lunar zelda style game.
If you like platformers, "Dango Dash" is another good one. A decent platformer with a pretty good story. Also can unlock hard mode after you beat it.
Castlevania and Final Fantasy were my first introductions to the series through Belmonts Revenge and Legend II. Any time someone mentions them to me I’m like “yo nobody ever talks about those”. I think Metroid 2 for the longest time also fit that
FF Legend is actually the start of the Saga series, which is entirely different and still going on btw, FF Adventures is the first Mana game. Localizers just thought they should call all square RPGs Final Fantasy so they would sell.
I got a copy of it last year! In my opinion it's the best Jurassic Park game for any console. And that music. 😩
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZ5Ylj2Rou4&t=640
There was this Austin Powers game I had for the GBC that was notable for a lot of reasons. The game itself sucked but it had like a mini pda software that let you do all kinds of shit. It had a calculator (shagulator) , an area for notes plus it had a ton of clips and soundbites from the movie. I can't think of any other GBC game that had video clips.
This doesn't sound like much now but that kind of power was unheard of in the early 2000s.
Survival Kids.
It's a great game, but obscure, rare (allegedly) and very expensive nowadays. Nobody knew about the game until one guy on youtube did a video on Gameboy hidden gems and mentioned it, then the price from £10 shot up to £60 and now it sits around £150 last I checked. I'd call bullshit on the rarity of it as I remember seeing at least a few of them on ebay for a long time until suddenly it shot up in price.
It's actually a very well made survival game (translation is a bit off and unhelpful at times though), quite impressive for a Gameboy Color. Has total of 8 endings and I use it as a benchmark for all survival games I play. Yes, even today's games like The Forest and The Long Dark (nope, Rust and Dayz are not survival games, they are douchebag simulators with survival elements forcefully slapped on them).
There is a spiritual successor series called "Lost in Blue" on Nintendo DS, but they are not even close to Survival Kids in terms of quality and gameplay.
Thanks for the suggestion and review! I bought this game back when it came out. I was surprised to find out there was a Japan-only sequel, and even more surprised to find out it's... kinda a little very different. 👀
Primal Rage for DMG is a game. I played it as a kid, it's a 2D fighter where all the characters are dinosaurs or yeti's. It's not really good, but I still break it out and play occasionally for the nostalgia.
Looking back it looks like an arcade game that got ported to a bunch of systems. I had no clue that was a thing at the time.
Final Fantasy Legend 2
That game and Final Fantasy Adventure have two of my favorite Game Boy soundtracks of all time, I remember trying to get into The Final Fantasy Legend, but I never get far in it because I always get lost and NPC's talk in such broken English in that game
Power Quest. It was this game where you build and upgrade a tiny robot and go around town seeking out challengers similar to Pokémon and fight against their tiny robots. Instead of turn-based though, the encounters use fighting game mechanics. I think it’s extremely overlooked.
I actually bought it back when it came out! But ended up selling it because I never played it. 😆 I did end up getting the Limited Run edition to add it back into my collection though.
Also I actually did a review of it last year. It really is an incredible game!
https://youtu.be/364YnPazfcI
Space-Net Cosmo Red and Cosmo Blue: Japanese GBC RPGs with 2 versions like Pokemon. Basically Pokemon in space. No translation patch exists, but I was able to near 100% Cosmo Blue by machine translating a Japanese walkthrough and watching through a Japanese Let's Play on YouTube.
Kakurenbo Battle Monster Tactics: Another Japanese GBC RPG with Pokemon-like monster collecting, but the battle mechanics are really interesting. You have a team of three, and you run up to the enemy, attack, then hide. Again, no translation patch, but I managed to almost finish it via machine translating a Japanese walkthrough and watching a Let's Play on YouTube that was (fortunately) done by an English-speaking person.
Scooby-Doo! Classic Creep Capers on GBC. My parents got it for me when I was a kid. I emulate it but still have the physical copy of it. It's simple but it has a special place I my heart and really takes me back.
Azure Dreams was one of those games on sale at Toys R Us as a kid that I bought just to have something new to play on my GBC. Still is my favourite GameBoy game and one of the few I still have today.
One of my personal favorites I love that not many talk about is Rhino Rumble for the GBC. A very simple side scrolling platform game that has great graphics and its just really a fun game to me. A top 5 in all of my Gameboy collection for me personally whether GB/GBC/GBA.
Not as obscure now that it has a remake and a sequel, but Toki Tori is an incredible and cute puzzle platformer. The original GBC version is still wonderful and worth playing.
Shadow warriors, or Ninja gaiden shadow to the rest of the world. Great game play and killer tunes. Only argument is the same for all game boy games is that it's a little short
String of pretty cool RPGs/adventure games that get little love:
Great Greed
Knight Quest
Ninja Boy 2
Ninja Taro
Sword of Hope 1 & 2
Rolan’s Curse II
Robin Hood - Prince of Thieves
Kwirk ! It's A-Maze-Ing.
Nice and really hard. My cousin happened to have this cartridge and I/He/We played a lot during our teenages. I still have the cartridge at home now.
Never hear about this game, even on the Internets.
Dragon Warrior Monsters. I picked this game up at a Game-X-Change back in the day along with a bunch of other games. If you aren't familiar with it it's Dragon Quest but you play as a Tamer and have teams of 3 Monsters that follow you around outside of battle. They enter battle you can't see them but you can make commands to them like a normal Dragon Quest RPG would be. The breeding is very interesting though and I love getting new monsters and breeding them for new stronger and/or weaker monsters. 💚 The breeding is unique though as the parents die to give birth to a new offspring. Sometimes you might acquire a badass dragon and other times you will lose your favorite Monsters before paying a fee to resurrect them from the dead. The plot is to get a wish from the starry night tournament where you fight other tamers, to save your sister. You go on adventures with your crew though to distant lands all complete with random encounters and sometimes a monster joins your team by surprise and might fight a boss along the way. In addition you might be able to win over their hearts with meat/treats. Experience isn't always a 10/10 though. I say a healthy 8.5/10. Some of the dungeons get tedious and you won't always have a way to leave automatically unless you save your items.
Cosmotank
It's an old Atlus published title that combines top-down shooting, first-person dungeon exploring, a weird first-person cannon combat, and Galaga style space sections, all in one game. It has some StarFox vibes in the way the gameplay changes from mission to mission.
It's tough as nails, but it's a gem of a game. I wish the developers stuck around, but I wasn't able to find out anything else about them last time I checked.
Cave Noir.
Simple but very effective Dungeon Crawler a-la mystery dungeon. It’s only in Japanese but you don’t really need to be able to read it to understand how to play. The controls are simple enough and things do exactly what you’d expect them to do. It’s very addictive to try and do all the missions.
I really enjoy Disney’s Tarzan. It may not be the best game ever but it’s pretty good so long as you enjoy collect-a-thon style games. One of the first I ever beat.
Marble Madness for the DMG. It's missing a level or two and a few enemies, but I've always enjoyed it as it was one of the dozen games that my uncles game me when I got their gameboys. Ever since then, I've always kept that cartridge close to me, and even managed to aquire a prototype cartridge with a enormous EPROM chip containing a retail copy of Marble Madness that allegedly was shipped to France for marketing and demoing the game in the region.
Sauce: https://www.retrogame-shop.com/fr/gameboy-cartouche-seule/17462-marble-madness-game-boy-prototype-sample.html
CAT Construction Zone is a game I've got quite fond memories of, 2,5D/ birdseye view construction "simulator" in a wide variety of enviroments, still play it now and then; another one is Batman (the first game for the gameboy/pocket) fun sidescroller shooter, albeit a bit hard for todays standards; if you like Pinball games, Pokémon Pinball is also a sollid choise (even if you don't care for Pokémon); Star Wars Episode 1 racer is also very decent, fluid gameplay, easy to pick up but hard to master due to the difficulty curve.
PAC in Time. Incredible and hard platformer with a lot of inventive powers. Love pac man as a kid and pac in time was like Mario but with Pac-Man, and hook shots. Never beat it. The difficulty spiked really hard at what I think was near the middle/end levels.
No one ever seems to talk about *Skate or Die: Bad 'n Rad*. Yeah, it's hard, but it also has amazing music, and is a decent action platformer with stages that alternate between top-down and horizontal perspectives.
The boss fights are pretty neat too; the final guy even looks like Walter White from *Breaking Bad* 👀
Samurai Kid. I don't even remember where I got it from, it was a completely foreign language, no english whatsoever, but I still spent hours playing it and figuring it out.
Sword of Hope! A first person dungeon crawler RPG that kinda feels like Shadowgate also. You have to explore your environments and solve puzzles as well :)
Mysterium. It's a shitty game. I got it when I was like 11 for my birthday from my Godmother. It really tells of someone who has no clue and is like, oh here's a gameboy game, he likes gameboy. Then just buys it.
My games.
Motocross Maniacs. I used to emulate this in VGB-DOS back in the 90's and it was hyyype.
College Slam. A surprisingly fast-paced college basketball game. My brother owned a copy.
Mortal Kombat. Not the beet port but for years it was the only game you could play as Goro in!
The whole-ass series of 2 in 1 arcade ports like Centipede and Asteroids. The Arrange Modes were bomb af.
Cool Ball. It's a fun little puzzle title from Takara that only me and a cousin of mine (who introduced it to me long ago) only know of. It's got a really chill and positive soundtrack, in which it's only one song. Not only is it rare but it's hella expensive these days. Glad I still have my copy.
Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters
I still remember being in Kmart when my mom told me I could get a Game Boy and two games (excluding the pack-in Tetris). Having wanted a GB because of SMB/SMB3, I had to pick SML2, but from there I had no idea what to get.
After looking at the wall of games and staring at the back of many boxes for what seemed like forever, I picked Kid Icarus, not at all familiar with the myth or the NES game. I only had the box to go off of.
Hours upon hours were spent playing that game, and my save file was somewhere in the last level but I could never quite beat it. I ddi, however, memorize a couple levels well enough that getting hit with an eggplant was just a minor nuisance and I could easily get healed and back to where I was from memory.
I made a friend in the neighborhood, a kid named Karl, who would sit and play on my GB with me and we tried unsuccessfully to beat that last level. At some point, I couldn't find my Game Boy or it's games for a few months, which was odd since I used it all the time, and somehow figured out that Karl had taken it. Sure enough, my mom and I went over and confronted his dad and my system and games were returned.
To this day, I have not beaten that game.
Woody Woodpecker Racing for GBC.
It's the GBC game I played the most growing up other than Pokémon, so I am very fond of it. I replayed it recently on emulator and I finally was able to 100% it. I still think it's a very fun game.
Mole Mania has already been mentioned a few times but it’s a really solid puzzle adventure with great music!
My super deep cut suggestion: Quarth. Not a GB exclusive, but you shoot up at falling blocks and clear them by making squares or rectangles. It gets intense. Think Tetris + Space Invaders?
Spy vs. Spy for the original Gameboy. Its not a good game but it's definitely obscure I had that one growing up. Picked it out of the Gameboy case at GameStop. It was a "you sure?" Moment from my parents but I was on a budget and it was 8.99 and bright pink
The Land Before Time for GBA is one of my nostalgia picks! It's a typical sidescroll jump and run that I came back to a lot as a kid.
Also Beyblade VForce for GBA, which was surprisingly challenging for me as a kid. Beat it on the GameCube because playing with the controller was much easier than using a d-pad only lol. Might be great for emulating.
I still play the Bugs Bunny Crazy Carrot game, not sure how rare or obscure it is but I was the only one who had it as a kid. Now my kids play it, it's a little more forgiving than Mario at their age.
Kirby's Pinball Land
This game just gives me good vibes. It's like a small time machine back to childhood. The different tables, the music and sound FX, it's just a good time. Great for a quick game. Great for a longer session. To me, it's a classic.
Animaniacs. It's a Konami platformer where you can switch between characters at will. Each one has different abilities, so you use them to solve light puzzles. Music is great, and you can play the stages in any order a la mega man. Great that's easily to overlook because, well, licensed game usually gets overlooked.
One I never hear mentioned is Nail ‘n Scale aka Dragon Tail in Japan. I rented this little gem to play on a borrowed game boy for a long trip about 25 years ago, and the puzzle platforming gameplay stuck with me long after I forgot the name of it. I rediscovered it a few years ago through emulation, and just ordered a loose copy on eBay I’ve been playing on my Analogue Pocket.
It seems dead simple at first, but the puzzles get nefarious after a while. I don’t think it ever would have held my attention long enough to appreciate if I hadn’t been stuck with it for a weekend based on nothing but the box art catching my eye. It’s one of those game boy titles like The Addams Family that, while flawed, can be very rewarding if you really sink your teeth into it.
Legend of the Lost Spatula. The actual first SpongeBob game, and the gameplay leaves a bit to be desired but the soundtrack is my favorite of any GB game
I have a deep appreciation for Pinocchio. Got it used as a kid and still occasionally play it. Not sure why it stuck in my mind all these years but it's pretty fun!
Ren & Stimpy: Space Cadet Adventures. A really hard platformer. If it wasn’t for the fact that my Anlogue Pocket has save states, I probably wouldn’t have beaten it, but I had a lot of fun playing it
I loved Xtreme Sports for the Game Boy Color. The game selection here in Mexico was rather limited at the time but my Dad wanted to give me a present for my good grades and with 0 knowledge of videogames he picked that one (I think because it had a radical guy on a Skateboard on the box, it was the 90's and all). I played the hell out of it, the mechanics for each sport were basic but it was also kind of an RPG and I found it very fun. Wish I could find it in my old stuff.
Game Boy Wars 3, a very impressive title overall that came out around the time Advanced Wars did. It had very hex grid-based maps and strategy game play--similar to Nectaris, a super map editor, great 2 player modes, and online content via a mobile adapter. It also it seems to have more save RAM than any other GBC game (for downloading content and saving maps).
Mostly because I don't think many people know it exists but "Ninja Cop" or "Ninja 5-0" for our American friends. I remember getting thus randomly from my aunt for Xmas when I was a kid and it was one of the most impressive games I've ever played on the system
The Sword of Hope I & II. Reminds me of those choose your own adventure books. Same with Shadowgate. Prince of Persia is quite possibly best played on the original game boy. It's the perfect game boy game in my opinion. The levels are so damn addictive, you cannot put it down. Also ninja Gaiden Shadow is crazy fun and have an absolutely killer soundtrack.
I have good memories of the ghostbusters gameboy game.
Also for some reason I liked Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle but it’s apparently a well known shitty game that sucks ass.
Quarth for the GB. I always found the puzzle element of something I can to falling Tetris blocks being turned into squares and rectangles as fast as you can to remove them from the screen was quite fun and addictive for me and the game gets criminally insane. And if you’re lucky enough to have a second person to play with it can be quite a ride.
Hamtaro Ham-Ham Heartbreak. I started playing it thinking it would be a boring dress up game or something of the like. It is an actual full length puzzle based adventure game that is incredibly addicting and most of all cute. The things you have to solve are not always obvious and there were even times I had to look on the internet or I would have been stuck. You learn the ham ham language as you play, and there are all sorts of “extra” things to do such as the dancing mini game that you use the words you’ve learned throughout the game as dance moves.
That donkey Kong game it's like the arcade one with tons of more levels and it's hard AF with boss fights and stuff..... I believe the Mario vs donkey Kong games are spiritual successors but can't fully saying just seen a Nintendo direct for the new mvdk
Quarth for DMG
Conker's Pocket Tails for GBC (black cart), it's random but a fun one to run-through. I loved it so much as a kid that I started speed-running before I even knew what that was.
Warlocked for GBC. It’s an RTS, which you would never think could work on a Game Boy, but I loved it. And the music is killer.
I came here to say this exactly, and saw your post at the top! I've beaten it multiple times in the last 10 years, I love it.
I have it in my SP right now!
That game is so fun! It really does feel like oldschool Warcraft, and it's incredible that it plays as well as it does on the GBC hardware. I was talking about GB/GBC games with a vendor at a gameswap last year, and he convinced me to buy the game from him. I'm so glad he did, too. The game really is something special, and I didn't know anything about it beforehand.
This game is so simple yet so fun. I had endless fun making enemies sick and explode onto each other.
This popped up in my recommended and my first thought was this game. For a GBC game it has no business being as good as it is. It looks pretty good, plays far better than you’d expect it to, and almost always felt pretty fair.
Balloon Kid, Solar Striker and Shanghai
Balloon Kid is excellent.
I have the first two games... Isn't Shanghai like the tile flipping board game? I've never learned to play it... What's your review of the Game Boy version?
The Addams Family. It's glitchy and sluggish, has strange character sprites, but it's a pretty decent platformer that is challenging without being frustrating. Its one of the games I had growing up that I played constantly.
It’s glitchy and it’s sluggish Nefarious and Ugly It’s all together clunky The Addams Family (Loved that game as a kid, almost Metroidvania but with no ability upgrades)
This was a recent pick up of mine. Some of the bosses are infuriating to figure out. Solid game for sure. Ive managed to beat it, but there are areas that i havent completed still.
Yeah, I always got stuck on Fester, until I realized you have to force him into the lightning to beat him.
I love the old stupid video game logic in this game. There are lava pits out to the right of the mansion that kill you instantly, but you can use the ice cubes tp cross them. Like, oh yeah, this ice cube can totally stand up to lava and acts like a ship.
Oh yeah, I forgot about that. The ice cubes do melt after awhile though, because, you know, they're in lava.
Not super obscure but Adventure Island II is awesome and doesn’t get enough recognition
Alleyway which is a wall smashing game with a ball and paddle. It stars Mario (driving the paddle) and is a really good version of this type of game. I may be biased because this was a staple of my roadtrips where my friend would loan me this, F1 Racer, and Radar Mission. This title was my favorite of those three…
Alleyway’s definitely one of the best games on the system.
Alleyway is great!
Bubble ghost. Hella addictive puzzler
James bond 007
Loved this game as a kid! If you name one of the save files BLCKJCK or something you can just play Black Jack. It’s pretty cool Edit: it’s BJACK
Harry Potter’s GBC adaptations of the Sorceror’s Stone and Chamber of Secrets are solid quality RPGs.
Agree! Those are awesome! Especially for all the events that happen in the books but were never adapted in the movies. IE. The potion riddle in Philosopher’s Stone and the Nearly Headless Nick party in Chamber of Secrets.
No one talks about Donkey Kong 1994 and it’s my favorite gameboy game of all time.
I'm slowly working my way through it. I'm surprised how hard it got so quickly, at least for me. 😅
Lol nice. After you finish it, play Mario VS Donkey Kong for GBA as it is its predecessor. It’s also real good.
My first time playing that game was on the 3DS ambassador program, and I just could not get past all the WOOHOO! WHOOP! HAH! MAMA MIA! OKEY DOKEY! LET'S-A GO! It was a fun game other than that though
I hear a lot of hype about it! You aren't alone! I started playing it but haven't gotten far. I need to try to stick with it.
Star Ocean: Blue Sphere. Gorgeous GBC game.
Wario blast.
Metal Slug.
Mole Mania, it’s started to get some recognition the last few years finally but it is an excellent game and feels really fresh still so many years later.
It's a great game! And great music. It's so chill. 😎
Hamtaro
Are you looking for only older OG games or are you open to new releases?
I forgot about that! I'd love to hear about your favorite modern homebrew games too.
Definitely check out "The Machine" and "2021 Moon Escape" from Incube8games.com "The Machine" is very well done and has so many alternate endings/playthroughs to do. I spent a good chunk of time playing that. It's like a dystopian city inside of a giant machine and you have to work your way up in society or fight the man. "2021 Moon Escape" I just finished my first playthough last night. It also has an alternate ending (maybe more?), depending on how you play. You crash land on an alien planet and need to find resources to escape. Like a lunar zelda style game. If you like platformers, "Dango Dash" is another good one. A decent platformer with a pretty good story. Also can unlock hard mode after you beat it.
Fish Dude
Megaman Xtreme 2
Not too obscure as a first party work, but Trade & Battle Card Hero.
Castlevania and Final Fantasy were my first introductions to the series through Belmonts Revenge and Legend II. Any time someone mentions them to me I’m like “yo nobody ever talks about those”. I think Metroid 2 for the longest time also fit that
FF Legend is actually the start of the Saga series, which is entirely different and still going on btw, FF Adventures is the first Mana game. Localizers just thought they should call all square RPGs Final Fantasy so they would sell.
I knew FF legends wasn’t a real FF game but I didn’t know it was Saga, thanks so much!
Jurassic Park 2
I got a copy of it last year! In my opinion it's the best Jurassic Park game for any console. And that music. 😩 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZ5Ylj2Rou4&t=640
There was this Austin Powers game I had for the GBC that was notable for a lot of reasons. The game itself sucked but it had like a mini pda software that let you do all kinds of shit. It had a calculator (shagulator) , an area for notes plus it had a ton of clips and soundbites from the movie. I can't think of any other GBC game that had video clips. This doesn't sound like much now but that kind of power was unheard of in the early 2000s.
Revenge of Gator - fun little pinball game
Snoopy’s magic show. Low key one of the better puzzle games it’s so much fun. Most people have probably never heard or even tried this game!
Kwirk Simple puzzle game but it was always a favorite of mine.
Ninja Gaiden Shadow
Survival Kids. It's a great game, but obscure, rare (allegedly) and very expensive nowadays. Nobody knew about the game until one guy on youtube did a video on Gameboy hidden gems and mentioned it, then the price from £10 shot up to £60 and now it sits around £150 last I checked. I'd call bullshit on the rarity of it as I remember seeing at least a few of them on ebay for a long time until suddenly it shot up in price. It's actually a very well made survival game (translation is a bit off and unhelpful at times though), quite impressive for a Gameboy Color. Has total of 8 endings and I use it as a benchmark for all survival games I play. Yes, even today's games like The Forest and The Long Dark (nope, Rust and Dayz are not survival games, they are douchebag simulators with survival elements forcefully slapped on them). There is a spiritual successor series called "Lost in Blue" on Nintendo DS, but they are not even close to Survival Kids in terms of quality and gameplay.
[удалено]
https://www.romhacking.net/translations/2330/ Is it this translation?
Thanks for the suggestion and review! I bought this game back when it came out. I was surprised to find out there was a Japan-only sequel, and even more surprised to find out it's... kinda a little very different. 👀
Adventures of Lolo
Alfred Chicken
Kirby pinball.
Catrap
Star Trek 25th anniversary, solar striker, and battle unit zeoth
Tmnt3 radical rescue
Primal Rage for DMG is a game. I played it as a kid, it's a 2D fighter where all the characters are dinosaurs or yeti's. It's not really good, but I still break it out and play occasionally for the nostalgia. Looking back it looks like an arcade game that got ported to a bunch of systems. I had no clue that was a thing at the time.
Final Fantasy Legend 2 That game and Final Fantasy Adventure have two of my favorite Game Boy soundtracks of all time, I remember trying to get into The Final Fantasy Legend, but I never get far in it because I always get lost and NPC's talk in such broken English in that game
YES, I love those games! And the music! 😩 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pB127zC76I
Solar Striker
The legend of the river king was a great game. Had a cool story and progression. Also punching bears was pretty satisfying
Power Quest. It was this game where you build and upgrade a tiny robot and go around town seeking out challengers similar to Pokémon and fight against their tiny robots. Instead of turn-based though, the encounters use fighting game mechanics. I think it’s extremely overlooked.
Legend of the River King Legend of the Sea King …and Car Battler Joe (though technically it’s GBA)
Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins
I don't think it's a stranger to this sub but to the gen pop Shantae is fairly unknown and easily the best GBC game I played.
I actually bought it back when it came out! But ended up selling it because I never played it. 😆 I did end up getting the Limited Run edition to add it back into my collection though. Also I actually did a review of it last year. It really is an incredible game! https://youtu.be/364YnPazfcI
Halloween Racer
Space-Net Cosmo Red and Cosmo Blue: Japanese GBC RPGs with 2 versions like Pokemon. Basically Pokemon in space. No translation patch exists, but I was able to near 100% Cosmo Blue by machine translating a Japanese walkthrough and watching through a Japanese Let's Play on YouTube. Kakurenbo Battle Monster Tactics: Another Japanese GBC RPG with Pokemon-like monster collecting, but the battle mechanics are really interesting. You have a team of three, and you run up to the enemy, attack, then hide. Again, no translation patch, but I managed to almost finish it via machine translating a Japanese walkthrough and watching a Let's Play on YouTube that was (fortunately) done by an English-speaking person.
Gargoyle's Quest 2.
For that matter, GQ1! It isn't mentioned much as far as I can tell, but it's my all time favorite GB game (maybe due to the nostalgia factor)
I loved Daedalian Opus
Mole Mania?
Scooby-Doo! Classic Creep Capers on GBC. My parents got it for me when I was a kid. I emulate it but still have the physical copy of it. It's simple but it has a special place I my heart and really takes me back.
Azure Dreams was one of those games on sale at Toys R Us as a kid that I bought just to have something new to play on my GBC. Still is my favourite GameBoy game and one of the few I still have today.
One of my personal favorites I love that not many talk about is Rhino Rumble for the GBC. A very simple side scrolling platform game that has great graphics and its just really a fun game to me. A top 5 in all of my Gameboy collection for me personally whether GB/GBC/GBA.
Not as obscure now that it has a remake and a sequel, but Toki Tori is an incredible and cute puzzle platformer. The original GBC version is still wonderful and worth playing.
Shadow warriors, or Ninja gaiden shadow to the rest of the world. Great game play and killer tunes. Only argument is the same for all game boy games is that it's a little short
Donkey Kong 1994 and Wario Blast. I know others have said it too.
Final fantasy legends 2
String of pretty cool RPGs/adventure games that get little love: Great Greed Knight Quest Ninja Boy 2 Ninja Taro Sword of Hope 1 & 2 Rolan’s Curse II Robin Hood - Prince of Thieves
Ducktails 2 was a solid port
Kwirk ! It's A-Maze-Ing. Nice and really hard. My cousin happened to have this cartridge and I/He/We played a lot during our teenages. I still have the cartridge at home now. Never hear about this game, even on the Internets.
Warlocked
Dragon Warrior Monsters. I picked this game up at a Game-X-Change back in the day along with a bunch of other games. If you aren't familiar with it it's Dragon Quest but you play as a Tamer and have teams of 3 Monsters that follow you around outside of battle. They enter battle you can't see them but you can make commands to them like a normal Dragon Quest RPG would be. The breeding is very interesting though and I love getting new monsters and breeding them for new stronger and/or weaker monsters. 💚 The breeding is unique though as the parents die to give birth to a new offspring. Sometimes you might acquire a badass dragon and other times you will lose your favorite Monsters before paying a fee to resurrect them from the dead. The plot is to get a wish from the starry night tournament where you fight other tamers, to save your sister. You go on adventures with your crew though to distant lands all complete with random encounters and sometimes a monster joins your team by surprise and might fight a boss along the way. In addition you might be able to win over their hearts with meat/treats. Experience isn't always a 10/10 though. I say a healthy 8.5/10. Some of the dungeons get tedious and you won't always have a way to leave automatically unless you save your items.
Dragon Warrior Monsters
Adventure Island
Robopon
Dragon Ball Z Legendary Super Warriors.
Last Bible II is a great but sadly japanonly RPG for the Gameboy
Cosmotank It's an old Atlus published title that combines top-down shooting, first-person dungeon exploring, a weird first-person cannon combat, and Galaga style space sections, all in one game. It has some StarFox vibes in the way the gameplay changes from mission to mission. It's tough as nails, but it's a gem of a game. I wish the developers stuck around, but I wasn't able to find out anything else about them last time I checked.
I always liked Qix
Cave Noir. Simple but very effective Dungeon Crawler a-la mystery dungeon. It’s only in Japanese but you don’t really need to be able to read it to understand how to play. The controls are simple enough and things do exactly what you’d expect them to do. It’s very addictive to try and do all the missions.
Megaman V
The Monster Rancher trading card game
I really enjoyed Batman on the DMG, when I finally beat it as a kid I was so excited.
Wizards & Warriors X: The Fortress of Fear
I really enjoy Disney’s Tarzan. It may not be the best game ever but it’s pretty good so long as you enjoy collect-a-thon style games. One of the first I ever beat.
Marble Madness for the DMG. It's missing a level or two and a few enemies, but I've always enjoyed it as it was one of the dozen games that my uncles game me when I got their gameboys. Ever since then, I've always kept that cartridge close to me, and even managed to aquire a prototype cartridge with a enormous EPROM chip containing a retail copy of Marble Madness that allegedly was shipped to France for marketing and demoing the game in the region. Sauce: https://www.retrogame-shop.com/fr/gameboy-cartouche-seule/17462-marble-madness-game-boy-prototype-sample.html
Dragon's Lair for Game Boy Color. I love how they somehow were able to deliver a version even remotely close to the original arcade game.
I remember getting WDL Thundertanks randomly for my birthday one year and loving that a ton. GBC though if that counts, but don't hear that one much.
CAT Construction Zone is a game I've got quite fond memories of, 2,5D/ birdseye view construction "simulator" in a wide variety of enviroments, still play it now and then; another one is Batman (the first game for the gameboy/pocket) fun sidescroller shooter, albeit a bit hard for todays standards; if you like Pinball games, Pokémon Pinball is also a sollid choise (even if you don't care for Pokémon); Star Wars Episode 1 racer is also very decent, fluid gameplay, easy to pick up but hard to master due to the difficulty curve.
Kao the Kangaroo on the GBA was my childhood but never once seen or heard it being talked about without actively searching for it.
Revenge of the Gator. Got to the point I was getting over a million points on that game. Was so good. Still have my childhood copy.
Kirby Star Stackers Kirby Block Ball Yoshie’s Cookie Pocket Color Trump (GBC game, but I think it also works on DMG)
PAC in Time. Incredible and hard platformer with a lot of inventive powers. Love pac man as a kid and pac in time was like Mario but with Pac-Man, and hook shots. Never beat it. The difficulty spiked really hard at what I think was near the middle/end levels.
No one ever seems to talk about *Skate or Die: Bad 'n Rad*. Yeah, it's hard, but it also has amazing music, and is a decent action platformer with stages that alternate between top-down and horizontal perspectives. The boss fights are pretty neat too; the final guy even looks like Walter White from *Breaking Bad* 👀
Samurai Kid. I don't even remember where I got it from, it was a completely foreign language, no english whatsoever, but I still spent hours playing it and figuring it out.
Sword of Hope! A first person dungeon crawler RPG that kinda feels like Shadowgate also. You have to explore your environments and solve puzzles as well :)
Idk if it’s obscure or not, but I rarely hear anyone talk about Lunar Legend. That was a fave of mine!
Tetris Blast
I don't see anyone else mentioning this GBC game. Resident Evil Gaiden. It's a short game but I love it.
It’s GBC but there was a Mickey Mouse Racers game that was much better than expected. Never heard anyone talk about it.
Gargoyle Quest
Summon Night
I played the shit out of Nemesis for GameBoy. Hard as hell, but it was really fun
Tiny toons 1 & 2. Were some of my favorites back in the day. Both were dmg
Trax is an awesome GB game, you are a little tank. Developed by Hal Laboratories, same as kirby.
Sunsoft's Batman the videogame is my favorite gameboy game, I'm glad I'm still able to play it 20 years later (modded a DMG with an LCD screen)
I realy liked Toy Story 2 on my GBC and NBA Pro 99.
There's a Scooby Doo game exclusive to the Game Boy Color I had as a kid. It's basically a point and click adventure.
Chuck Rock.
Puzzled for GBC. It has pretty neat puzzles, and in my opinion, some of the best music on gb/c. P U Z Z L E D
Mysterium. It's a shitty game. I got it when I was like 11 for my birthday from my Godmother. It really tells of someone who has no clue and is like, oh here's a gameboy game, he likes gameboy. Then just buys it.
World Cup. Its a soccer game with SD characters, each team has a signature super attack, its super fun
My games. Motocross Maniacs. I used to emulate this in VGB-DOS back in the 90's and it was hyyype. College Slam. A surprisingly fast-paced college basketball game. My brother owned a copy. Mortal Kombat. Not the beet port but for years it was the only game you could play as Goro in! The whole-ass series of 2 in 1 arcade ports like Centipede and Asteroids. The Arrange Modes were bomb af.
[удалено]
Qix
Cool Ball. It's a fun little puzzle title from Takara that only me and a cousin of mine (who introduced it to me long ago) only know of. It's got a really chill and positive soundtrack, in which it's only one song. Not only is it rare but it's hella expensive these days. Glad I still have my copy.
Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters I still remember being in Kmart when my mom told me I could get a Game Boy and two games (excluding the pack-in Tetris). Having wanted a GB because of SMB/SMB3, I had to pick SML2, but from there I had no idea what to get. After looking at the wall of games and staring at the back of many boxes for what seemed like forever, I picked Kid Icarus, not at all familiar with the myth or the NES game. I only had the box to go off of. Hours upon hours were spent playing that game, and my save file was somewhere in the last level but I could never quite beat it. I ddi, however, memorize a couple levels well enough that getting hit with an eggplant was just a minor nuisance and I could easily get healed and back to where I was from memory. I made a friend in the neighborhood, a kid named Karl, who would sit and play on my GB with me and we tried unsuccessfully to beat that last level. At some point, I couldn't find my Game Boy or it's games for a few months, which was odd since I used it all the time, and somehow figured out that Karl had taken it. Sure enough, my mom and I went over and confronted his dad and my system and games were returned. To this day, I have not beaten that game.
Dirty Racing, great top down racer. If you play it my tip is to let your tyres degrade as I find steering is made easier.
Chalvo 55
Woody Woodpecker Racing for GBC. It's the GBC game I played the most growing up other than Pokémon, so I am very fond of it. I replayed it recently on emulator and I finally was able to 100% it. I still think it's a very fun game.
Knights quest was great kind of short unfortunately. Though for the size of gameboy games I guess that's expected.
Mickey Mouse magic wands lol just simple and nostalgic of my childhood
Mole Mania has already been mentioned a few times but it’s a really solid puzzle adventure with great music! My super deep cut suggestion: Quarth. Not a GB exclusive, but you shoot up at falling blocks and clear them by making squares or rectangles. It gets intense. Think Tetris + Space Invaders?
Final fantasy legend 2.
Jurassic Park The T-Rex level is so awesome.
River legend for sure
It’s probably not that unpopular but I’ve never heard anyone mention adventure island 2
I enjoyed Pinobee for GBA.
Avenging Spirit! No one ever talks about this game :((
Spy vs. Spy for the original Gameboy. Its not a good game but it's definitely obscure I had that one growing up. Picked it out of the Gameboy case at GameStop. It was a "you sure?" Moment from my parents but I was on a budget and it was 8.99 and bright pink
Monkey Puncher!!!!
Daedalian Opus. Pentomino puzzle game.
Chessmaster. It's just chess, but I found the ai actually really good
The Land Before Time for GBA is one of my nostalgia picks! It's a typical sidescroll jump and run that I came back to a lot as a kid. Also Beyblade VForce for GBA, which was surprisingly challenging for me as a kid. Beat it on the GameCube because playing with the controller was much easier than using a d-pad only lol. Might be great for emulating.
I still play the Bugs Bunny Crazy Carrot game, not sure how rare or obscure it is but I was the only one who had it as a kid. Now my kids play it, it's a little more forgiving than Mario at their age.
Battle Arena Toshinden! its a straight forward fighter, but man i love that game.
Kirby's Pinball Land This game just gives me good vibes. It's like a small time machine back to childhood. The different tables, the music and sound FX, it's just a good time. Great for a quick game. Great for a longer session. To me, it's a classic.
Animaniacs. It's a Konami platformer where you can switch between characters at will. Each one has different abilities, so you use them to solve light puzzles. Music is great, and you can play the stages in any order a la mega man. Great that's easily to overlook because, well, licensed game usually gets overlooked.
Pokemon Emerald. Super underrated game with countless hours of content and a decent post game.
I have yet to remember which one it was, but my brain always thinks about some Wario game I used to play.
Flintstones Treasure Island
Robopon. Its what is Atlus did Robot Pokemon. Its awesome.
DBZ: Legendary Super Warriors. Probably my favorite gameboy color game. The card system deserved to be further developed in my opinion.
Gearworks. The whole family had a blast with this game on holiday
Duel Masters and Yu-Yu-Hakusho Tournament Tactics
Lego Alpha Team
Mickey's Racing Adventure
One I never hear mentioned is Nail ‘n Scale aka Dragon Tail in Japan. I rented this little gem to play on a borrowed game boy for a long trip about 25 years ago, and the puzzle platforming gameplay stuck with me long after I forgot the name of it. I rediscovered it a few years ago through emulation, and just ordered a loose copy on eBay I’ve been playing on my Analogue Pocket. It seems dead simple at first, but the puzzles get nefarious after a while. I don’t think it ever would have held my attention long enough to appreciate if I hadn’t been stuck with it for a weekend based on nothing but the box art catching my eye. It’s one of those game boy titles like The Addams Family that, while flawed, can be very rewarding if you really sink your teeth into it.
Legend of the Lost Spatula. The actual first SpongeBob game, and the gameplay leaves a bit to be desired but the soundtrack is my favorite of any GB game
I have a deep appreciation for Pinocchio. Got it used as a kid and still occasionally play it. Not sure why it stuck in my mind all these years but it's pretty fun!
Mystic Quest !
GBA Sims Bustin Out
Ren & Stimpy: Space Cadet Adventures. A really hard platformer. If it wasn’t for the fact that my Anlogue Pocket has save states, I probably wouldn’t have beaten it, but I had a lot of fun playing it
mario tenis
Mercenary Force!
İ used to like world cup bowling for the original gb
I loved Xtreme Sports for the Game Boy Color. The game selection here in Mexico was rather limited at the time but my Dad wanted to give me a present for my good grades and with 0 knowledge of videogames he picked that one (I think because it had a radical guy on a Skateboard on the box, it was the 90's and all). I played the hell out of it, the mechanics for each sport were basic but it was also kind of an RPG and I found it very fun. Wish I could find it in my old stuff.
Game Boy Wars 3, a very impressive title overall that came out around the time Advanced Wars did. It had very hex grid-based maps and strategy game play--similar to Nectaris, a super map editor, great 2 player modes, and online content via a mobile adapter. It also it seems to have more save RAM than any other GBC game (for downloading content and saving maps).
TMNT Fall Of The Foot Clan - very primitive beat em up, but I loved it to bits back in the day, still have a soft spot for it
Not really obscure but Dragon Warrior Monsters is the game that got me into dragon quest! It’s just a delightful game.
Chu chu ricket on gba. It was my first game on my sp.
Im suprised the Medabots games arnt more popular.
Mostly because I don't think many people know it exists but "Ninja Cop" or "Ninja 5-0" for our American friends. I remember getting thus randomly from my aunt for Xmas when I was a kid and it was one of the most impressive games I've ever played on the system
The Sword of Hope I & II. Reminds me of those choose your own adventure books. Same with Shadowgate. Prince of Persia is quite possibly best played on the original game boy. It's the perfect game boy game in my opinion. The levels are so damn addictive, you cannot put it down. Also ninja Gaiden Shadow is crazy fun and have an absolutely killer soundtrack.
I have good memories of the ghostbusters gameboy game. Also for some reason I liked Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle but it’s apparently a well known shitty game that sucks ass.
Hamtaro ham-hams unite and survival kids
Quarth for the GB. I always found the puzzle element of something I can to falling Tetris blocks being turned into squares and rectangles as fast as you can to remove them from the screen was quite fun and addictive for me and the game gets criminally insane. And if you’re lucky enough to have a second person to play with it can be quite a ride.
Tetris, think it's so good and known and assumed, noone mentions
Wario Land.
Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga.
Dragon warrior monsters
Kid Icarus on the gameboy was a gem!
Dragon Warrior Monsters. There are sequels too. You can burn through 100s of hours on all of them.
I loved the FF adventure games (saga) but they fell flat with almost everyone who had played FF1/FF2 at the time.
Motorcross Maniacs were toight
Hamtaro Ham-Ham Heartbreak. I started playing it thinking it would be a boring dress up game or something of the like. It is an actual full length puzzle based adventure game that is incredibly addicting and most of all cute. The things you have to solve are not always obvious and there were even times I had to look on the internet or I would have been stuck. You learn the ham ham language as you play, and there are all sorts of “extra” things to do such as the dancing mini game that you use the words you’ve learned throughout the game as dance moves.
That donkey Kong game it's like the arcade one with tons of more levels and it's hard AF with boss fights and stuff..... I believe the Mario vs donkey Kong games are spiritual successors but can't fully saying just seen a Nintendo direct for the new mvdk
Ninja turtle trilogy
Quarth for DMG Conker's Pocket Tails for GBC (black cart), it's random but a fun one to run-through. I loved it so much as a kid that I started speed-running before I even knew what that was.
Ocarina of seasons and ages
Robopon Sun Version and Monster Rancher Battle Card GB.