{"id":124097,"date":"2022-04-21T20:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-04-21T20:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/#article-87056"},"modified":"2022-04-21T20:00:00","modified_gmt":"2022-04-21T20:00:00","slug":"guide-best-game-boy-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2022\/04\/21\/guide-best-game-boy-games\/","title":{"rendered":"Guide: Best Game Boy Games"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Image: Nintendo Life \/ Damien McFerran<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s the Game Boy\u2019s 33rd birthday, so what better time to reacquaint yourself with its very best games? Enjoy!<\/em><\/p>\n

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Friday 21st April 1989 \u2014 the day that the Game Boy launched in Japan. 33 years ago the video gaming landscape would be forever changed as Nintendo opened up the new frontier of portable<\/em> gaming to the masses. The company\u2019s Game & Watch line let you take limited gaming experiences on-the-go, but the Game Boy was a different beast entirely.<\/p>\n

The 8-bit machine with the 160×144 pixel LCD screen might have been modest in the specs department, but it was just<\/em> powerful enough to offer deep gaming experiences, with the best examples rivalling those on home consoles. More importantly, its limitations proved to be strengths in the long run; that blurry monochrome screen used significantly less power than a backlit colour equivalent, and therefore gave the portable decent battery life \u2013 an essential factor to consider when your handheld relies on AA batteries to function away from a wall socket.<\/p>\n

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Gunpei Yokoi\u2019s design philosophy \u2013 using proven, inexpensive components in new and interesting ways \u2013 continued through Nintendo’s handheld line<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Primarily the work of Satoru Okada and Gunpei Yokoi, the console was designed to a specific price point and goal; to be a practical portable<\/em> device. Rival companies got carried away with the technical possibilities and contemporary handheld consoles with far<\/em> superior specs fell by the wayside as Game Boy marched on. Gunpei Yokoi\u2019s design philosophy \u2013 using proven, inexpensive components in new and interesting ways \u2013 continued through Nintendo’s handheld line and carried over to its home consoles with Wii. The Switch itself, and novel experiments such as Labo VR<\/a><\/strong>, show that this approach continues to keep the Kyoto company in rude health.<\/p>\n

Of course, it\u2019s software which makes or breaks any console and the humble Game Boy could never have endured so long without its catalogue of incredible games. Obviously, it had the archetypal killer app in Tetris<\/a><\/strong>, and many still insist it\u2019s the finest version of Alexey Pajitnov’s puzzler. The story of its convoluted journey to the console<\/a> is well worth investigating \u2013 a thrilling combination of guile, subterfuge and blind luck that went on to shape Nintendo and the video game industry at large.<\/p>\n

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Image: Nintendo Life \/ Damien McFerran<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Any video game company would be overjoyed to have a game with half<\/em> the appeal of Tetris on its books, but after seven years \u2013 when you\u2019d expect the console to be winding down \u2013 the Game Boy got the biggest second wind in video game history with the Japanese release of Pok\u00e9mon Red & Green<\/a><\/strong> in 1996. A smaller, lighter revision of the hardware, the Game Boy Pocket, also arrived that year, and the console\u2019s true successor \u2013 the Game Boy Color \u2013 would launch worldwide two years later alongside the western release of Pok\u00e9mon. Although this marked a transition away from the OG hardware, the Game Boy line continued to enjoy almost 100% backwards compatibility up until the Micro variant of the Game Boy Advance in 2005.<\/p>\n

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While Tetris and Pok\u00e9mon were the system sellers, there\u2019s a vast<\/em> library of games released for the system<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

While Tetris and Pok\u00e9mon were the system sellers, there\u2019s a vast<\/em> library of games released for the system. The following list showcases the very best titles. You\u2019re sure to find lots of \u2018lands\u2019 here \u2014 someone at Nintendo HQ decreed that the diminutive handheld simply couldn\u2019t contain massive \u2018worlds\u2019, so Super Mario Land<\/a><\/strong> ushered in an era of \u2018Land\u2019 games from the likes of Kirby, Donkey Kong and Wario.<\/p>\n

As with our lists of the 50 best Switch games<\/a> and other Nintendo console Top 50 lists<\/a>, the ranking here is governed by the game\u2019s user rating on this very site. Just as before, logged in users can interact and rate the titles directly on these pages by hovering over the rating, or alternatively from each game’s individual page. To be clear, the games listed here are for the original<\/em> Game Boy only \u2014 there are no backwards compatible ‘black cart’ Game Boy Color games included (unless they happened to also receive a separate release for the original). If it says ‘Game Boy Color’ on the box, you won’t find it below!<\/p>\n

Can’t see your favourite on the list? Use the handy search bar below to find Game Boy games and input your own ratings. Already rated your collection? Without further ado, let\u2019s dive in\u2026<\/p>\n