My Top 25 Game Boy Games

I've been getting very much back into my games over the last year or so (hooray, hyperfixation!). Not just playing, but reading about, learning about, and, of course, reminiscing about. I've recently been ensconced in Shaun Musgrave's Patreon, and particularly enjoyed his lists of favourite games for various consoles. So I thought to myself, why not have a crack at that myself?

I'm going to kick this off with my favourite system of all time, the Game Boy, Nintendo's classic handheld. The Game Boy was the first proper console we owned as a family, and my brother, sister and I spent way to much time staring at that tiny screen. It was heavy; it was simple; it only displayed four colours and all of them were green. Yet it was an addictive machine, thanks to some absolutely top notch games, as well as the capacity to take it anywhere and play it for hours thanks to its remarkable battery life.

I'm planning to make a list of my top 25 games for each console that I choose to cover, although if I stray onto those I've spent less time with then I may drop in the occasional top ten. Remember, the following lists merely my own personal favourites, which is not the same thing as a list of the best games on the console. Nostalgia has a big part to play in this ranking, but I've replayed all these games recently and they all stand up today. Indeed, some of these I only first played very recently, thanks to emulators. Note that the year given is the original release date, in whichever territory it first came out (so usually Japan). Also, I'm only covering plain old Game Boy releases here, not Game Boy Color games. That's for another day (although some games had versions released for both.)

I'll also note the current official availability of these games on modern platforms. Of course, if you want to play them unofficially, there are plenty of not-quite-legal means to do so.

Oh, and if you enjoy game reviews and rankings, do check out Shaun's Patreon.

25) Knight Quest (1991)

An RPG title from Taito, Knight Quest was largely overlooked back in the day. It's a pretty simplistic take on the genre, with more straightforward mechanics to its turn-based battles and is overall a shorter game than most RPGs. That's no bad thing, though; in fact, I'd say this is an ideal game for those who aren't super into RPGs and it easier to dip into on the go. As young knight wannabe Will, you get to do the usual RPG things like use magic, speak to cryptic innkeepers and build up experience points, but without havaing to devote entire weekends to playing. Plus it features some absolutely hilarious monsters within its bestiary.

Availability: Unfortunately, you're pretty stuffed if you want to access this one legally. There are no modern ports that I'm aware of, and the original cartridge is one of the rarest and most expensive on the collectors' market, with in-box copies going for several hundred quid.

24) Trip World (1992)

Something of a follow-up to their NES title Mr. Gimmick, Trip World is a cutesy platformer from Sunsoft in which you control a small, rabbit-like creature called Yakopoo as he tries to bring peace back to his strange world. It's a far easier game than Gimmick, although the bosses can be fairly tricky, and has only five stages. While Yakopoo's quirk of being able to transform is fun, it doesn't add that much to the gamelay. Yet there's something about this sweet little game that I find infectiously fun.

Availability: This was never released in North America back in the day and had a very limited run in Europe, and the original cart is now one of the rarest and priciest for the system. Limited Run Games released Trip World Dx, a full colour remake, for download to the Switch, PS4 and PS5 a few years ago. They did a short run of physical copies for the Switch, PS5 and PC as well, and even Game Boy and Game Boy Color carts, but they've all sold out, so you're in the same boat with them as with the originals.

23) Quarth (1990)

An oddity from Konami, Quarth is a cross between a Tetris-style puzzler and a Space Invaders-style vertical shooter. You pick a groovy little spaceship from the line-up and shoot small blocks upwards towards larger, irregular falling blocks, with the aim of making them into rectangles, at which point they disappear. It's a little slow but gets addictive quickly, and the endless nature of it makes it hard to put down. It first appeared in arcades, under the name Block Hole in some areas, but it truly seems made for handheld gaming.

Availability: The last official release of the Game Boy version was through the Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console, now discontinued. However, the original arcade version from the previous year is available as part of Hamster's Arcade Archives line on the Switch and PS4.

22) Mega Man V (1994)

Mega Man V (or Rockman World 5 in Japan) was the last of the Mega Man games on the Game Boy, and the only one that's an actual original game, rather than smushing two of the NES games together. It's also easily the most playable. Still ruddy difficult – it is Mega Man, after all – but less punishing than most of the games, it adds some fun tweaks, such as his Mega Arm detaching and flying at enemies for a harder attack. This game also introduces Tango, Rock's robo-cat sidekick/weapon. Plus, the all-new bosses are named for the planets of the solar system, which makes a change from names like “Guts Man.”

Availability: It's playable on the Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 through the Nintendo Classics/Switch Online service.

21) Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge (1991)

I really want to love the NES Castlevania games, but I find the controls so stiff and awkward that they make a difficult game frustrating. That doesn't seem to be a problem with the Game Boy games, though. Castlevania: The Adventure and Castlevania Legends are rather meh, but the middle entry is a cracking title. There are four themed castles to play in any order, armed with numerous classic Castlevania sub-weapons including holy water and crucifixes (or axes in the first North American release). Challenging but not cruel, this is a very fun platform adventure with graphics that perfeclty balance detail and clarity. More games should feature big, rolling eyeballs as well.

Availability: Belmont's Revenge is included in the Castlevania Anniversary Collection for Switch, PS4/5, Xbox One and PC vis Steam.

20) Nemesis (1990)

Konami really had a handle on adapting their games for the Game Boy. This is a distinct version of Gradius, with clear, effective monochrome graphics and the enjoyable addition of some bonus stages. Like with Belmont's Revenge, you can pick which level you want to play. That's a mercy when it comes to a Gradius game, but even without that, it's one of the more forgiving games in the series. If you're really struggling, the Konami code gives you a one-time boost by unlocking all power-ups.

Availability: No official availability that I'm aware of. Other Gradius games have been released through Switch Online, so I imagine it's only a matter of time before this one gets its turn.

19) Kirby's Block Ball (1995)

Nintendo could have just slapped some Kirby stuff onto another standard Breakout clone. Instead, they revamped it with power-ups, warp stars, bonus games and boss fights. The result is the best blockbreaker game since Arkanoid. Nintendo and Tose made this one, with Hal Lab going in and telling Nintendo how to rework it so that it felt like a real Kirby game, including a greater ease of movement for Kirby as he bounces around the screen. Great stuff.

Availability: The last time this was released was on the 3DS Virtual Console in 2011, and that service was discontinued a couple of years ago. Surprisingly, it's still not been made available through the Switch Online service, but I'd be surprised if it won't be eventually.

18) The Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle (1990)

The origins of this game and the many sequels that developed from it are a baffling web of reskins and expiring cartoon character rights, but whichever version you played, Crazy Castle is a lot of fun. A puzzle-platformer with the emphasis on puzzle, Crazy Castle sees Bugs having to negotiate each level to collect all the carrots, while avoiding ne'er-do-wells like Sylvester the Cat, Yosemite Sam and Daffy Duck. Bugs can't even jump, but he can push boxes and pick up boxing gloves to take out his enemies. Simplistic to begin with, it becomes more challenging and remarkably compelling as you go on through no fewer than eighty levels.

Availability: None officially, as far as I can see, short of tracking down the original cart and playing it on a Game Boy. That said, it's not a particularly difficult one to find fairly cheaply.

17) Ghostbusters II (1990)

As anyone who follows me will know, I love me some Ghostbusters. There's been a bunch of Ghostbusters games over the years; some great, some very much not. This game is the Game Boy equivalent of HAL Lab's NES title New Ghostbusters II, although neither is a port of the other. I prefer this to the NES one. You pick two of the 'busters to go into each stage; one to stun ghosts with the proton beam, and the other to trap the spooks. It's a bit fiddly; you control one character, with the other following along, and trying to line the second one up, even to get through doors, can be a pain. This is still a lot of fun though, and the little chibi 'busters are incredibly cute. The opening animation that (very briefly) recaps the movie is wonderful.

Availability: None officially, but it's not tricky to find unofficially. The original Game Boy cart tends to be fairly expensive, from what I've seen.

16) Avenging Spirit (1991)

More spooky fun with Avenging Spirit, a wonderfully inventive platformer in which you play a ghost who can possess different characters and use their weapons and abilities. If your current body is killed, your spirit has a short time to make it another one before his energy runs out. Your character has been murdered by gangsters and your girlfriend kidnapped, to ransom for her father's researches in ghost energy. There absolutely should have been a film made of this. Avenging Spirit is based on an arcade game also know as Phantasm, and while that is also excellent the cute art style and straightforward but inventive platforming of the Game Boy version is even better.

Availability: The Game Boy Avenging Spirit was re-released for the 3DS Virtual Console, but if you've missed that the only official option is getting your hands on a cartridge. Unfortunately, the original cart is one of the rarest and most expensive Game Boy collectables out there. Limited Run Games republished it for the Game Boy in 2022, rather charmingly in glow-in-the-dark plastic, but these are now sold out so you're looking at the open market either way. The arcade version, however, is widely available now, downloadable for Switch and Switch 2, PS4 and PS5, XBox One and XBox Series X/S, as well as part of the Jaleco Arcade 1 cartridge for Blaze Evercade.

15) Mario & Yoshi (1991)

No one seems to like this game anymore, but it was pretty popular when it came out. It was also called Yoshi's Egg in Japan and just Yoshi in North America. It's a straightforward block-dropper puzzler, with Mario monsters dropping from the ceiling onto plates held by Mario; you can spin round and move sideways to shuffle the plates. Match two monsters, and they disappear and give you points; mismatched monsters stack up until they reach the ceiling and end the game. The big points come from the eggs; sandwich a bunch of monsters between two eggshells and it'll hatch into various sizes of Yoshi. If you pile them right up there are big points (and big Yoshis) on offer, but the risk of a game over is greater the higher you go. It's very cute and just tricky and addictive enough to keep you playing longer than you meant to.

Availability: This has recently been released on Nintendo Classics//Switch Online. The original cart isn't pretty easy to find on the second-hand market.

14) TMNT: Fall of the Foot Clan (1990)

There have been a lot of Turtles games, mostly by Konami, and they include some absolutely legendary titles. Fall of the Foot Clan was the first Turtles game for the Game Boy, a pretty basic platformer with a bit of beat-'em-up involved. There are only five, not especially lengthy, levels, and you can start on whichever stage you like, although once you've completed them you can try them again on several difficulty settings. Sometimes, though, simple's what you need, and this is straightforwardly fun. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turles – or Hero Turtles, in the UK – was the coolest cartoon in the late 80s and early 90s, and the game captures the simple, bowldlerised fun of it. There are four Turtles so you get four lives, but when your health runs out your character is captured, not killed, and even the enemies disappear in a child-friendly puff of smoke. It feels like an episode of the cartoon, and lasts about as long as well.

Availability: Fall of the Foot Clan is part of The Cowabunga Collection, along with twelve more Konami Turtles games. The Collection is available on Switch; PS4 and PS5; Xbox One, X and S; and Steam.

13) Kirby's Dream Land (1992)

Kirby's first game isn't his greatest. It's short, quite simplistic and lacks a lot of the gameplay ideas we now associate with the character. On the other hand, it's an uncomplicatedly fun platformer that showed up with an entirely new kind of playable character. Kirby might not have his copy ability yet, but he still swallows and spits out his enemies and can inflate himself to fly, which immediately made this game stand out when it first arrived. It's also gets the cute/weird balance exactly right. Just a lovely time. Fun fact: the game was almost released under the name Twinkle Popo. They probably made the right choice there.

Availability: It's on the Nintendo Classics/Switch Online service.

12) Wario Land II (1998)

A lot of people prefer Wario Land II to the original, and I get it. It's more inventive, moving further away from the Super Mario template and becoming more its own thing. A real puzzle-platformer, it switched things up by doing away with health points and lives, making Wario invulnerable and instead having the calamities that befall him grant strange powers. Working out exactly which enemy you need to get hit by and when so that you can make it to the next stage is often a real challenge. Why Nintendo insisted on bowldlerising it by changing drunk Wario to “crazy Wario,” even though he drinks beer to get that way, is a bit baffling.

Availability: The Game Boy Color version was released on the 3DS Virtual Console service. No sign of its being released through Switch Online, and the original cart, when it turns up, tends to be on the expensive side. You're probably resorting to extralegal methods to play this one. Wario would surely approve.

11) Donkey Kong Land III (1997)

All three Donkey Kong Land games are on this list, but the third and final one falls outside the top ten. Why, though? Rather like its parent game, Donkey Kong Country 3, Land III doesn't quite have the same punch for me as its two predecessors. It's still a great reworking of Country 3, splitting the difference between the first Land's completely new game world and the second's slavish copying of its parent, and as a Rare Donkey Kong platformer is never anything less than great fun. I just don't quite like it as much as the others.

Availability: All three DKL games were released last year on the Nintendo Classics/Switch Online service.

10) Kirby's Dream Land 2 (1995)

After having played through Kirby's Dream Land a dozen times, we were on holiday abroad when we happened upon the sequel, which we didn't even know existed. What a joyous thing, stumbling upon a game you didn't know was even out there but that you definitely wanted. Actually the third in the series after Kirby's Adventure on the NES, Dream Land 2 carries over Kirby's ability to take on his enemies' powers, and introduces Rick the Hamster, Kine the Fish and Coo the Owl – three animal friends who can carry him through different environments. Far larger and even more inventive than the first game.

Availability: Nintendo Classics/Switch Online.

9) Donkey Kong Land 2 (1996)

The middle of the Donkey Kong Land trilogy is an impressive bit of work, with Rare wringing the Game Boy's system for all its worth to create some of the best graphics and music on the console. The balance between showy rendered graphics and visual clarity is far better than in its predecessor. However, it's much more derivative of its parent game, Donkey Kong Country 2; not a port, but a sort of remix game with its own versions of the levels and settings already played. While this unoriginality knocks it down the list, it also means it's almost as entertaining and playable as DKC2, which is to say, very playable indeed.

Availability: Nintendo Classics/Switch Online.

8) Donkey Kong (1994)

The big twist – that this was billed as a remake of the original Donkey Kong, only to carry on after the fourth level for around a hundred brand new ones – passed me by when I first played this as a kid. I also didn't quite gel with the game first time round. God knows why – Donkey Kong '94 (as we call it for clarity's sake) is an exceptional puzzle platformer, calling on not only the original game but its sequel Donkey Kong Jr. and even Super Mario Bros. 2. Mario packs a whole bunch of moves to help him through increasingly tricky, cleverly constructed stages. And I love DK's little bum wiggle when he escapes.

Availability: Nintendo Classics/Switch Online.

7) Super Mario Land (1989)

A launch title for the Game Boy and the first step in bringing Mario's platforming success to the smallest screen, Super Mario Land is a strange and flawed work. With a different team working on it than the Super Mario Bros. games, it's very idiosyncratic, with limited graphics, strange music and effects, a wholly new setting and some odd physics. I didn't enjoy SML1 that much as a kid, being spoilt by showier games. Over the years, though, I've come to love this odd little game, which is a great way to kill a little time with some straightforwardly entertaining action. Plus, it has two Gradius-esque shoot-'em-up stages, and no other Mario game can boast that.

Availability: Nintendo Classics/Switch Online.

6) Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (1992)

This is, objectively, a better game than the first Super Mario Land, and it's one I come back to time and time again. It's a pretty easy game, which is no bad thing if you're actually pretty rubbish at games like me, although the Space Zone and the last boss level do up the difficulty pretty sharply. But there are plenty of inventive levels spread across the six characterful zones, and the game feels somehow colourful even played in monochrome. Bunny Mario is the one power-up that should have returned in a home console game. Plus, this is the game that gave us Wario, for which we should all be grateful.

Availability: Nintendo Classics/Switch Online.

5) Tetris Attack (1995)

It's not Tetris and it doesn't attack you, but this is a classic tile-matching game. It's a reskin of the Japanese puzzler Paneru de Pon with Yoshi's Island elements (indeed, the Japanese re-release was called Yoshi's Panepon). Panels bearing different shapes rise from the bottom of the screen, and you have to shuffle them about to match three or more. There's a real satisfaction in pulling off a complicated combo as the panels rise faster and faster, whether it's in endless, story or versus mode. The puzzle mode is particularly challenging; it begins with very simple set-ups, but rapidly becomes maddeningly tough to see how to clear the blocks in a set umber of moves. There was a SNES version too, but this is one of those games made for the Game Boy.

Availability: Nothing legally for this version, short of tracking down the original cart. The closest is the Super Famicom Panel de Pon through Switch Online.

4) Donkey Kong Land (1995)

Squeezing the assets of Donkey Kong Country onto the Game Boy was never going to be easy, but Rare pulled it off, albeit with some fudging. It's true that the rendered graphics don't work so well on the small screen, with the details becoming unclear and suffering dreadful blurring at times. It was always best to play this on the SNES via the Super Game Boy attachment, but nowadays you can tweak the display on whatever emulator you're using. The gameplay makes up for it, though: a tremendously enjoyable platformer that builds on DKC with an array of creative new levels from the jungle to underwater ruins and a bizarre world in the clouds.

Availability: Nintendo Classics/Switch Online.

3) Tetris (1989)

Is there a puzzle game better than this? The archetypal block game, Tetris wasn't a launch title for the Game Boy, but in many ways it was the game that launched it to success. There have been numerous updates over the years, but none are as satisfying and compulsive as the original. It can be incredibly harsh sometimes, leaving you begging for a straight line or a square when you're getting nothing but those fiddly little zig-zags, but that only makes it better when you finally wipe out a bunch of lines. Plus, it has some of the greatest music of any game ever.

Availability: Naturally, it's on the Nintendo Classics/Switch Online service, as is the Game Boy Color version Tetris DX, if you fancy it.

2) The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (1993)

Link's Awakening is the best Zelda game. No, I haven't played all of them, but I feel confident saying this. A story deep enough to draw you in for hours yet light enough to amuse in short bursts, with a great sense of humour and some surprisingly creepy moments. The graphics are simple and cute but detailed enough to make the dream world of Koholint Island feel like a real place to explore. The game play is straightforward, easy to master yet keeps presenting new skills to learn. A tragic fairytale, Link's Awakening just feels different to the games that came before it. The developers were clearly having fun; they knew that stuck players would eventually take their frustrations out on the chickens, and punished them for it...

Availability: You can't get the original version on the Switch, but the full colour DX version for the Game Boy Color is available through the Nintendo Classics service. There's also a complete remake for the Switch itself with new graphics and tweaked gameplay. I still like the original version best, though, and luckily it's included on the Zelda Game & Watch released from 2021 (along with The Legend of Zelda and Zelda II), which you can still get for not too much money.

1) Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 (1994)

Wario Land was one of the first games I played, and that alone pushes it up the list, but even if I had first played it yesterday, I'd still have loved it. I didn't appreciate at the time how it sent up the standard Mario gameplay, making this big, beefy villain the hero and having him smash his way through the levels looking for treasure. I just loved the power-ups, the bullish moves, the weird enemies, the dynamic map where levels would suddenly change with the tide, and the inventive courses. I fell in love with platforming when I played Wario Land and it remains a go-to game to this day.

Availability: Like Wario Land II, this hasn't had an official release since the 3DS Virtual Console, meaning you're either seeking out an expensive original cart and system to play this or taking the Brown Sugar Gang's approach.