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?

  • dark_stang@beehaw.org
    8·
    2 years ago

    The Megaman Battle Network series on GBA is awesome. Replayed a few of them last year and they are still great.

      • dark_stang@beehaw.org
        1·
        2 years ago

        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.

  • frozen@lemmy.frozeninferno.xyz
    7·
    2 years ago

    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).

    • vinzen@beehaw.org
      2·
      2 years ago

      Golden Sun is my all-time favorite! I wish I could relive the thill I felt for the first and second games

      • TheCulturedOtaku@beehaw.org
        2·
        2 years ago

        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

  • MeowKittyWow@beehaw.org
    7·
    2 years ago

    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 :)

  • BasidialTiger@beehaw.org
    5·
    2 years ago

    The non-pokemon 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.

  • AndrasKrigare@beehaw.org
    3·
    2 years ago

    Dragon Warrior Monsters for the Gameboy Color was fantastic. It was somewhat similar to pokemon, but had some features that pokemon didn’t get for several iterations, like having your monsters follow you around, monster breeding, and multi-monster fighting.

    Magi Nation was also good, similar vein to both of them, but felt darker in tone. Although maybe that’s just how it seemed to a much younger me.

    • ADHDefy@kbin.social
      1·
      2 years ago

      I’m so happy you mentioned Magi Nation. I just replayed that game not too long ago and still had a blast with it, though I def had nostalgia goggles on. lol

    • zannzen@kbin.social
      1·
      2 years ago

      I had completely forgotten about this game until you just mentioned it. But wow I played this so much it was fantastic.

      I remember getting another dragon warrior game and being confused why it wasn’t at all like Pokémon (was more of a jrpg party building game)

  • CmdrModder@fedia.io
    3·
    2 years ago

    Does Yoshi’s Island count? I loved that game to death and it’s ending makes me tear up as well.

  • Mandy@beehaw.org
    3·
    2 years ago

    I will never not shill advance wars 1 and 2 Great gameplay, great artstyle, great everyting

  • Shadow298@aussie.zone
    3·
    2 years ago

    Metroid II: Samus Returns & Gargoyles Quest (such a bloody hard game) on the OG GameBoy were my favs. I played a lot of *Battletoads *on it too but that game was so bloody frustratingly difficult, especially for a kid, so played it mostly out of spite to get past the stupid brain ball chasing you level. Also loved Parodius (parody side scrolling SHUMP from Konami) but never owned it, so borrowed it from friends to play. Naturally I also played Tetris to the point that the music still haunts my dreams. There was also a pretty decent Spider-Man game for it, but can’t remember it’s name & it’s not showing up on lists.

    The OG GB also had a lot of bog awful licensed property (movie/tv/cartoon) tie in games too, as well as generally terrible releases. To see them all, check this list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Game_Boy_games

    I unfortunately never owned an Advance, so only got into games on it later via official emulators (the Wii U control pad was the best GB Advance out there), so got to play Golden Sun later but enjoyed it as a fairly unique take on the J-RPG genre. The releases of Breath of Fire 1 & 2 on the Advance was also a great thing, since they were my favourite SNES games.

    For GBA games, here’s a list but so many shitty licensed games there too: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Game_Boy_Advance_games