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 :)
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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.
I remember the day I got my worm light for the gbc. Everyone was peasants.
The Megaman Battle Network series on GBA is awesome. Replayed a few of them last year and they are still great.
Tetris change my mind
First video game I ever played
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.
Never sleep on Wario land
I really enjoyed Kirby and the Amazing Mirror
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.
If you are including Advanced, then Metroid Fusion is a classic. Atmospheric, and beautiful sprite work. Genuinely scary in parts, and leads right into Dread if you like the gameplay.
Golden Sun GBA. GBC, Wacky Racers and GB it was Tetris because I had nothing else, lol.
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
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.
Does Yoshi's Island count? I loved that game to death and it's ending makes me tear up as well.
Advance Wars for GBA was up there for me (below any Zelda game). I've got my eyes on the Switch remake, but holding until I can find it on sale.
I do have a copy of this kicking around. It was my brothers and I never played it. I'll have to give it a go!
I will never not shill advance wars 1 and 2 Great gameplay, great artstyle, great everyting
Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. Has to be one of the best GBA games made
Tail 'Gator is my hidden gem OG GB game, fun platformer with a great soundtrack.
I played thru Kirby about 3 times I. A road trip from California to Texas so I'll go with that
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
One game I never see get talked about it daedalian opus on the original game boy, I used to love that little puzzle game when I was young. I wonder if it would hold up haha.
@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. 😋
Every game I mentioned has excellent music, is an original game (not a port), and I have played in their entirety again and again throughout the years.
Let me know if you're looking for a genre other than an action game. XD
So I grew up playing James Bond 007 on my OG Game Boy. It wasn't the greatest game in the world but it provided hours of fun on car trips when I was a kid.
I thought that this game didn't give enough pointers for 8 year old me... Like how to play the casino games.
Wario land, Metroid 2, Donkey Kong 94 are all great
Final Fantasy Tactics Advance GBA, Links Awakening OG Gameboy
Kirby's block ball was a great Gameboy game. I remember one I liked a lot called lock n' chase, name could be wrong but I'm sure it's close
Advance Wars
Monster Max. It's an isometric exploration platformer/puzzle game with a rock'n'roll theme that I absolutely adored as a kid. It was only released in Europe, so it might be interesting to all you US guys 😁
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.
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)
Golden Sun and its sequel, Golden Sun: The Lost Age. Easily my two GBA favourites.
Golden Sun and Fire Emblem were pretty much all I needed.
I would recommend that you check out Golden Sun.
I saw this thread and immediately felt the need to recommend this game as well! was one of the only games I had the guidebook for as a kid. one of my favorite games for the gameboy.
Gosh! This takes me back! What a great game!
Here's a short list of my favorites:
EDIT: ... didn't read the post properly. Updated the list for only game boy games *facepalm
Advance Wars.
My favourites were always Metroid II and Zelda