The release of the Nintendo Game Boy was an integral moment in the history of gaming. No, the Game Boy was not the first handheld console to ever hit the market. That honor goes to the Merlin console, which was sold in 1978. But that console could only support a few games, and the thing looked more like a telephone than a Game Boy. The Game Boy wasn’t even the first handheld console with interchangeable game cartridges. That would be the Milton Bradley Microvision, which was sold in 1979. However, the Microvision was riddled with technical issues, and its games also weren’t very advanced.
The Game Boy wasn’t even Nintendo’s first handheld gaming system. The company began selling the Game & Watch console (the name of which you may recognize from the playable character in the Super Smash Bros. series) in 1980. But, while the Game & Watch was fairly successful, the popularity of handheld gaming consoles really exploded in 1989 when the first Game Boy was finally released. While some critics argued that the Game Boy was technologically inferior to some of its contemporaries, the Game Boy would become the best-selling console from this generation by far.
So, to honor the legacy of the Game Boy, we’re going to look at the 7 best Game Boy games that were ever released on the console. This includes games released for the Game Boy Color and Game Boy Pocket but not the Game Boy Advance, which was technically a different console.
1. The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening
The Legend of Zelda is one of the most beloved game series of all time. And it’s also been around a very long time (with the last installment in the series The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom having been released in 2023). The series dates back to 1986 when the first game bearing the Zelda name was released in Japan. The same game was later released in North America in 1987. And, while the original The Legend of Zelda game was amazing, I would argue that the 1993 installment The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening was the best Zelda game ever released for Game Boy.
The storyline of Link’s Awakening was so epic and captivating that you might find yourself in tears while playing an 8-bit game. And the gameplay was surprisingly complex with many different capabilities. Overall, this game was a masterpiece and quite possibly the best Game Boy game ever made.
2. Pokemon Red and Blue
The Pokemon series is definitely a contender for the most influential series of video games ever. And the game that started it all was Pokemon Red and Blue. Sort of. The game was actually initially released as Pokemon Red and Green in Japan in 1996. However, they subsequently developed a more advanced Blue version and rebranded it as Pokemon Red and Blue for international release. So, we here in North America got Red and Blue in 1998 and we’ve been crazy for Pokemon ever since.
Pokemon Red and Blue set the framework for the many future generations in the series. And they made such an amazingly entertaining game the first time that the gameplay hasn’t changed much over the years. You still walk around the world in search of Pokemon and battle other trainers. They’ve added bells and whistles over the years, but the basics of Red and Blue still apply to nearly every Pokemon game.
3. Tetris
While far more advanced and multi-dimensional games have been released on the Game Boy console, Tetris needs to be included among the best-ever Game Boy games because of how influential it was and still is. This game was used as a launch title for the Game Boy console everywhere except Japan after a Nintendo representative was introduced to the Soviet-developed game at a trade show.
Tetris would prove to be a huge hit and the highest-selling game ever released for the Game Boy console. Today, Tetris is still massively popular, mostly with the old-school crowd who remembers the game’s heyday in the early 1990s. However, you can still find Tetris online and at tons of arcades across the globe.
4. Harvest Moon GB
Like the other titles in this article, the descendants of Harvest Moon GB (which was released in 1996) are still popular to this day. This game was largely popular for creating an entire genre of gaming that’s massively popular today. Harvest Moon GB was the first social simulation role-playing game that had a pastoral/agricultural vibe and was incredibly wholesome. Today, many other games have followed suit, the most popular of them being the Animal Crossing series.
Harvest Moon GB started with your character taking over a farm that no longer had an owner. From there, you can farm, ranch livestock, search for sprites, collect musical notes, befriend your neighbors, and a ton of other wholesome activities. The game wasn’t very complex, but it would leave you feeling happy and warm inside.
5. Final Fantasy Adventure
The first-ever game in the Final Fantasy series launched for the NES console in 1987. However, in 1991, the first installment of the series for the Game Boy console hit the market called Final Fantasy Adventure. The game received overall positive reviews and was compared to The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening due to its puzzle elements.
The game followed a hero and a heroine as they adventured through the world and trying to stop the Dark Lord of Glaive and his magical assistant from destroying the Tree of Mana and thereby dooming the world to darkness. The game’s action-packed gameplay made it thrilling and captivating and its puzzles ensured that your mind stayed engaged.
6. Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins
Of course, if we’re going to talk about the best Nintendo Game Boy games of all time, Nintendo’s poster child Mario needs to be mentioned at least once. Like the other Super Mario games of the time, Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (released in 1992) was a platform game, which means it involved moving forward, jumping from platform to platform, and defeating or avoiding enemies in order to get to the end of the level.
This game also plays a huge role in the history of the Super Mario series as it was the first game to introduce Mario’s evil doppelganger Wario. Apart from that, Super Mario Land 2 was very similar to the first Super Mario Land but with better graphics and sound and more varied level themes.
7. Donkey Kong
The 1994 game Donkey Kong was loosely based on a cabinet arcade game of the same name that was sold from 1981. In the arcade game, you played as Jumpman, a hero tasked with saving a woman named Pauline from the titular giant gorilla. Donkey Kong would make things more difficult, though, by throwing barrels at you.
The Game Boy game Donkey Kong followed an extremely similar pattern to this iconic arcade game. However, instead of playing as Jumpman, the player now has control over Mario. There are several gameplay enhancements from the original arcade game, but they’re fairly subtle. Nevertheless, the 1994 game Donkey Kong proved extremely important to the development of Nintendo lore.
