The Top 129 Game Boy Games Ever According to SnS - Part 2
by Sliders n' Socks

#85 - Super Puzzle Fighter II Chosen by: Master of AFTER Master of AFTER - As someone who was never more than marginally interested in Tetris, it wasn't until the release of the PlayStation Portable and Lumines that I came to appreciate just how perfectly the handheld gaming device was suited for the puzzle genre. Prior to that, the only portable puzzler that managed to capture my attention for any length of time was Super Puzzle Fighter II. This was a phenomenally crafted port of a game that worked so well on the go that you could be forgiven for doubting that its origins could be traced back to an immobile arcade cabinet. As soon as I rocked my first 4 chain combo, I was too hooked not to take this with me practically everywhere.

#84 - TMNT Chosen by: Irish Irish - I could go on and on about the CGI'd ninja turtles movie. From what I've seen in the deleted scenes and animatic's, there was a deeper, darker, and far more nuanced story that was buried behind corporate focus group inspired meddling. The games themselves also seemed to have good ideas mixed in, but floundered from what was likely a shorter development period. Not so with the GBA version. They just decided what wasn't broken from the NES titles they had no damn business in fixing. So they just made a 2D homage to a forgotten era of gaming, and also added some light rpg level up concepts and trophies to collect.

#83 - Game & Watch Gallery 2 Chosen by: Pixel Crusher Pixel Crusher - The game that introduced me to Nintendo's Game & Watch legacy. Honestly, I only played this for modern Parachute, classic Donkey Kong and Vermin, as the rest was pretty much meh. It also had some really good tunes!

#82 - Metal Gear Solid: Ghost Babel Chosen by: Miller Miller - Very deep and sophisticated for a Game Boy Color-title. It takes everything that made Metal Gear for the MSX good, and adds elements from Metal Gear Solid for PSX (such as sounds and better soldier vision). Add a decent story and great level design (the variation is purely amazing) and challenging boss fights, and you have on of the better MGS-games ever (bested only by 1 & 3 in my opinion).

#81 - Golden Sun: The Lost Age Chosen by: TJF588 TJF588 - This goes so much deeper than the first game. Well, broader. Visually speaking, I like the "deeper" (darker) aesthetics here more, and finally seeing the whole world (and noticing it's eerily similar...) really opened up the scope. With the first game to build out from, there's just much more going on here, in story, geography (every nook & cranny, man), and djinn shuffling (though, to be honest, I just kept like with like; the summons, though, I was all about them dual-element summons). Too bad the antagonist duo's just not as suave as before, though the sibling-fueled grudge was a good touch. Once the two game's casts finally confront, however, that's when things really kick in to their final gear (as duly noted by the excellent world map music). While my position of this game is in part due to the establishment of its lower-ranking duologic partner, it does hold its own. Still need to get back to Dark Dawn (left off in the midst of what, character testament elsewhere informing, is a major plot event), if only to figure just how the main antagonist must have some role in it all, the brilliant bastard.

#80 - Crystalis Chosen by: Carmichael Micaalus Carmichael Micaalus - Honestly, the whole "nurrrgh technology bad!" was a liiittle too heavy-handed for my taste, but it was still a good game. Changing the order of the bosses at the end was probably for the best, story-wise as well.

#79 - Sigma Star Saga Chosen by: Pixel Crusher Pixel Crusher - I honestly never understood why this game gets so much hate. Sure it had some annoying design flaws, but anyone who was able to look beyond them would be rewarded with a fine action RPG that was innovative for its combination of the shmup and adventure genres.

#78 - Kirby's Dream Land Chosen by: Pauncho Smith Pauncho Smith - This Game. Oh boy. My first time playing this occurred on my daily school bus trip. Some girl who I probably found annoying at the time was kind enough to let me have a go at it on her Game Boy. Shortly thereafter, I eagerly surrendered my copy of Heiankyo Alien for Kirby's Dream Land on a fateful day in one of FuncoLand's Brooklyn locations. I was rather impressed at the fact that you could basically fly all over the screen at will, something I was happy to have since my platform jumping skills hadn't quite matured at that point. I also thought it was pretty fun to be able to EAT ALL THE DUDES (something that may or may not have had an impact on some of the weight issues I had as a child and teen). Looking back on it now, it's pretty damn easy, and other Kirby games in the series would improve on the basic formula by leaps and bounds (Kirby Super Star being my all-time favorite Kirby game), but it still occupies a pretty special place for me.

#77 - The King of Fighters EX2: Howling Blood Chosen by: Master of AFTER Master of AFTER - While most fighting game aficionados point to the hardware limitations of the GBA as the reason its library included so few fighters worth playing, I place the blame entirely on the developers. Lackluster, difficult-to-control ports of Street Fighter Alpha 3 and Guilty Gear X were the results of design teams attempting to take full-scale arcade fighters and squash them onto cartridges for a 32-bit system without sufficient forethought for how well the experiences would carry over to a handheld with considerably less processor power and half as many buttons. For their first GBA fighter, SNK had the clever idea of looking at the platform first and building an original game around it. The fruit of their labors was a respectable KOF '99 spin-off called The King of Fighters EX: Neo Blood. The game's sequel, subtitled Howling Blood, fixed a variety of issues with its predecessor's engine and featured an expanded character roster that reintroduced some fan-favorite KOF mainstays. Throw in four exclusive characters, a wonderfully ridiculous canon-defying plot, and portrait artwork by master illustrator Hiroaki, and you had a damn fine portable fighter that any fan of the genre could appreciate. I certainly did, at least.

#76 - Ninja Five-O Chosen by: FreezingInferno FreezingInferno - So one night in 1992, Bionic Commando and Shinobi were flirting in a bar together. Things happened. In 2003, the kickass illegitimate son of those two games rocked the GBA. What I'm trying to say is that Ninja Five-O is the shit. You've got ninja action! Hostage rescue! A GODDAMN GRAPPLING HOOK! It's one of the best action platformers on the GBA, and it's sad that the thing commands high prices these days. Everyone should play it. So good.

#75 - WarioWare: Twisted! Chosen by: TJF588 TJF588 - That this came out States-side after Touched! is a disservice. Sometime after blowing through the game at least once (I've passed on my wiped WarioWares to my sister, only to beat them again on a subsequent copy), I looked up reviews, and one brought up the word "gimmick". That review didn't feel that word was applicable (or such), but that same word never even entered my mind. Just about every way that gyro sensor could be used, that game did it, and even in the set of microgames that didn't (instead using just the only other control option, the A button), it played with the vertical screen orientation. That last instance is still my favorite series boss stage, due to the other strong points of the whole series: concept (fingers-extended robot picking nose invaders), visuals (kinda hand-drawn, with all sizes of aberrant shnozes), and audio (sound effects aside, that music!). Twisted! was packed with microgames which, unlike its predecessors, had much more gameplay variety due to the control scheme, all over the place in presentation, and so many unlockables, from soundtracks to full...er games (Sew Hard's a favorite among ours, and a shout out to series mainstay Pyoro), and little do-dads (even a radio!). This game was so many little things that glommed together like a hyperactive katamari.

#74 - Gunstar Super Heroes Chosen by: Pauncho Smith Pauncho Smith - Astute readers may recall that the original Gunstar Heroes claimed the top stop on my own personal list of all-time favorite Genesis games (and won the #2 spot overall on SMPS's Big Genesis list). How did Gunstar Heroes become such a favorite of mine? Well I have Gunstar Super Heroes to thank for that. It's yet another case of playing the remake/sequel before I got my hands on the original, but GODDAMN this blew me away. The explosions, the tight controls, the punishing challenge, the insane boss fights, the severely whacked-out sensibilities that could only come from a Treasure release. It's all still here. Now to be completely fair, this game does have its share of problems. Your weapon selection is a good deal smaller than in the original, and two-player co-op is sadly a thing of the past. Worst of all is the supremely bullshitty helicopter segment that opens Orange's stage. It's extremely tedious trying to play it in a such a way that you'll have enough health left over to take on the boss of that section, who just so happens to be one of the cheapest fucking enemies in any game ever (especially once you've cranked things up to hard mode). But that aside, it's still one of the absolute best games on the GBA, even if it falls short of the heights reached by Gunstar Heroes. Absilio Mundus!

#73 - Puyo Pop Chosen by: Zeloz Zeloz - I actually almost didn't put this one on the list because of the excellent "download play" functionality of the later Puyo games for the DS, but I'd still be doing a game I love a huge disservice. Yeah, Fever was probably the better game, but US GBAs didn't get Fever. This was just about the only Puyo game officially released in the west to feature the original Madou Monogatari characters (other than that Puyo 2 Neo Geo Pocket port, but who honestly had an NGP back then?). And, good lord almighty, whoever thought up of four-player multiplayer with a single cartridge needs to be given a sizable harem and a small country to rule over.

#72 - Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town Chosen by: Voodoo Groove Voodoo Groove - Harvest Moon works better for me when I don't have to give all of my attention to it, and being portable helps this version in that respect. It's got all the familiar faces from the N64 version, but everyone was tweaked in some sort of way as to make a lot of the relationships you were familiar with kind of weird. I should probably have something more substantive to say, but I mean, it's Harvest Moon; you spend your time watering crops and petting sheep and completing a laundry list of chores to woo a goddess. And it's the best.

#71 - Mega Man Zero 3 Chosen by: Crono Maniac Crono Maniac - Of all the Zero games, 2 is the most robust challenge, 4 has the best quotes, and 3 is my favorite story. So many great moments -- the return of Copy-X and his ultimate demise, the introduction of Omega and the revelation of his true identity, everything with Weil, the reintroduction of the hunters from the first game, and so much more. The Zero series isn't just a darker and edgier incarnation of the X series -- it's also smarter and more mature, which is much more important.

#70 - Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters Chosen by: Irish Irish - Ok, I think I previously mentioned I never had a NES. I never played Kid Icarus. But I did play this game and it became one of my favorites. It had subtle rpg elements that made the adventure just that much more unique, good graphics (holy crap, have you SEEN the final boss? This guy would have made 8-bit Samus soil her power suit) and was just a quality, well made game. Oh yah, and that eggplant wizard is a total dick.

#69 - Dragon Warrior I & II Chosen by: Crono Maniac Crono Maniac - It's easy to forget how modern and accessible the first Dragon Quest games were in comparison to the Western RPGs of the era. Its interface was more comprehensible, its dungeon crawls were more forgiving, and it had a world that was actually rewarding to explore. This was due in large part to the impeccable stylings of artist Akira Toriyama and musician Koichi Sugiyama, but it was Yuji Horii's brilliant, concise writing that imbued Dragon Quest with more genuine humanity than any of the cold, mathematical worlds of Wizardry and its ilk. And while it's true that the NES games are undeniably dated at this point, the Game Boy Color remakes are basically perfect.

#68 - Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones Chosen by: Pauncho Smith Pauncho Smith - Much like the Advance Wars sequels, Sacred Stones doesn't deviate too far from the formula that made the first GBA Fire Emblem successful. You follow a group of young royals as they search in villages and towns, seeking mercenaries to add to their ragtag army in the hopes of defeating a greater evil (most likely another royal, corrupted by a some shadowy cult who are probably all dragons or devils or something). The weapons and magic triangles are still in place and with a few exceptions, the majority of your units play as they did in the previous game. I was quite fond of some of the newer classes at your disposal (necromancers for the win) and I was struck at how you finally had the chance to engage in battle with non-human enemies this time around (zombies, spiders, giant eyeballs, and other spooky things). Unlike the first GBA Fire Emblem, this game gave you more opportunities to level grind (something I have a habit of doing in any RPG) with optional towers and temples that were teeming with monsters (a nice alternative to the risky arenas, where you can easily get screwed by a bad match-up). For me, this helped make the game quite a bit easier than the first one, but also somewhat less remarkable as some of the thrill around barely scrapping by a long mission was diluted as a result of already coming into a battle with a platoon of god-like units. All in all, it still felt great to make it to the end of the game with all my troops intact (or at least I would have if Lute didn't get her skinny fat ass vaporized by the final boss).

#67 - Wario Land 3 Chosen by: Pixel Crusher Pixel Crusher - I used to seclude myself in the bathroom, playing this hours to no end as if there were no tomorrow. It also had one (next to Rugrats: Search for Reptar) of the finest mini golf games I have ever played.

#66 - The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past Chosen by: Irish Irish - So, yah. As of this writing, I am preparing to go out at 7:00 AM to pick up this games 22 year late sequel for the 3DS. Ironic, yes. But A Link To the Past was one of many games that made me look at my genesis and sigh that I couldn't play this awesome game. It's a legend by this point. Still hailed as possibly the greatest in the series, even against current classics. So how could its portable port be anything less than a masterpiece?

#65 - Super Robot Taisen: Original Generation 2 Chosen by: Irish Irish - Some of the most epic RPG gaming on the GBA. SRT:OG 1 and 2 may have been released a scant few months between each other out here in the western world, but in native Japan there was a period of several years between the games, and it shows. While the first had a good story and was a quality SRPG in its own right, the sequel just came along and blew it out of the water with outstanding presentation, Some of those special attacks are insane. The mecha designs run the gamut of epic and... well mildly insane yet still strangely awesome. I'm talkin bout you fairylion. The music is grand and epic, with many tunes that will get stuck in your head. And the story drives you forward, ditching the gundam style angst for something that resembles dragonball Z crossed with plan 9 from outer space with embodied with mecha. It's a grand game that represents a grand series that unfortunately gets too little representation in the west.

#64 - Final Fantasy Legend II (US) / SaGa2: Hiho Densetsu (JP) Chosen by: Zeloz, Irish Zeloz - This one's actually a really good RPG for the system, considering how old it is. It pretty much improves on every aspect of it's broken predecessor, making it a decent and unique RPG experience for the Game Boy. Even if it's not as well-balanced as III, I consider it the best of the three SaGa games on the system, with the most coherent story and the best soundtrack. Irish - Yah, okay. I enjoyed the legend games. Give me a break, they were the biggest role playing games in on the system at the time. I enjoyed 2 the most. I think Legend 1 had a darker and more mysterious atmosphere, Legend 3 had a more cohesive and well written story. But Legend 2 just had a far more sprawling quest and sense of adventure.

#63 - Bubble Ghost Chosen by: Master of AFTER, Rhete Master of AFTER - Playing this game is not unlike playing with a puppy: the experience is so uncomplicated and repetitive that it should be tedious, but the thing you're looking at is so damn adorable and charming that you'd have to be devoid of a heart not to at least smile. In Bubble Ghost, you took control of a little ghost whose mission was to guide a fragile soap bubble through thirty-something rooms full of increasingly difficult obstacles using only the force of his breath. This is the formula for the kind of simple fun that's perfect for a quick bus ride or a few minutes in a waiting room full of ancient magazines. Just watch out for the infectiously catchy track that plays throughout the entirety of the game. Because once that tune has bored its way into your skull, man, it ain't leaving. I caught myself humming it just this past summer. Prior to that, the last time I'd played this game was over seven years earlier. Rhete - A strange puzzle/action game where you play as a ghost and blow a bubble around. It's cute as hell and as I remember, also very difficult.

#62 - Mega Man Battle Network 2 Chosen by: Crono Maniac, Carmichael Micaalus Crono Maniac - The Mega Man Battle Network series has charming characters and a genuinely brilliant combat engine, but sadly most of the games range from barely decent to outright terrible. The second game comes closest to nailing it. The boss fights are endlessly inventive and often quite hard, forcing you to embrace the many nuances of the combat. The Net is stuffed with intriguing mysteries, and it captured my twelve-year-old imagination.

#61 - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall of the Foot Clan Chosen by: Pauncho Smith, Rhete Pauncho Smith - My memory is understandably hazy, but I'm almost pretty sure that this is the very first video game I ever completed. I want to say that this occurred during a childhood flight down to Florida to visit my recently transplanted grandparents. Regardless, it was simple, it was turtle-y, it was good enough for me. Rhete - While the original NES Ninja Turtles game sucked, I found one this one quite enjoyable. Though admittedly the thing I remember most about it is this mini-game.

#60 - Sonic Advance Chosen by: Master of AFTER, Voodoo Groove Master of AFTER - While most longtime fans cite Sonic Adventure 2 as the final Sonic title released before the beginning of the series' dark age, Sonic Advance managed to hit the scene just in time to ride the last wave of creative genius before everyone working for Sonic Team decided it would be fun to shove their heads up their own asses for a decade. Unlike the steady supply of steaming hedgehog turds that followed it, SA ran on a solid engine and featured level designs that maintained the delicate balance between blinding speed and precision platforming that made the earlier games so enjoyable. The soundtrack was pretty darn groovy to boot.

#59 - Mega Man IV Chosen by: computercat, Mash Mash - The Gameboy Megaman were the exact opposite of the NES games quality wise-they just got better with each installment. This one was definitely better than 5 or 6 on the NES (maybe even 4) and also added in 8-bit cutscenes. They didn't have dialogue of any sort, but I feel they work better that way anyway. Yeah, I know 5 on the GB is technically the better game, but this is the one I owned and played the hell out of as a kid so it's the one to get a spot on my list.

#58 - Trip World Chosen by: FreezingInferno, Crono Maniac FreezingInferno - You guys like Mr. Gimmick? Good! This game is... kind of like it. I mean, it's not the exact same but it's got the same sort of aesthetic going for it. Plus it's a Sunsoft game so, you know. It's quite good, even if it's a bit too hard. Three lives and no continues. That kind of hard. It's a great example of a good Game Boy game though! I don't have all that much to say about it because I'd rather just let the game speak for itself. Go play it and you'll see how and why it's good. Crono Maniac - Gimmick! on the NES is an excellent game, but I think I prefer its Game Boy cousin overall. Trip World gives its ideas a little more room to breathe, whereas Gimmick is so stuffed with different enemies and areas that it feels disjointed. Trip World is also a much fairer game, and aside from a brutal final boss gauntlet the challenges are a lot more manageable.

#57 - Dragon Warrior Monsters Chosen by: Crono Maniac, Voodoo Groove Crono Maniac - It's one of the few JRPGs my brother really latched on to -- he's played through it three or four times. I've only dabbled in it, but what I've seen is just as charming and well-put-together as its parent series. Voodoo Groove - I think Dragon Warrior Monsters came at the perfect time; it capitalized on the initial rush of the Pokemon craze, but managed to include a bunch of mechanics like breeding and transferring spells that weren't present until Pokemon Gold/Silver were eventually released. Some of the monster designs were friggin' weird, but almost all of them were memorable. I really liked how the tree you were in would grow and change as you got further into the game as well.

#56 - Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising Chosen by: Pauncho Smith, Irish Pauncho Smith - It's everything you loved about the first Advance Wars, and there's even more of it this time around. While not terribly different from its predecessor, you do get the ability to pull off super CO moves, build those sweet-looking Neotanks (assuming you can find the blueprints for them), and can use and do battle with even more characters during the campaign (Jess is a badass and Sensei is a riot). And this'll probably expose me for the hokey sap that I am, but I kinda dug the whole "Allied Forces come together to combat bigger, badder threat" arc that began towards the end of the last game and was the focal point of the story this time around. I also loved how there were more opportunities to use different COs at once during a mission (having Eagle and Grit on the same team made me feel damn near unstoppable). Grab this if you can. Irish - Much like Golden Sun, the Advance Wars series is yet another franchise that I respect, but feel it has a fatal flaw that turns me off. While the Advance Wars games all start off with giving you a variety of strategies with which you can win with, the endgame is always the same. Devolving into more puzzle based affairs in which there is only one true way to win, It takes all the fun out of making a specific plan of attack that works for you. I also don't care for the trite and childish characters, but its something I can look past since I don't play a strategy game for story, I play it for the mental exercise. And these games do provide that, I just wish they would tweak the formula if another one gets made.

#55 - Kaeru no Tame ni Kane wa Naru (For the Frog the Bell Tolls) Chosen by: Crono Maniac, Zeloz Crono Maniac - Most people only know about this game because its engine was reused for Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, but it's actually a well-made, charming little story, one that's stuck with me for a long time after playing it. There's a new translation patch that was recently put together, so give it a look. Zeloz - This game's not as Zelda-esque as it's legacy might let on; the engine and team behind this game is known to have later went into Link's Awakening. It's still a very quirky and charming game in it's own right, though. The story seems pretty generic at first, you being a prince having to rescue a princess and all. But you also have your more-talented and better-looking rival (that Prince Richard guy from Link's Awakening) to contend with, who's also after the same princess. There's also the matter of your transformation into a frog and the fact that the main antagonist is some sort of evil snake, which all lends itself to some pretty novel situations. It's not as good as it's spiritual successor, but it's still quite good and worth a look.

#54 - Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories Chosen by: Remnant, TJF588 Remnant - This game is so niche it's painful. First, you have to be a Kingdom Hearts fan (a lot of haters there). Next, you have to have be someone who is open to handheld gaming (a lot of ambivalence and distaste in this area). Finally, you have to be on-board with card-based battle systems (I've seen Kingdom Hearts-loving handheld-enthusiasts write this game off for that reason alone). Well, I had a ton of fun with it, and to this day I'm impressed that Squeenix managed to create such well-animated FMVs on a cartridge-based game system. TJF588 - I was gonna leave this to the unlisted mentions, but this had a sort of ambition to it beyond the flair of its direst sequel (and it had the Dodge Roll! Hmph!). A midquel that probably got overlooked until its PS2 remake, its setting and villains were at least interesting to see. Castle Oblivion was a to-be plot device of a place that ran off of Sora's drawn-out memories, incarnating as cards (for ease of handling?). This is used for altering the castle's floors as you scale the keep, recreating (most of) the worlds from the first game (an unfortunately running theme in this series...), again with main-story-relevant parallels, especially if you use the cards in the order they're given in. The foremost use, though, is its most contentious: any action in battle aside from movement is determined by cards or combos of cards, though rampant use can whittle down your deck or your ease of "reloading" it. On top of pre-determining your fighting capabilities, each card has a value, with lesser values being more easily superseded by greater ones (oh Tinker Bell, how your usefulness has tanked...). All this after a game with the most elegantly simple magic system I've had the pleasure to use. The Organization's done a disservice in relegating its main-elemental crew here (Fire, Lightning, Ice, "Flower", and Earth; "Illusion", in Re:CoM). Ah well, it was an interesting ride, and solid for what it was. "Sub-MIT!"

#53 - Mega Man and Bass Chosen by: Voodoo Groove, Irish Voodoo Groove - One of the few handheld Megaman games I played that didn't have "Battle Network" or "Zero" in the title, and in my opinion better than all of them. Bass was a boss, and OP as hell. This game captured some of the original Megaman X feel at a time when the series had started to lose its luster. Irish - Proof that the Mega Man formula just ain't broke, so don't fix it. I think thing I love about this game is that regardless of where you save in the final three levels of the games home stretch, restarting still starts you off at the first level of it. I mean fuck you game, this level duplicates Mega Man 2's dragon battle, but in absolute darkness and having to periodically be able to shoot floating power ups that are your only light source. And that's not even the final boss. Yet, as horrible as this game treats me, brutalizes, me, embarrasses me, I cant help but come back to it. The feeling of satisfaction you get when you FINALLY beat this monster is superior to just about anything I've ever felt in the current generation.

#52 - Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2 Chosen by: Master of AFTER, Voodoo Groove Master of AFTER - Full disclosure: As far as SNES ports on the GBA go, this one falls squarely into "meh" territory. The graphics are washed out, the music sounds tinny, the screen size is too small, and the added vocal clips are nothing but annoying. Such is my admiration for the 2D platforming masterpiece that is Super Mario World that even this subpar port had to make my top twenty. Voodoo Groove - Super Mario World is probably my favorite Mario game ever. Not owning an SNES as a kid, it was a game that signified sleepovers and pizza with my best pal, and staying up until the wee hours of the night exploring the massive amount of levels (not even learning about some of the hidden exits until years later). The GBA port might not be able to recreate all of that old PLAYER 1 and PLAYER 2 magic, but it's still a great romp that reminds me of just how fun a simple game about running and jumping can be.

#51 - Donkey Kong Land Chosen by: Remnant, Mash Remnant - It ain't Donkey Kong Country, but this fun little platformer captured enough of that experience to really shine on the little green-screen 8-bit machine. Mash - Unlike DKL 2 and 3, this one wasn't just a lazy, watered down version of it's SNES counterpart. It kind of was for it's first half, mind you, but for the second half the game becomes it's own unique thing. It even has a mostly original soundtrack. It's kind of like a lost, forgotten entry in the DKC series.