After posting my top 10 SNES games earlier this week, it is now time to move on to the next system I owned, the Game Boy! My first portable system was actually the Game Boy Color, but I played plenty of Game Boy games on it, so it made sense for these to be combined. If you are a 90s kid like myself, a Game Boy Color was probably the most essential video game system you could own. There was a very specific and obvious reason for that. It would give away the list to say why that is, but I’m guessing you’ll figure it out.
The Game Boy Color was one of the more formative systems I owned. Before we had phones, this could often be your last line of defense from boredom if you were out and about in a place without much entertainment. And it just so happened to have a lot of fantastic video games on it. With that said, here is my list.
10. Harvest Moon GBC
My introduction to the Harvest Moon series was with Harvest Moon 64. This game is a bit of a downgrade from that one. There are fewer features, and the graphics obviously aren’t as good. But the core of the farming/RPG-lite formula is there, and it still holds up, especially with the ability to play it on the go. In general, there are a lot of games that we accept being a little worse than their home console counterparts if we can play it in bed, and this fits the bill for that perfectly.
9. Dragon Warrior Monsters 2
We will certainly be talking more about Pokemon later in this list, but of the many games that have tried to take on the Pokemon formula, Dragon Warrior/Quest Monsters has always been the one that I felt like should be able to make something on that level. And this might be the closest they ever got. Having three monsters fight at a time has always made the actual combat a lot more interesting than Pokemon for me. There are a lot of the same hooks here that Pokemon has, but it just doesn’t quite reach that same level of charm and worldbuilding. But it’s still a fantastic game that any Pokemon fan should give a go.
8. Pokemon Trading Card Game
It didn’t take long after Pokemon became a sensation for Pokemon trading cards to become almost as big. Almost everyone at my elementary school had some. Hilariously, we almost never played the game. Most of us had no idea how. I did actually learn how to by playing the Pokemon Trading Card Game video game. I definitely had more fun with both Yu-Gi-Oh and Magic The Gathering once I got to my teens, but this is still a solid enough deckbuilder. The game smartly formats itself a lot like the actual Pokemon games to help give it that extra familiarity as well.
Unfortunately, I never really got top use my newfound skills because once again… no one at my school knew what the hell they were doing with those cards.
7. Tetris DX
This may sound random, but there was a time in my life as a kid where it was exciting to discover that a computer I was on had solitaire on it. Sometimes, I would spend an hour playing solitaire. Solitaire is one of the most boring games of all time. Kids today will never understand!
I say this to say that I’m not sure I would enjoy playing Tetris DX all that much these days. The Tetris formula has been greatly expanded on over the years and has gotten increasingly interesting. But when I was a kid, having a game like this to play on the go was an absolute lifesaver. There weren’t tons of modes, but it was so easy to sink hours and hours into this classic formula. Tetris is one of the most genius puzzle formats ever conceived for video games, and when I was a kid, Tetris DX was the definite version of that and a must play.
6. The Legend of Zelda: Oracles of Ages/Seasons
These are different games, but they released together and are very linked, so it felt easier to just rank them together.
This is classic Zelda fare with its mixture of puzzle solving and combat. I preferred Oracle of Ages because I have always viewed the puzzle solving in Zelda games to be far superior to the combat, but both are very good games that do the series justice. This is one of the few games I have on this list that I think would hit equally hard today as the day I played it. This has a timeless formula.
5. The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening DX
Another classic Zelda game. This one many people might put as the best portable Zelda game. Everything from the puzzles to the combat to the exploration is just about perfect here. Being able to play this on the go was an absolute dream come true when it was first released. It’s no surprise Nintendo decided to remake this one in 2019 because the core formula holds up so well. This is another one that anyone could pick up today and still enjoy just as much.
4. Pokemon Gold/Silver/Crystal
This is the Pokemon game that many consider the best of all time. And I totally get it. This was an incredible game at the time that expanded the formula in a few important ways. Going back to Kanto in particular was a big-time “holy shit” moment when I first played it.
I’ll save the reason why it isn’t number one for when I get to my number one. I’m guessing you’ve figured out what it is.
3. Mario Tennis (GBC)
Thinking about this game makes me angry. Not because I hate the game or because it was frustrating. I absolutely loved this game. I just have no idea why Nintendo refuses to adapt the formula from this game into its mainline console entries. Mario Tennis for the GBC is a full on RPG where you explore different tennis clubs, talk to NPCs, there is a small story, and you can obviously level up your character as you make your way to the top of the rankings.
I’m not a big sports game fan, but tennis games are one of those rare sports where video games just kind of click for me. I enjoy the gameplay a lot in games like Mario Tennis Aces, but the single-player element is always incredibly underwhelming. That isn’t the case here. The tennis gameplay is super solid, and the single-player element is tons of fun. They do a great job of mixing things up with doubles action and various skill challenges, too. Damn Nintendo for not making this the standard.
2. Mario Golf (GBC)
You can pretty much read my above writeup, and it applies here, too. I don’t like more realistic golf games where you have to actually read the greens and such. So, a dumbed-down golf game like this where I can just look at arrows that represent slopes is fantastic for me. The golf gameplay here is incredibly solid and well done. Once again, they do a lot of fun and different challenges to mix things up, and the RPG and story elements are all pretty well done. I really wish this was the standard for these games. Golf Story on the Nintendo Switch did a decent job of replicating this, but it still wasn’t on this elite level.
Until Mario Golf makes this the standard, I’m simply not going to care about those games. Because this is just flat out better.
1. Pokemon Red/Blue/Yellow
To me, this is the greatest Pokemon game of all time, and it will likely never be topped without a game that drastically overhauls the formula. Yes, the Pokemon games have added tons of little twists and new elements over the years, but in the end, it still uses the basic gameplay loop from this game almost exactly. When that is the case, the first game will pretty much always get preference from me because that will have been the time I was blown away the most. It’s tough for an experience to truly surpass the original with only minor tweaks each iteration.
When I first played this game, it was an unbelievable experience. The RPG elements were great, the concept was unique, and it was such a fun world to imagine yourself in. Also, it was an incredible game for its social elements back in my elementary school days. You could trade and battle with friends, debate the best starter (Bulbasaur), and compare teams. It was everything. This game dominated the freaking world in the late 90s, and I guess that really hasn’t changed in a lot of ways. I feel a lot of frustration with Pokemon because I think the formula needs a drastic overhaul, and I think Game Freak needs to get serious about fixing things on the art and technical side as well. But I still hold out that sliver of hope because of how magical this experience was at the time. It’s an easy choice for my favorite GB/GBC game.
Big Nerd Gaming 
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