Looking for more games. Only requirements are following:
English
On GB/GBC/GBA
GBC:
- Game & Watch Gallery 2: Holds a special place in my heart as the first game I ever owned. Has the best lineup out of all the collections, with 3 and 4 you can kinda tell they had used up all the heavy hitters.
- Mario Tennis: An incredible tennis RPG. And Mario doesn’t even show up until the postgame as a bonus boss, which I find hilarious. Has connectivity with the N64 version if you can get that running, lets you transfer your RPG mode character and unlock more content on both titles.
- Panel de Pon GBC: Better known under a name of a different IP it got reskinned with, but I’m a stubborn snob who will only ever call it by the original title. It’s a bit different from the console versions in order to compensate for the small screen, board is shrunk from 6x12 to 6x10, and the 1P Arcade mode is fake versus that gives opponents a health bar rather than their own board. I actually have a soft spot for this version, it’s different enough to stand out and be worth enjoying on its own, even if Gamecube is still the GOAT.
GBA:
- Boktai trilogy: Hideo Kojima’s greatest masterpiece. First game’s alright, second game is where it comes into its own. Note that you want the Solar Sensor hardware for the full experience, but emulating them is worth it over not playing them at all. And for the third game, you’d have to pick between original hardware or the translation patch anyway.
- Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow: It’s Castlevania. It’s good. Also check out Circle of the Moon and Harmony of Dissonance, but AoS was by far the best of the GBA entries.
- Golden Sun 1/2: These games were way ahead of their time for how they designed a combat system that encourages you to use all of your tools and not just click basic Attack as if you gotta hoard your MP for a rainy day. Fantastic puzzles too.
- Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga: If you’ve played any of the other Mario RPGs, this one’s great too. Has a 3DS remake but I haven’t played that version so I can’t tell you how it compares.
- Metroid: Zero Mission: The original Metroid has aged rather poorly if you ask me, but this remake does a perfect job modernizing it into one of the best games in the series. Fusion is good too, but some fans have opinions on that one.
- Mother 3: Surely you have already heard of this game and do not need me to tell you to go play it. Have you not played it by now? Why not? Well, okay, if you haven’t played Earthbound first, go do so, then play this.
- Rhythm Tengoku: A wonderful game about pressing the A button. Sometimes you press the d-pad too. Translation patch.
- Summon Night: Swordcraft Story 1/2: If you’ve ever played the classic 2D Tales games, these are excellent spiritual successors to those. There’s a third game that’s JP-only, translation patch is being worked on but it’s been stuck in development hell for years…
Just beat AOS, still holds up
It’s a bit short, but it’s among the great IGAvanias IMO. There with the 3 DS games, including its direct sequel Dawn of Sorrow of course.
Lots of good suggestions already, but what first came to my mind is Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. I’m not even into Final Fantasy and have only played a few tactical RPGs, but I fell into FFTA hard when it came out. The battle system was fun, with a little twist that there’s random laws you have to follow each fight (e.g. no attacking with staves) that can get a character arrested and taken out of the action after a warning. Nice music, cute art style, and a pretty good story as I recall.
Was my answer too. Absolutely phenomenal game. Don’t really have anything else to add to your points other than to encourage people to play it if they haven’t already. Great story, great gameplay, just an absolute classic.
Legend of Zelda: Minish Cap for GBA is my all time favorite from the series. It was made late in the gameboy development cycle, and feels miles ahead of other gba titles. Imo it’s the pinnacle of 2d Zelda.
Another great title is Fire Emblem. It’s not the first one, but a lot of them can be played out of order, and it’s tons of fun if you like turn based strategy.
Other mentions: Pokemon FireRed/LeafGreen, Pokemon Yellow/Blue, Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Legend of Zelda Oracle of Seasons/Ages, Link’s Awakening, Fire Emblem Sacred Stones, Final Fight One, and the Elden Ring demake
Where do j get the elden ring demakes? I like demakes as a concept
It’s unofficial, but you can play it via browser at shin.itch.io/elden-ring-gb, or download it and play via emulator
- Avenging Spirit*
- Dragon Quest Monsters 2
- Burgertime Deluxe
- Donkey Kong (an expanded version of the arcade game)
- Legend of the River King
- Heroes of Might and Magic
edit: Many people find Avenging Spirit ethically complicated due to its terrifying premise, just be advised it is roughly as dark as The Darkness II or a modern occult crime horror thriller
- on the original D.K. game. It was fun as a kid and it’s fun to see the origins of the characters
The original Donkey Kong is the arcade game. The NES port came later and was missing one of the four levels the arcade game had.
Strangely enough some licenced ports for the era’s computers were complete arcade ports unlike the in-house NES one.
On the Wii they released a “special edition” of NES Donkey Kong restoring the missing level.
The ‘restored’ version is an official ROM hack of the NES version, so it can be played on the NES itself too via a flashcart.
Yeah, I don’t have a NES anymore but I got that ROM on a hacked NES classic, and it works using the built-in emulator.
Donkey Kong was already in the NES classic, but of course it was the original NES version.
Note on Donkey Kong game boy, it starts with the 4 arcade levels then adds about a hundred more levels taking advantage of new moves and turning into more of a platform/puzzle kind of game.
This is really the starting point of what became Mario Vs Donkey Kong (which is another good GBA game to recommend, actually).
Pokémon Pinball: Ruby and Sapphire; unironically more addictive than the mainline Pokémon games.
Played that before, definetly a pinball game I like :3
- Final Fantasy Tactics Advance
- Rebelstar: Tactical Command
- Fire Emblem All GBA
Adding one I don’t see mentioned yet, this is for the GBA:
Mega Man Battle Network - Unique and fun battle system: it’s part deck-builder, part action rpg. The world and exploration are fun, with varied dungeon design. The series is quite long and expands into the DS, but the first 2 are my favorites.
Started it. Its really good
On GBC, Shantae is a lovely game.
I always had a soft spot for Super Mario Land 3: Wario Land. Also Tiny Tunes: Babs Big Break. The Final Fantasy Legends games are good too, I particularly liked the second one. The Pokemon games are clutch too. These are all original Gameboy games.
Mario Tennis and Mario Golf are awesome
