Indestructible and universal, the Game Boy made gaming portable with monuments: Tetris, Pokémon Red/Blue, Zelda Link's Awakening, Super Mario Land. This Top 50 gathers the best of Nintendo's handheld, re-tested and re-ranked by RomWize, each title with its re-evaluated score, its versions, their rarity and their collector value.
"Kirby as breakout. Kirby bounces like a ball, with special powers based on the absorbed element, brick boards to clear. Clever concept, polished Game Boy animation. More original than average portable breakout, the franchise's bubblegum-pink charm. Recommend for puzzle-action fans."
"Not a Tetris but Panel de Pon dressed as Yoshi for the West. Horizontal block swaps, color chains, link-cable versus mode. More addictive than Tetris in competitive play, mechanics of rare elegance. Excellent Game Boy puzzler, essential for competitive-puzzle fans."
"Nintendo's Game Boy Kid Icarus sequel. Pit travels through underground dungeons and aerial levels, with a surprisingly open structure. Less absurd than the NES original, more playable. The curve stays demanding, but the journey is worth it. A real Game Boy masterpiece unjustly obscure, essential."
"Game Boy Mega Man III. Robot Masters mixed from NES 5 and 6, even more mature level design. The franchise settles on handheld, combat sharper. A good portable Mega Man, already very solid, with the Mega Man V peak on the way. Chain it without hesitation through IV then V."
"A more accessible, more structured SaGa III than the previous two. Time travel to stop the Purge, a more classic class system with meat ingestion to evolve. Less free than SaGa II but more readable. A good portable JRPG to chain after the first two SaGas."
"Capcom's Game Boy DuckTales. Scrooge McDuck pogos with his cane across five non-linear levels (Amazon, Transylvania, Moon, Himalaya, Africa). The pogo-stick is genius, the music legendary (Moon Theme!). Short but absolutely elegant. Capcom at its peak, essential on Game Boy."
"Game Boy port of Bubble Bobble. Bub and Bob spit bubbles across a hundred single-screen rooms, trap enemies, pop bubbles. The port is fine but loses the original's side-by-side two-player magic. Good puzzle-action solo, but the co-op makes all the difference."
"First Nintendo Game & Watch Gallery in color. Modern Mario-themed versions plus faithful black-and-white classics. Ball, Manhole, Vermin and Octopus recover their minimalist magic. Ideal for a nostalgia evening, perfect Game Boy format. An obvious buy for arcade-Nintendo fans."
"Japanese original of Final Fantasy Legend. Same takeaways: a Game Boy JRPG pioneer, mythical tower to climb, human/monster/robot heroes. Original Japanese text. For fans in the original, otherwise the Western Final Fantasy Legend is strictly equivalent."
"European sequel with the same robots-for-humans swap. New levels designed for Game Boy, tactical design fleshed out. For European anti-violence action fans, otherwise the Japanese Contra versions are strictly equivalent. A good portable shoot-action, chain it after the first Probotector."
