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.
"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."
"Portable Dr. Mario. Two-color pills to align on viruses, fours to match, speed climbing with the level. Mechanics of absolute purity, perfect for Game Boy. Link-cable versus mode makes it addictive. One of the system's essential puzzlers, recommend to everyone."
"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."
