Fun, less famous Original Game Boy games? [Archive]

RASK1904

08-19-2009, 01:04 AM

So I have all of the popular Mario, Metroid, Zelda, Pokemon, Kid Icarus etc, ect. I also know there are quite a few weird games that I know nothing about. I googled top, best, etc, etc. but they are full of Mario's, Final Fantasy and the such. So I come to you. Do you know of any really good Original Gameboy games that are less famous. Maybe they play just like one of these. Someone else had to copy Contra, Mario.....A few I've been looking at are:

Mole Mania
Batman the Animated Series (Konami)
Soloman's Club
Burbertime Deluxe

Any suggestions?

Baloo

08-19-2009, 01:12 AM

Revenge of the 'Gator
Ducktales 2

ScourDX

08-19-2009, 01:14 AM

- Atomic Punk
- Fortified Zone
- Kid Dracula
- Rolan's Curse 1 & 2

BetaWolf47

08-19-2009, 01:16 AM

Bonk's Revenge

RASK1904

08-19-2009, 01:16 AM

Got me Ducktales 1 and 2. An thees would be famouse game. No?

Revenge of the Gator............hmmmm.........

I'll look into that.
Thanx RASK1904

Anyone else?

JSoup

08-19-2009, 01:30 AM

Mortal Kombat 3
Might Morphin' Power Rangers: The Movie
Harvest Moon GB
Legend of the River King

Pantechnicon

08-19-2009, 01:41 AM

Flipull
Nobunaga's Ambition

Bad Atom

08-19-2009, 02:33 AM

Boxxle and Nail & Scale. Really old, fairly obscure, and simplistic fun.

A Black Falcon

08-19-2009, 03:05 AM

Oh, there are lots. Most games on the GB that weren't very well known first-party Nintendo titles (and even some first-party Nintendo titles) seem to be little-known, for some reason... there are exceptions, like the Square games, TMNT games, Mega Man games, etc, but in general, GB games aren't as well known as they should be. Too bad... it's an awesome system.

wadakatsu

08-19-2009, 03:08 AM

Ninja Gaiden Shadow and Gargoyle's Quest are both exceptional. They may not be quite as obscure as you're looking for (since they're both attached to well-known franchises) but they're definitely among the most obscure entries in their respective series despite their quality.

DigitalSpace

08-19-2009, 04:27 AM

Aerostar - A vertical shmup with an interesting concept
Balloon Kid - If you liked the Balloon Trip mode in the original Balloon Fight, check this out. Think of that with platforming elements and boss fights added in.
Alleyway - It's Arkanoid on the Game Boy. 'Nuff said.
Battle Unit Zeoth - Another good shmup
Gargoyle's Quest
Jeep Jamboree: Off Road Adventure - I thought this was better than F-1 Race
Killer Instinct - Rare did a pretty good job in bringing this fighter to the Game Boy.
Lamborghini American Challenge - Another fun racer, similar to the SNES version. It's pretty similar to the 16-bit Top Gear games.
Mickey Mouse Magic Wands! - A platform-based puzzler.
Pinball Dreams
Pinball Fantasies
Revenge of the Gator - Another excellent pinball game, my second favorite on the system (the first being Kirby's Pinball Land)
Wave Race - The first game in the Wace Race series, and it's a 2D top down racer.

All of the above games shouldn't be too tough to track down on the cheap. Also, check out the Top 40 Game Boy (B&W) games (http://www.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?t=9427) thread in Classic Discussions, there are some games on the list and mentioned in the responses that aren't as well known as some of the others.

Jehusephat

08-19-2009, 04:40 AM

I remember absolutely loving The Sword of Hope for my Gameboy when I was younger. I played Uninvited and Shadowgate a lot, and both of those games were by Kemco-Seika. When I saw TSoH at a used game shop with the Kemco-Seika logo on it, I knew I had to have it. It ended up being a lot like Shadowgate with Dragon Warrior style battles added to it. It wasn't as good as either of those games due to the tiny, monochromatic screen, but it was still one of my favorite games for the system.

Ricochet

08-19-2009, 08:51 AM

Revenge of the Gator? Ugh. I don't remember that fondly.

Ones I like include:

Qix (!)
Skate or Die: Bad n' Rad
The Amazing Spiderman
TMNT: Fall of the Foot Clan (is this a popular one?)

Natty Bumppo

08-19-2009, 11:16 AM

Here are a few more:

Sword of Hope (2)
Knight's Quest
Spud's Adventure
Amazing Tater
Kingdom Crusade
Ninja Taro
Power Mission

Zipperwitz

08-19-2009, 11:18 AM

Hi guys,
First post. Longtime lover of the gameboy here.
I'd like to put forward a couple of games I'm playing at the moment:

Catrap - side on platformer, where you push blocks and munch soil to reach enemies. Once all the enemies are reached/destroyed, you've completed the level. There's 100 levels + a nice mechanic where you can control 2 characters alternately for about a third of the levels. I'm currently on about level 75.

Earth Liberation Army ZAS - A Japan only game that's, to my mind, the best shooter on the system. Plays brilliantly. The graphics are super (transparent cloud effects, enemies that fill the screen, loads of bullets / lasers on screen at once). It looks at bit crappy on an emulator / SGB as it is made for the GB screen. If you can find a copy of this and like shooters, then pick it up. Unfortunately it's a little rare and quite pricy, despite people not really knowing much about it.

Peetan is a great little action game. The game idea is quite a bit like Pooyan I suppose, even if the mechanic isn't... You're a chicken that has to drop eggs down from the top of the screen in order to catapult chicks to safety. All the while, there's a hungry wolf trying to munch them. This was Japan only too.

One game I loved as a kid and keep coming back to is Radar Mission. There's 2 games on the cart... an action game, where you control a sub (via a view through the periscope) that has to destroy ships. That game is quite poor. The *good* game mode is a take on battleships but with a few extra features, like launch animations, aircraft, lucky shots etc. It's got a lot of charm.

It's difficult to know what's considered famous or not... but I'd definately second Mole Mania. That really is one hell of a game. The bosses and play mechanic are genius.

jcalder8

08-19-2009, 11:29 AM

I'll add my love for Revenge of the Gator too, I would play this one for hours on road trips.

kaedesdisciple

08-19-2009, 11:59 AM

Remembering back to childhood, I can think of:

Penguin Wars
CosmoTank

Press_Start

08-19-2009, 12:35 PM

Gameboy was always the best well-known handheld that no one knew well about. The brilliance of its library, IMO, is the mass selection of fun obscure titles, even 20 years after its release, there's always something good to be found for it. Like yesterday, I found out Tumblepop, one of my favorite arcade games as a kid, had a port for the GB (though a Europe release) and won the only one on Ebay.

BTW, Amazing Penguin and Bubble Ghost! :rocker:

Amazing how no one mentioned these two fabulous action-puzzlers. They were addictingly fun as a kid and they're still the same now. :king:

Gameguy

08-19-2009, 07:37 PM

Qix has been mentioned but it's really great. Bugs Bunny's Crazy Castle 1 and 2 are good. I played through Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure and found it great too(it's different from the NES version). Plus there's Mario's Picross which doesn't get mentioned all too often like the other Mario games. I like Side Pocket as well, I really played that one a lot. I have to go through what I have, I haven't really played my Gameboy stuff in ages so I don't remember everything at the moment.

koster

08-19-2009, 08:36 PM

If you like puzzle/action games, you may want to try these somewhat obscure titles:

Daedalian Opus
Hexcite (Gameboy Color)
Panel Action Bingo
Quarth
Stop That Roach

Blitzwing256

08-19-2009, 08:38 PM

where the hell is the love for go go tank? a really great forgotten strategy game, your goal is to get your little tank from one side of a battlefield to the enemy base on the other side...whuile using your plane to move blocks and kill enemies on the way. very inovative and very hard in the later levels.

calthaer

08-19-2009, 09:17 PM

The original Game Boy was my first console; I got an NES after it...spent many hours on that one.

I will second Rolan's Curse as a pretty decent game. It's entirely overshadowed by the Zelda games, but they're OK.

There's another interesting little game called Heinkyo Alien that was fairly fun...another game imitated its gameplay, but I can't remember what it was.

sebastiankirchoff

08-19-2009, 09:23 PM

Its not uncommon or unheard of, but Super C on the Gameboy was a great game in my opinion.

I also enjoyed Bomberman Pocket even though it was different than the rest of the series.

fahlim003

08-19-2009, 09:35 PM

I'll add my love for Revenge of the Gator too, I would play this one for hours on road trips.

Thirded

Also, Bionic Commando (not GBC) is terrific if you can find a copy. Great music and good controls make it a worthy addition. It's cheap despite being a bit uncommon since people don't seem to be too interested in this one. I had to get my copy from Italy (was the UK version) and it was cheap enough.

Damaramu

08-19-2009, 09:45 PM

Heiankyo Alien

I really dug this game. I need to pick up a new copy to boot.

kupomogli

08-19-2009, 10:07 PM

One's that were already listed that I think are really good.

Rolan's Curse 1 and 2
Revenge of the Gator
Qix
Gargoyle's Quest

Rolan's Curse is decent, the second one is far better and one of the best GB games. I've always liked how you get multiple characters with different special abilities, in which you can have any combination of the main character and three extras out of an altogether six(not including the main character.)

As for ones that haven't yet been listed.

Roger Rabbit
Battle Arena Toshinden
Revelations - The Demon Slayer

ccovell

08-19-2009, 11:58 PM

Several of my recommendations are here: http://www.disgruntleddesigner.com/chrisc/gbgems.html

Arkhan

08-20-2009, 04:32 AM

Zipperwitz

08-20-2009, 07:40 AM

Several of my recommendations are here: http://www.disgruntleddesigner.com/chrisc/gbgems.html

I picked up ZAS after reading your review. Thanks for that - I'm really enjoying it.
After reading the love for Heiankyo Alien I was going to mention Booby Boys, which i only picked up a couple of days ago. The burying is secondary to the treasure / key collecting, but it's still pretty good fun.

Arkhan

08-20-2009, 09:23 AM

Heiankyo Alien.... oooo

that is a game I am glad I picked up in the used bargain bin for sure.

Another one I dug out earlier today by mistake and I am not sure if you all consider it less famous etc. is Ultima runes of virtue.

I forgot how addicting that one is.

BetaWolf47

08-20-2009, 09:55 AM

Wait wait wait...

Burbertime Deluxe
Burbertime? What's a hamburber?

On topic: Though it's a European-only release, you could try Battle of Olympus, a port of the NES game. It's a rather good port, and very little of the meat of the game is lost.

I don't know if you'd consider this obscure, but Bubble Bobble also has a good Game Boy port. You can have a lot of things on the screen with very little slowdown. I'd go as far as to say that it's better than the NES version.

PentiumMMX

08-20-2009, 10:18 AM

Mickey Mouse Magic Wands

I remember I was dissipointed when I got this instead of Pok�mon Blue, but I still played this game to death back when I had my copy. It's not very hard at all, but it makes up for that by being fairly long for a budget release (40 stages).

fahlim003

08-20-2009, 11:40 AM

Jaleco's Banishing Racer is a great import (NTSC-J) only car platformer. Perhaps a proto-Tryrush Deppy? Anyway, it's decent and is fun to play. I'm glad I scooped this from a local shop a couple years ago.

RASK1904

08-20-2009, 04:21 PM

Wow! Thanx for the suggestions. ZAS looks great and that Trip World looks very good also. I do need Kid Dracula but that GD thing is expensive! I'll wait to find it in the wild.

JSoup

08-20-2009, 05:02 PM

Mickey Mouse Magic Wands!

Oh, baby, yes. All the previews make it seem like the standard Disney game (which, in that era, meant it was awesome), but Magic Wands was far and above the rest.

Baloo

08-20-2009, 05:06 PM

Mickey's Dangerous Chase isn't that bad either, but from what I remember that was a million seller so it can't really be called obscure.

Clownzilla

08-20-2009, 05:22 PM

Revenge Of The Gator and Qix are two great games that are often overlooked. It's sad that Revenge Of The Gator never made it to other systems:(

Jorpho

08-20-2009, 05:33 PM

Never actually played them, but Ghostbusters 2 and Great Greed sound pretty good.

The prequel to Mickey Mouse Magic Wands was The Real Ghostbusters/Garfield, right? Wasn't that any good?

Baloo

08-20-2009, 05:35 PM

Revenge Of The Gator and Qix are two great games that are often overlooked. It's sad that Revenge Of The Gator never made it to other systems:(

It is. Revenge of the Gator is an awesome game, and although highly overlooked, there could probably be made a case to give it a spot in the Top 15 GB games.

ubersaurus

08-20-2009, 05:46 PM

Heiankyo Alien

I really dug this game. I need to pick up a new copy to boot.

This. My aunt got me this when I had accidentally highlighted a different game on a list and it bled through the page, but it was worth it. I've had a lot of fun with this one.

There's a pretty decent Lode Runner port on GB as well. Oh! I know I had a lot of fun with Burgertime Deluxe and Qix, as well.

Jorpho

08-20-2009, 06:37 PM

I've only had a brief look at Revenge of the Gator, but it's really not that great - you could easily find 15 better Game Boy games. If nothing else, Kirby's Pinball Land offers much more variety.

Baloo

08-20-2009, 07:30 PM

I've only had a brief look at Revenge of the Gator, but it's really not that great - you could easily find 15 better Game Boy games. If nothing else, Kirby's Pinball Land offers much more variety.

Revenge of the Gator is one of those games that doesn't look great at first glance, but has a lot of secrets and great gameplay.

Zipperwitz

08-21-2009, 05:34 AM

I never really got much out of Revenge of the Gator as a kid. The pinball mechanics are good, but there wasn't enough fun to keep me coming back... and I would play anything as a kid :-)
I felt the same about the mentioned Bubble Ghost. When you make your way through the first dozen or so screens you're having fun, but the game quickly gets impossibly unfair (imo) and I don't recall any password system. It all got boring very quickly for me.
Perhaps I need to go back to them, but I couldn't recommend these 2 games. Loads of people rave about them though!
I don't know how popular Fortified Zone was, but I played it through last week for the first time. It's like the grand-daddy of Metal Gear Solid (GBC). It can be completed in an hour, so there's no need for the useless password system it comes with. It's a top-down action game played through 4 or 5 zones, which resemble mini zelda-esque dungeons (i.e. square rooms with exits to N/S/E/W). You can switch between a male (weapons expert) and a female (more nimble and can jump) using the select menu. The bosses are quite impressive (including a large dragon). I had fun playing it.

A Black Falcon

08-21-2009, 05:40 AM

Revenge of the Gator is one of those games that doesn't look great at first glance, but has a lot of secrets and great gameplay.

It's still true that Kirby's Pinball Land is essentially the same thing done better, though. Now that's a truly exceptional game...

Jorpho

08-21-2009, 12:37 PM

I don't know how popular Fortified Zone was, but I played it through last week for the first time. It's like the grand-daddy of Metal Gear Solid (GBC). It can be completed in an hour, so there's no need for the useless password system it comes with. It's a top-down action game played through 4 or 5 zones, which resemble mini zelda-esque dungeons (i.e. square rooms with exits to N/S/E/W). You can switch between a male (weapons expert) and a female (more nimble and can jump) using the select menu. The bosses are quite impressive (including a large dragon). I had fun playing it.There was a Japan-only SNES sequel, as I dimly recall.

Sabz5150

08-21-2009, 05:41 PM

CosmoTank

I'm not the only one, I'm not the only one!

Loved Cosmotank. Was my first Atlus game, too :)

Veay good, Soldier!

ccovell

08-21-2009, 06:52 PM

Some Cosmo Tank coolness here: http://www.disgruntleddesigner.com/chrisc/cosmoproto/

megasdkirby

08-21-2009, 08:30 PM

I really enjoyed Maru's Mission. It's a bit repetitive, and easy, but it was fun!

Speaking of which, the end was weird...

PentiumMMX

08-21-2009, 08:55 PM

The prequel to Mickey Mouse Magic Wands was The Real Ghostbusters/Garfield, right? Wasn't that any good?

It wasn't too bad; it is a little harder than Magic Wands, which is a plus in my opinion.

HurricaneAndrew

08-23-2009, 04:06 AM

Alleyway

Brick-Breaking game. What can I say? Simple games are usually best.

Jorpho

08-23-2009, 11:21 AM

The Mario characters were cool, but Alleyway was a little too simple as far as brick-breaking games go. Then again, it did have some pretty nifty features I've never seen anywhere else.

There never was another brick-breaking game for the original GB, was there?

ccovell

08-23-2009, 11:46 AM

There were a few brick-breaking games for the GB, GBC, both commercial and homebrew.

I can't think of any good ones, though. Block Kuzushi GB is one example, but is an average version of the same title on SFC and PSX.

A Black Falcon

08-23-2009, 03:23 PM

Alleyway

Brick-Breaking game. What can I say? Simple games are usually best.

The two from Nintendo itself for the original GB, Alleyway and Kirby's Block Ball, are both quite good. Alleyway is a very simple game, more Breakout than Arkanoid, though it has a bit of uniqueness with the stage order, which is broken up into groups of four levels. The first one is a standard stage, the second with the bricks scrolling horizontally, the third with the bricks descending, and the fourth a bonus stage where the ball passes through bricks. It's pretty good, for a simple Breakout-style game. It doesn't save and you get no continues, though, so there is some challenge.

Kirby's Block Ball is a much more complex game, with powers, paddles on all four sides of the screen, and more. That latter feature is probably the game's most unique feature, and works well -- left and right to move the upper and lower paddles, up and down for the side paddles. You get traditional Kirby powers from certain enemies, and use them with one of the buttons. There's a bossfight at the end of each world and in this fight the tiles are covered with panels that you got by hitting them in the stages of the world, so the amount of protection depends on how well you did up to that point. It saves after each world, and in order to really beat the game you need to meet certain score levels in each world, which can be something of a challenge to meet. Pretty good game... not perfect, but definitely fun.