Favorite Under-The-Radar Gameboy Color Games

[wayultratech]

The GBC has a pretty good library, lots of titles flying under the radar, so wondering what some of your favorite Gameboy Color games are? What would you recommend to somebody trying to expand their GBC collection?

Of course the LoZ Oracle games and Shantae are gems, Metal Gear Ghost Babel is pretty fun, but for the slightly less known I'd say Survival Kids, Legend of the River King and i even had fun with Yoda Stories. Also, a shout out to Trip World for GB, not a color game but excellent nonetheless.

How bout yall? Favorite lesser known GBC titles?

[goldenband]

Montezuma's Return! Nifty little update; pretty tough though.

The Shamus port is interesting, though deeply flawed. To get the best ending you have to play more-or-less perfectly. It's quite challenging but probably has limited appeal at best.

[sparf]

I actually loathed the GBC as a platform for the most part. It felt so often like the color was shoehorned in and that the b/w graphics of the pocket or even the green original GB had more shading and texture to them, hence to me looking better.

BUT

That was then. I still am not a huge fan because I saw it become shovelware central, but I do appreciate some of the finer points it has to offer. SMB Deluxe, Link's Awakening DX, the Zelda Oracle games despite common opinion of them, and Metal Gear Ghost Babel (Metal Gear Solid in its US Release). And I'm always looking to have my horizons pushed on that platform. :)

[Scissors]

Montezuma's Return! Nifty little update; pretty tough though.


This was the first game that came to mind when I saw this topic.

[StealthLurker]

Generally, I didn't like the GBC platform but...

There's a Goemon / Legend of the Mystical Ninja action platforming game that's cool.

I also like the horizontal shmup Magical Chase on the GBC.

.

[Bazoo]

Robopon! Yeah, it's a Pokemon clone. But I think its attitude and range of customization made it something enjoyable.

Megaman Xtreme and Xtreme 2.

Metal Walker.

all of these involve robots for some reason

[Crystalian]

Hmmm... check the handle. You can't do the warp trick, but if you never got a chance to play it on the Nes, Crystalis is ACCEPTABLE on GBC. Ths is also a good reason to have a Super Game Boy or , even better, a GC Game Boy Player. StealthLurker is right about Magical Chase; short of emulation, it's the only feasible way to play the game and it's still too expensive! Magi Nation is fairly underrated, I believe. Survival Kids is the precursor to Lost in Blue for DS, if you like them.

[8-Bit Archeology]

Kirby tilt n tumble - fun and different.
Harvest Moon 3 - addicting as always with this series.
Toki Tori - think lode runner as a bird. Fun game.
ROX - a dr. Mario style game with dice.
My favorite GBC game other than the primo titles. Is
Alice in Wonderland. This game makes a great portable game, since it is all mini games. 1 mini game is a small segment of the story. You can pick it up and not care where you left off. Plus its good for anyone who doesnt have a lot of game time available.

And Conker's Pocket Tales - its Conker C'non now.

[wayultratech]

Thanks for all the awesome suggestions!! Magical Chase is awesome, definitely expensive. So crazy there was a Conker game on GBC. And man those Megaman games look super fun, gottsta check those out ASAP!! It's cool that so many franchises had a GBC entry, including the aforementioned MGS title, RE Gaiden, Blaster Master Enemy Below, Wario Land 2 & 3 and many more.

Kirby Tilt n Tumble looks interesting for sure, albeit kinda a weird entry in the series (not the only one, Kirby's Dream Course was quirky but pretty fun). And the Alice game looks fun too, some platform action thrown in it looks like!!

Goemon platformer seems fun, i am very big fan of platformers of all types and as Crystalian said a Super Game Boy / GBP is for sure the preferred way to play handheld titles. Especially platformers and shmups.

I am definitely gonna check out all these rad suggestions!! Even though the GBC may have had a good grip of bunk games, there seems to be a good amount of diverse games to check out!!

[Daltone]

Daikatana is surprisingly enjoyable.

[Alpha2099]

Sadly for me, any GBC games I owned that weren't well-known turned out to be bad games, like Warriors of Might and Magic or that awful port of Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine.

However, since we're supposed to talk about GOOD unknown games here, I'll toss in Project S-11. It's a respectable shmup game, though certainly not without flaws.

[wayultratech]

How could anybody do Indy like that, damn that Infernal Machine port looks about as graphically terrible as is possible on the GBC, i cannot believe LucasArts put their name on it!! Yikes, looks like somebody drank a pint of bad tequila on an empty stomach then upchucked on the screen!!!!

Yall are the best, thanks for the suggestions!!

I am lovin Project S-11, very "portable friendly" too, and the cart seems fairly cheap too. gonna pick that up for sure!! I am gonna invest some time into Daikatana as well.

This morning i was playing Armorines Project S.W.A.R.M. and was diggin' it, but now Proj S-11 is at the top of my get list. Anyone know of any other good GBC shmups?

[Satoshi_Matrix]

Shantae, Shantae, SHANTAE! Good lord if there's one game that fits the bill of "under-the-radar GBC gems", it's Shantae.

Shantae isn't just one of the best underrated games, It's also easily one of the best GBC games, and yes, one of the overall best games of all time, period.


Imagine games like Zelda II, Faxanadu, Castlevania 2, Battle of Olympus etc if instead of being mediocre to slighly kinda okay, they were exceptional - and you'd get an ingredient for Shantae.
Imagine Zelda type dungeons in a 2D platformer - you'd get an ingredient for Shantae.
Imagine Metroid's nonlinear go anywhere gain items to progress deeper gameplay and you'd get an ingredient for Shantae.
Imagine the best looking games on NES and Master System on steroids - you'd get an ingredient for Shantae.
Imagine an amazing chiptune soundtrack, and you'd get an ingredient for Shantae.
Imagine a sexy, original character, and you'd get an ingredient for Shantae.

I could go on.....but suffice it say the answer to this thread is above and beyond Shantae.


Now there are others that are worth mentioning as well.

Another that's fairly unknown is Warlocked - a RTS for GBC that is heavily based on Warcraft. and yeah, it's good.

[goob47]

I know it's not really "under-the-radar", but Pokemon Puzzle League for the GBC was great. :)

[BetaWolf47]

-Power Quest. Think of Street Fighter II, greatly simplified, but turned into a Saturday morning children's anime! It's like Mega Man Battle Network if it were a fighting game.
-Warlocked. An RTS on GBC, of all things. But to be honest, the forced simplicity of being on GBC works out in the games favor. It's really a fun game.

I was going to mention some others, but they were already taken. I'll second Robopon, Toki Tori, Metal Walker, and Project S-11.

[ccovell]

The character license is a bit off-putting, but Wendy - Every Witch Way is a decent-enough Metalstorm-copying gravity-flipping action-maze game.

Also, Balloon Fight GB.

[FrankSerpico]

Mario Tennis is one of my favorite GBC titles, I much prefer it to to Mario Golf

[Tupin]

The character license is a bit off-putting, but Wendy - Every Witch Way is a decent-enough Metalstorm-copying gravity-flipping action-maze game.

Also, Balloon Fight GB.
It is by WayForward, after all.

Am I the only person who likes Razor Freestyle Scooter? It's a bit of a guilty pleasure, honestly.

Oh, and Dragon's Lair simply for being amazingly technologically advanced.

[PreZZ]

I know its not a color game, but the lock n' chase reboot on GB is among my top 3 gameboy games, maybe even #1.

[fahlim003]

Motocross Maniacs 2. A great update to the original game in every way. I wouldn't say it was under the radar but I had always been hankering for more handheld ExciteBike action and the first Motocross Maniacs did a decent job. When I heard about Motocross Maniacs 2, it was a no-brainer and it was definitely worth getting.

I'd also mention the Digital Eclipse conversion of Capcom's 1942 even though it's available in a wide variety of platforms.

[MetalFRO]

However, since we're supposed to talk about GOOD unknown games here, I'll toss in Project S-11. It's a respectable shmup game, though certainly not without flaws.

Agreed. It's fun for a go-through now and again, but it's weapon system is woefully unbalanced, and there are some awfully cheap/unavoidable hits. Shmup purists generally despise the "Euroshmup" approach, but that doesn't bother me as much as the design just being a bit uninspired. I do like the C64-esque music, however, and the graphics do get somewhat colorful from time to time.

[o.pwuaioc]

Also, Balloon Fight GB.

This 1000x. I find myself wanting to play this gem more than any GBC game out there, Zeldas included.

[goldenband]

I haven't played this myself, but I've read that Elevator Action EX is quite good, and (here's the under-the-radar part) though it technically wasn't released in the US, it was reskinned into Dexter's Laboratory: Robot Rampage, which is available and pretty cheap. I don't have a copy, but I've been keeping my eyes open for it.


Motocross Maniacs 2. A great update to the original game in every way. I wouldn't say it was under the radar but I had always been hankering for more handheld ExciteBike action and the first Motocross Maniacs did a decent job. When I heard about Motocross Maniacs 2, it was a no-brainer and it was definitely worth getting.

I read a review of this that made it sound pretty great! I'll look for this one too.

To the OP, if you like old-school platformers, seriously consider Montezuma's Return (just to re-emphasize that recommendation from me & Scissors). It has kind of a mid-1980s computer game vibe going on -- in addition to the stuff inherited from the original Montezuma's Revenge, of course.

[Tanooki]

Well from a personal library of stuff I once owned I can think of three games immediately I don't think got the attention they deserved and were both in different ways technical marvels for the system.

- Dragon's Lair
- Cannon Fodder
- Warlocked

Dragon's Lair was a more or less full conversion of the laserdisc game amazingly enough, dumbed down to 4bit color, 8 moves removed, some scenes (death, rebirth) shortened, and basic audio. They got it all basically in there within a 4MB space which was shocking.

Cannon Fodder people who played DOS games or grew up in PAL areas would know it. A nice overhead point run and run with a cursor to fire away at where it's targetted suicide mission one after another. Great detail and audio for the system, had some crazy solid quality FMVs of all things on it too.

Warlocked basically stated was portable Warcraft 1. It was multiplayer too so 2P with 2 games could play either on the side of humans+elves(etc) or on the Orcs+undead sorts. In 1P mode you had a full set of a dozen stages or so for both sides. Heaps of movement on screen between the characters, everyone had walk animations, attack, and they all talked too as gabby as old PC-DOS Warcraft was. Oddly enough it controlled well despite using 2 buttons.

[wayultratech]

So many awesome new titles to try!!

I am now addicted to Power Quest and Mario Tennis, picked em up cheap and they're both great for on-the-go. All these other titles are for sure going on my backlog!!

Montezuma's Return is great, agreed on the older-PC-game vibe!! Definitely a must-play for GBC owners that are into platformers.

Also, i think there was a GBC port of Metal Slug that was a Japanese exclusive title (not Metal Slug Advance) although i haven't really been able to find any info on it. Anybody know if a GB/GBC Metal Slug exists that's different than the GBA game Metal Slug Advance?

[SparTonberry]

No, I don't believe there ever was a legit GBC Metal Slug.

AFAIK that was pirate-only (and most infamous for being re-pirated as Terrifying 911.)

[wayultratech]

Cool good to know!! The game i guess i was thinking of is unlicensed and is apparently called Metal Slug 2001.

70877088

[Crystalian]

PreZZ brought up a good game, albeit not GBC, in Lock'N'Chase. It is far superior to the original I played on Intellivision growing up, and that is even with the LACK OF COLOR. I always thought that if a game could make that trade-off and still be that good, then it was something special. I'm not advocating a de-railing of the thread, just saying some games transcend the NEED for color. I'd say Super Mario Land 2: The Six Golden Coins was the quintessential game for me that was so good, the lack of color just didn't matter. So there are options to expand the library with some choice non-GBC titles, but that's a topic for a different thread.

[Doonzmore]

Even though it was the system I had growing up, I enjoy the GBA library much more than what the GBC has to offer. There are a few games though that are worthy of my memory. They are:

Street Fighter Alpha
Polaris Snocross
Wendy: Every Witch Way
Jungle Book: Mowgli's Wild Adventure
Portal Runner

[PreZZ]

PreZZ brought up a good game, albeit not GBC, in Lock'N'Chase. It is far superior to the original I played on Intellivision growing up, and that is even with the LACK OF COLOR. I always thought that if a game could make that trade-off and still be that good, then it was something special. I'm not advocating a de-railing of the thread, just saying some games transcend the NEED for color. I'd say Super Mario Land 2: The Six Golden Coins was the quintessential game for me that was so good, the lack of color just didn't matter. So there are options to expand the library with some choice non-GBC titles, but that's a topic for a different thread.

2 of my favorite gameboy games are Gargoyle's Quest and Lock'n'chase, the 2 games I could afford because they were 9.99! Thanks toy's r us for making me choose these 2 awesome gems!

[Horsehead]

I don't know what it's called, but there's a tennis rpg that I found extremely fun back in the day. :)

EDIT - Come to think of it, I'm not sure if it was for the GBC or the regular Gameboy. Anyone know what I'm talking about?

[FrankSerpico]

^you sure you aren't thinking of Mario Tennis on the GBC? That had an RPG mode, but I've never heard of another tennis/RPG title on either the GBC or original GB

[Horsehead]

That must be what I'm thinking of... Thank you for clearing that up! It's been a long while since I played it.

[maxren]

My recs...

Warlocked
Crystalis
Little Mermaid Pinball
Alice in Wonderland