Best First-Party Game Boy Games

12. Super Mario Land (GB)

Super Mario Land was an impressive accomplishment in 1989. The sequel might have made this first shot at translating the plumber's platforming to the overworked, underpowered handheld seem quaint by comparison, but it's still a fun Super Mario experience, albeit a short one.

Crafted by Gunpei Yokoi's R&D1 rather than Shigeru Miyamoto's team, it's a surreal yet compelling take on the template which takes some adjusting to nowadays. And just when things are really getting good, the credits roll.

If you haven't played Super Mario Land before, you owe it to yourself to try this — it's worth playing through at least once to see where Mario's portable adventures began. Cracking music, too.

11. Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters (GB)

If you're a fan of Kid Icarus on the NES, you owe it to yourself to pick up the sequel. Not only does it capture the same magic found in the NES release, but it builds on many of the great gameplay ideas featured in the original.

The difficulty has been toned down to make it a bit more approachable, but there's still plenty of challenge to be found and a fairly lengthy adventure. Some fantastic boss fights make for particular highlights, and Kid Icarus: Of Myths & Monsters is a great prelude to Kid Icarus: Uprising.

10. Dr. Mario (GB)

The Game Boy port of this pill-dropping puzzler offers a decent game, although it probably isn't top of the must-have puzzler list. Unlike Tetris, where the colours of the blocks are irrelevant, Dr. Mario’s pills are a little more challenging to keep track of, especially on the original system’s blurry screen.

Still, if you’re a prolific puzzle practitioner, you could do much worse than this falling-block title with a twist.

9. Game & Watch Gallery (GB)

The Game Boy was, in many ways, the natural evolution of Nintendo’s Game & Watch line of one-shot portable devices, so the ability to play those games on one cartridge was an acknowledgement of that handheld legacy.

If you liked the originals, this collection is a must-have. Both the originals and remakes, which combine simple gameplay and subtle strategy, are here to enjoy and the newer versions play differently enough that you're quite likely to consider them new experiences in and of themselves.

The musical and visual presentation is fantastic as well, and the entire package serves as a relic of a truly magical time in gaming. Or, perhaps, two truly magical times.

8. Game Boy Camera (GB)

A wonderful, strange piece of kit that blurs the line between game and hardware. Development on the software side of the Game Boy Camera project was led by Hirokazu ‘Hip’ Tanaka and the software within is full of odd audio-visual ticks, as if the spirit of the WarioWare games somehow infected the hardware.

Eccentric Game & Watch-esque minigames accompany the base photo mode which enabled you to snap 128x112 pixel shots and stamp them with tiny pictures. Owners of its sister peripheral, the Game Boy Printer, could print out their masterpieces on thermal paper and distribute them accordingly. Japanese 64DD owners could also link the camera to Mario Artist: Talent Studio to create avatars of themselves a long time before Miis existed, and we still wish Rare’s plans to enable players to import photos into Perfect Dark multiplayer had made it past Nintendo.

Still, we’re very glad that something as silly as this managed to see the light of day at all. If David Lynch ever made a lo-fi digital camera, it would look something like this.

7. Mole Mania (GB)

Mole Mania was a first-party Nintendo game headed up by Shigeru Miyamoto himself. Some minor control issues aside, it plays a little bit like an endless series of puzzle rooms from the dungeons of Zelda: Link’s Awakening, albeit without the direct combat.

The visuals are great and the music is phenomenal, making this a worthy addition to the GB library for anyone who won't get frustrated over finding themselves stuck again and again. In Mole Mania, getting stuck is part of the fun.

6. Wario Land II (GB)

Big fans of the first game (Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3) might lament Wario Land II's sudden significant change in gameplay, but if you give it a try, you'll find that it's actually rather brilliant. All the unique new gameplay features help flesh the series out and turn it into a wildly different, yet still equally entertaining time.

This game would quickly get a Game Boy Color version with backwards compatibility for the original Game Boy, but its standalone grey cart release makes it eligible for this list and a fine entry it is, too.

5. Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (GB)

The original Super Mario Land was a solid start for the series on Nintendo's Game Boy system, but nothing prepared us for what Nintendo R&D1 was able to do with this sequel.

Every aspect of the game is improved to the point that it genuinely feels of a piece with its 8-bit, home console brethren, delivering a longer, more in-depth handheld Mario adventure. It's a bit on the easy side, but it remains one of the best Game Boy titles ever released and a testament to just how capable a system it was in the hands of talented devs.

If you're a Super Mario fan, you absolutely must play Super Mario Land 2; if you're not, this legendary handheld entry is good enough to make you one.

4. Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 (GB)

With Wario Land, Nintendo completely reinvented its portable platformer and gave its greedy new character his own game, instead of merely plopping him down into the middle of another standard Super Mario Land presentation.

Indeed, anybody who might have picked up this ‘sequel’ expecting something similar was in for a shock. A wealth of new gameplay features combined with a unique visual and musical style make this title stand on its own and it gives fans of the previous Mario Land releases a fresh spin on the series.

If you want to experience some of the best platforming the Game Boy system has to offer, you needn't look any further.

3. Donkey Kong (GB)

It's rare that the echo triumphs over the voice, but if we had to pick between playing arcade DK or the Game Boy port, there's really no choice.

Donkey Kong on Game Boy — Donkey Kong '94 as it's often called — is far more than just a simple sequel or port. After finishing the first four levels, you might assume that's it, but with over 101 levels in total, there's a whole other game awaiting you. In fact, it laid the groundwork for spin-off series Mario vs. Donkey Kong.

Adding a metric ton of new features while still managing to keep the ‘arcadey’ feel of the original, the visuals and music are outstanding and complement this impressively expanded take on an icon. It's up there with the Game Boy's finest, and another wonderful portable title featuring Mr. D. Kong.

2. Tetris (GB)

With few of the bells and whistles that would arrive later on, Game Boy Tetris is arguably the purest expression of the original block-falling idea.

There have been countless ports of this addictive puzzler made available for just about every electronic device in existence, but the Game Boy version is arguably the most beloved and its clear visuals, responsive controls, and that theme tune make it easy to appreciate why.

The very deadliest of killer apps, no self-respecting Game Boy enthusiast should be without a copy.

1. The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (GB)

It would be difficult to argue against The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening being the pinnacle of gaming on Game Boy. The developers squeezed an extremely lengthy quest into a miniscule package and pushed just about every facet of the handheld hardware to its limit.

Not only is Link's Awakening not the dumbed-down Zelda adventure many initially feared, but it turned out to be one of the best entries in the series. It laid the foundation for many Zelda mechanics we still see today, introducing flying with Cuccos, trading sequences, playing songs on an ocarina, fishing, and even minibosses.

For such a tiny game, Link's Awakening created enormous shockwaves in the series. If you want to experience the very best that the portable system has to offer, do yourself a favour and get this (or the DX version for Game Boy Color with the extra dungeon that's handily available via Nintendo Switch Online) immediately. As much as we love the Switch remake, we're still in love with the original.