News has recently come out that Nintendo has registered a trademark on the Game Boy. First off, Nintendo didn’t have a trademark on the Game Boy? But more importantly, this seems to indicate that Nintendo is likely going to release a Game Boy classic after the success of NES Classic and SNES classic.
Honestly, this is one that I could do without. The reality is that many NES games are difficult to play with modern technology being what it is. Game Boy with it’s 4-bit grey and black graphics and minimal gameplay… it’s honestly not that good. There are very few games that I would consider classic. In fact, the Game Boy is a system that I decided not to collect early on… partially because it is hard to store & display the games, and also because the games just aren’t that good.
But it seems Nintendo is eyeing Game Boy over going the N64 route for its next mini series (probably partially due to the difficulty of emulating the N64). So I feel the need to put out what I think should, or will be on the Game Boy Classic. I am going to make the assumption that the Game Boy Classic will actually be a Game Boy Color Classic. And keep in mind, this is likely going to be every game worth playing on the game boy plus a few that aren’t.
- Color – Ok, not a game, but the games chosen for the Game Boy Classic would be best if Nintendo offered a color mode. Whether it was an actual color remake of the graphics, or just a lame color lense that the Game Boy Color had (Now it’s light blue and dark blue instead of grey and black!).
- Pokemon Crystal – The Game Boy Classic is going to have a Pokemon game, how can it not? It’ll be interesting if they just give the straight game or if they have some way to do pokemon trading. Regardless it will have one… Whether they go with Classic First gen or do second gen is the key. They could be super annoying and have a Blue Game Boy and Red Game Boy, but I think they would sidetrack that issue by going with Crystal which is considered one of the best Pokemons of all time. It’s also not an easy version to get your hands on.
- Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening DX – Another no brainer. This game was a sister game to Link to the Past, and is pretty good. Doing the DX version means that owners would get a full colorized version with a bonus dungeon.
- Tetris – I’m not sure how the rights to this game work. But what is the Game Boy without Tetris?
- Kirby’s Dream Land – So far every Classic has come with a Kirby and this was the best one on Game Boy.
- Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins – 2 was better than 1. Neither is as classic as console Marios.
- Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 – Better than 2 and actually a decent game in its own right. It’s unfortunate Wario hasn’t really had a decent release since.
- Metroid II: Samus Returns – I don’t think this game was great in the first place and I don’t think it held up either. But, Metroid has name recognition and Nintendo recently did a remake so this makes sense.
- Final Fantasy Adventure – This was actually the first Secret of Mana title, but Square didn’t think Americans would understand having a game with a different name? No idea, still it was pretty good.
- Final Fantasy Legend II – Second was better than the first, these were true Final Fantasy games.
- Donkey Kong Land – Making a clone of a console game and throwing Land at the end of it was pretty common… Again.. name recognition…
- Pokemon Pinball – OK… I doubt the GB Classic would come with rumble, and honestly that was kind of the truly revolutionary thing about Pokemon Pinball… that being said, it was a solid little pinball game.
- Dr. Mario – Puzzle games do a better job with the test of time because they don’t need great graphics and simple is sometimes better.
- Mega Man V – Generally thought of as the best Game Boy Mega Man… I could see them throwing a dart at a board and just picking whatever one it lands on.
- Shantae – So Shantae has had a rebirth thanks to a pretty good kickstarter. How epic would it be if Nintendo decided to approach WayForward to get it on the GB Classic?
- Gargoyle’s Quest – GQ 2 on NES and Demon’s Crest on SNES are generally well thought of, but this was a solid game in its own right. Neither of the other two were good enough to make it onto the other systems, but there’s not a ton to choose from on the GB and this game turns out to be one of the better on this system.
- R-Type DX – Shmups are great, R-Type was an amazing series and this one was in color. This may have issues due to the fact that the company who made it is no more (I don’t even know who owns R-Type anymore), but it would offer a nice bit of variety to the system.
- Mario Tennis – Good lord this series has been around long enough to be on the Game Boy? Why yes it has! Again, the system needs some variety and even though you don’t generally want to load too many of the same faces, Mario Tennis is fun.
- Kid Dracula – The other systems had Castlevania, this system should have the game that made fun of Castlevania.
- Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters – Why? Because why not? Kid Icarus is one of those series that people love to want but it turns out the games aren’t great. Still… this would maybe appease some people whining for the series, may raise awareness of the series, and at the very least is a series Nintendo owns that isn’t in the Mario or Pokemon universe.
- F-1 Race – Ok we have hit the bottom of the barrel, but when I was looking around for inspiration on this list I noticed that this game was actually the 16th best selling game on the system. I don’t remember it at all, but it sold about 3.5 million units and was published by Nintendo. Even though it sold a lot, I think this would be a great obscure game to add that gives the system variety.