Game Boy and GB Color titles first arrived on Nintendo Switch Online in February 2023, pleasing many old-school players in the process. The various Game Boys — the OG, Pocket, and Color — have a vast library of excellent games, the best of which hold up very well, so seeing some of those gems on Switch is a real treat.
It also gives people who missed out on those Halcyon handheld days decades ago the chance to catch up. But where should you start? What are the best Game Boy games on NSO?
The following ranking can point you in the right direction. It’s compiled using the Nintendo Life User Ratings (out of 10) given to each GB(C) game available on Switch in the West.
This ranking is not set in stone and will automatically fluctuate over time depending on assigned scores and, over time, new additions to the NSO library. Think a game deserves to place higher? Simply click on the ‘star’ button and score it yourself. Your personal rating could very well boost its placement in the overall ranking!
Ready to go all 8-bit? Let’s take a look at the Game Boy games playable on Nintendo Switch, as ranked by you lovely people. We start at the bottom of the pile…
Baseball was never a great game, but the ability to play it with friends meant it was a functional addition to any Game Boy library. Any fond memories you have of Baseball include a second player, we can assure you. Without that second player, even nostalgia won’t help; this is not the game you remember.
You can understand the mechanical simplicity given the hardware, and a certain level of appeal given the lack of portable baseball alternatives in 1989, but this one is not worth chasing these days.
This one was a cross-platform title that also had PlayStation, PC, and Dreamcast versions, and although the diminutive handheld probably wasn’t the ideal platform for an immersive Resident Evil-inspired survival horror experience, developer Pocket Studios did an admirable job downscaling the prerendered environments to display on Game Boy Color, delivering a decent approximation of the game as it existed on the far more powerful systems.
That’s not to say GBC’s Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare is the pick of the ports, of course. But, as massively downscaled 8-bit ‘demakes’ go, it’s really not a bad one and can be impressively spooky given the platform’s limitations. Not one we’d rush to play over Game Boy luminaries like Super Mario Land 2, then, but a long way from terrible.
An unloved game based on the unloved Warner Bros. animated film, Quest for Camelot launched on Game Boy Color in the final weeks of 1998. Its appearance as part of Nintendo’s Switch Online offering may be down to the platform holder’s co-publishing of the original game (along with developer and publisher Titus Interactive).
This top-down action RPG might look a little like Zelda, but this is an exceptionally dull entry in the handheld’s library, even by the standards of licensed movie tie-ins.
A turn-based adventure/RPG from Kemco, The Sword of Hope launched in Japan in ’89, made its way West in ’91, and got a 1992 sequel which took four years to come to North America (and never made it to Europe until a Virtual Console release on 3DS).
Cards on the table: we haven’t played this one. If you’re after a great overview, we recommend Jeremy Parish’s Game Boy World video that looks at the game, plus some Kemco history. And now it’s on NSO, there’s no excuse for us not to check it out.
Jaleco’s Fortified Zone is a strange mix of two completely different types of games, probably best described as a mix of The Legend of Zelda and Commando – similar to the original Metal Gear, in a way.
It’s not particularly long, and there are never really any moments that elevate it to ‘fantastic’, but it’s a fun game throughout and well worth a try on NSO.
The mixture of old and new elements gives Blaster Master: Enemy Below enough new twists to make it a worthy sequel to the amazing original. Sure, many of the same audio/visual elements have been carried over fairly unchanged, but the new bosses and open setting offer up a whole new experience for fans to enjoy.
If you never gave the Blaster Master series a chance (and Switch owners don’t have much excuse considering that both this and the NES original are available with a Nintendo Switch Online subscription), this great Game Boy Color title is as good a reason as any to get stuck in.
Released in the wake of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night’s astonishing critical success, Castlevania Legends introduces the first mainline female hero, Sonia Belmont, who was technically, chronologically the first-ever Belmont to fight Dracula. At least she was until Koji Igarashi became the producer of the series and the game’s story became non-canon.
Following the amazing Belmont’s Revenge was no easy task, but Legends is an inferior outing in almost every regard, bar the fact that it came with battery backup so you could save your progress. The visuals, controls, and music are all worse than they are in Belmont’s Revenge, but that hasn’t stopped Legends from becoming one of the most desirable and expensive Game Boy games.
It’s worth a brief look, but don’t pay silly money for it, especially when it’s available on NSO.
Best described as a cross between the TV series Lost and The Legend of Zelda, Survival Kids (or Stranded Kids as it was known in Europe) was groundbreaking in how much agency it affords the player; despite looking like your typical cute and cuddly RPG, it allows you to tackle the game at your own pace and in a largely non-linear fashion.
Gameplay revolves around tracking various elements such as hunger, thirst, and tiredness, and there’s even a crafting system present that enables you to create weapons and tools. Survival Kids is a standout GBC title and got a Japan-only sequel in 2000. The series would go on to inspire the Lost in Blue franchise on DS and Wii and a Switch 2 ‘reimagining’ for the system’s launch.
Quite a bit longer than Data East’s original arcade game, BurgerTime Deluxe‘s 24 all-new levels are sure to entertain, but it won’t require a lengthy investment.
You play Peter Pepper, a chef whose restaurant has been invaded by several pieces of living food, like sausages and eggs. Somehow, the only way to get rid of these pests is to create gigantic burgers by walking across the components — the buns, meat, lettuce — spread out across various platforms connected with ladders.
It might not win an award for realism, but its gameplay still holds up well today, with strategy required to outwit the burger-hatin’ enemies. Suitably satisfying fast-food fodder, then.
Mega Man II isn’t the greatest entry in the Blue Bomber’s library. Removed from inevitable comparisons to the NES versions of Mega Man 2 and 3, judging the game on its own clunky merits does it no favours, either. The unique content is limited to a forgettable new boss and new weapon, and perhaps the shortest Wily stage in history.
Unless you’re an absolute completionist — or afflicted with the same morbid curiosity we are — there’s no reason to grab this entry over the multiple good interpretations of Mega Man on Game Boy. Definitely play the others first.
Aside from the Mario cameos (if you pay attention when starting the game, you’ll see that Mario himself jumps into the paddle and pilots it, and many of the bonus stages are shaped like Mario characters), there’s not much to say about Alleyway. You bounce the ball with your paddle to break all the blocks on the screen, in time-honoured Breakout style.
At its best, it’s simply Arkanoid without all the fluff. If you grew up with it or you’re after some reasonably compelling block-breaking, you might get a kick out of it.
Mega Man: Dr. Wily’s Revenge was a decent first swing at a handheld Mega Man game. It’s fairly fun, but you get the feeling you’re playing a watered-down version of the NES games, which will end up making you want to play them instead.
The game is over in a flash — with just six stages, it’s shorter than every other game in the series. Thankfully, Capcom noted this and the remaining four Game Boy entries each have 10 or more stages and are, overall, more impressive than this first attempt. Not bad for a fresh(mega)man, though.
A full-fat Gradius game squeezed onto a tiny Game Boy cartridge? Nemesis II, as we knew it in Europe (and Japan), is remarkable in a similar way to Operation C – the essence of the original remains entirely intact in this portable version despite vastly reduced system specs.
The visuals are beautifully detailed, but everything also remains clear and readable on the tiny screen, with enemies, obstacles, and background elements all plainly demarcated.
Much of the pleasure comes from the incredulity of seeing how well the Game Boy handles this classic, but there’s plenty of fun to be had, too.
If you enjoy falling block puzzlers, then Kirby’s Star Stacker is a fun little one of those. The Round Clear mode gives you some fixed levels to play through, after which you’ll be left with high score attempts, just like most puzzlers.
It got a Japan-exclusive Super Famicom remake very late in that system’s life, although it never came to the West because the mainstream market for SNES games had disappeared by 1998. All told, it’s worth a look.
The Sword of Hope II is simple but rewarding fun. It doesn’t offer much in the way of replay value, but it’s absolutely worth experiencing once.
Everything in this RPG is handled indirectly through menus, including movement, which may seem clunky at first but very quickly becomes easy to navigate. Battles are random — apart from a few preordained ones — and turn-based. You always have as much time as you need to consider your next move. That’s important because enemies begin ganging up on Theo almost immediately, and they continue to do so throughout the entire game.
The challenge is fair and there are a massive amount of weapons and spells to master, as well as a great soundtrack and some crisp pixel art.
Released in 2000 in Japan and the following year in North America, this GBC spin-off never came to PAL shores, at least not until it was added to Nintendo Switch Online in June 2023. The cartridge included a tilting sensor which enabled you to control Kirby by rolling him around levels, guiding him to the goal.
Kirby Tilt ‘n’ Tumble isn’t ground-breaking, but it’s a fun Kirby curio and worth playing if you can track it down. Make sure you’re playing it in a regular GBC or GBA, though — the accelerometer doesn’t like being held upside down in a GBA SP, and you won’t get very far plugging it into a Game Boy Player, either. Thankfully, the version on Switch uses that console’s gyro sensors.
