Favorite Games List – Game Boy

The Favorite Games List was a recurring feature originally published on Trevor Trove. This installment originally debuted on November 20, 2015

So far in my Favorite Games List series, we’ve looked at Early PC, Atari, and the NES. So let’s look at the world of the handhelds, starting with my favorite games of the…

Game Boy

My sister Jamie and I shared one of those really old heavy off-white ones to start but eventually our parents let us each have our own. And while I remember playing many hours of games like Bubble Bobble, Kirby’s Pinball Land, and Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (and just had to move them to a different shelf as my dog Elphie gets bigger and more curious), I don’t really have any compelling memories/stories about them so they get a mention here before moving on. I’d also cover the hours upon hours of Tetris, but I mentioned that in the previous chapter.

Dragon Warrior I & II and Dragon Warrior III – As mentioned among my Nintendo favorites, Dragon Warrior IV really won me over. But I never had the opportunity to play its predecessors until Nintendo started re-releasing them as Game Boy games. These games didn’t quite live up to the level of DW IV but they were good enough to lock me into the series for years to come. Speaking of series that locked me in…

Pokemon Red/Blue/Yellow – God damn you Pokemon and your brilliant “Gotta Catch ‘Em, All” marketing schtick. In the beginning, my sister and I each had our own versions of the game: she had Blue and I had Red (because hell yes I was taking the one with the fire dragon Charizard). Being the good brother that I was, I would even offer to play both versions of the game for the first few hours and trade all of the starters back and forth so both of us would have a Bulbasaur, Squirtle, and Charmander. Of course, then I would proceed through the game much quicker and beat the crap out of her when we’d battle. When Yellow came out, we’d take turns playing through it to enjoy the more show-based storyline.

Pokemon Gold/Silver/Crystal – By the time Gold and Silver came out, we were nearing the end of our gaming time together. We still each got a version (I told Gold and Jamie had Silver) but I was in high school and she was in middle school when they came out. And Jamie has always been the more extroverted between the two of us so while I spent more time continuing my gaming, she was out becoming a social butterfly. By the time Crystal came out, it was pretty much just for me. Although, when she moved to away to Tennessee a couple years ago, I let her take our old purple Game Boy Color and those original Red, Blue, and Yellow cartridges with her. I’ve continued collecting the newer games and re-releases so I was happy to give her that piece of her childhood. She’s back now, though, so they’re back within reach if I ever want to sit down with them again.

Those are the games that stand out most in my head growing up with the Game Boy in hand. Played plenty of others but none that really have the same emotional resonance as these few examples. How about you? What memories do you have of back seat road trips or laying in bed with the front light attachment accessories? Let me know.