Every Nintendo Switch Online Game Boy (Color) Game Ranked

Can’t wait to see what games will be added this year. Hope we can go back to 3 games monthly like when NES and SNES where new seeing how big the GB libraries are.

Links Awakening DX should be #1

I actually really enjoyed Alone In The Dark at the time. Quite limited, and a bit shonky in places, but it was rather impressive back then. I will have to re-visit it.

As a human being, I can say this list is wrong. LA should be numero uno

Everyone go play Wario Land 3 right now.

@Dr_Corndog Can't, too busy playing Warioware.

Wario land 3 is easily the best one here

"Link's Awakening" should be #1, IMO.

"Tetris" is undeniably a great and important Gameboy game, but that's more due to historical significance (It was just the perfect title for the Gameboy at its launch and definitely helped push consoles in those early times), than because of gameplay merit.

I actually really like Metroid II. Even more than Super because I am a dirty sinner with the wrong opinion.

I have fond memories of Link's Awakening, but I will stick to the remake. It's just as good and doesn't have the interface problem.

@WiiWouldLikeToPlay The Lord's home will always have a spot set aside for those who repent...

hahahhahahahahahhhahahaha

@Dizzymario Came to say the same, but you beat me to it. Might break out my 3DS to play through it again. Would love a new one in the same style of gameplay, but with Shake It's art style.

Dumb question maybe - can the NES controllers be used to play these GB games (and can SNES controllers be used for gba?)

Would also be nice to play be able to play 2-player Tetris on one switch/screen

Game & Watch Gallery sounds kinda lame, but when you start playing and get hooked on the unlockables, it's a blast to play.

My wishlist for Game Boy:

Donkey Kong '94 (arguably the best game on the entire system)
Wario Land II (color version of course)
Pokémon Pinball (with rumble support)
Kid Dracula (GB version is not in the CV Anniversary collection)
Mega Man V (the best / most original GB Megaman)
Mega Man Xtreme
Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters (A game that was not even released in Japan!)
Mole Mania
Trip World
Balloon Kid
Crystalis (NES version is already in NSO)
Lufia
Harvest Moon series
Dragon Warrior series (including Dragon Warrior Monsters)
Donkey Kong Land series

Kirby has no business being above Metroid 2. The game is boring without copy abilities

Played the hell out of Mario Land 2 as a lad.

I hope we eventually get Wario Land: Mario Land 3 too. I actually prefer it to Wario Land 3.

I mostly agree with the list, though I’d put Super Mario Land 2 above Wario Land 3, and Link’s Awakening above Tetris.

@EarthboundBenjy
I believe Myths and Monsters is on the VC on 3ds.

What logic exactly did they follow when putting together these games for the service? Wario 3, Mario Land 2 and G&W 3? It seems they forgot these are sequels. I would’ve thought the numbers would make it obvious.

Alone in the Dark isn't that great, but it is pretyt impressive that they were able to cram that into a GBC cart! Technically, it's pretty cool.

@MS7000 new wario land is my biggest hope for the switch tbh

@Dizzymario I had a dream that happened, and it was glorious.

Yeah, Tetris first doesn't make sense nowadays, but other than that this list is great!

I’m so happy Wario Land 3 is one of the “launch” titles, it’s one of favorite Game Boy games. Such a fun game!

Literally the first game I loaded up was Tetris. It’s just an OG Gameboy classic pairing. Like Jenny was to Forrest, “We was like peas and carrots!”

That Alone in the Dark game is a very ambitious title indeed, the fact that Atari (Infogrames, maker of the Atari VCS) even attempted to make it as close to the console versions as they could is impressive. Knowing that Capcom attempt this same trick for their Resident Evil 1 GBC port and failed to released it while Atari did shows that Atari is not afraid to go above and beyond with their ports at the time.

Tetris is a good game but it's just... Tetris, nothing new. That's why I wouldn't put it so high on the list, but then again it's not my list and I respect any choice in that matter.

Can't wait to play Samus 2: Metro

My dads dogs, uncle’s cousin works for Nintendo and Pokémon comes to GameBoy next month

... so Tetris 8/10... Link's Awakening DX 10/10
1.Tetris
2. Link's Awakening. ???
Kids, if youve not played these games before and wondering the best order to try them out by rating... dont follow/trust NLife's order. In ALL of history, Tetris was NEVER rated anywhere near as good as Awakening!!?? Baffling!

Just finished Mario Land 2 for the Xth time. Wasn’t that laggy on my OG GB 😅

But I’m at least 25 years younger now and enjoy the good old games.

I don't have the slightest desire to play any of them in 2023. Time passes and extremely old games become boring to me.

I genuinely can’t wait to play a game from 1989 that debuted on a monochromatic, 3 inch screen with 4 shades of green as its entire palette on a modern 43 inch 4K tv at 1080p upscaled.

What a time to be alive!

Yeah my main man Wario up in the top 3

@GameOtaku
I honestly think they might be going on a quality basis. Since the Switch’s life span is winding down, I have a feeling that they’re not going to put many more games on the system beyond the ones shown, and they’ll hopefully expand it next console. They’re hitting the Game Boy and GBA’s greatest hits, and Wario Land 3 and Mario Land 2 are the best games in their respective series on Game Boy.

Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins, is one of my favorite games of all time, and my favorite 2d Mario. I only wish it was as colorful as its level design and music.

If you're thinking of playing Link's Awakening DX, just skip it and do the Switch remake instead. The additonal buttons for item control simply makes it a way superior version.

Alone in the dark inspired resident evil , not the other way around..since the franchise is four years older

Interwsting collection. Some surprises, and some really weird exeptions (mario land)

@fluggy this is actually the user ranking..

@Cool-Breeze Anything can be used to play anything. Whether there's enough buttons to pull it off is obviously something that you need to consider when choosing a controller, but no matter what Nintendo controller you connect, A is going to be A.

Short answer: Yes.

@EarthboundBenjy Man, if they put Pokemon Pinball on here, I'm dead. I played that SO much as a kid. My high scores were around 2.2 billion on the blue table and 1.6 on the red. Doubt I'll ever achieve such lofty numbers again, but if I get a billion on either again I'll be happy!

@JakedaArbok
The best games? That is a matter of personal preference. I’d argue Mario Land 3: Wario Land is better than Golden Coins. Alone in the Dark GBC is one of the best games on the system? Really?!

I'm not a fan of Link's Awakening DX. I find the colorization off-putting, like a badly colorized black and white film. If you want to play the game in its original monochrome form, I recommend The Legend of Zelda Game & Watch.

I'm just hoping that with the 3DS eShop going away for good next month, that they port over all the games that are currently on there for sale.

@delt75 ALL the games? Frankly that's a ridiculous expectation. Do you think ports are something that a dev just snaps their fingers to miraculously create? Especially for games that were originally on a system with such a radically different two-screen display. Plus the touch input, any AR elements, any 3D stuff that mattered... All that ranges from difficult to impossible to port. And you're asking for that to happen for hundreds if not thousands of games.

I love ‘Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins’.

I never personally had an original Game Boy system (my first Nintendo handheld, not counting the Game & Watch, was the GBA) but both of my younger sisters had one (about 30 years ago).
[I was always spending my money on NES games instead.]
Both of them would share their Game Boys with me though - I remember the two games that they had that I would play the most were ‘The Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle’ and ‘Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins’.
To this day, that Mario game is still on my list as one of the all-time greatest Mario games.

If the drip feed these especially GBA being in the highest band it’s a joke. They have so many in house titles on both they can give us proper regular updates.

I’m stoked alone in the dark is there. That’s awesome

@ketrac
The switch remake makes some of the jumps a lot harder. There were many places where in the original and DX I could access a lot easier.

@Bret Sorry if you were confused. This is a thread about Game Boy and GBA games, and when I said I’d like to see all of them ported over, I was referring to said Game Boy, GBA games. Haha

I'd say Link's Awakening is the best game by far, but I am very disappointed that Nintendo only made the DX version available. Feels like an oversight to me because it means you can only play the game in Gameboy Color format and the Original and Pocket filters simply don't work.

Mario 6 Golden Coins is great fun, but it's ridiculously easy to play today. I remember it being a fair challenge when I played it at launch(!) but I suspect a combination of age and playing many, many more Mario games since has made it easier.

It's interesting to look back at actually because it highlights the huge challenge Nintendo have with their next 2D Mario game. Especially after the Mario Maker games! Will be intriguing to see what they come up with that looks and plays well, presents a challenge, and isn't labelled more of the same.

Tetris is historically a super important game, and a great one, but Link's Awakening is one of the most refined games I ever played. Alone in the Dark, while I can see (I have eyes) that it doesn't hold up today or even in its own day remotely compared to any other version of itself, I must say it is among my favourite GBC games, and it's not an RE clone when it succeeded where RE failed: an ACTUAL GBC version, that works, was released, and impressed the hell out of me back then. I still have it complete in box.

@delt75 OH. That's different. Hahaha, sorry.

@GameOtaku
Mario Land 2 and 3 are vastly different games. When you’re marketing a console, you kinda want to have a Mario game on there.
As for Alone in the Dark, that’s kind of an exception to the rule, I can’t argue that that’s weird. I still think the selection overall is weird, I’m just trying to get into Nintendo’s head regarding this.

Please give us Fire Red, Leaf Green, Sapphire and Ruby, oh and Wario Land 4 !!!!!!!!

@Bret Hahaha! No worries!

For those complaining about the ratings, this is off of NL user's self reported game scores, averaged. If you believe Link's Awakening is a 10/10 game, then rank it as such. As of the time of this posting, Tetris is at 9.1 and Link's Awakening is 9.06. Convince others in the comment section why the game should be ranked higher instead of just saying it should be, you might convince someone to actually rank the game, or at the very least possibly change their opinion.

Great selection to start with, really. :v
I'm finally going to play Mario Land 2, and I've been meaning to complete Gargoyle's Quest since forever, so I'll get to that too!

I remember when the Game Boy was new and checking out the coverage of those early games in Nintendo Power. The one that stuck with me most was Gargoyle's Quest and was one of the main reasons I wanted a Game Boy. It was really hard for me at first too and I wondered if maybe I would regret it, but it did play well and I kept going back to it. It was one of my favorites on the system. Another favorite was Metroid 2. I hadn't played anything quite like it and it had me glued to my Game Boy for a while. I had no anticipation for it, but a school friend of mine got it and told me I needed to get it, so I did.

Playing Super Mario Land 2 again,
it strikes me as pretty ahead of its time in how you can play the zones in any order.

I wonder why the user rankings have Link's Awakening at only a 9.06. I wonder if people have given it a 9 instead of a 10 because they're comparing it to other Zelda games when they should be comparing it to other Game Boy games.

I have never understood the acclaim that Gameboy Tetris continues to get. It by far has the worst controls of any Tetris I have played, not counting touch controls. NES Tetris is my preferred way to play pure Tetris, and Tetris 99 is the best special version of Tetris. Tetris DS is another standout.

Played the heck out of Metroid II and then Tetris. Best version of Tetris ever. Sorely missing Solar Striker and Alleyway.

I am so surprised (but very pleased) that they included Link's Awakening. Especially since they have the remake.

And Metroid II.

And Tetris!!! I played so much Tetris on my OG Game Boy way back when.

This is great!

Wario Land 3! Zelda! Mario Land 2! 3 masterpieces!

I will be extremely blunt here, as a Zelda fan. Link's Awakening DX did not age well. It carries many, MANY flaws that are frankly so minor yet so frequent that they build up to become very frustrating. Once you get to play the Oracle games, you will understand just how painful of a game it is to play Link's Awakening.

Gargoyle's Quest needs to be way higher than it is. It is a masterpiece of the OG Game Boy library. The music is phenomenal and the gameplay is * chef's kiss *

Besides that Link's Awakening of course, which was quite an achievement given the hardware. Tetris should not be on top. It's fun and loved by many, but in no way is it a game I'd play for longer than 15 minutes at a time.

@Nua Sorry for not going into detail, but there were way too many articles yesterday (and yes, I know it's a user rating).
As to why I think Tetris first doesn't make sense nowadays? There are so many other, much better ways to play practically the same game on Switch and even strictly Switch Online while every other game on the list is either exclusively on GB(C) or have remakes that, while arguably better, don't completely replace them (Link's Awakening has the photos, Metroid II and Samus Returns have too many differences to list them here).

Link's Awakening was my first and, as much as I love Breath of the Wild, might still be my favourite Zelda game.

Slightly off topic - is there multiplayer or even 2 player available for Tetris on the Gameboy app???? The wife had a Gameboy back in the day, as did I... but she never played 2 player Tetris. I'd love the chance to have my a** kicked by her. She'd definitely beat me. But 2 player Tetris is so much fun, I'll put up with the whooping

I just finished Super Mario Land 2... again... I have lost track of how many times I've beaten that game. I don't know why, but it never gets old for me.

@JohnnyMind I didn't solo you out, there were just multiple people posting as if NL made the list instead of letting the user averages do it.

I don't know what I would personally rate Tetris GB as, but in terms of importance it's up there in GameBoy history with the first Pokemon games. However, a game's legacy shouldn't impact it's review score.

@Nua I know, I just wanted to rectifiy my mistake!

@Hansmolemann There is, for Game Boy (Color) there's multiplayer locally and online (friends only) for 2 players while for Advance up to 4!

I finally got the Expansion Pak, and I'm pretty happy with the selection of games! I was a naysayer but I found a way to make it affordable for me and I like what's here. ☺️👍

ok here's the meat of the compliment sandwich: why give us links awakening DX, but not Tetris DX? I cannot understand why DX is so often overlooked. is there something y'all just don't like about that game, that I missed?

over all though very cool! glad to have some of these in my life again in a relevant way!

Metroid II and Zelda are my tops. Apparently I need to try Gargoyle’s Quest! Can’t wait for Pokemon too!

Burgertime should be top 5!