 One Super Nintendo accessory I never fully took advantage of as a kid was the Super Game Boy. I did have a Game Boy in a few games, but I never got all that wrapped up in that universe because, well, I had a Super Nintendo. My mentality was, why would I want to play lesser versions of these awesome Super Nintendo games? Screw that! So the Game Boy games I ended up having were just like Tetris, WWF Superstars, Bart vs the Juggernauts, Roger Clemens MVP Baseball, stuff like that. Just simple pick up and play games that were easy to play in the car or while your older brother was hogging the Super Nintendo by playing some total crap game like Bill Lambeer's Combat Basketball. Now what I stupidly ignored is that many of these Game Boy games served as extensions or complimentary pieces to the Nintendo and Super Nintendo classics. So here's a list of those particular Game Boy games that were spin-offs, so to speak, of their Nintendo and Super Nintendo counterparts. So yeah, no Pokemon in this list, please control your anger. Now keep in mind, only original Game Boy games work with the Super Game Boy, so no Game Boy Color. Let's get the obvious ones out of the way first. The first game that comes to mind is Link's Awakening. I already reviewed this one, but I'll say it again, I like this game better than Link to the past. I like the silly story, I love being able to jump, the piece of power is a lot of fun, and the way the map is slowly unlocked the further you progress is cleverly done. Another obvious game I'll get out of the way real quick is Super Mario Land 2 and the Six Golden Coins. This game was a quantum leap ahead of the first Super Mario Land. Seriously, it's like going from the first Super Mario Brothers to Super Mario World, and it's still obviously an outstanding game today. Plus, how can you beat Bunny Mario and Wario making his debut as the main villain? If you like Super Mario World and who doesn't, then you'll like Mario Land 2. It's available for cheap on the 3DS Virtual Console, so check it out. Sticking with the land theme, there's also Donkey Kong Land 2. It's impressive how it manages to cram in the traditional Donkey Kong Country graphics onto a tiny Game Boy cartridge. Like Donkey Kong Country 2, you play as Diddy and Dixie, but it features completely new layouts for each level. It's a bit easier, though, to be honest, but it's still well done, especially if you're jonesing for a game in the Donkey Kong Country universe that you haven't played to death already. Mega Man 5, not to be confused with the NES Mega Man 5, also features original content with new music and new bosses, all named after planets in our solar system, even you, Pluto. Sadly, this game does have some slowdown problems and has kind of a goofy jump glitch, but the gameplay and level design is as good as you'd expect from any other Mega Man game. I'm a huge fanboy of the NES Mega Man games, and I think this game is on that same wavelength. So if you love Mega Man, you gotta check this one out. The cartridge of this one is kind of rare, but thankfully it's available on the 3DS Virtual Console. Operation C is, of course, way more like the original Contra or Super Steep for the NES than it is like Contra 3, but this game did get kind of ignored a bit. It's got five original stages, but it does borrow some elements from Super C. This isn't to be confused with the Contra Alien Wars port, just FYI. It's got that classic Contra gameplay, although it does play a bit easier since the Game Boy limitations make it tough to have a lot going on the screen at once. I really like that the default gun is a machine gun, so all you have to do is hold the button down instead of tapping it to death. Anyway, this game is usually pretty cheap on eBay, and I think it's well worth it. Castlevania II, Belmont's Revenge, is another game that's closer to a complimentary piece for the NES titles, but this game also has some surprising similarities to Super Castlevania IV in terms of atmosphere. Yeah, you heard me. An original Game Boy title manages to create a real atmosphere. The sound design goes a long way toward that, and the overall presentation here is really impressive. It's really worth checking out. There's four castles you can play through in any order. There's rock, crystal, plant, and cloud, and they all have distinct music and backgrounds. The game might not be as hard as the NES games, but it's a fun play through that lives up to the Castlevania Legacy. Next, there's Metroid II Return of Samus, whose mission is to eliminate all the Metroids on their home planet before the space pirates show up. This game is kind of polarizing. Some people love it, some people hate it. It's nowhere near Super Metroid, but if you enjoy the 2D Metroid universe, you might like this one. The sound and graphics of the Game Boy don't always lend themselves well to a game like Metroid, but to be honest, I kind of like the soundtrack. The dissonance reminds me of an Atari 2600 game, or even Earthbound at times. Anyway, the usual Metroid combat style is here, with upgrades, energy tanks, and missile packs. It might not appeal to everyone, but I think it's worth a shot. Next, there's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Fall of the Foot Clan. At first glance, this game looks super limited and really easy. I mean, as a Game Boy beat-em-up, looks pretty basic, and for the most part it is, but it is capable of getting somewhat chaotic at times. You can choose to beat any of the four Turtles to crank through five original levels. Bebop and Rocksteady are here, Baxter, Shredder, Krang, the Technodrome. It's a short game, but it's not a bad way to spend a half an hour. Next, there's Gargoyle's Quest, which in my opinion is better than its Super Nintendo counterpart, Demon's Crest. I know I might be in the minority on that, but seriously, if you like Demon's Crest, you should absolutely check out Gargoyle's Quest. The level design better fits Firebrand's capabilities, and it makes you be a bit more precise. You also have a limited time in which you can fly, a feature that I think would have gone a long way in the Super Nintendo game. There's an overhead map where you can fall into random battles too, as well as the usual side-scrolling levels. It is easily one of the best original Game Boy games. Alright, let's close this out with a bang. Two more games that are on a much bigger scale. First, Final Fantasy Legend 2, also known as Saga 2, Hiho Densetsu. One of the better games in the Final Fantasy universe. The gameplay is pretty standard, four characters in your party, choosing between humans, mutants, robots, and monsters. Exploring a world map with random encounters where you fight monsters. Simple stuff for the most part, but you can control what stats level up to a certain extent. Physical attacks increase your strength, and magic attacks increase your mana. There's also minor stuff like tanking, which is a nice touch. The story is that your dad one day leaves to go find the Magi, which are 77 shards of a broken statue of a goddess. Years go by, and you decide one day to go looking for him. It surprisingly gets pretty interesting, with parallel universes, other gods fighting for power, ancient civilizations, and without spoiling anything, things don't always go as planned. The best part of the game, however, might be the music. I love the battle theme in this game. So yeah, Final Fantasy Legend 2 is deceptively simple. There's more than meets the eye with this game. Last, there's Harvest Moon, the second game in the series after the Super Nintendo version. This is basically a more affordable port of the wildly expensive Super Nintendo game. Yeah, it's pretty limited. There's not as much variety as the original, and stuff like the mountain isn't in this game, sadly. But I always really enjoyed the Harvest Moon universe. You have one year to become a ranch master, before your dead grandpa's spirit returns to, uh, judge you, I guess. The fundamental gameplay stuff with the farm is all here, clearing the land, plowing it, and planting crops. You can also buy and raise chickens and cows, which of course produce eggs and milk. If this sounds painfully boring, then, uh, I don't know what to tell ya. I like the Harvest Moon games, though. And while this one might be a bit limited, it's way more affordable than the Super Nintendo version, and it looks surprisingly nice as well. Alright, there you go. That's eleven original Game Boy games for the Super Game Boy accessory for the Super Nintendo that are all worth checking out. One last thing I want to point out real quick is this handy Super Game Boy guide that comes with the accessory. It gives good pointers on how to customize what colors and borders you want to set for each game. You can look up most of the stuff online nowadays, but it's still pretty cool, and it's worth grabbing if you can get it for cheap. Thanks for watching. I hope you have a great rest of your day.