Best Of 2024: Can We Track Down Every Cart In Our Top 50 Game Boy List In One Week?

Image: Damien McFerran / Nintendo Life

Over the holiday season, we're republishing some of the best articles from Nintendo Life writers and contributors as part of our Best of 2024 series. Enjoy!

The Game Boy turns 35 years old today, 21st April 2024, and we've run several features over the past few days celebrating the system and its games.

Today, George goes on an epic quest to see if he can acquire the 50 finest GB games — as ranked by you — in physical form with just 100 pounds sterling in his pocket...

I’ve been enjoying something of a love affair with the Game Boy recently – or more specifically, its back catalogue of games. After purchasing the Analogue Pocket last year I unearthed my Game Boy collection with a plan to work through every title I owned. I have an OG DMG Game Boy of course and made sure to first fire up the big boy for that proper nostalgia hit — the miraculous little machine is only two years my junior and still works flawlessly. I wish I could say the same about my knees.

I am going to arm myself with £100 only and add as many games as I can to my collection in one week

Scrolling the contrast wheel under my thumb, feeling the ripples of the back case against my fingertips, sliding that satisfyingly chunky power switch; joyful memories came flooding back with that first iconic ‘bing’. It felt like I was last playing it yesterday.

But back to its games. I rummaged through the cartridges and was thrilled to load up some old classics. A Pokémon Red file with a Lv.100 Zapdos called ‘Kazooie’ (seemed like a good idea at the time), New Ghostbusters II (developed by HAL Laboratory and very much an acquired taste), a half-finished attempt of Metroid II which instantly murdered me again and again. Good times.

I did work through them and was so pleased with their pocket-sized goodness that I’ve been expanding my collection little by little ever since. This is where I have a thank you to say to the good readers of Nintendo Life, because it’s the list you’ve curated that I’ve been using as a template for my collection. And goodness me there are some gems. The fiendishly brilliant Catrap. Kid Dracula’s pint-size perfection — games I’d never heard of that provided hours of fun. Each so far has been a worthy addition.