Best Platformer Games on the Game Boy

Platformer Games are one of the things the Nintendo Game Boy is genuinely for. The ones worth playing start with Super Mario Land 2, Metroid II Return of Samus, Kirby's Dream Land.

The Game Boy and Platformer Games

Four shades of grey and ten years of battery life. The Game Boy's constraints produced a library built around short sessions and pure ideas, and one of them ate the world.

This is one of its strengths. Puzzle games and creature collecting. Tetris and Pokemon are not just the best-selling games here, they are the two best fits for what a handheld is.

Filtering to platformer means you want the movement itself to be the pleasure. It is the right filter when the thing you liked was getting from one place to another.

The Platformer Games Worth Playing

  1. 1. Super Mario Land 2

    Follow the link for hand-written recommendations if you want more like it.

  2. 2. Metroid II Return of Samus

    Follow the link for hand-written recommendations if you want more like it.

  3. 3. Kirby's Dream Land

    Follow the link for hand-written recommendations if you want more like it.

  4. 4. Donkey Kong

    Follow the link for hand-written recommendations if you want more like it.

  5. 5. Wario Land

    Follow the link for hand-written recommendations if you want more like it.

  6. 6. Mega Man V

    Follow the link for hand-written recommendations if you want more like it.

  7. 7. Gargoyle's Quest

    Follow the link for hand-written recommendations if you want more like it.

  8. 8. Shantae

    Follow the link for hand-written recommendations if you want more like it.

  9. 9. Kid Icarus Of Myths and Monsters

    Follow the link for hand-written recommendations if you want more like it.

  10. 10. Castlevania The Adventure

    Follow the link for hand-written recommendations if you want more like it.

What Makes a Good Platformer Game

A game you can judge in ten seconds. Platformers live or die on the jump, and a good one feels right before anything else happens.

Weight. Platformers rarely carry a story you will think about afterwards, and the collectible-led ones can become checklists if you let them.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best platformer game on the Game Boy?

Super Mario Land 2 is the usual first answer, and there are 10 in the library we cover.

Was the Game Boy good at platformer games?

Yes — it is one of the things the machine is known for, and there are 10 in the library we cover.

What separates a good platformer from a bad one?

Whether the move set is complete early. The great ones give you everything in the first level and spend the rest asking better questions of it; the weak ones drip-feed abilities to disguise thin level design.

2D or 3D?

Different games. 2D platformers are about precision on a single screen; 3D ones are about reading space and camera. Each pick below says which it is.

How is this list put together?

From the games this site covers on the Nintendo Game Boy, matched against hand-mapped gameplay categories rather than a storefront's genre tag. A page only exists where there are at least four, which is why some console and genre combinations have no page at all.

Platformer Games on Other Consoles

More From the Game Boy

Or browse the whole Nintendo Game Boy library.