With word that the 3DS will feature a library of Game Boy and Game Boy Colour titles, I was reminded of the handheld and the library of games that first got me into the medium. With that in mind, here's a list of the titles I'd most like to see on the 3DS Virtual Console.
This was the very first game I personally owned, relying up 'till then on the generosity of friends and my older cousin. It's held up so well I still go back and dig it out once in awhile today. I'm always astounded how Rare and Nintendo were able to so accurately capture the look and feel of the Super Nintendo DK games on the Game Boy with so few compromises. More importantly though, this is a challenging and engaging platformer that keeps players on their toes. Any fan of Donkey Kong Country would do well to check this out, especially if they missed it the first time around.
Pokémon makes the list for a second time, and with good reason. Pokémon Pinball is a classic and a natural fit for the 3DS' impressive tech. Catching Pikachu and his pals in a Pinball machine was an incredibly novel and creative little gaiden experiment for the series. On the 3DS, with realistic tilt and feedback from the built-in gyroscope, the experience could be taken to a whole new level. Pokémon Pinball seems like an incredibly logical title to re-release and update. I know I'm hoping for the chance to flip balls through Kanto's towns, fields, forests and oceans a second time.
Appearances can be deceiving. No-one in their right minds would ever expect much (read: Anything) out of a late-period Game Boy Colour game based on a relatively obscure (at least in the US) anime about little hamsters. Boy would they ever be wrong, though: Ham-Hams Unite is an exceptionally well-crafted and incredibly creative adventure game created at just the right time when everyone had long declared the genre dead. Using a special notebook, Hamtaro must go around the hamster world learning its special language (certain words are needed to solve certain puzzles) so he can round up his friends to get back the Ham-Ham clubhouse for a party. It's as simple as premises get, but one that provides hours of entertaining puzzle-solving and exploratory gameplay. What's most remarkable though is how the game is positively dripping in subtle, deeply immersive and impossibly charming atmosphere. Alpha Dream and Nintendo brought the world of Hamtaro to life better and more convincingly then most modern AAA publishers do with their own IPs and it frankly shouldn't be allowed to be as good as it is. It's absolutely delightful: One of the best games on the system and one that deserves to be experienced over and over and over again.
I adore this game. Honestly one of the biggest surprises I've ever had from a game on any platform. I'm a huge fan of Lewis Carroll, less so of the 1951 Disney animated adaptation of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, but I'll take an Alice game whenever it crops up, so naturally I was intrigued when this little title came out. I picked it up not expecting a whole lot, but I was in for an enormous shock: Disney's Alice in Wonderland is good. Really, very VERY good. Alice boasts a remarkable array of different gameplay modes, from RPG-like overworld trekking to 2D platforming to puzzle solving to vertical races and top-down vehicle sections. It perfectly captures the atmosphere of the movie, or at least as best as can be done on the Game Boy Colour. It's short and not amazingly difficult, but it's a gem of a game you'll be hard pressed to forget.
It'd be kind of hard to overlook it, no? If Tetris and Super Mario Land defined the Game Boy in the late 80s and early 90s then Pokémon most certainly defined it in the late 90s. To say these games launched a revolution would be understating it quite a lot. With the release of Pokémon Black and White, it may behoove younger generations to be able to go back and experience the games that started the phenomenon, hilarious glitches and all. My preference would be to see the updated, enhanced (and cleaned up) GBA remakes FireRed and LeafGreen on the Virtual Console (with an option to toggle "Classic Mode" on and off for historical purposes), but since Nintendo hasn't said anything about the Game Boy Advance yet, adjective-less Red and Blue more than deserve a premium spot. Wireless multiplayer and connectivity with the DS/3DS titles would be nice, but the historical value of these classics is enough to warrant a look.
The Nintendo Wars series is an old standby in Japan, but with the exception of Advance Wars on the GBA and DS we westerners have been denied its magnificence. Some of the most beloved titles seem to be on the Game Boy and with the success of the Wars installments we did get here (Battalion Wars, in addition to the aforementioned Advance Wars) the time seems right to finally give these entries a western release. Of course, Advance Wars ITSELF would also be a great addition to the Virtual Console, but, sadly, we're not talking about the Game Boy Advance (yet).
Dream Land 1 and Adventure on the NES showed off Kirby's world and his trademark sucking for the first time, but it was Dream Land 2 that provided the next great leap for the series, giving us a bunch of equally adorable animal buddies who could help Kirby out with different abilities. Both games are still a blast, and young Kirby fans ought to see where he got his start.
Also known as Metal Gear Solid: Ghost Babel, this is another Game Boy Colour game that slipped under the radar, so to speak (pun definitely intended). The admittedly little time I've spent with it left me impressed regardless: This was a groundbreaking handheld game for its time, with incredible writing that perfectly captured the gravitas and pathos of the PlayStation, GameCube and XBOX titles. Plus, it taking place in an alternate timeline from the main series kept things from getting too terribly confusing for newcomers. Gameplay-wise, Ghost Babel is very reminiscent of the MSX and NES Metal Gear titles, making it a perfect fusion of the old and new. Ghost Babel is probably one of the best games in the series, and Kojima fans should definitely check it out.
The first of Capcom's forays into portable Zelda experimentation, this pair of games had the unique gimmick of placing two very different stories and entire worlds depending on which version you had. Apparently a code one unlocked after completing one game helped unlock content in the other and link the narratives together in some way: A pretty fascinating concept. I'm not sure how this would translate to the 3DS hardware, but Nintendo could probably do something with wireless multiplayer or Tag Mode. A cool concept that deserves another shot at life: I for one missed these myself when they first came around and am intrigued by the premise.
