20. Pokémon Pinball (GBC)

Built on the foundation of Kirby's Pinball Land from HAL Laboratory, the original Pokémon Pinball on Game Boy Color released back in 1999 and combined the fundamentals of pinball with the Pocket Monsters' mantra, Gotta Catch 'em All. Developed by Jupiter (the talented team pumping out Picross after Picross these days), it featured two tables — Red and Blue — and charged you with not only scoring big points, but also capturing the 151 Kanto region Pokémon as you did so.

Throw in a special rumble-enabled cartridge, and you've got one of the best Pokémon spin-offs ever. Its GBA sequel played with the same idea to similarly great effect.

19. Dragon Warrior I & II (GBC)

This portable collection pulls together the first two NES / Famicom Dragon Quest games – a pair of RPGs that arguably established the template for the genre in Japan. Enix remastered the two games for release on the Super Famicom in 1993, later porting the games to the Game Boy Color in 1999 (2000 in North America). While the visuals and sound take an obvious hit, a host of improvements are also included which improve both games. If you don't fancy pulling the Game Boy Color out of the cupboard, then you can experience both of these titles on Switch.

18. Shantae (GBC)

Available to play on Switch these days, with original Shantae is a game brimming with character and challenge. It's undeniably old-school in its approach, and modern players might tire of its outdated design, but it still has some impressive ideas up its sleeve and platforming fans will get a kick out of it. The Half-Genie Hero's subsequent adventures improved on the formula, but the GBC original isn't without its own charms.

17. Tetris DX (GBC)

It's Tetris, in colour — what's not to like? The colour helped differentiate the pieces and a couple of new modes were added, plus a save feature, but this was really just the original game with added colour. In any other case, that might feel like a disappointment, but a quick bash on Tetris DX is too good an opportunity to pass up, even if you played it for hundreds of hours before in black and green.

16. Donkey Kong Country (GBC)

A port of Rare's SNES original that somehow recaptures nearly every facet of the game on a Game Boy Color cart, Donkey Kong Country adds some minigames and a couple of other bells and whistles to make up for the inevitable audio-visual downgrades from 16-bit to 8-bit hardware. The GBC really shouldn't have been able to pull off such a full-featured version — a near-1:1 port — but here it is. A remarkable effort.

15. Pokémon Trading Card Game (GBC)

The Pokémon Trading Card Game successfully shows newcomers the ropes while providing the initiated with a slick, faithful adaption of the tabletop experience. It’s all the fun with none of the clutter, and the ability to save multiple decks allows for both experimentation and control over your play style. The main story would benefit from having some more unpredictable AI opponents, but overall we're very pleased this is now more widely available via Nintendo Switch Online and we’re definitely ready for a new sequel. You've done New Pokémon Snap, Nintendo — let's be having this, too!

14. Mario Golf (GBC)

At least Golf is turn-based, right? Much like Mario Tennis, Mario Golf is another game revolving entirely around human characters such as Kid, Sherry, Joe, and Grace. In fact, there's a total of eight playable humans and only three Mario characters.

This is a story-heavy adventure where you can freely move your character around an overworld and rounds of golf take the place of traditional RPG battles. You can even level up your golfer to enhance their stats and even transfer them to the also-excellent N64 version using the Transfer Pak.

It may not mirror the scope or ambition of Dragon Quest or Pokémon, but this is a compelling little clubhouse treat which stands out among the rest of the Mario Golf series.

13. Dragon Warrior Monsters (GBC)

There are very few Game Boy titles that contain the mammoth amount of playability that Enix has been able to squeeze into Dragon Warrior Monsters. While the quest itself will easily keep you engrossed, it's the monster capturing and breeding that will keep you coming back to the title for countless hours, even after you've likely finished the quest itself. Whether you're a fan of the Dragon Quest series or not, you owe it to yourself to check this amazing title out. It's easily one of the most engrossing Game Boy titles ever created and a true testament to what could be done on the Game Boy system when developers took the time to get it right.

12. Dragon Warrior III (GBC)

A fine handheld entry in this seminal line of JRPGs, Dragon Warrior III is based on the Super Famicom remake of the original Famicom Dragon Quest III and it's one of the most ambitious RPGs available on the Game Boy Color, filling out a (then) massive 32 Mb ROM cart. This version boasts a wide range of improvements when compared to the original, including a new character class (thief), mini-games, medals, dungeons and a brand-new introduction sequence. It's little wonder, then, that Dragon Warrior III is considered to be one of the finest examples of the genre on Nintendo's handheld system.

11. Super Mario Bros. Deluxe (GBC)

At the time, Super Mario Bros. Deluxe felt like something a bit special. This handheld port offered not only a great version of the original game, but also packed in The Lost Levels, plus bespoke red coin collecting challenges and mini-games to enjoy which almost made up for the reduced view of the Mushroom Kingdom on the Game Boy Color's diminutive screen. For some reason, one thing that sticks in our memories is the Calendar. The ability to look into the dim and distant future — or look back and see the exact day of the week we were born — felt like witchcraft back in those pre-millennium days.

Or it did to us. Perhaps we'd melted our brain a bit by playing too much Super Mario Bros. in the back of the car.