Collection essentials #434 & #435: Game & Watch Gallery 2 (GBC) and Game & Watch Gallery 3 (GBC)

I previous covered Game & Watch Gallery 1 on the original Game Boy, which you can read about here.


These games are basically the same concept. A bunch of Nintendo’s handheld LCD “Game & Watch” titles from the ‘80s have been reworked into these Game Boy compilation titles, plus there are “modernized” versions of some of the games available featuring Mario characters, new graphics, background music, and gameplay that’s a bit altered. They’re all high score-based games in which you can mess up three times before it’s game over (and sometimes technically more because sometimes a “miss” can get erased). And if you put up good enough scores, there are bonuses to unlock. And, actually, several games in 3 must be unlocked this way. 


These games were a great fit for Game Boy, because they can easily be enjoyed in short spurts. To make it even better, you can even suspend your game midway through and shut the system off entirely to resume later! This is before “sleep mode” was a thing, so such a feature is super welcome. Granted, playing the “Classic” versions of these games isn’t as good as playing the original Game & Watch units since compromises had to be made, but it’s still nice and convenient to have a handful of them on a Game Boy cartridge.


3 is the Game & Watch Gallery which I’ve played the most. I think my cousins PJ and Eric had it, and I’m not sure if I borrowed it or simply played it while at their place, but I tried out all the games and found them to be quite addictive. I haven’t played them a lot in adulthood, but I’m now wondering, why the heck haven’t I? They’ve perfect little timekillers. The games aren’t going to blow you away, but they’re wonderful for what they are. To me, easy picks for Game Boy Color essentials.

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