8 Best Game Boy Demakes

Street Fighter Alpha: Warriors' Dreams started in the arcade, and a Game Boy Color version came out in 1999. Crawfish Interactive did the conversion, with downscaled graphics and sound. There is no link cable support, so it is single-player only. In Japan the Game Boy Color version used the Alpha name, rather than the Zero name.

Squeezing an arcade fighter onto a handheld sounds like a bad idea, and it is a little cramped. Players who list their favourite Game Boy Color games still keep putting it on them, right next to Metal Gear Solid and Pokémon. It is the easy pick for anyone who wants a proper fighting game in a pocket from the same era, and it is the entry on this list most likely to surprise you.

Quest 64 on the N64 starred an apprentice mage named Brian, and its maker Imagineer gave him a second outing on the Game Boy Color. Imagineer released two other related games for the Game Boy Color, and this is the one people remember. The story is set in Celtland, a fantastic medieval world that resembles Ireland. You level up Brian's four elemental skills with experience from fighting enemies to learn new spell combinations, and you collect elemental amulets that powerful criminals have hoarded. In Japan it came out as Elemental Tale - Jack's Great Adventure: Satan's Counterattack, which is quite a lot of title for a small cartridge.

Players who have played both say the handheld game is the better one. They call it more complete than the N64 original, with far more story. A cut-down spin-off beating its own home console version is rare, and this one pulls it off.

The first two Grand Theft Autos both came to the Game Boy Color. The first was released in November 1997 for MS-DOS and Windows and in October 1999 for the Game Boy Color, and Tarantula Studios developed the Game Boy Color version. The sequel followed on the Dreamcast and Game Boy Color in 2000, and its cartridge includes a sped-up rendition of "Back in Black" by AC/DC.

The sequel got negative reviews for the Game Boy Color. IGN's Craig Harris wrote "I appreciate the desire to try and move games from the higher platforms to the Game Boy Color, but jeez". Players are split on them: some enjoy them and think the port was a surprisingly good job, and others find them slow and clunky. Still, a top-down crime spree with AC/DC on a Game Boy speaker is a sentence nobody expected to read.

Bungie released Halo: Combat Evolved for the original Xbox on November 15, 2001. Halo: Combat Devolved, by SofaSwordsman, is a longtime fan's faithful demake of it for the Game Boy Color, made in GB Studio. It began as a demo with the first level, the Pillar of Autumn, and level 2, Halo, is now live too. A later update kept the same two missions but added new graphics, a new HUD, assault rifle aim assist, a melee attack, reloading and ammo counters.

Players who have tried it call it very good and a lot of fun. Its maker plans to keep adding levels as time allows, and its page is full of people asking when level 3 is coming out. You will hum the Halo theme while you play. Everyone does.

Pokémon Black and White takes place in the Unova region, based on New York City. Pokémon Black & White 3 Genesis rebuilds that region as a Game Boy Color hack, so Unova gets the look of Gold, Silver and Crystal. It is the newest game on this list to get shrunk down this far, and the effect is lovely and a bit strange, like a lost Game Boy Color sequel nobody told you about.

Players who have tried it call it really enjoyable, even fantastic, and plenty of them are playing it on their handhelds right now. If you grew up on Crystal and never got around to the DS games, this is a gentle way to meet Unova. If you know Unova well, it is the fun of seeing a familiar place drawn with older tools.

Rare made Perfect Dark for the Game Boy Color as a direct prequel to its Nintendo 64 counterpart, and it came out in North America on 28 August 2000. Joanna Dark completes her training at the Carrington Institute and uncovers information against rival corporation dataDyne. The game is presented from a top-down perspective, and you shoot opponents and complete objectives such as rescuing hostages or recovering items. It was developed simultaneously with the Game Boy Color version of Donkey Kong Country. The cartridge has rumble built in, and with the Transfer Pak it unlocks cheat modes in the Nintendo 64 game.

Critics gave it mixed reviews, though they highlighted its graphics. Players remember it much more warmly. They call it fun and recommend it to anyone willing to give the Game Boy Color a chance, and a cartridge that shakes in your hands still feels like magic.

In 2000, Rare developed a port of Donkey Kong Country for the Game Boy Color, released in North America on 4 November 2000. Many assets, including graphics and audio, were re-used from the Donkey Kong Land games. Aside from graphical and sound-related downgrades, the port is mostly identical to the SNES original. One level was redesigned and another was added, and there are two new minigames with link cable multiplayer, plus Game Boy Printer support. It sold 2.19 million copies worldwide.

Players call it an impressive port, with basically all the content of the SNES game plus extras. For a lot of them it is one of the Game Boy Color games to own. Rare took the best-looking platformer of the 16-bit years and made it work on an 8-bit handheld, and it plays well.

Mega Man Xtreme was developed and published by Capcom for the Game Boy Color. The "Maverick Hunter" X goes into cyberspace to relive his past missions, and the stages, enemies and bosses come from both Mega Man X and Mega Man X2 on the SNES. You pick stages in any order, beat each boss and take its signature weapon. Reviewers enjoyed its familiar gameplay, but were disappointed by graphical issues and a high difficulty level. The sequel, Mega Man Xtreme 2, came out for the Game Boy Color too. Beat its Xtreme Mode and a Boss Rush puts you up against all eight Mavericks from both games.

Players recommend it more than any other Game Boy demake. They describe it as a lighter Mega Man X squeezed onto the Game Boy Color, and owners call both games great fun. It is hard, so bring patience.