7 Best Game Boy Racing Games

Racing Damashii is a motorcycle racing game released in 1991, and it only came out in Japan. The tracks are spread all over Japan, so each race takes you to a different part of the country.

A racing game is easy to play without reading the menus, which makes this a good pick once you have run out of Game Boy racers in English. Players who found it call it a fun racer for anyone who likes motorbikes, and they bring it up when people swap Game Boy hidden gems. If you want a Game Boy game none of your friends have played, start here.

Micro Machines is based on the toy line of miniature vehicles with the same name. You race tiny cars around top-down tracks set in household places like kitchen tables and desks. The first Micro Machines game set up the formula the whole series kept: a top-down racer with miniature vehicles.

Players still put it on their lists of favourite Game Boy games, right next to Tetris, Wario Land and Zelda. The series kept going long after this cartridge, all the way to a reboot on the PS2, GameCube, Xbox and Game Boy Advance in 2002. The Game Boy version is a good way to see where it started.

Super R.C. Pro-Am is a racing game made by Rare and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy. It came out in North America in June 1991. You race radio controlled cars on a top-down track and pick up spare parts on the way: tires improve traction, batteries increase acceleration and engines improve speed. If you spell Nintendo with the letters on the track while driving the Spiker, you win the game.

It came back in 1998 as a Player's Choice game, a line for Game Boy titles that sold over one million copies. Reviewers praised its fluid graphics and scrolling and its good controls. Some said the screen scrolls so fast you miss items on the track. Players who owned it before Pokémon still bring it up.

Chase H.Q. started in the arcade, where it became Japan's highest-grossing dedicated arcade game of 1989. It was a hit overseas too, in arcades and on home systems, and critics liked it. It was ported to the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, Amiga and more before the Game Boy got its own version.

Players keep naming it among their favourite Game Boy games. One fan put it this way: "This is right when Taito could do no wrong". If you like arcade racers, this is the closest the Game Boy gets.

Wave Race is the first game in the Wave Race series, and Wave Race 64 and Wave Race: Blue Storm came after it. You race personal water craft and pick one of three: the 550cc, the 650cc or the 800cc racer. There are 8 tracks in the racing circuit and 8 slalom courses. You start on a slower class of watercraft and move up to faster engines.

Up to four friends can race at the same time with the Four Player Adapter. Players put it in their top ten Game Boy games. It is the most fun you can have with friends on this list.

F-1 Race comes from a Famicom Formula One racer that got two Famicom Disk System sequels and a Game Boy version. Cars have a two-speed manual transmission with a low and a high setting. You score points based on how far you drive, and you get extra time after finishing the first lap of each course, so the race is also a fight against the clock.

Players keep pointing other Game Boy owners to it when they ask what to play. They call it a game you can pick up and play right away.

Motocross Maniacs is a side-scrolling motorcycle racing game made by Konami. Your bike has limited fuel, shown as a time bar, and you have to finish the course before it runs out. Nitrous power-ups marked with a large N give you a boost, though you often need to use one just to reach them. Many levels offer more than one direction to take.

There are only eight levels and the game is simple, but players keep calling it great. It was later re-released in colour in the Konami GB Collection as Bikers, and it got two sequels: Motocross Maniacs 2 on the Game Boy Color and Motocross Maniacs Advance on the Game Boy Advance. Players recommend it more than any other Game Boy racing game.