Video games have come so far since the days of Nintendo’s transformative Game Boy handheld, but it’s important to not forget what this hardware accomplished and the ways that it pushed gaming forward.
The Game Boy was subjected to some odd and ambitious peripherals, and the Game Boy Camera and its accompanying Printer are still relics that come up in conversation. The Game Boy Camera and Printer work together, but there are also around 50 Game Boy and Game Boy Color games that incorporate the Printer in unexpected ways.
10 Players Can Print Out The Entire Pokédex & Their Personal Parties
The Pokémon series helped popularize the Game Boy in unprecedented ways, and its trading mechanic also increased sales of the Link Cable and other peripherals. There’s such ingenuity in play in the Pokémon games and they also make prominent use of the Game Boy Printer to commemorate the player’s milestones.
Pokémon Yellow, Silver, Gold, and Crystal all allow pictures of the complete Pokédex, congratulatory diploma, storage boxes, party Pokémon, and even the Alph Ruins Stamps from Crystal to be printed. Even the Game Boy’s Pokémon spin-offs like Pokémon Pinball and the Trading Card Game offer heavy Printer use.
9 Link's Awakening DX Has An Adorable Photo Album Of Link’s Extended Adventures
The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening is significant for being the first handheld Zelda game, and a robust version with an extra dungeon and all sorts of added features became many people’s first introduction to the Game Boy Color.
The modern Switch remake of Link’s Awakening successfully captures the energy of the original, but the Game Boy Color version has 13 lovely pictures to unlock and print that poke fun at Link’s heroic exploits. These quirky photos have largely been overlooked by the game’s audience, but they perfectly embody the game’s playful atmosphere.
8 Super Mario Bros. Deluxe Packs More Than 100 Photos In As Special Mario Mementos
Super Mario Bros. Deluxe is the start of Nintendo’s fascination with upgraded handheld ports of their classic Super Mario games. Super Mario Bros. Deluxe was a flagship game that showed off what was aesthetically possible with the Game Boy Color’s new hardware.
There are plenty of fun extra features that are worked into the port, including more than 100 unlockable photos to add to “Mario’s Memory Album.” There’s so much charm to these images that it’s a shame that so few people have seen them.
7 Perfect Dark Offers Printable Character Profiles
The Nintendo 64’s Perfect Dark gets a ton of acclaim for just how ambitious it was for a first-person shooter from the early 2000s. The N64 release deserves this acclaim, but the Game Boy Color port is one of the biggest titles for the handheld console, and it routinely gets ignored in favor of the more advanced predecessor.
The Game Boy Color’s Perfect Dark takes full advantage of the handheld’s extra peripherals, like the use of the Game Link Cable for multiplayer options and the Transfer Pak to connect to the Nintendo 64 version. The Game Boy Printer can also be used to print out the player’s various multiplayer profiles and keep track of their progress and accomplishments.
6 Harvest Moon 2 Can Commemorate The Game’s Many Events And Wildlife
The simulation genre has made unbelievable progress over the past few decades, and it’s no longer as niche as it used to be. The Harvest Moon series still represents one of the most cherished sim franchises, and the Game Boy releases were praised for competently translating this into a handheld experience.
Harvest Moon 2 has up to 64 photos that the player can unlock and print based on the decisions that they make in the game. Fish, bugs, and plants can all be recorded and celebrated, but so can the game’s big events. It’s like a digital photo album.
5 Donkey Kong Country Adds To Its Collectathon Craze Through Secret Photos
Rare's Donkey Kong Country games are some of the most celebrated platformers back on the Super Nintendo, and they set new precedents in terms of unlockable content and hidden secrets. The Donkey Kong Country trilogy received handheld remakes, and the Game Boy Color's version of the original game is an impressive port.
The Game Boy Color Donkey Kong Country hides even more in the game than its source material. There are 18 hidden Green Bananas that correspond to 12 unique photos that can be printed out as an extra achievement, but there’s also a full Donkey Kong Country alphabet to print out.
4 Disney's Tarzan & Alice In Wonderland Allow The Player To Create Short Films
There’s a long history of video game tie-ins for children’s movies, but this is especially true when it comes to classic Disney animated features. The Game Boy Color adaptations of Disney’s Tarzan and Alice in Wonderland are fairly direct platforming experiences, but they feature an inspired use of the Game Boy Printer that’s perfect for the games’ younger demographic.
These games have a mode where players can create scenes with different backgrounds and randomly placed images. These can ostensibly be turned into short films by printing out each custom-made scene.
3 E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial: Digital Companion Has Unlockable Photos From The Sci-Fi Classic
The 2001 Game Boy Color release of E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial: Digital Companion is an odd hybrid between a personal planner and a mini-game compilation. There are five basic mini-games that are available to play, but the core of this Digital Companion is for the user to have a digital planner, clock, and personal to-do list to help them through daily tasks.
All of these notes and personal reminders can be printed, but there are also 19 photos that recreate scenes from the feature film that can be unlocked by getting high scores in the mini-games. These photos at least add some incentive and unlockable aspect to the thin game.
2 Quest For Camelot Incorporates A Rudimentary Version Of A Photo Mode
Quest for Camelot is a colorful action-RPG release for the Game Boy Color from the late 1990s that's aesthetically pleasing, but can't compete with Nintendo's more mainstream handheld adventures. Quest for Camelot doesn't reinvent the wheel with fantasy RPGs, but there's a hidden feature in the game that's ahead of the times.
Quest for Camelot has the option to take a picture of any gameplay cutscene simply by pushing the rarely-used Select button. These photos can then later be printed out with the Game Boy Printer. This simple idea has now become the norm with Screenshot and Photo Mode features.
1 Mission: Impossible Turns Its Spy Games & Secret Missions Into A Reality
Mission: Impossible has evolved from a pulpy spy series that ran through the 1960s and ‘70s into one of the most groundbreaking and pulse-pounding modern action blockbuster franchises. It should come as no surprise that the Game Boy's take on this iconic property is considerably pared down when it comes to its secret missions.
That being said, there are some creative ideas that are present in this handheld release that feel like faithful attempts to tap into the spy genre. The Game Boy Color can even get turned into a universal remote that controls the television or stereo. The Game Boy Printer turns into a piece of IMF technology that allows the player to produce hard copies of notes that they can write in the game.