The Game Boy Color saw a plethora of ports from various genres, including sports games, during its time. With a flood of sports titles hitting the market, it can be overwhelming to choose the best ones. Here are seven of the best sports games on the Game Boy Color.
Best game boy color sports games
7. Pocket Soccer
This unique five-a-side football game offers a standout experience in its genre, with added features that set it apart from the rest. The gameplay provides a comfortable view from a seventy-five-degree angle above the pitch, allowing for easy visibility and accurate judgment of distances.
The career mode is Pocket Soccer's main dish, enabling players to construct their own team, train players' abilities, and progress through leagues. Customization options for players add a personal touch while trading with other teams enhances team-building.
The graphics, while not groundbreaking, are fluid in their animations. The sound design further enhances the experience, with satisfying kicking sounds and uplifting background music to further send players into a trance.
For soccer enthusiasts, this game is a no-brainer pickup. It offers a portable soccer simulation never heard of at the time of its release. Up to this day, Pocket Soccer's core gameplay aged gracefully. Whether a fan of the genre or a newcomer to soccer games, the career mode, team customization, and engaging matches provide a rewarding football experience.
6. Madden NFL 2000
Madden 2000 brings the excitement of, this time around, American football to the Game Boy Color with its diverse range of passing and rushing attacks. With various game modes such as Exhibition, Playoffs, Season, and Sudden Death, players have plenty of choices to explore. While longer modes like Playoffs and Season may be time-consuming, the Exhibition mode offers the most accessible and engaging experience. Multiplayer mode is also available for those with a Link Cable.
Madden 2000 features simple controls, with basic defensive actions like switching players and tackling, and offensive moves such as switching players, juking, turbo, spinning, jumping, hurdling, and diving. The duration of button presses determines the executed action, making the controls easy to learn.
Obviously, this version of the game cannot hold a candle compared to the home console version. Yet, having it as a portable game has its obvious advantages.
5. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater is back with a bang, offering insane combos, a wide range of skaters, and an expansive choice of levels. The game's standout feature is the Create-A-Park mode, allowing players to let their imagination run wild and design their own skate park with various elements. The graphics, though not perfect, are impressive on the Game Boy Color, with smooth animations even during falls.
The music in the game is exceptional, featuring popular punk rock tracks from bands like Rage Against the Machine and Powerman 5000. Sound effects are solid too, although the focus is often on the music rather than the effects.
Controls are straightforward, although additional buttons would have made certain actions easier. Balancing during complex combos and executing quick tricks in succession can be challenging. The replay value is extensive, as players will continuously strive to beat their high scores and discover new tricks and combos.
4. Xtreme Sports
Xtreme Sports for Game Boy Color brings together five extreme sports in a collection of mini-game-style events. With its anime-inspired graphics and smooth action, the game showcases the capabilities of the handheld console’s screen technology, at that time, of course.
For a sports game, it is genuinely a surprise that Xtreme Sports has an actual, and more importantly, decent story. The plot revolves around an island competition organized by Xtreme Cola Corporation, offering a mix of adventure and sports challenges. Players assume the roles of Guppi or Finn, aiming to win the contest while uncovering the mystery surrounding the Bonehead Gang. Xtreme Sports combines addictive gameplay with Mario 64-style level progression, providing a fun and engaging experience.
Xtreme Sports excels in gameplay, offering improved mechanics and longer courses compared to its predecessors. The California Games-inspired events provide variety and are complemented by multiple maps for each activity.
The game goes beyond mere sports simulation, using sports as themes to create engaging gameplay mechanics. Control mastery is crucial, although some advanced techniques may prove challenging to learn. The game's replay value is also cosmic, as players will likely find themselves revisiting practice levels and enjoying the addictive nature of the game.
3. Mario Golf
Mario Golf for the Game Boy Color offers gameplay that closely resembles its Nintendo 64 counterpart. The controls are intuitive, requiring players to time button presses to determine shot power and accuracy. The game features a variety of playable courses, each corresponding to a club, and defeating club champions unlocks them as playable characters.
The RPG elements allow players to level up their golfer and allocate points to enhance shot power, accuracy, and other abilities. The game also provides connectivity with the Nintendo 64 version, allowing players to transfer characters for a statistical advantage.
The golf courses are meticulously designed, reminiscent of realistic sim golf games rather than fantasy settings seen in the Nintendo 64 version of Mario Golf. When exploring the Marion Clubhouse, players will appreciate the familiar overhead RPG aesthetic. It was a wise decision for Nintendo to collaborate with Camelot, the developer behind the acclaimed Hot Shots Golf for PSX, for Mario Golf and the next title featured on this list.
2. Mario Tennis
In yet another Nintendo x Camelot collab, Mario Tennis reached another level in sports games supremacy. Building on the success of their previous collaboration with Nintendo on Mario Golf, Camelot delivers impressive graphics that rival 16-bit quality.
The attention to detail in character designs, tennis courts, and RPG-like buildings is commendable. The game runs smoothly, even with multiple players on the screen, without any flickering. The sound design in Mario Tennis is cheerful and fitting for the tennis theme.
Controls are easy to learn, with the control pad used for movement and the A and B buttons for hitting the ball. Each character has unique attributes, and mastering technical shots adds depth to the gameplay.
The game offers various modes, including a story mode where players progress through ranks and improve their character's stats. Exhibition matches, mini-games, and multiplayer versus mode provide additional ways to enjoy the game. Although the story mode is the most compelling due to the great single-player experience it provides.
1. Evel Knievel
It is a surprise not to have any of Nintendo games on top of a best-of list. And who would be that developer that dethrones Nintendo? Of course, it's Rockstar. Evel Knievel is that sports game that defeats everything on the platform due to its Souls-like difficulty, Mario Tennis and Mario Golf be damned. Hopefully, Rockstar can make a game like this again instead of being solely a GTA-churning machine.
Evel Knievel puts you in the shoes of the iconic daredevil. The players' objective is to complete courses without running out of gas or getting injured. The gameplay is indeed on the difficult side, as performing jumps and other stunts without falling over or running out of gas proves to be a challenge.
The game features two modes: practice mode and the mode for completing the game. In practice mode, players can hone their skills on a practice level with various obstacles and ramps. Strategy plays a crucial role, requiring players to master speed and maneuvering. The regular mode takes players through four cities with five different courses in each. After completing all the courses in a city, a Grand Finale allows players to earn extra money by jumping over selected obstacles.
The graphics in the game are impressive, standing out among other Game Boy Color titles. The game offers around ten hours of gameplay, and despite its relatively short duration, the high level of difficulty and fun factor make it worth replaying. It is considered one of the best Game Boy Color games available regardless of genre.