Nintendo Switch Online on the Game Boy has received four new old classics, all of which are definitely worth your time today.
We’ll start with the two with the most high-profile of these franchises. Kirby’s Star Stacker is a falling block puzzle game with a unique ruleset. Blocks come in the form of stars, and three of Kirby’s friends, Rick, Coo, and Kine. You can match three blocks of the same kind to throw them out. But, if you sandwich one or more stars between two matching blocks, you can also get rid of the stars. You earn high scores by getting rid of all the stars.
Kirby’s Star Stacker had a sequel on the SNES called Kirby’s Super Star Stacker, which happened to come to Switch Online first. While that version has more colors and modes and a wider playfield, this version is in full English and is an even more chill experience because of its smaller playfield.
Gradius: The Interstellar Assault is an all-original title in the Gradius series, released on the Game Boy in 1991. You still commandeer the classic Vic Viper, presumably fighting the evil Bacterian. One can regard this as a non-canon remix of the Gradius games, serving to highlight the technical capabilities of the Game Boy. We don’t think newer gamers will recognize the technical feat on display, but it’s still an addictive shmup challenge. It will not be part of the upcoming Gradius Origins Collection, so this is the only way you can buy it on a modern platform.
Survival Kids is a particularly resonant rerelease since Konami is making a new original Survival Kids, coming exclusively to the Switch 2 next month. The original game is a vintage survival game, using the same top down perspective and gameplay as The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening. If you played the Lost In Blue games on the DS, you played games in the Survival Kids franchise without realizing it. As for this Game Boy original, you can think of it like a retro-style Don’t Starve, only, it actually is a retro game.
Finally, The Sword of Hope is unfairly forgotten as a surprisingly innovative graphic adventure/RPG game. Decades before Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord could be ported to the Nintendo Switch in full 3D, graphic adventure games had to be built from the ground up for consoles and handhelds.
So, Kemco’s The Sword Of Hope gave you a range of controls that was originally meant for a mouse and keyboard, that you had to scroll around for using your d-pad and buttons. These included instructions to turn your character around in different directions, and using different commands to react to what was on-screen.
Battles reverted to turn-based combat, but because Kemco made their world differently, monsters could come in and join the battle in flagrante delicto. Even better, the monsters could turn on each other, which means it’s actually better for you when you end up fighting several monsters at the same time.
Between these menus and other information on screen, you had a very small window left to actually see the world around you. But, Kemco made up for this with the world-building narrative it offered in small bite sized chunks of text. The game’s story sees you playing Theo, a prince grown up to take revenge on an evil dragon who killed your mother and imprisoned your father.
This last game could be one for those hardcore old-school adventure or RPG fans, but we will concede it might be a bit too tedious for younger players. But then, maybe you should give it a try and decide for yourself. All four games are now live and available to download and play on the Game Boy app on your Nintendo Switch.
