Name your favorite obscure Nintendo property

[Sumez]

True enough, but Nintendo has definitely embraced it as its own with how its treated in Smash Bros. for example. Hard for me to disentangle Hal from Nintendo, but I guess that's because I wasn't around when they were separate.

Smash Bros is a HAL game too, so it's kinda a given

Kaeru no Tame ni Kane wa Naru

Wonderful game - quite unique, "adventure RPG" is a good description for it, indeed. I went with old favourite Link's Awakening DX for now, wanting something a bit more actiony for my still-fledging GB set, but the quality was unmistakable. Such a stirring overworld BGM. (edit: off-topic, but I did pick up another GB recommendation of yours, Cave Noire! Rad pocket dungeon raider. )

Link's Awakening is obviously pretty much the best thing you can get for Game Boy altogether.
But Kaeru is basically a prequel to Link's Awakening, which was built on the same engine. One of the main characters from that game even appears as a pretty major cameo in the Zelda game, with his own mandatory quest. The dialogue makes it pretty clear that he's referring to something outside of the game itself, so researching that is the only reason I even heard of Kaeru in the first place. Very cute game, too bad it never got an official English release.

[Austin]

Galactic Pinball for Virtual Boy!

Nice catch.. Not sure why I didn't think of that. Great game.

[M.Knight]

Kaeru no Tame ni Kane wa Naru

Wonderful game - quite unique, "adventure RPG" is a good description for it, indeed. I went with old favourite Link's Awakening DX for now, wanting something a bit more actiony for my still-fledging GB set, but the quality was unmistakable. Such a stirring overworld BGM. (edit: off-topic, but I did pick up another GB recommendation of yours, Cave Noire! Rad pocket dungeon raider. )

I am glad you enjoy both recommendations!

If you want some more Zelda top-down action, Oracle of Seasons is pretty fitting as well, if you haven't played it yet. (Ages is more puzzle-focused)
I used to play both a lot as a kid and only recently tried out LA so I might be biased, but I actually prefer the Oracle Of games to LA. I enjoyed the ability to slightly change the overworld with each game's respective plot-centric item, the additionnal stuff such as the gasha seeds and rings, and the lack of Guardian Acorns / Pieces of Power (and the associated text box that inevitably pops up when you pick up one). The Oracle worlds also felt larger and more diverse to me; however, I haven't finished LA yet, so maybe it evens out in the end.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Balloon Kid (Game Boy), although Solar Striker came to mind first (then again - the former came as actually more obscure this way).
Few seem to know about Panel de Pon/Tetris Attack budget GBA release (devoid of characters, nameless female silhouettes in some backdrop notwithstanding), which renders that one pretty obscure too. I wish more Nintendo titles were without (voiced) Mario in them anymore.

[kitten]

I adore that overworld theme.

The price of the Everdrive GB has been putting me off, but between this, TwinBee Da!, and stuff like Saigou no Nindou GB I'm starting to wonder whether it doesn't warrant a purchase...

mole mania is still pretty cheap and it's absolutely well worth the price, which is only like $10-20 (you were quoting that above this, i assume it's one you were thinking of getting an everdrive for?). it's one of the best games on the system and a real gem. i never enjoyed dk94 and always considered this to be far and away the better puzzle game by that director. probably my favorite obscure nintendo game, i guess? if it's counted as obscure?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mole-Mania-Nint ... Sw03lY6~2K

slightly faded label, but just $14 shipped. the jp version is real cheap, too, probably like 400 yen given that it's like $14 on ebay

also, saigo no nindo's gb version is by bits studio (not only not-irem, but not even japanese programmers), which is generally a pretty big sign of damnation. the music is butchered and as far as i can tell, it plays pretty bland. i've never tried it, but as a fan of the original and a huge fan of the game boy, i think it says a lot i passed on buying this one. i was originally impressed by what i saw of it given the level of animation in the sprites and the pseudo-parallax, but it really doesn't seem like anything special. skip around a video, or check this timestamp for its super ugly boss and then hideous next level where they make almost no attempt whatsoever to have tiles line up in a visually pleasing way

the best reasons to get an everdrive gb are trip world and chikyu kaiho gun zas, imho, both excellent, but both way the christing heck too expensive. well, i actually think they're both worth it, but the prices are ridiculous, anyway.

[WelshMegalodon]

I was wondering what you would bring to this thread. Especially after a statement like this:

i usually have a strong disdain for the GBA and feel like handheld gaming died sometime around the end of 94 and never got back up to that speed it was at until just recently there's a few gems here and there, but i have an intense bitterness over how excellent the first half of the game boy's years were, only to be followed by a total death of handheld gaming being taken seriously as more than a novelty by devs for so, so fucking long.

ZAS looks oh so nice.

[kitten]

mole mania is one of the very rare post-94 gb releases i wholeheartedly love.

i gush a bit about my love for the game boy, here.

and then here's my zas write-up, if you missed it.

i'm actually a couple entries from finishing this gigantic thing! mole mania is one of the last couple i hadn't written about. this multi-piece article has been in limbo for months as i work up the courage to replay pokemon instead of just ranting about it from memory and recent research.

i don't want to replay old pokemon, as important as it is to what i want to talk about in the article

i think mole mania might be the only single-player puzzle game i rate at 4/4 stars - kickle cubicle is a high 3, though.