New Arrival: Game Boy Gallery 2, a Japan-Exclusive Revival

Some games are collectable for what they contain; this one is prized just as much for where it stayed. Game Boy Gallery 2 is a Japan-exclusive entry that collectors value precisely because, in its first release, it remained tied to the original monochrome hardware rather than moving on to Game Boy Color.

What It Is

The game continued Nintendo's museum-like revival of its classic Game & Watch titles, the simple LCD handhelds that predated the Game Boy. It offered both original-style and modernised versions of those games, so a single cartridge works at once as a faithful tribute and a reinterpretation of Nintendo's pre-Game Boy handheld history. It is also Super Game Boy enhanced, gaining a border and colour palette when played through that adapter, which adds a small technical flourish to what is otherwise a very pure piece of retro homage.

The Game Boy celebrating the even older handhelds that led to it. Lovely self-reference.

Why It Joined the Collection

A collection centred on the original monochrome Game Boy has a special fondness for titles that stayed loyal to that hardware, and this Japan-exclusive release is a fine example. It never received a Western monochrome outing, which makes it both a genuine import rarity and a neat piece of self-reference: Nintendo using the Game Boy to celebrate the even older handhelds that led to it. Set beside the first Game Boy Gallery, already in the collection, it helps trace how Nintendo curated its own past on the little green screen.

Game Boy Gallery 2 is documented, with photographs, on its own page in the collection.

Read the full story: the games that made the Game Boy.