If you’re like me and are unsure which Game Boy game to pick up next or end up replaying the same few games, there are community-based solutions to help add variety to your gameplay! You may already be a part of one of these communities and not know they have a game club, or this might introduce you to a community you haven’t heard of before!
In case you’re unfamiliar, a game club is just like a book club. Members of the community can suggest games for everyone to play and vote for their favorite or sometimes the game is randomly chosen from a list. It’s an excellent way to get out of your comfort zone and try a game you might not have picked yourself while interacting with a community of people to discuss your thoughts or even help each other beat difficult parts. Most clubs also focus on Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance games. We’ll start by discussing some of the bigger communities and then discuss some alternative options.
GB Studio Discord’s Game Boy Game Club
Yes! The GB Studio Discord already has its own game club. It’s run by Discord moderator and person behind Game Boy Demakes, 2bitcrook! How it works here is you submit a game you want to suggest to a Google form that’s available in the Discord channel and every few weeks a new game is chosen from that list. The time between choosing games can vary as 2bitcrook bases it on how long the game is expected to take to play.
More good news is this game club just picked their next game and it’s the cutesy platformer Kid Dracula! It’s a rather short game, so a perfect introduction to trying out the club and interacting with other Discord members about the game.
You can join the Discord here and head over to the Game Boy Game Club channel to learn more.
r/Gameboy’s Game Of The Month Competition
Of course, Reddit has a Game Boy game club! This one works a little bit differently and even has the potential to win you some prizes. Here’s how it works: a game is chosen once a month by members of the subreddit voting on one of two games, usually within the same genre. Then, challenges are created for that game that gives you points upon completion. You have to send proof of completing the challenge to earn your points, usually just a screenshot works. At the end of the year, the top two people on the leaderboard win a Game Boy related prize, and two more people are selected in a raffle to win another set of prizes! Even if you aren’t in the top two slots earning a lot of points still increases your chances of getting a prize, as each point you score gives you another chance in the raffle.
For the month of May, the game is WarioWare, Inc. So you can join right in and discuss your experience with other players on Reddit. If you beat this month’s game early you can still earn points from previous games, though you’re limited to earning one point instead of two.
Head over to r/GameBoy to learn more! The Game of the Month Competition is usually stickied to the top of the subreddit.
RLLMUK’s OG Game Boy Retro Club
RLLMUK is a smaller community forum that dates back to 2003. They have several game clubs, including an all-encompassing Retro Game Club that chooses a game from a variety of retro platforms, Retro Brawlers, which focuses on 2D fighting games, and the OG Game Boy Retro Club, which focuses on Game Boy games.
The club chooses a game by allowing a single person to decide. Whoever chose the last game then nominates someone else on the forum to choose the upcoming one. This is a great system as it’s based on different peoples’ perspectives and favorite games! As of writing the club is playing Batman, but they change games relatively often.
If you want to learn more, head over to RLLMUK and go over to the Retro & Arcade section. There you’ll see various threads, including the ones for each game club.
An Honorable Mention: Homebrew Game Club
Homebrew Game Club is a podcast featuring three friends who pick a different modern homebrew game to play every month and discuss their experiences with it. They will occasionally have guests or developer interviews as well! While not solely focused on Game Boy games, they have an interesting niche of playing newer games made for retro systems, so it’s a great way to see what’s happening in the industry.
Their last podcast covered an NES game called Full Quiet, but some past podcasts included games like Dangan DB2 and The Machine for the Game Boy Color, and Traumatarium and Phobos Dere for the Game Boy.
You can learn more about Homebrew Game Club and listen to their podcast here.
There are a lot of options right now within the Game Boy community and the retro community at large to find new and interesting games to play, whether they be old or new. I hope this motivates you to try something new and join a community of gamers! If you’re a part of a different game club, share it with us in the comments below!
Thanks for reading and we’ll see you in the next post.