Neal goes over a well-known classic and a hidden gem.
My pair of potential Virtual Console Game Boy games are two that are near and dear to my heart: Donkey Kong, which was one of the first Game Boy games I ever played, and Kid Dracula, which is a surprisingly good satirical game based in the Castlevania universe.
Donkey Kong, which was known as Donkey Kong '94 until its release in, shock, 1994, begins innocently enough with the entire Donkey Kong arcade game. For gaming veterans, the first four levels of this game are likely a walk in the park. What's amazing about the game, though, is that it contains nine additional worlds packed with levels and boss battles.
The gameplay, which was iterated on in the Mario vs. Donkey Kong series, can be labeled as a puzzle platformer, as you maneuver Mario to pick up a key in a level, and then figure out how to take it to a locked door. There are a lot of wrenches thrown into it, as Mario interacts with the environment in different ways. Additionally, there are new wrinkles added in nearly every world.
Donkey Kong was the first Game Boy game to take advantage of the Super Game Boy add-on for the Super Nintendo. Unfortunately, from everything Nintendo has said about 3DS Virtual Console, those enhancements will not be present in any of the digital releases.
As a kid, I adored this game, and replaying it for this feature has made me remember how great it is. Putting this on 3DS Virtual Console would be wonderful, and since it's a Nintendo first-party title, it's very likely to come out.
Kid Dracula, on the other hand, might not be as much of a shoo-in. Published by Konami, it is actually a remake of a Japanese-only Famicom game called Akumajō Special: Boku Dracula-kun. It is a playful send-up of the Castlevania universe that puts you in the shoes of the wily Kid Dracula. This 1993 platformer features a variety of levels and fun bosses, including Garamoth, the game's main villain, who was a villain in the seminal Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (though he was called Galamoth).
Kid Dracula is not the most devious platformer ever, but its charm and the Kid's array of abilities separate it from the pack. The child hero can turn into a bat for a few seconds at the outset, letting you travel to areas you couldn't reach by jumping, and you also gain a new ability every world, eventually giving Kid Dracula a few slate of abilities ranging from walking on the ceiling to homing missiles.