The Rarest Game Boy Games (& How Much They’re Worth)

The Game Boy wasn’t the first handheld gaming machine, but it was one of the most successful ones on its 1989 release. Combined with its successors, the Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance, they would go on to sell more than 100 million units. It couldn’t quite contain the NES’ tech, but it managed to run 8-bit games with buttons and a D-Pad based on the NES’ joypad.

The console was discontinued in 2003 but remains a firm favorite for collectors of retro gaming consoles, as it was an important part of console history in popularizing handhelds. Between that and being many players’ first machine, the Game Boy’s games have become pretty collectible. However, since the console came out 35 years ago, many of them have become rare and expensive.

Updated May 9, 2026, by Mark Sammut: The article has been updated so all the information is current.

16

Zool: Ninja of the Nth Dimension

CIB Price: $850

Super Mario Bros may have revolutionized platform games, but Sonic the Hedgehog might’ve inspired the most copycats. Bubsy the Bobcat, Acro the Acrobat, Wild Woody, Brian the Lion, Kid Chaos, Alfred Chicken, and more all either tried to be mascots with attitude, mascots with Sonic‘s speed, or both. Even Gremlin Graphics, the predecessor to Sumo Digital, got in on the action with Zool: Ninja of the Nth Dimension, where the alien ninja gremlin would zip around levels, collecting sweets like Chupa Chups and shooting ships down.

The game was ported to nearly every active machine in the early 1990s, from the SNES and Genesis to the Acorn Archimedes and Amiga CD32. If anyone wanted to collect all of its different releases, they’d find the Game Boy port the most expensive. It’s not exactly the best, as the Game Boy’s green, blurry screen wasn’t made for rapid action. However, getting a complete box will set buyers back by $850, or $2000 new. If pressed, they may have to settle for the PAL version, which is vastly cheaper.

15

Knight Quest

CIB Price: $954.33

The Game Boy may have had the best battery life among the early handhelds, but those 4 AAs could only handle an RPG like Knight Quest for so long. That’s putting aside its tiny, blurry screen, which made reading stats and dialogue a task in itself. For an extra ill portent, the game was made by Lenar, the same people behind the infamous NES action RPG Deadly Towers. Luckily, it’s way better than that rough entry, though it’s not exactly on par with games like Pokemon or Final Fantasy Legend.

It’s also gotten more expensive over time, with the occasional dip here and there. Loose cartridges were going for $315 back in mid-2022, before going as low as $77 in 2023. New copies went for a relatively more manageable $500 in the summer of 2023, but their price has seemingly doubled every other year. Complete in-box versions are under $1000, which is “cheap” compared to everything else in this article.

14

Rolan’s Curse 2

CIB Price: $999.99

A fairly forgotten Game Boy RPG, Rolan’s Curse 2 came out in Japan and North America in 1992, roughly two years after its predecessor. Combining The Legend of Zelda formula with more traditional role-playing elements, Rolan’s Curse 2 was a pretty ambitious release for the hardware, as it even had 8 playable characters. As with most of these classic GB games, it can be somewhat difficult to revisit nowadays, but it is cool as a historical artifact.

A complete-in-box copy stopped being relatively affordable until around 2020, but it has just been getting more expensive since then. Honestly, if you try to buy one today, you will probably have to spend above $1000. Rolan’s Curse 2 was never released in PAL regions, so that is unfortunately not an avenue that folks can explore.

13

Battletoads & Double Dragon

CIB Price: $1004.70

Rare’s hard-as-nails amphibious brawler met the Lee Brothers to form Battletoads & Double Dragon, where they had to team up to stop the Dark Queen and the Shadow Boss. The game was released on the Sega Genesis and Nintendo’s consoles to fair acclaim, though its difficult gameplay and wacky animations were definitely more like Battletoads and less like Double Dragon. The Game Boy was the weakest of the ports, thanks to its tiny screen blurring the hectic action, and the rough sound quality.

This made it rarer than its bigger ports and thus more valuable to collectors. Picking it up loose is no problem for people who just want to play the game on real hardware. However, if they want it boxed, they’re going to have to cough up nearly $1,000. Alternatively, you can pick one of the limited-run sealed copies that have been going for cheap since November 2025. Maybe they are real, I don’t know.

12

F1 Pole Position

CIB Price: $1093.44

Localized from the Japanese game Nakajima Satoru F-1 Hero GB ’92: The Graded Driver, F1 Pole Position is a rather engaging Formula 1 Grand Prix racer, with profiles to create and some surprisingly detailed pixel art proto-cutscenes that make it one of the prettier racing games on the handheld. Though if players wanted to give it a spin, they’d be better off getting its PAL release, which is way cheaper.

Loose NA copies spiked up to $150 in 2018, and have only slowly risen in price from there. Likewise, the past 6 years have seen its CIB and New copies increase exponentially, going from $286/$658 in 2018 to $1093.44/$202.45 today. The price of a new copy being absurdly cheap is something that we will see time and again, but the legitimacy of these versions is questionable, to put it nicely.

11

Metal Masters

CIB Price: $1355.18

Metal Masters actually began life on the Atari ST, Commodore Amiga, and IBM PCs, where it predated Virtua Fighter 4 and Tekken 5 in letting players customize their characters. By using credits earned from beating up opponents, they could get new parts for their body, arms, and legs to increase their strength. Unfortunately, their computer opponents can do the same, including the evil Baron Harkan, who plans on building his Super Robot to conquer the Metal Master tournaments and the world.

It received a Game Boy port in 1993, which had limited distribution, and made finding a copy of it all the more challenging for collectors both back in the 90s. New copies have been going for really cheap since November 2025, but they are so cheap that they are too good to be true. CIB copies are more realistically priced at around $1300. It’s much cheaper to track down its Limited Run release, which is $45 complete and $36.35 for new copies.

10

Mega Man 5

CIB Price: $1400

Mega Man 4 on the Game Boy combined elements from the NES versions of MM4 and MM5 to tell its own story. Its sequel, Mega Man 5, skipped adapting MM6 and brought in a wide range of baddies. Mega Man took on Terra the Stardroids, a bunch of formidable bosses named after planets that use special attacks themed after their namesakes. While it and the other GB MM games were decent, they paled next to the NES games, and have rarely been re-released. The closest they got was digital releases on the now-defunct Nintendo 3DS eShop.

The Loose and CIB prices have largely stayed the same over the years, stable enough for keen Mega-fans to save up their pennies. But if anyone was hoping to buy a new copy, they’re in for some bad luck as they tend to sell for thousands of dollars. Honestly, Pricecharting’s $3200 is low, as the last bidding went for nearly $7000. CIB copies are slightly easier to buy at $1,400, though if players just want the game, they could grab a loose copy.

9

Kid Dracula

CIB Price: $1447.40

Made as both a sequel to and remake of the Famicom game of the same name, Kid Dracula was the West’s only exposure to Konami’s chibified spin-off to the Castlevania series. It played a lot like a classic Castlevania game, too, albeit for a younger audience. Players fought cutesy takes on horror monsters with attacks and magic spells to stop the evil Galamoth, with only Death by his side to help, who gives Kid Dracula tips and heirlooms from his dear dad, Dracula.

It’s only a touch easier to find loose than, say, GB MM5 or Sumo Fighter. But if players want the complete set, they’ll have to cough up nearly $1450. New copies were only a few hundred dollars more expensive at $2,040 in late 2022, until they spiked in 2023. At its peak, new copies were worth $5,211, and they have slightly dropped to $3329. Sellers may want to find a buyer soon if they want to make a hefty profit.

8

Killer Instinct Not for Resale Demo

Loose: $1528

Rare’s Mortal Kombat clone Killer Instinct carved its own niche thanks to its (c-c-c-)combo-heavy gameplay, very 90s character designs, and fatalities that had a sense of humor to them (Chief Thunder turns Sabrewulf into a can of dog food with one uppercut). It was meant to be a flagship title for the Nintendo Ultra 64, but its delay meant the console lost its ‘Ultra’ title, and KI had to get ported to the SNES instead. If it wasn’t cut down enough for players, the Game Boy port was even more squished down.

Even so, a copy of the Killer Instinct Not for Resale Demo managed to go for $1528 at a sale in January 2024. The seller hadn’t even tested it and couldn’t confirm if it would work or not. But these old retail demos for the old Game Boy Kiosks can be tricky to find at the best of times. The KI one was one of the rarest, only making sparing appearances years prior. So, even if the cartridge ended up being a dud, it would still be worth a small fortune as a genuine dud.

7

Mega Man 4

CIB Price: $1583.37

People would think Mega Man 4 on the Game Boy was just a squeezed-down version of the NES game, but these releases actually followed their own storyline, and GB MM4 doesn’t involve the NES game’s big bad Dr Cossack. Instead, Mega Man has to fight off Dr Wily, a new foe called Ballade, and a mix of Robot Masters from MM4 and MM5. Gameplay-wise, it manages to capture the jump-and-shoot appeal of the NES game, despite the Game Boy’s blurry screen and tinny sound.

Its North American prices are extremely high at nearly $1500 for a complete version, although loose copies are relatively cheap at around $120. If you just want to have this game, that is always an option, but I assume most people looking to buy Game Boy games in 2026 are interested in having at least the box to add to their collection.