After two big Expansion Pack updates in a row, Nintendo is back to supporting the regular only Nintendo Switch Online with four titles for the Game Boy. This is a packed update with games as diverse as Kirby's Star Stacker, The Sword of Hope, Survival Kids and the shoot ‘em up classic Gradius: The Interstellar Assault. That's pretty cool news, but are any of these games actually worth playing? To answer that question, I decided to flip through the pages of Electronic Gaming Monthly, GamePro, Nintendo Power and more classic magazines to see what the critics said back when these games first came out. Prepare yourself for whiplash, because this is going to be a very eclectic episode of Nintendo Classics Review Crew.


Here we have yet another reminder that when Nintendo wanted to sell a puzzle game, they would turn to their stable of popular characters. In this case it's Kirby, who had just come off of starring in a much more popular puzzler – Kirby's Avalanche. Although Kirby's Star Stacker was originally released on both the Game Boy and Super Famicom, we only got the handheld version here in America. We covered the 16-bit version when it hit the Nintendo Switch Online back in 2023, so let's see what the critics said about the handheld version.

Despite coming out for the Game Boy in 1997, Nintendo Power was the one and only English-language magazine that decided to review Kirby's Star Stacker. Giving it a 3.2 out of 5, they liked that it “seemed simple, but is very challenging and fun.” They were also impressed by the four different modes. That said, they didn't like that the “higher difficulty levels are truly demented” and complained that “Kirby is just a figurehead.”

It just goes to show that even when Nintendo's own magazine is complaining about the way the company shoves mascot characters into puzzle games, you know there's a problem.

Now here's a fun surprise. Coming from the publisher and developer behind point and click classics like Shadowgate and Déjà Vu, The Sword of Hope was one of the Game Boy's earliest and best role-playing games. Released in 1991, this fantasy adventure game took the elements people loved from those classic NES games and mixed in a fair helping of turn-based combat, all while weaving an intriguing story about a mad king who has been corrupted by an evil dragon. Now that's a setup with a lot of promise. What could possibly go wrong?

While it's considered a cult classic these days, The Sword of Hope was almost entirely ignored by game critics when it first came out in 1991. I blame the release date, which saw it hit retailers right in between the debut of Sonic the Hedgehog and the launch of the Super NES. It didn't stand a chance to be noticed by EGM or GamePro. As a result, the only English-language review comes to us from Nintendo Power, who gave the monochromatic RPG a 4 out of 5. But don't get too excited, because this was a time before Nintendo Power gave anything resembling an in-depth review. About the closest we get is this blurb: “Hope comes to Riccar. Most of the citizens of Riccar were transformed into Trees by the forces that commanded the Kingdom, but one brave Knight escaped this fate and saved the King's son from certain death. Now the son, Prince Theo, has grown to manhood and it's up to him to free the kingdom. Thus, a new role-playing adventure from Kemco/Seika begins.”

Yeah, like I said, Nintendo Power didn't exactly write “traditional” reviews. Pretty much the only reason we're even counting this as a review is because they assigned a score, and a pretty good one at that. The Sword of Hope is definitely worth playing, even if it was completely ignored by the critics at the time.

Long before Klei Entertainment begged you not to “Starve,” Konami decided to strand a bunch of kids on a tropical island and hope for the best. Survival Kids is about as close as you're going to get to Lord of the Flies on the Game Boy, giving players an open-ended adventure where they need to track down food, craft tools and find a good place to sleep, all in the hopes of surviving another day on the island. With a new Survival Kids game coming to the Switch 2 in June, it's fun going back to the original all these years later. But what did the critics say?

Unfortunately, most critics completely ignored the Survival Kids when it first came out in 1999. Perhaps they assumed that it wouldn't appeal to their core audience or maybe they were just done covering the Game Boy, but whatever it was, only two English-language magazines decided to cover this cult classic. Of the two, Nintendo Power gave it the lower score – 7.6 out of 10. Kyle called it “an original concept that's been executed well,” while Jason agreed with my literary comparison: “Lord of the Flies was never so fun and cute. A likeable primer in adventure RPGs.”

While that's a solid score, Computer & Video Games was completely won over by the concept and charm. Believe it or not, they gave Survival Kids a perfect 5 out of 5, summing it up this way: “It's like a Tamagotchi, but one you really care for. The kid roams around in a top-down Zelda-style world, and without all the messy stats that make RPGs dull. It's totally original and totally great. Buy it.”

Despite being criminally ignored back in the day, Survival Kids is a game you absolutely need to play. It's a great fit on the Switch, and it's coming out just in time to put you in the mood for the upcoming sequel.

Seven years after Gradius first hit arcades, the Konami shoot ‘em up was still flying high. It was widely considered to be one of the best shooters on the Nintendo Entertainment System, was a mainstay on the MSX and had just come to the Super NES. Released in early 1992, Gradius: The Interstellar Assault is the franchise's second foray on the Game Boy, with Nemesis coming out just 20 months earlier. It retained everything that people loved about the classic shooter, including Konami's unique power-up system, which featured all of the upgrades you could possibly want. With only so many shoot ‘em ups on the Game Boy, let's see what they thought of Gradius.

For the first time this episode, I'm finally able to start with my usual go-to – Electronic Gaming Monthly. Reviewed in their 32nd issue, this is one of those times where the 7 out of 10 average doesn't tell the full story. With scores ranging from 5 all the way up to 8, there was a big disagreement at EGM. Sushi-X didn't seem all that impressed: “Gradius for Game Boy. Hoo-boy. It is a decent game, but the blurring ruins some of the gameplay. As a matter of fact, in certain areas, you may as well not even guide your ship because it becomes nearly invisible amidst the chaos. Take your chances with something less volatile, like Missile Command.” Ed disagreed, giving it an 8 and arguing that “Fast action shooters are hard to do on the slow moving Game Boy screen. While Konami has done everything possible to minimize this problem, blurring does pop up once in a while. Still, the game does play well and all of the fun and challenge is there. I like it as it is and think you will too. The action is fast and furious.”

While Nintendo Power did go a bit lower, giving the game a 3.4 out of 5, their so-called review isn't even worth quoting here. Instead, what we're going to do is check in with EGM's sister magazine, Super Gaming, which covered import games and only lasted four issues. Ken complained that “Black and white really doesn't do justice to this shooter. Nemesis 2 really needs blasting color to come off brilliant and spectacular. Still, if you're a Game Boy junkie, you'll like it. Very few games look good on the Game Boy, except maybe a few puzzle titles.” Samrye liked it a bit more than that, concluding that “this is about as good as a Game Boy shooter can be. The graphics are very intense as far as black and white go. The music and sounds are great and the stereo effects are very cool. The power-ups and end bosses are what make the game. Throw in aa couple of intermission screens and you have a great cart.” Super Gaming gave Gradius an average score of 7 out of 10.

Moving up the scale, we see N-Force go a bit higher, with a respectable 83%. However, the highest score comes from GamePro, who gave this Game Boy shooter a surprising 5 out of 5. “Fans of the series are gonna love this big handheld space shooter (2 megs!). It features the best elements of the Gradius series, including the latest weaponry system found in Gradius III. On the downside, your eyesight's gonna suffer. The Vic Viper had to get mighty small to fit on your Game Boy screen and it's sometimes tough to know just what's coming at ya. Combine this with some of the toughest Gradius levels yet and this cart's a tough challenge. But heck, Konami's proved once again that good things come in small packages.”

Whether they gave it a 6 or a perfect score, everybody agrees that the action is compromised a bit on the original Game Boy hardware. Will this be a big deal on the Switch? Probably not, but there's definitely more shoot ‘em up competition there, including the original NES version of Gradius, as well as classic Genesis shooters like Zero Wing and MUSHA. Gradius: The Interstellar Assault is still worth playing, but temper your expectations.