Metal Gear: Ghost Babel

A stealth game on the Game Boy Color sounds like a contradiction — how are you supposed to sneak through the shadows on a screen the size of a matchbox? And yet Metal Gear: Ghost Babel is one of the most surprising titles on the whole console. Not a spin-off, not a phoned-in licensed product, but a full-fledged Metal Gear overseen by Hideo Kojima himself.

Despite the top-down view, you'll find the series' complete arsenal here. You sneak past enemies, avoid the cones of their vision, use boxes, hide, and wait for the right moment. That includes codec conversations, through which characters supply you with story and advice, elaborate bosses, and even a set of VR training missions that extend the playtime far beyond the limits of the main campaign. For a handheld from the turn of the millennium, it's remarkably rich content.

The story stands on its own as an alternate timeline outside the series' main canon — which is why the game was sold in the US simply under the name „Metal Gear Solid“, so players could more easily recognize it. But this independence suits it well; you don't need to know any previous installment to immerse yourself in the plot, and yet you get a narrative worthy of a brand that always prided itself on its stories.

What astonishes most is the way the game transferred the experience from the big consoles onto a tiny screen without cutting it to the bone. The atmosphere of tension, the need to plan every step, the feeling that a single mistake can give you away — it all works just as well here as in the full-fat installments. Ghost Babel is proof that stealth needs not powerful hardware but clever design.

Among fans of the series it therefore enjoys exceptional respect and is often named as one of the best portable stealth titles ever. For Game Boy Color owners who crave something deeper than platformers and races, it's a small treasure that easily swallows dozens of hours and won't disappoint even discerning connoisseurs of Kojima's work.

Why play: A full-fledged stealth Metal Gear overseen by Hideo Kojima, unexpectedly rich in content — one of the best portable stealth experiences of its time.