Rocket Power: Team Rocket Rescue

Rocket Power: Team Rocket Rescue draws on the Nickelodeon series about a group of teenage friends obsessed with extreme sports, and turns it on the Game Boy Color into a surprisingly polished platformer that faithfully echoes the energetic spirit of the source material. The player zips along on a skateboard, inline skates, or a snowboard through levels inspired by real locations from the series, collecting items and completing tasks, while the controls for each piece of sports gear differ slightly, forcing the player to adapt their playstyle to the current discipline and to whatever terrain they're riding through, whether it's a ramp, a sidewalk, or a downhill slope.

The game was made by WayForward Technologies, which even at that time was building a reputation as a technically skilled developer for Nintendo handhelds and in the following years established itself as one of the leading specialists in platformers, and it shows — smooth scrolling, readable level design, and inventive use of the GBC's limited color palette place Team Rocket Rescue among the better-made licensed titles of its era, comparable in quality even to non-licensed platformers. The music keeps pace with the sporty spirit of the series and reinforces the sense of speed the player is meant to feel while riding, whether bombing down a ramp, cruising through suburban streets, or racing along the beach.

In contemporary reviews, the title was praised precisely for the quality of its execution, which surpassed the usual standard of licensed games based on animated series, often made in a hurry and with little regard for playability. Even today, Rocket Power: Team Rocket Rescue is cited as an example of how even a smaller studio could turn a license that others would have thrown together carelessly into a functional and enjoyable platformer that holds up even outside the nostalgic context of the series it's based on, thanks to the experience WayForward went on to further develop in the years that followed.