Battleship

Battleship brings to the Game Boy the classic board game based on guessing the positions of the opponent's ships on a hidden grid, familiar to players from the traditional board game and later computer adaptations. The player fires at coordinates on the opponent's map, trying to locate and gradually sink all their ships before the opponent manages to do the same, and the game also supports two-player battles via link cable, a natural and welcome addition for this type of board game, since playing against another person is what really gives the guessing its edge and forces the player to think about the opponent's likely reasoning too.

The interface is adapted to the small monochrome display – the grids are simplified but readable enough for the player to track both their own map and the revealed portion of the opponent's, and the computer's AI offers a solid challenge for single-player games, even if it naturally can't offer the same tension as a match against a live opponent. The game is built purely on logical guessing and probability, so it's more calm, strategic fun than an action title, and individual matches are short and easily repeatable, making it ideal company for shorter trips.

Battleship for the Game Boy is interesting today mainly as an example of how classic board and family games adapted to nineties handheld consoles, and for collectors it represents an unpretentious but precisely executed conversion of a familiar original that doesn't add any unnecessary embellishments. Even after all these years it remains playable thanks to simple, easy-to-grasp rules and quick matches that suit the character of a handheld console well and its purpose for short play sessions, when a player just wants a relaxed game without a long learning curve and without having to carry around a physical board with ship pieces.

Why play it: For anyone wanting a quick match without lugging around a physical board of ships, this is a faithful, unpretentious conversion of the classic board game with simple rules.