Ultima: Runes of Virtue II

Ultima: Runes of Virtue II followed up on the first game of the Ultima action RPG series on the Game Boy, bringing a larger world, more dungeons, and an improved two-player co-op system via link cable, where each player could choose a different character with specific abilities. The player once again makes their way through dark, top-down spaces, solves puzzles built around triggers and platforms, and fights enemies in real time, while characters can also be freely switched within the game itself, allowing their different abilities to be combined as needed for a given situation, whether that's ranged combat or solving a puzzle that requires a specific skill.

The second game improved the level structure and the visual variety of its environments, so individual dungeons feel more distinct than in the first game, and it added elements drawn more from the classic action-adventure genre than from traditional Ultima. On the monochrome display, orientation within the environment is clear thanks to clearly differentiated room and obstacle types, and two-player cooperation adds a dimension that was unusual for a handheld at the time – puzzles can thanks to this be solved together too, with tasks split between the two players, which brought the game closer to genuine cooperative fun that the handheld was, at the time, only poorly equipped for, which is why this cooperative approach remains one of the whole game's most interesting features.

Among Ultima fans, Runes of Virtue II is often rated as a more accomplished and more playable sequel that brought the first game's ideas to their full potential, and many players especially appreciate the co-op mode as one of the few genuinely functional multiplayer RPG experiences on the original Game Boy. Today, the title is prized by collectors and series fans alike as an interesting detour from Ultima's main line, one that shows just how flexibly the brand could be adapted to even modest hardware.

Why play it: With a co-op mode that stands as one of the few genuinely functional multiplayer RPG experiences on the Game Boy, this is a more accomplished sequel that both collectors and series fans will appreciate.