Dragon Quest Monsters on the Game Boy Color is basically Pokémon but with that classic Dragon Quest charm. You start as Terry, whose sister gets snatched up right at the beginning—so yeah, you’ve got a solid reason to go hunt down some monsters. The cool part? You don’t just catch them, you can breed them to make even stronger weird little guys. I remember spending way too much time trying to get the perfect combo, only to end up with some freakish but overpowered abomination.

The battles are turn-based, so it’s not super stressful, but figuring out which monsters work best together is half the fun. The sprites are tiny but full of personality, and the music’s got that nostalgic Dragon Quest feel. If you ever played the old-school ones, this’ll hit just right.

It’s one of those games where you tell yourself “just one more battle” and suddenly it’s 2 AM.