Kandume Monsters is one of those Game Boy gems that somehow flew under the radar back in the day. You start off picking your first monster from three weird little creatures—I went with the fire lizard thing, which turned out to be a solid choice when I ran into early-game grass types.

The pixel art has this rough-but-charming style where every monster looks like it was drawn by someone who really loved making them. Battles are simple at first, but once you start finding monsters with weird abilities (there's this one jellyfish-looking thing that can paralyze opponents if you're lucky), you realize there's actual strategy here.

What I like is that it doesn't hold your hand—you'll wander into areas where your team gets wrecked, and that's how you learn to grind a bit or try different monster combos. The music's got that classic Game Boy chip-tune vibe too, all bleepy and nostalgic. If you ever wished there was a slightly jankier, more obscure cousin to the big monster-collecting games, this is it.