Mazakko Monster 2 is one of those Game Boy RPGs that somehow makes grinding feel cozy. You start off in this little pixel town with just a basic slime buddy, but before long you're stumbling into tall grass and recruiting weird little creatures—some cute, some just... aggressively misshapen. The battles are simple but satisfying, and the monster designs have that classic early-90s charm where everything looks like it was drawn during a sugar rush.

What really hooked me was the way the world opens up. At first it feels like a straight path, but then you find hidden caves or get a monster with a weird ability (one of mine could melt locks?) and suddenly whole new areas unlock. The music’s got that crunchy Game Boy sound too—the dungeon theme still gets stuck in my head sometimes.

If you’ve got a soft spot for games where you collect weirdos and make them fight in turn-based battles, this one’s a time capsule worth cracking open.