Pocket Love on Game Boy is one of those weird little gems that somehow makes dating sims work on a tiny green screen. You start off picking between three potential love interests—a bookish librarian, a rebellious musician, or this shy florist who keeps blushing in pixel form. I went with the musician first, which was a mistake because he kept standing me up for gigs.

The dialogue is surprisingly sharp for something running on 8-bit hardware, and the mini-games are just the right kind of janky. There's this rhythm section where you have to hit buttons in time with chiptune music, and failing it makes your date walk out in blocky disappointment. After a few playthroughs, I realized the librarian route has this secret ending involving a haunted bookstore. Classic Game Boy charm.

It's dated as hell, but there's something about the way the characters wiggle when they talk that still gets me.