Handheld gaming is more than a compromise of power and portability. Whether it’s the ability to play anywhere, multitask or hold an entire console in your hands, it’s a special experience consoles have never replicated. In a world where high resolutions and teraflops reign supreme, we take a look at a portable relic every month and reflect on what makes it memorable. Be warned, spoilers may occasionally populate these articles.

Even with the addition of some handheld titles coming to the Switch Online Expansion Pack, it's still up for debate if that subscription is worth it. The only real advantage to such a small curated library is the games they do offer on the service tend to be considered good and it does help with choice paralysis. Gargoyle's Quest was a highly-regarded Game Boy game back in the day and is one of the available options on Switch. This allows subscribers to enjoy playing a sanctioned emulated version of the game in its original glorious green and grey coloring on a handheld screen that's quite a bit larger than Game Boy.

Gargoyle's Quest is a spinoff of Ghosts 'n Goblins. Players take control of that pesky red gargoyle known as Firebrand (or Red Arremer to the Japanese purists) but this time he's in a heroic role. When Firebrand isn't trying to separate Arthur from his armor, he has an important role among his society in the Ghoul Realm which is the carry on the namesake of the Red Blaze. Firebrand must protect the Ghoul Realm from the Destroyers so he needs to travel the realm, recovering artifacts to increase his power and eventually defeat the Destroyers' king Breager.

Being a spinoff of Ghosts 'n Goblins one would expect Gargoyle's Quest to be a challenging action platformer. They would be half right about that. There are plenty times where Firebrand is battling his enemies and flapping his wings to get from here to there, but that isn't all there is to it. Gargoyle's Quest wasn't classified as an RPG when it was released in 1990 but it has RPG elements that seem borrowed from games like Dragon Quest and Zelda II: The Adventure of Link.

Part of the Gargoyle's Quest is played from an overhead perspective. This is how Firebrand explores towns and discusses matters with the other denizens of the Ghoul Realm; there's even a menu that gets brought up so he can talk to other creatures or check his surroundings. Exploring the overworld is done in the same fashion but outside of the safe confines of civilization there are random enemy encounters. When this happens a battle ensues, but it isn't turn based, it's like Zelda II where the perspective reverts to side view where Firebrand is confined to a small arena with a few enemies. Kill them and it's back to exploration.

The platforming sections is where most of the action takes place. In order to carry out the quests he is given, such as retrieving Jark's Gremlink Stick, Firebrand needs to travel to various dungeons, some of which have boss battles. At the start of the game Firebrand isn't the most powerful gargoyle imaginable. He has abilities, like he can use his wings to prolong his time in air and claws to scale mountains and walls. But besides those abilities he has a weak projectile attack and only two health points so he's fragile. As he progresses in his adventure he becomes more powerful, he gets stronger projectiles and can flap his wings longer, giving more airtime and eventually not having much of a need to be on the ground at all. His body gets stronger, able to withstand more hits and is powerful enough to take on Breager.

The first time playing Gargoyle's Quest not much was known about the game aside from seeing a couple screenshots and thinking that it seems like an interesting change of place to play as a gargoyle. With the expectations of it being strictly a platformer, the quasi RPG aspects were a pleasant surprise. Having played Dragon Warrior (US NES version) and Zelda II, having the overworld encounters switching to side scrolling battles and the talk menus in town made the game instantly feel familiar. Along with being familiar with Firebrand as an enemy in Ghosts 'n Goblins. It's not the longest game of this time as someone who mastered it could finish it in a bit over an hour, but for a handheld game that's over thirty years old, it's impressive that an adventure like this was on the original Game Boy.

Gargoyle's Quest is among the best games available for Game Boy. It generated two sequels, Gargoyle's Quest II on NES and Demon's Crest on SNES. Gargoyle's Quest wasn't released on any retro compilations (to my knowledge), but players who have the funds can purchase it on the 3DS eShop until it closes in a month or so. Game Boy carts aren't as readily available as they were thirty years ago, but this is a highly recommended title for anyone interested in games from that era.

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