4. Tobu Tobu Girl Deluxe (Tangram Games, Game Boy, 2019)

This was a game that I kickstarted back in May and received in the winter. It's a pretty simple platformer where you are bouncing upwards off of enemies. You also have a jetpack and can kill enemies in order to refuel it. Kind of like a reverse-Downwell.

For a Game Boy game, it is very well-tuned and the controls all feel responsive. It is very modern in that you have infinite lives to beat the short but very difficult levels, and you restart almost immediately upon losing, so the sting of defrat is never too harsh. I would guess that I tried more than 50 but less than 100 times to beat the first level, but it felt great to finally complete it. I'm sure I audibly exclaimed upon reaching the hereforeto unseen prtal at the top of the level. When I finally finished, my time on the level was only 39 seconds, but it felt so much longer.

I wish there was a little cutscene a la Kirby games for each new level, but they just throw you into a new area with more of the same enemies (though in more difficult arrangements). The soundtrack is also great, as I would expect from a homebrew Game Boy game (there must be twice as many Game Boy musicians out there as Game Boy developers).

4/5, one of the best games I've played on the Game Boy, thought it's not as good as Donkey Kong '94 or even Mario Land 2 (though ranking it against Nintendo games seems a bit unfair).