One of the rarest things in the world to find is a strategy game for Gameboy. No, really, they simply don’t exist outside a handful of mediocre titles that have to be blended with other genres just to work or seem sellable. Those types of games certainly aren’t the worst in the world. I mean, just look at Fire Emblem. It’s quite literally a war game hidden under a veil of JRPG. There’s nothing wrong with that by any means, but pure strategy just seems to be lacking on the legendary handhelds, but it’s not really the fault of any developers of that time.

As great as the Gameboys are, it should come as no surprise that they aren’t necessarily the heaviest hitter when it comes to processing power. The device just wasn’t built to support those kinds of games. There are definitely some seriously impressive games on the Gameboy Color that appeared to push the limits of what it could handle. It’s a true “the little engine that could” kind of story. Dragon Warrior Monsters 2 is a fantastic example of what it can handle. It’s a deep RPG system with graphics that were on par with its competitors leading to an excellent spinoff of one of the greatest RPG franchises of all time. But, I’m here today to talk strategy games as I always do, and there is one game on the Gameboy Color that stands out as a true masterpiece of strategy.

We’re talking about Heroes of Might and Magic 2.

This is a gem in every sense of the word. You choose a hero to represent you in a world of monsters and mages. There’s a ton of characters to choose from, each having a class and representing a specific faction from the game’s lore. Of course, I always have to go for the wizard, because, well… I’m a nerd and magic is cool. There are two game modes, being a campaign and scenarios. The campaign mode is a lengthy tale of 7 scenarios where your character is on a mission to colonize the Dragon Lands. It’s VERY lore light, and is more of a loose connection to keep a steady progress going for the character, and give an explanation as to why he or she is there. Personally, I don’t really felt like we need much of a reason, but it was still cool nonetheless.

You start off with a small castle holding with nothing in it but a keep and a town hall. Your character starts with a small warband of the de facto units that make up their base faction. Every turn you generate income of gold coins to fund purchasing new buildings and recruiting new units. It’s pretty much standard 4x kind of stuff if you get my drift. You travel around the surrounding area getting used to the region, capturing resources producing buildings from NPC factions. What’s cool about it is that each playthrough will have a different faction holding these buildings leading to some replayability, but the starting locations are always the same.

Combat is where the game shines. It’s an open battlefield where you freely move your troops around to engage in skirmishes with enemy units. You have to study your units and understand their movements and what kind of combat they excel at. Just put your cursor on one of your units in your army and press B to see their stats and stuff. Now, one of the coolest things in the combat system is the castle sieges. When you attack an enemy castle the battlefield changes to the defenders being behind walls, and the attackers having a catapult where it bombards a section of the wall. After a few hits that section will collapse, allowing the attackers to rush in. It’s truly awesome and leads to some incredible, immersive battles. Recommendation: Recruit tons of archers and leave them in your castle as a garrison. You’ll have the attackers whittled down to practically nothing by the time they break through your defenses.

The scenario mode is just stand alone missions that have a preselected hero you play as and a predetermined starting spot. This is the only downside to this mode. I don’t understand how you could choose your character in the campaign, but can’t in the scenario mode. Seems silly to me. Other than that the gameplay is pretty much the same!

Heroes of Might and Magic 2 is probably the greatest case study that proves that strategy games of the Gameboy wasn’t only possible, they could thrive. It still to this day has such a strong cult following with myself included. I usually find myself starting a game every few months just to scratch that fantasy 4x itch without redownloading Age of Wonders 4 on my PS5. If you haven’t had a chance to try this gem, I couldn’t recommend it more. Find yourself a ROM, and play it for yourself. You won’t be disappointed.

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