These include Dr. Mario on the Game Boy and Mario Golf and Mario Tennis for the Game Boy Color. Dr. Mario launched in 1990 and is a puzzle game akin to Tetris, where players must align different colored pills to destroy viruses. Mario Golf launched in 1999, and unlike its Nintendo 64 cousin, it offers a story mode and role-playing game elements.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, those features would find their way into the Game Boy Color version of Mario Tennis. It launched in 2001 and saw the player training at the Royal Tennis Academy, becoming champion and eventually going on to face Mario (though there are separate paths for singles and doubles).