Play Kidou Keisatsu Patlabor - Nerawareta Machi 1990 (Japan) Online

Kidou Keisatsu Patlabor: Nerawareta Machi 1990 came out on the Game Boy in 1990, developed by Angel and published by Bandai. It was part of that wave of licensed games that tried to capture the feel of an anime or film on a handheld, back when expectations for portable adaptations were pretty straightforward. You got what you could fit on a small screen, and this one tried to deliver a slow, methodical take on the property.

You control a Patlabor mech, moving screen by screen through a grid-like city to investigate and defuse bombs, occasionally engaging enemy mechs in turn-based combat. The main objective is to prevent terrorist attacks across Tokyo, which involves careful exploration, resource management, and sometimes backtracking. The pacing is deliberate, almost slow, and the difficulty comes from managing your limited actions and making sure you don't run out of time or options. It feels like doing actual police work in a mech, methodical and sometimes tense, with a real sense of consequence when you miss something.