Game Boy
DEVELOPER: Nintendo
RELEASE DATE: Apr. 21st, 1989 (JP), Jul. 31st, 1989 (US), Sept. 18th, 1990 (EU)
LAUNCH LIBRARY (US): Alleyway, Baseball, Super Mario Land, Tennis, Tetris
On April 21st, 2026, the Game Boy will turn 37 years old. 37 years of Tetris, the Super Mario Land trilogy, Link’s Awakening, Pokemon Red/Blue. Against all odds, the Game Boy captivated millions of people, many of whom hadn’t played a game since smoking was allowed in arcades. The bulky design fit comfortably in your hands, if not your back pocket. For years past its sell-by date, the Game Boy remained, steadfast and true, its unwavering four shades of gray and blurry screen a testament to working within strict limitations. “Lateral Thinking with Withered Technology,” as Game Boy designer, Gunpei Yokoi, decreed.
In the 90s, the Game Boy was the only gaming handheld that was a). affordable and b.) didn’t devour batteries. Up to 30 hours of gameplay on four AAs! Magnificent. The Game Gear, Lynx, and TurboExpress were all technically superior, but incredibly costly. Even if you were privileged enough to get one, you better have a stack of batteries ready to feed the beast, or you were hosed.
Dr. Mario, Super Mario Land 2: Six Golden Coins, and F-1 Race (bust out the link cables!) were staples of long car rides to nowhere, those summer vacations when your dad wouldn’t ask for directions and got the whole family lost. Two extra hours of drive time, but that’s ok, the Game Boy could handle it, even if your eyes couldn’t. Play those games before the sun goes down or else you won’t be able to see the screen.
We didn’t have the greatest attention spans back then, but we also didn’t expect to beat our games. Most Game Boy games are short adventures, made for quick pick-up-and-play sessions on the bus or subway, nothing more. The original Super Mario Land could be conquered in thirty minutes, assuming you didn’t die repeatedly from slipping off a palm tree or something. I never beat it until I was in my twenties. Not sure why. It’s not the toughest game, but I just never wanted to beat it as a kid. Never thought about it. I preferred the mystery, the lack of knowing, in a subconscious kinda way.
Somewhere among the Internet’s corrupt vistas, there exists a young man whose sole gaming experience growing up was the Game Boy. His parents either refused to buy him a home console or couldn’t afford it, so Game Boy it was. Under the covers, in the car, walking home from school. For this kid, the Game Boy was life, it was all he knew. A pure source of entertainment, strictly his. To him, Battletoads, Mortal Kombat II, and NBA Jam weren’t neutered, green-and-gray abominations, inferior to their console counterparts, despite what the other kids said. He defended the Game Boy. It was his companion, it brought him joy, and that’s all that mattered.
This young man could probably play the Game Boy well into his twilight years without much of a problem. The rest of us? That all depends.
Out of all Nintendo’s post-NES consoles/handhelds, the Game Boy remains one of the hardest to appreciate today, nostalgia notwithstanding. Most games suffer from jittery framerates and chunky hard-to-see visuals. Depending on the game, the sprites can be huge and detailed, but at the expense of knowing what pitfalls or enemies await you in your environment. The gray-and-green graphics on the dot matrix screen aren’t a real problem (unless you hate pea soup and pixels), but the lack of a backlit screen certainly is. Enough to make a grown man cry.
“We didn’t know any better in the 90s,” is what people often say, but they’re wrong. We knew plenty better. We wanted better, better already existed, we just couldn’t afford it, so we settled for what we had. That’s what kids do. Kids are resilient. Unless a situation is truly awful and traumatic, they’ll make the best of it. Even if Donkey Kong Land on the Game Boy looks like a pile of manure next to Sonic Triple Trouble on the Game Gear, we’ll play Donkey Kong Land because we actually own a Game Boy and it’s something to play. Anything’s better than nothing.
Is the Game Boy still worth playing today, 37 years later? For most people, no. Not everything was better in the past. I hate mobile games, hate what they stand for, their predatory practices, yet even the worst among them still offer better experiences than the bulk of the Game Boy catalog. That said, if you’re an explorer, an adventurer, one who can look an ancient video game square in the eye and not flinch (or go blind), by all means, descend into the Game Boy library’s depths. You might be surprised and find some gems. You might be horrified at what mankind wrought back in the so-called “halcyon days” of gaming. Either way, you’ll be a changed person. That oughta count for something.
Starting next week, Nintendo is Great will begin covering Game Boy games. As with our current NES coverage, we will look at each game in chronological order, according to their US release date.
*images and screenshots courtesy of Benj Edwards (Vintage Computing & Gaming), Wikipedia, FullyRetro, @NintendoMetro on X, RetroPlace, and Hardcore Gaming 101.
Looking forward to some Game Boy reviews!
I've mentioned before that I was a Game Gear guy, which I mostly played through the car adapter on my family's numerous 8-hour+ road trips. I owned a Game Boy for a bit but its screen was fried after leaving it in direct sunlight, and rather than replace it I saved up my money for a Game Gear and gave my few games to a friend. After that, I only played Game Boy games with that friend's Super Game Boy, which he would let me borrow periodically along with some games (including of course the games I had gifted him.)
RE: Is a mediocre mobile game better than a mediocre GB game?
Sure, I guess. But from where I'm sitting, playing GOOD GB games on Delta Emulator with a Razer Kishi is going to be better than nearly any touch-based or gacha mobile game, IF you can excuse the inconvenience of having to put the Kishi on.
But in that case you could also be playing GBC, GBA, or DS games instead, and that only leaves a few original GB games worth engaging in (I could identify 8, and some of those are iffy).
I have a large soft spot in my heart for the bulky Game Boy and its cabbage-green screen. I got mine as a preschooler convalescing in the hospital from a bout with pneumonia.
My first Game Boy game was Kirby's Adventure, though it was replaced with Super Mario Land 2 after my baby sister threw Kirby in the trash. I had it coming. I am still able to play with Kirby today, but I had only a limited amount of time to play with my baby sister before we both grew up.
I still have that old Game Boy. After all these years, I couldn't part with it, not even when the part that closed over the batteries broke and had to be held on with tape.