Legacy of the Game Boy

The Nintendo Game Boy was released in 1989 with the pack-in game Tetris and 5 launch games, Super Mario Land, Alleyway, Baseball, and Tennis. Even with such a small launch, the Nintendo Game Boy became one of - if not the most - successful handheld video game system.

In 1994, Nintendo released the Super Game Boy, a device that allowed you to play Game Boy Games through your Super Nintendo with limited color. Nintendo also redesigned the Nintendo Game Boy into the Game Boy Pocket, making the system much more portable and introduced a number of different colored Game Boy systems.

While technology wise the Nintendo Game Boy was not too impressive, it was host to over 500 games by the end of its life span in 1998 including: Pokemon Red, Pokemon Blue, Castlevania, Final Fantasy Legends, Kirby, Mega Man, Super Mario Land and The Legend of Zelda: Links Awakening. With an emphasis on game play, the Nintendo Game Boy was able to beat the technologically superior, and pricey, handheld systems such as the Atari Lynx, Sega Game Gear and Sega Nomad, and NEC’s TurboGrafx Express.