After it came out in Japan, Game Boy was brought to North America three months later, and it even reached Europe within the following year. This handheld device helped change the landscape of video games forever, and it still remains popular.
Game Boy was responsible for allowing young fans to play such classic games as Super Mario Bros., Tetris, Pokémon, Kirby, The Legend of Zelda, and Donkey Kong, among many others.
It had a major impact on the portable gaming market. Game Boy helped pave the way for other devices such as the Switch.
As indicated by the Los Angeles Times, the legacy and zest for the Game Boy live on “in ways far beyond its intended use.” When it was first released in 1989, it was not the most technologically sophisticated handheld device, yet it was able to beat out such competitors as the Atari Lynx and Game Gear (which was manufactured by Sega) since it was lower in price and easier to use (battery operated).
In addition, 12 years after its release, when Game Boy Advance came out, the handheld game console had sold in excess of 110 million units all over the globe, which made Game Boy the best-selling game system at the time.
To this day, Game Boy still has a nostalgia factor, for all of the kids that grew up in the late ’80s and ’90s era, and their families. Many people credit Game Boy for being responsible for getting them into gaming in the first place. Game Boy truly was a game changer.
