More Thoughts From Me #57: Looking Back At The Gameboy

It was a little bulky portable that you held with two hands. The screen was green and so were all the games. The graphics would probably be too basic for most gamers these days. Back then though, it was impressive to be able to play games like Tetris, a Super Mario Bros game, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in the palms of your hands. Yes, today I’m going to take a look back at the original Gameboy: the good, the bad, and the wonderful.

The Gameboy ran on batteries. This was a time when there were no rechargeable batteries and the Gameboy itself had no charger. So you had to keep replacing those batteries every once and while. Thats a bad thing. Also it should be noted that even back then, the green screen on the Gameboy wasn’t ideal. The system wasn’t backlit either so you had to have it in a well lit room and you can forget about playing the system outside!

And thats pretty much all the bad I can think of when it comes to the Gameboy. I’m sure other people could come up with stuff, but those are really my only complaints looking back on the Gameboy.

As for the good, the Gameboy felt comfortable in your hands. The controls were simple and easy for anyone to pick up on. And the games, oh boy, the games. There were so many great games for the original Gameboy.

My favorite games for the Gameboy included Tetris, Link’s Awakening, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game Fall of the Foot Clan, and Super Mario Land 1 and 2. I’m sure there were plenty of other great games, but those are the ones that still stick out after all these years. Most of all, I remember the system. Who could forget it? It was one of a kind then.

The Gameboy was a wonderful system. Sure, it had its faults as mentioned above, but back when it came out, there was no other system like it. Sega tried to fight Nintendo with the Game Gear but that wasn’t as good a system as the Gameboy. Nintendo has always created excellent portables and this is the system that started it all. Without the Gameboy, we’d have no DS or 3DS systems.

I do wish the old Gameboy name would come back. Nintendo should revive it for their next portable. Wouldn’t that be great?

So what do you think of the Gameboy? Did you own a Gameboy and what were your favorite games? Let us know in the comments!

Next week: My favorite Zelda games. As Breath of the Wild approaches, I’ll make a list of my favorite Zelda games and share it with you. What is my #1 favorite Zelda game (so far)?

More Thoughts From Me is an opinion column. The thoughts expressed here are mine and mine alone. Thank goodness for the Gameboy Virtual Console on the 3DS!