Games That Defined The (Original) Game Boy

[Sano]

What about Pokemon Red & Blue?

If wrong, side question: Were Blue and Red on the GBC and not the grey brick of a Gameboy?

[jmbarnes101]

Good point on Mole Mania.

[Luke]

Tetris. End of discussion.

One of coolest things my middle school did was a trip to the Outer Banks of NC, for an entire weekend. The bus drive was a long one, and most kids had a Gameboy. This was the Gameboy's heyday, and these are the games ALL the kids were playing:

Tetris
Super Mario Land
Tennis
Castlevania Adventure
Duck Tales
Metroid II
TMNT
Baseball


I'm torn on the Pokemon comments. I've never played any of the games, never cared for Pokemon as a series (cartoon/games/trading cards), so I am naive about it but...

I mentioned playing the Gameboy in middle school for a reason. I first heard of Pokemon when I was in college. When you go from middle school to college, a lot changes. A lot. Most kids I knew that played Pokemon were indeed kids and played it on a GBColor. I don't see Pokemon as a Gameboy game, but as a GBColor game.

I'm also looking at games that I think Sold the Gameboy. Maybe that's not everyone sees "defining" a system, but I look at it as listing games that were the life support of the system.

[alienjesus]

Tetris. End of discussion.

One of coolest things my middle school did was a trip to the Outer Banks of NC, for an entire weekend. The bus drive was a long one, and most kids had a Gameboy. This was the Gameboy's heyday, and these are the games ALL the kids were playing:

Tetris
Super Mario Land
Tennis
Castlevania Adventure
Duck Tales
Metroid II
TMNT
Baseball


I'm torn on the Pokemon comments. I've never played any of the games, never cared for Pokemon as a series (cartoon/games/trading cards), so I am naive about it but...

I mentioned playing the Gameboy in middle school for a reason. I first heard of Pokemon when I was in college. When you go from middle school to college, a lot changes. A lot. Most kids I knew that played Pokemon were indeed kids and played it on a GBColor. I don't see Pokemon as a Gameboy game, but as a GBColor game.

I'm also looking at games that I think Sold the Gameboy. Maybe that's not everyone sees "defining" a system, but I look at it as listing games that were the life support of the system.

Pokémon came out before the GBC, and MASSIVELY increased the sales of the system. I got mine with a Game Boy Pocket. The first 5 games in the series were for the original GB, it wasn't until the 6th it became a GBC game only.

You were in college when Pokémon came out? Well you won't understand the impact it had. I was in junior school when I first learned about Pokémon. I would have been 10 or so. It was HUGE.

Every year there were fads. Pogs, motorised YoYos, Tamagotchis. But Pokémon transcended them all. It was everywhere, on everything, and we absolutely lapped it up. I didn't know a single kid who wasn't obsessed. No other game has ever had that much media saturation, ever. People think Minecraft is big now, but it's nothing compared to the Pokémon phenomenon.

There was a stall that opened up at my local market, and it stayed open for about 7 years. All it did was sell Pokémon stuff - mainly trading cards, but games, tshirts etc aswell. In a small town, someone managed to consistently sell Pokémon merchandised every week for long enough to make a living for the best part of a decade.

If people were to ask me which SINGLE game defined the Game Boy, it wouldn't be Tetris. It would be Pokémon. No other option even comes close.

[ninjainspandex]

Don't forget the Pokemon Trading Card game on the Gameboy, seriously why have they not made more? It would work so well on the 3DS with the two screens.

[fastbilly1]

Don't forget the Pokemon Trading Card game on the Gameboy, seriously why have they not made more? It would work so well on the 3DS with the two screens.

It is on iOS:

[Tanooki]

I like the concept of Pokemon, it's playable, watchable as a cartoon too, but putting that to the side, to leave it off as a game that defined the original Game Boy would be an equal to basically spitting on Tetris and ignoring it.

When the GB came out Tetris was the pack-in they used because they knew it would help be a big sales driver around many age groups, and it worked. It made the system get used, and when people wanted more, then those not so familiar with the NES went digging, and that list a couple posts up were some solid early go-to defining titles.

Fast forward to the Pocket Monsters/Pokemon release. Nintendo Gameboy was screwed. That 90-ish percentile lock on the market was cracked and broken for good. I think the Game Gear alone gobbled up a good 1/3 of the market and GB was sliding further, and it had for a window to also deal with the Lynx and the Turbo Express (whether fair or not it was there.) As people were stopping making games as it was looking old and passe to even care about old black and white Gameboy in 1996 as even the SNES was on the way out and GB was this crusty NES like throwback with no color and little prospects. Nintendo dropped this huge gauntlet in 1996 with Pokemon. Go check the sales and all the crap they threw behind and around it. Then go check the insane uptick in hardware and especially software sales data before it was around. Pokemon saved Gameboy and saved Nintendo's handheld division. GBC wouldn't even arrive for another couple of years yet.

Love it or hate it, Pokemon is a top 5 defining game of the system not just because of what it is as a game but what it did to save Gameboy itself in its later pre-color years.

[ninjainspandex]

Don't forget the Pokemon Trading Card game on the Gameboy, seriously why have they not made more? It would work so well on the 3DS with the two screens.

It is on iOS:

a sign of things to come? Seems like it is much more profitable to do the "Free to Play" model than release it on their own handhelds.