If Nintendo's NES output largely functions now as tech demos for later, more advanced titles on the SNES, the original Game Boy serves much the same function. Like the NES, which had the task of saving the entire video game home console market from itself, the Game Boy had.a huge task, too: prove portable gaming could be a real force in the industry.
Nintendo did not do this by simply shrinking their existing games down to fit the handheld, but by taking already ambitious games and creating all-new entries using a fourth of the processing power. While Super Mario Land and Metroid II have not aged so well, Link's Awakening remains a blast to this day. The system also saw the introduction of Wario and Kirby.
Oh, and there was this thing called Pokemon, an accidental hit that has been kinda good to Nintendo over the years.
We're going on a family car trip. Buckle up, get your triple-As and settle in with the original gray brick that started it all.
