"The beginning of the portable game system craze."

Before the Game Boy, when people wanted portable video games they had to buy handhelds from Tiger Electronics. Nintendo even made handhelds similar to the ones Tiger produced. Nintendo decided to take a step further, however, and release a handheld system which was able to take cartridges. Without any competition whatsoever, GB thrived. This old version of the system may be outdated today, but it is the start of what is now the most popular portable video game system (in the USA, at least).

Graphics Capabilities: 8
When first launched, the GB's graphics were leaps and bounds above other handhelds. Traditional pre-GB handhelds had an LCD screen with all of the game's graphics etched into one layer. The etchings themselves were highly detailed, but having frames of animation in a game was completely out of the question. The audio capabilities of these pre-GB handhelds is equally comparable to the beeps a PC system speaker makes (except for one that actually had voice because of an extra chip).

The GB amazed people with an LCD screen that acted liked a (monochrome) TV screen. Compared to the graphics of an NES (aside from the obvious fact that the NES has color), sometimes GB graphics look more detailed due to a smaller dot matrix.

Audio Capabilities: 8
About the same music and sound effects as an NES. At times, the audio on the GB surpassed the NES.

Controller Design: 10
The same type of controls as the NES...what more could anyone possibly want?

Game Library: 10
This is where the GB flexes the most muscle. Great games made by Nintendo themselves and by strong 3rd party supporters. To say that the game selection is well rounded would be an understatement. Action, adventure, RPG, puzzle, war sim, racing, sports, you name it. Not only are there GB exclusive games abound, there are also faithful NES conversions so people can have their favorite home games on the road. There are even some ports from 16 bit systems which play extremely well considering how weak the GB is compared to them.

Game Boy Versions?
There were two versions of the original GB. The second one to be created was the Game Boy Pocket, which was essentially a classic GB made much, much smaller. It also had a clearer screen and lasted longer on its batteries. The Game Boy Color and the Game Boy Advance are backward compatible with classic GB games, but on rare occasion there are a few glitches (Nintendo even says that some games may not work at all and that they won't fix the problem...this has not happened to me yet, but on one game I own the music sometimes messes up), so owning a classic GB today isn't a horrible idea if this applies to you.

Bottom Line?
This game system shall go down in history as the standard for high quality portable gaming. If you have a GBC and all your old games work just fine, you don't have to keep your old system, but some GB games run best on the first GB. The GB is the reason why people have much more portable gaming fun, which is why I give it an 8.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/27/01, Updated 06/27/01