"Most prolific unit of all time"

The Gameboy is the greatest selling hand-held and for good reason. It was very innovative and has set the stage for what hand-helds are today. It had some of the best selling games of all time (Tetris, The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, and Pokemon). All of these titles became instant classics that to this day are enjoyed by people of all ages.

Graphics: (9/10) By today's standards the graphics for this unit were below average at best, but when this unit came out it far exceeded any gaming related hand-held out there. When this unit came out people were used to playing these single game hand-helds that had awful displays and very boring sprites. This unit offered fully visible and distinguishable character sprites that looked great. The backgrounds were very visible and rarely left the gamer confused.

Sound: (10/10) Again by today's standards these sounds would not be considered the greatest, but compared to the competition at the time the sound blew them all out of the water. Every sound was very clear and distinguishable. Only on rare occasions did the sounds coming from the Gameboy disappoint me.

Gameplay: (10/10) This is what really separates the Gameboy from the other hand-helds. This unit plays virtually identically to the NES and is very easy on the hands. The ability to link other Gameboys and battle your friends was just incredible. Best thing about it is that is was available for usage on several games and made the games much more enjoyable.

Reliability/Battery Life (9/10) These units were very reliable. I know of several people who still have their first Gameboy from when they were a kid. The only thing that hurts the reliability is that Gameboys would start to have lines going through the screen hurting the visibility a little bit. The battery life on this unit is amazing (about 35 hours).

Miscellaneous (7/10) This is the only place that this unit is not extraordinary. The unit was not back-lit so you had to hold the unit a certain way with certain amounts of light to be able to get a clear picture of the screen. There was the Light Boy that you could buy for your Gameboy to help with this problem but that was not of much help. Somethings good about the unit itself was that it was small enough to carry in you pocket. Another thing great about this unit was the fact that if you find that right light it comes in clearer than the competitors.

Overall (9/10) This unit had it's faults as all units do. The Gameboy's flaws were very minor at worst. But all of the positives outweigh the negatives exponentially. This unit is one of the greatest if not the greatest ever assembled.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 02/18/05