The Power of Portable Gaming

1up has up a piece on Handheld Heroes, portable games that have (despite their small size) make herculean changes in the face of gaming as a whole. From the article: "Tetris is, quite possibly, the most important portable game of all. While the drama surrounding its NES incarnation gets the most attention, the Game Boy version quietly sold millions and millions of handheld systems to people who were instantly addicted to its simple, intuitive, challenging gameplay. It's no exaggeration to say that Tetris single-handedly created the portable market, helped the Game Boy conquer its competition, and gave Nintendo an enduring source of income that's still going strong."

Comments

First Game Boy

[heldlikesound]

When I was 9 my dad reward my first ever all "A" report card with a Game Boy, this was about 16 years old. My first games were:

• Tetris (came with the system)
• Baseball
• Castlevania
• Cosmotank

What amazes me is that, first of all, my old Game Still works, and secondly I still enjoy playing most of the games on my SP.
As far as new games go, my favorites for the SP include: Harvest Moon, Advance Wars 1 &2, and the new Metroid games.

A game so simple that anyone can grasp it

[hattig]

That's why it succeeded.

Also most people will improve with practice at this game.

It doesn't rely on over complex controls. Nor pin-point accuracy. Not super-human controller skills. It's addictive because you know you messed up and can do better. And you can get it on $5 LCD games, never mind Gameboys now.

However there aren't many concepts for games this simple.

The power?

[thaerin]

I'll tell you the best power of portable gaming, no more pausing for bathroom breaks.