Check out this futuristic packaging!
Video games are great but in the olden days (okay maybe not THAT olden, but bear with me) you were tethered to the outlet and television, unable to enjoy your games on the go! That is, until the original, classic Gameboy was released. Like a bolt of magical lightning from Japan this new system changed the game forever. Now you could play games at school! On the bus! Anywhere! These portable gaming systems really were a whole new idea, there was nothing like them on the market. By today’s standards they’re pretty terrible but not for the time.
Although they weigh over a pound, had about a two inch screen, and the battery only lasted a couple hours despite the black and white screen – it was still the BEST game in town. And everyone knew it, and wanted it. It had all the classics and many of its own versions of popular new games like Double Dragon. You could play Tetris, Centipede, all kinds of great games. It even had a version of Mario Brothers, not as good as the NES version but a whole lot more fun than staring out the window on a road trip. Trust me; these things were the butter zone. Of all the games on the Gameboy there was one that really stood out to me though, I probably played a couple dozen of them over the years but two really stood out.
First, Mario Golf. If you enjoy the golf video games you’d love Mario Golf even today. It’s just plain fun, the physics are predictable but you can have a nice challenge on the higher difficulties due to wind changes and such. The courses are varied and surprisingly numerous considering the small memory on the little Gameboy cartridges. I think no mobile gaming collection can possibly be complete with Mario Golf; it’s that iconic of the fledgling mobile gaming movement. There is another though, which has a very popular big brother NES version.
Kirby!!!
I’m talking about Kirby, of course! This little pink creampuff is one of the oddest and most fun heroes to play of all time. You gain powers by swallowing enemy units! It’s sick, every time you encounter a difficult enemy – eat him! Now you’ve got the power to use against all that bad guy’s friends. Kirby was a ton of fun but because it’s so different from a golf game I think you could say it’s a tie. Yeah, I know, that’s a pretty cheap way to pick two games as your favorite but I think you guys know how I roll by now… right?