Why I Love… The Game Boy!

Hey everyone! I feel like I am so far behind on my posts… I normally try to post this “Why I Love” feature on the 1st or 2nd of every month (clearly we are way past those dates), I still haven’t done my recap of my Four in February (in March) results, I haven’t done my First Impressions post for Harvest Moon: Animal Parade, and so on. With everything that has been going on lately, my motivation for producing a halfway decent blog post has pretty much gone out the window.

I’ve slowly been trying to get back to normal, but it’s been hard. I’m getting there though! I just want to thank all you guys for your support and kind comments. I’ve said it before, but it’s worth repeating: I am so happy to be part of this wonderful community. You guys mean a lot to me and I happy to have so many friends on here! By the way, I’m behind on reading pretty much everyone’s blogs, but don’t worry, I’ll catch up soon! 🙂

Anyway! Blogging is cathartic for me, so I figured it was time I get back to posting! Like I said, I’m a bit behind on the posts I wanted to make, but oh well. I set no time limits for myself, so I’ll get to them when I get to them! 😉

With all of that being said, this month’s Why I Love… post is all about the Nintendo Game Boy!

The Game Boy logo.

Released in North America in 1989, this little gray box soon became synonymous with handheld gaming. And I wanted one!

I love the Game Boy!

My mom said I was watching tv when I was about 6 and an ad came on for the Game Boy. She said I watched it, intrigued, then looked at her and said “I think I would like one of those.” 6-year-old me was apparently very polite! 😉

This isn’t a screenshot of the tv ad, but whatever, you get the idea!

So, my awesome mom bought me a Game Boy that Christmas bundled with Tetris. She bought me one other game simply because the box art looked cute. That game was none other than Kirby’s Dream Land!

I don’t remember if the box looked like this or not!

I was so surprised and delighted that I finally got my hands on a Game Boy! My friend down the street had one, as well as a couple kids in school, so I had played with one frequently. It was so fun to have my own, though! I remember COUNTLESS hours playing both Tetris and Kirby’s Dream Land.

It is always pretty sweet when you get a “tetris”!

When I was young, my bedtime was 9:00 p.m. on school nights. After I got that Game Boy, I would constantly beg my mom to let me stay up “just 5 more minutes” to play! On one occasion I remember I was about to beat Kirby’s Dream Land for the first time, and it was time for bed. Man, did I beg and beg to stay up! She finally agreed that I could stay up until 9:30. I don’t recall if I actually beat the game that night, but having an extra 30 minutes of gaming time was pretty sweet!

I don’t care if this game takes only 15 minutes to beat, it is one of my all time favorites!

I also remember playing Game Boy with my friends all the time. Oftentimes one of us would be playing with 5 or 6 more kids crowded around, trying to see the screen. Since the screen was a little hard to see sometimes, I had a nifty little light/ magnifying device that attached to the Game Boy for easier gaming!

The struggle was real back when screens weren’t backlit!

The Game Boy gave me SO many hours of enjoyment, and I still enjoy the games I have today. I have 35 original Game Boy games (click here to see what I have!).  My Game Boy still works, too! I also got the Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance when they came out and have many games for those systems too! The original Game Boy will forever hold a special place in my heart, though, because it was the first gaming system I officially owned!