GAME BOY POCKET ARTICLE - January 1997
There can be little doubt that the Nintendo Game Boy is a
modern design classic. Over 80 million of the handheld game machines have been sold, and
the GB plays host to some of the finest videogames ever created (Tetris, Super Mario Land,
Killer Instinct and, of course, Bill And Ted's Excellent Game Boy Adventure.) And
yet, when was the last time you actually saw someone playing with one in the street? Fact
is, technological marvel though it is, the Game Boy is just a tad too uncool (dodgy colour
scheme, bit chunky) for groovy normal people to be seen with. Nintendo (bless 'em) have put that right, though, with the release of the Game Boy Pocket. It's essentially the same machine, but a drastic revamp has seen it shrink (30% smaller), slim down (50% lighter - it runs on 2 AAA batteries, rather than 4 AAs as previously ) and smarten up (a lovely new silver-and-black steel skin job replacing the old beige-and-maroon, and a far crisper black-and-white picture replacing the old green screen), to dramatic overall effect - the new-look GB is now the gaming equivalent of the cute one out of Ant and Dec, where previously it was all of Dodgy put together. And we can't recommend it more highly than that. Game Boy Pocket from Nintendo, RRP £49.99tbc |