For my debut blog, I figured I'd start with one of my more recent pickups, that being 1997's Game & Watch Gallery for the Nintendo Game Boy. A release pretty late into the original Game Boy's life cycle but also a celebration of Nintendo's early era of handheld gaming.
The Game & Watch was the brainchild of Nintendo employee and game designer Gunpei Yokoi. While travelling via bullet train, Yokoi noticed a man playing with his calculator, which sparked the idea in Yokoi's mind of creating a series of LCD games that could also function as a digital watch, hence the name Game & Watch. In 1980, the first Game & Watch game, Ball, was released and proved successful. Many other games followed, including ones featuring Nintendo franchises like Mario, Donkey Kong and even Legend of Zelda. Even licenses like Peanuts and Popeye would see their likenesses on Game and Watch releases. This would also lead to competitors in the LCD handheld market, including the often lauded Tiger Electronics who would release games based on every license under the sun.
Game & Watch was discontinued in 1991, however, that hasn't stopped Nintendo from bringing the series back on random occasions. Ball was rereleased as a Club Nintendo exclusive item for a brief period, and even in 2020, as part of the 35th anniversary of Super Mario Bros, Nintendo released a special Game and Watch that featured both Super Mario Bros and the original Super Mario Bros 2 as playable games along with several other extras. And, for several years, Nintendo celebrated the Game & Watch on their handheld consoles. The first being Game Boy Gallery in 1995, a game that was exclusive to Australia and and Europe. Two years later, the concept was brought back with the release of Game & Watch Gallery, the game we're covering today.
