This week marks the 30th anniversary of Game Boy’s release in North America, making it older than Taylor Swift, Brie Larson, and Rob Gronkowski. All three will be turning 30 this year, and Swift wrote an essay for Elle on the 30 things she learned before turning 30. She’s changed a lot since the days of the original Game Boy, and so has her generation.
In 1989, Nintendo released the hand-held video game console that became a staple for kids waiting to be picked up after soccer practice. Before that, many gamers had to stay home to entertain themselves with Super Mario. Now they could take their games anywhere.
“The Game Boy was also incredible because the original 8-bit versions sold about 119 million copies,” Gamer World News Entertainment host Tian Wang told Fox Business. “That makes it the third best-selling console of all time — next to PlayStation 2 and the Nintendo DS. And it ended up becoming a cultural icon.”
Game Boy may also be a dividing line between millennials and Generation Z. Whereas millennials grew up on the classic Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, and Nintendo DS, Gen Zers may only remember the 3DS and the Switch, the latest iteration that came out in 2017. If you don’t remember playing Pokémon on your Game Boy Advance or Nintendogs on your DS, you’re too young to be a millennial.
Even as the Game Boy has evolved from five plastic buttons to a touchscreen, millennials seem nostalgic for the low-tech charm of the ’90s. So while technology develops, some gamers still like to keep it old-school.
Larson, who made Time’s list of the 100 most influential people in 2019, is not giving up on the video game console. She told Entertainment Tonight from the set of “Kong: Skull Island” that she’d be willing to stay there under two conditions. She’s happy as long as she can make a margarita and charge her Game Boy.
People who, like Larson, were born the year the Game Boy came out, have already had an impact on the world. But even now that they can drink margaritas and headline Marvel movies, they’re still nostalgic for the low-resolution games of their childhood.
