By Jake Rushing
Exactly 35 years ago on this day, Game and Watch debuted onto retail shelves with it’s first entry of the Game and Watch series called Ball. In this game, you just control the guy by pressing left and right buttons to move the arms to keep the ball juggling in the air for the highest possible score. Even though that there are other days in gaming history that top today 35 years ago, the release of the first game was the first step in Nintendo’s portable electronic gaming, which paved their way into success that continues to this day, despite its down moments.
With the idea originally conceived by Gunpei Yokoi while on a train ride, the game series took off with just after a few games. With it’s very minimalistic specs contributing to it’s long lasting battery life and fun gameplay, the games ended up winning the crowd enough for other IPs to get the Game and Watch treatment. Some of the IPs that ended up getting their own Game and Watch games were Mickey Mouse and Popeye. Some of the Nintendo IPs also got their own Game and Watch games as well like Legend of Zelda. Some of the 59 Game and Watch games sold over 1 million units up to date. The success of these games served as a great precursor into Nintendo’s next handheld platforming success, Game Boy.
That is all for today’s This Day In Gaming History. Stay tuned for the next episode.