Younger generations, though, are more likely to name the unlikely upstart that stole Game Boy's portable crown and permanently ousted that mighty brand name from the company's lineup: the Nintendo DS.
It's strange to think back to a time when the odd-looking, folding dual-screened console was positioned as a 'third pillar' alongside GameCube and Game Boy Advance.
The original prototype and even the initial 'Phat' version of the hardware certainly didn't look like much of a threat. The early reveal model Reggie pulled from his pocket looked undeniably clunky, especially up against the sleek elegance of Sony's PSP. There was a nervousness from fans that Sony's arrival on the handheld market was the death knell to Nintendo's dominance in the same way it had been with the home console market nearly a decade earlier. How was an ugly, dual-screen, Game and Watch-alike going to win a console war?! Nintendo seemed to be grabbing at straws, and inexplicably jumping off the good ship Game Boy, scuppering its flagship handheld for no good reason.
The gamble paid off, though, and the Nintendo DS became the first movement in a blue ocean strategy that Nintendo president Satoru Iwata would soon employ with the Wii.
With its approachable touchscreen input and huge breadth of software to appeal to audiences old and young, gamer and non-gamer alike, the DS helped bring handheld gaming to demographics who had felt excluded from the Game Boy phenomenon, for whatever reason. Software like Brain Training and Nintendogs sat alongside core RPGs and classic games on a system that could be as wacky or as strait-laced as a developer desired.
Gamers' favourite franchises continued to arrive in fresh forms, too, while titles like Animal Crossing: Wild World found a huge new audience. Perhaps the biggest compliment we can pay the DS is that it made us forget almost entirely about the retirement of the 'Game Boy' line. The 'Boy king was quietly removed and DS took its throne.
Having endorsed the idea of a two-screened handheld, Nintendo's longest-serving president Hiroshi Yamauchi famously commented on the soon-to-release DS: "If it succeeds, we will rise to heaven, but if it fails we will sink to hell." While that might have been a tad dramatic, the diminishing returns of every hardware generation since the NES and Game Boy heyday meant that Nintendo needed a big win to assure its continued presence in an ever-competitive industry. And that's exactly what this great experiment provided.
It might have been a slow starter but the all-conquering DS and the philosophy which carried over to the home console line with the Wii transformed Nintendo's fortunes forever. It's no exaggeration to call it the company's most important console, a system which shaped gaming's future and filled Nintendo's coffers with unimaginably large amounts of money.
Hey, it did print the stuff, remember.
It's 20 Years Since The Launch Of Nintendo's Most Important Console
The rise to heaven
www.nintendolife.com
