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The Game Boy line of portable game consoles date back to the first 'brick' released in 1989. Designed by Gunpei Yokoi, also responsible for the Game & Watch portable single-game systems, the Game Boy was the very first portable game system to use interchangeable cartridges. The Game Boy Pocket, a smaller, lighter and more power-efficient version of the Game Boy was released in 1996. It featured nothing more than that and a black-and-white LCD display, as opposed to the greenish dot matrix screen of the original Game Boy. Another iteration, the, was released exclusively in Japan, featuring a green back-lit display.
In 1998, Nintendo released the Game Boy Color, featuring the same design as the Game Boy Pocket, but including a 32,768-color display with a maximum of 56 different colors on screen at any given time.
2001 saw the release of the Game Boy Advance, later followed by its redesigns - the Game Boy Advance SP in 2003 and Game Boy Micro and 2005.
During the launch of the Nintendo DS in 2004, Nintendo claimed that the new handheld was the company's "third pillar" rather than a true successor to the Game Boy line, but of course this information was false because in 2006, Nintendo of America's George Harrison stated that the Game Boy line would be dead by the year 2007. This fact was also proven false, especially since the GBA and its redesigns were discontinued in 2008-2009 (and system sales ended in mid-2010) and with the unparalleled success of the Nintendo DS. The Nintendo DS line was given new breath with the announcement of the Nintendo 3DS at E3 2010 which was released in February 2011.
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Note: The Super Game Boy and the Game Boy Pocket are remakes of the Game Boy, and play the same games as it, so the top selling games for the three systems will all be Tetris. The Game Boy Advance SP and Game Boy Micro are remakes of the Game Boy Advance, and will all have the same top selling game for the same reason. The Game Boy Player plays all the Game Boy games, and the top selling game will be Tetris since it is the top selling Game Boy game.
| Name | Best Selling Game | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Game Boy | Tetris | 1989 |
| Super Game Boy | Tetris | 1994 |
| Game Boy Pocket | Tetris | 1996 |
| Game Boy Light | Tetris | 1997 |
| Game Boy Color | Pokémon Red & Blue | 1998 |
| Game Boy Advance | Pokémon Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald | 2001 |
| Game Boy Advance SP | Pokémon Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald | 2003 |
| Game Boy Player | Tetris | 2003 |
| Game Boy Micro | Pokémon Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald | 2005 |