Game & Watch

Game & Watch (Japanese: ゲーム&ウオッチ Gēmu & Uotchi; called Tricotronic in West Germany and Austria) is a line of handheld electronic games produced by Nintendo from 1980 to 1991.

Created by game designer Gunpei Yokoi, each Game & Watch features a single game to be played on an LCD screen in addition to a clock, an alarm, or both. This console inspired Nintendo to make the Game Boy. It was the earliest Nintendo product to garner major success.

Why It Aged Like Wine

 * 1) It is the first portable console ever made by Nintendo, and it manages to succeed very greatly, even if it’s an old simple console.
 * 2) Many fun and simple games, among them, many platforms. The most famous examples were Helmet, Fire, Oil Panic, Chef, and Lion, all of which were made into stages for the Super Smash Bros. series.
 * 3) A few Mario games were made, like Mario Bros., Mario’s Bombs Away, Mario’s Cement Factory, and Super Mario Bros.: both the original Game and Watch software from 1986 and 1988, and the limited edition 2020 one which uses the NES graphics and software.
 * 4) The NES controllers were based on the controls of the Game & Watch, which is great as without Game & Watch, the NES wouldn’t have had the two-button controller that’s good and helped the console succeed.
 * 5) The iconic cross D-pad began life on the Donkey Kong Game & Watch from 1982, and the D-pad has been used on every controller for every future Nintendo console ever since.
 * 6) The Game & Watch multi-screen version became the model on which the Nintendo DS was based, which means without Game & Watch, the Nintendo DS and its successors would have never gained so much success.
 * 7) It was very cheap at its time, but now it is ultra expensive and rare. Only a few collectors among the world possess one of this.
 * 8) Many NES games, such as Zelda and Donkey Kong has ports to this console, and they are all still very enjoyable games to play on this console.
 * 9) Mr. Game and Watch made it to the Super Smash Bros. series, and he manages to be a very lovable and unique character among the cast.
 * 10) They fared way better than the Tiger Electronics handhelds, as this is Nintendo’s version of it done right.
 * 11) It has a long battery life, mainly due to the built-in clock, and also because of not having too much graphics compared to other consoles.

The Only Bad Quality

 * 1) Just like the Tiger handhelds, the Game & Watch had calculator-like graphics, limiting the animation.