When is the Next Game Boy?

In the portable realm of videogame, there's only one name that truly defined that platform and that name is the Game Boy. Been in the marketplace since its debut in 1989, the Game Boy had met with limitations and lots of competitions, some of whom outperform it both by raw powers and presentation, but due to battery problems, lack of third party supports, and expensive price tag help put them out of the drawing board before they even began. So the Game Boy brand had been out for nearly a decade and a half, it had defeated all the competitions, and had the largest library of games than any other portable existed, so what ever happened to its brand? Why isn't it there creaming the Nintendo DS and PSP? Read on to find out...

The latest upgrade to the Game Boy came in two different form in 2006, one in the form of a Game Gear style design looking similar to the original Game Boy Advance called the Game Boy Micro and the other came in the form of a compact mini laptop style design that can be folded in half called the Game Boy Advance SP2(with a brighter backlit screen). Both Game Boys played the same title of portable games, but the Game Boy Micro was design only to be played, well, portable. Everything about that Game Boy is small, the D-Pad, the buttons, even the screen, however, that Game Boy does had one plus over the other, it got the headphone jacks and the ability to change game cover scheme to help prevent scratches to the screen. The only downs to this Game Boy is that it can only played GBA and only GBA games, that means Game Boy Color and regular black and white Game Boy software aren't supported. The Game Boy Advance SP2; however, can fully play the entire generations of all Game Boy titles, but dropped the headphone jack which the Game Boy Micro and previous Game Boys had. Although the Game Boy Advance SP2 is just a minor tad better than the original Game Boy Advance SP, the brighter backlit screen and the bigger wide screen are a big plus than even the Game Boy Micro, not to mention that it also cost twenty dollar cheaper than what the Game Boy Micro was. Having both of these handhelds at the time are quite rewarding; however, with the Nintendo DS coming in the horizon, these two handhelds are nearing their expiration date just when they had been released.

The Nintendo DS was not Nintendo's attempt to replace the Game Boy brand, in fact, it was meant to be a portable that introduce a new way for people to play on the go. A new innovative play and indeed it finally succeeded in doing so. Even when the PSP is on store shelves, the Nintendo DS still sold nonstop; however, some people dislike the ugliness of the DS design, so an upgrade is plan. The upgrade is non other than the Nintendo DS Lite, lite as in more lighter in weight and brighter in display, it is also more cheaper as well. This strategy was gear towards preventing the PSP from succeeding, but one thing it also takes away. The success of the Nintendo DS Lite had also took away the monopoly that once was dominated by the Game Boy brand and today many newer gamers often bless it as a replacement to the Game Boy. Even the Nintendo DS line itself had been more focus by Nintendo that they plan to connect it to their next generation console, the Wii, a strategy similar to what the Game Boy Advance is to the GameCube last generation. Heck even the Game Boy Player, a GameCube add-on that lets player played the complete line of Game Boy games wasn't compatible at all with the Wii even though the software that came with it does.

Nintendo may say that they are taking their time off with Game Boy brand for now, but for how long, remember that some popular franchises also had their debut on the Game Boy for examples the Kirby's Dream Land series, the Fire Emblem series(yes, it was first released on the Famicom and Super Famicom, but the GBA version was the first to bring the action to the west), the Advance Wars series(just like the Fire Emblem series), the Wario Land series, the Game and Watch Gallery series, the Golden Sun series, not to mention the phenomenon addictive franchise that was Pokemon. We all loved the Nintendo DS, we have fun playing the Wii, and we all enjoy both the GameCube backward compatibility as well as the Virtual Console whether if it was playing classic NES, Super NES, Nintendo 64, Sega Genesis, or Turbo Graphx-16 titles, the one name that truly deserve to be there is the Game Boy and there's no reason it won't. Why throw away a successful brand name when that name is the one that made success for the company in the first place compare to the many that didn't(examples: Turbo Graphx-16, Nintendo 64, GameCube)? So when will the next Game Boy be coming, that depends on when will people had enough of the Nintendo DS or the touch screen for that matter. Nintendo will probably surprise us sometime in the near future, but for now it looks as if the Nintendo DS is doing an excellent job being its substitute in the portable market.