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The Game Boy (abbreviated to GB), family line is a series of handheld consoles that were produced by Nintendo. It succeeded the Game and Watch and was succeeded by the Game Boy Color.

The Game Boy is the first console to feature and introduce the Kirby series games. It is a rectangular device that takes inspiration from the Game & Watch's screen and the Nintendo Entertainment System's controller for its control buttons. Taking after the NES's "Game Pak" cartridges, the Game Boy uses its own unique cartridges also called Game Paks which are inserted at the top of the console. The Game Boy only supports a monochrome palette, a feature that would be given more color in its successor; many games in the series reference this monochrome color scheme as early as the second game, Kirby's Adventure.

Variants[]

Title Image Release Date Summary
North America Japan
Game Boy Game Boy Front July 31, 1989 Apr 21, 1989 The first iteration of the console.
Game Boy Pocket Game Boy Pocket July 21, 1996 Sept 3, 1996 A compact and lighter version of the original model. Notably had better response times and visibility.
Game Boy Light Game Boy Light N/A Apr 14, 1998 A slightly larger Game Boy Pocket that supports an electroluminescent backlight, the only variation to have a backlight feature.

Controls[]

Game Boy Sides

The Game Boy's front face has a screen on its upper half and its controls on its lower half: a directional pad on its left, Select and Start buttons at its lower center, and the A and B button on its right. On its upper left is the power switch; on its right side a volume slider; and on its left side a contrast-adjusting slider.

Also on its right side is a port that allows players to connect to each other's Game Boys with a link cable to play multi-player games. This feature is used for VS mode in Kirby's Star Stacker which is the only game in the Kirby Game Boy family collection to support local multiplayer.

Games[]

Below is a list of every Kirby game released for the Game Boy.

Title Box Art/Logo Release Date North America
Kirby's Dream Land KDL Boxart August 1, 1992
Kirby's Pinball Land KPL Boxart November 30, 1993
Kirby's Dream Land 2 KDL2 Boxart May 1, 1995
Kirby's Block Ball KBB Boxart May 4, 1996
Kirby's Star Stacker KSSt Boxart July 14, 1997

Related Accessories[]

Game Link Cable[]

A Game Link Cable for the Game Boy allowed users to connect to each other's Game Boys to utilize multiplayer play. When the Game Boy Pocket was released, Nintendo also released the Game Boy Pocket Game Link Cable which was smaller than the first cable. For a regular Game Boy to be compatible with a Game Boy Pocket, users had to buy a Game Link Cable Adapter. Eventually, Nintendo released the Universal Game Link Cable which features the smaller cable on one end and splits into two separate cables on the other: the original cable for the Game Boy and another smaller cable for the Pocket. When the Game Boy Light was released, along with the newer generation handheld, the Game Boy Color, another different cable was used: the Game Boy Color Game Link Cable. As with the Pocket, another adapter was used to connect the Game Boy Color/Light with the original Game Boy or the Pocket called the Universal Game Link Adapter. All of these cables are compatible with Kirby's Star Stacker.

Newer generations of the Game Link Cables would also be made for the Game Boy Advance and Game Boy Micro with certain respective Kirby titles being compatible for them.

Nintendo Power[]

Nintendo Power GB

The Nintendo Power is a device that allowed users to download Game Boy games onto a flash memory cartridge for a cheaper price than that of a regular Game Boy cartridge. Users were to purchase an empty ROM card and bring it to a Nintendo Power kiosk to select the games they want to download onto the cartridge. This service was first available for the Super Famicom. Released only in Japan in 1996 and discontinued in 2007, every Kirby game released for the Game Boy could have been downloaded; all of these games were available for the Nintendo Power on March 1, 2000.[1]

Accessories for Game Boy backwards compatibility[]

Super Game Boy[]

KRtDLDX Maxim Tomato Main article: Super Nintendo Entertainment System#Super Game Boy

The Super Game Boy peripheral is a device that allows the SNES and Super Famicom to play Game Boy and Game Boy Color cartridges. It supports many special features for various Game Boy titles offering new effects and/or other features a regular Game Boy does not have.

Wide Boys[]

KRtDLDX Maxim Tomato Main article: Nintendo Entertainment System#Wide Boy
KRtDLDX Maxim Tomato Main article: Nintendo 64#Wide-Boy64

Wide Boys are a series of accessories made for the Famicom and Nintendo 64 that allowed the consoles to play Game Boy and Game Boy Color games. The Wide Boy for the Nintendo 64 is known as the Wide-Boy 64 CGB.

Game Boy Player[]

KRtDLDX Maxim Tomato Main article: Nintendo GameCube#Game Boy Player

The Game Boy Player is a large accessory for the Nintendo GameCube that allows it to play Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance games.

Trivia[]

  • Various packaging for the Game Boy features Kirby's Dream Land and Kirby's Pinball Land on them as they are the first two Kirby titles that were released relatively early in the Game Boy's lifespan.
    • Due to the extremely popularity of Tetris, both aforementioned Kirby games were bundled with Tetris; both of these bundles were only released in France.[2][3] The Kirby's Dream Land box art notably shows Kirby colored pink despite being depicted as monochrome white in packaging for the game outside of Japan.
    • The Game Boy packaging seen in Spanish is from the Game Boy Star Pack packaging which was released in Germany, but sold in Spanish markets.[4]
  • In the UK there was a special promotion between Nintendo and Jacob's Bakery for Prince Giant Mallows with 1,175 potential prizes with a sub pool prize of Kirby merchandise. Of this pool prizes were 400 Kirby shirts with the text "Think Pink" on them, 750 Kirby wall posters, and 25 rare Kirbv's Pinball Land-themed Game Boys, each of them indicated with a certain shape. Each contestant was given a Kirby-themed contest card which had to be turned in to redeem a prize. On the back of these cards is a red film which will show a shape that corresponds to the respective prize.[5][6]
  • The designs of the Game Boy and Game Boy Pocket/Light/Color are similar with one notable difference: the Start and Select buttons go from slanting upwards to being straight. There are a couple examples in the Kirby series where a certain member of the Game Boy family is references, however due to the inconsistency of the Start and Select positioning, these references bear stronger resemblances of the Game Boy Pocket.
    • In Kirby's Dream Land 3, if the player collects all the Heart Stars and revisits Ado in Cloudy Park, she will randomly paint various objects on her canvas, a pink Game Boy being one of them. This Game Boy is similar to the light pink Game Boy Pocket due to its unique color and horizontal Start and Select buttons.[7]
    • In Kirby: Planet Robobot, the Remote Controller item bears a similar appearance to that of a Game Boy. This Game Boy uses the color scheme of the original Game Boy but has horizontal Start and Select buttons. This design resembles the color scheme of the Japan-only grey Game Boy Pocket that mimics the original Game Boy colors while also having the horizontal buttons.[8]
  • In Extra Planet δ in Kirby Star Allies, the final room with the door leading to the Kirby's Dream Land section has its background and floating blocks positioned in a way where it resembles a Game Boy.

Artwork[]

Gallery[]

References[]

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