Nintendo has been prioritizing battery life over flashy graphics since a looong time.
this post was submitted on 05 Jan 2026
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The Game Boy in particular was from Gunpei Yokoi's design philosophy, "lateral thinking with withered technology".
Honestly not a bad choice, especially for the time. Even if it was late in GB's life, pokémon would have never worked on a system that eats 6 batteries in 3 hours.
Did the Game Gear even last 3 hours? Felt like 1 or less, but I might be remembering it after being forced to use nicads after the rents got sick of buying new alkalines.
Really needed a car lighter adapter, but never had one.
I've always felt the Game Boy is the biggest icon of old Nintendo, before their more modern and less consumer friendly form. Its portability and low price also made it a more accessible system worldwide for many years, making it a good symbol of worldwide gaming for that era in general.
Man.. this became popular late to our country - but what a blast it was to have something so small to play games on. 🎮
Did anyone else notice how fast that website loaded? Nice, clean design!
Not if you're on mobile :(
(I mean the design, not loading speeds)