Ever since Nintendo launched the Family Computer (Famicom) in Japan in 1983, the company has been on top of the video game business in one form or another. Even when they found themselves being left behind in the home console market by new rivals like Sony or Microsoft, they always had an ace up their sleeve: the handheld market.
From the original Game Boy in 1989 to the Switch of today, Nintendo's grasp on the portable market has been more or less absolute. The Big N's handheld systems (not counting any of the original Game & Watch units) have sold over 500 million units combined.
Of course, nowadays, having a dedicated piece of tech to carry around just to play video games feels quaint, at best. After all, the smartphone in your pocket right now is probably capable of playing—hell, even storing—any and all games from those previous game systems. Could they be heading to the same graveyard to which iPhone and Android sent iPods, in-car GPS units, and eBooks?
With Nintendo shutting down online service to 3DS (and Wii U) systems all over the world this week, we figured this is the perfect time to take a look back at the handhelds that have come before and rank them. Because that never goes badly, does it?
We're also including variations of handheld systems for this list, but only if that variation significantly changed what came before it. Also, if we didn't, it would have been a lot harder to come up with ten of these. Like... 73% harder. Seriously.
So, let's get started, shall we?
Look, we get it. I can hear some of you now. "That wasn't even really a portable system." To that, I say "It took batteries and you could carry it places—it was portable. Also, shut up." I think we can all agree, however, that it was a pretty
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