Although Nintendo has released its fair share of home consoles, much of its success has come from its handheld gaming devices. Nintendo's latest offering, the Nintendo Switch, reigns as one of the bestselling consoles of all time, and despite having been released in 2017, the console is still breaking records in 2021. In August, Nintendo Switch games managed to claim Japan's entire Top 30 charts, a feat that has not been achieved since the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1988.

Before the Switch, Nintendo released several handheld consoles that helped make the company a powerhouse in the gaming world. Each handheld, though they found varying levels of success, represents an important moment in gaming history. From the days of the Game Boy, all the way to Nintendo's current hybrid console, the company's domination of the handheld market has yet to be matched.

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Nintendo's Early Days in the Handheld Scene

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Despite the popularity of gaming, the handheld market is a difficult one to break into. Several companies have tried their hand and found very little success, despite investing in innovative ideas. The gaming market is often unpredictable, and it can be difficult to determine precisely what gamers want. Furthermore, managing to craft a system powerful enough to play the latest games while still keeping a portable form factor is a tricky task that often requires making sacrifices that gamers might not want. Hence, there is often a trade-off between the power of a portable console and its battery life.

Nintendo's first foray into the portable gaming market began with the Game & Watch, which was a simple but revolutionary product. It was originally released in 1980 and, as the name might suggest, it is capable of serving as a watch in addition to a game console. The Game & Watch found great success, selling 14 million units in its first year alone. During its long lifespan, dozens of versions of the console were released, including ones with a clamshell design. Furthermore, many game franchises that would become iconic Nintendo IPs found their way onto the console, including Zelda, Donkey Kong, and Super Mario Bros.

The Game & Watch was proof positive that gaming did not have to be limited to the living room or arcades. Its popularization of the portable gaming console paved the way for Nintendo's future releases that would be far more popular and impactful. Due to its significant impact on the history of gaming, the decades-old console still has its niche fanbase.

The console has also enjoyed modern re-releases, including a Game & Watch version featuring NES versions of Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels, as well as a Game & Watch Zelda version which contains three The Legend of Zelda games. While the Game & Watch found widespread popularity, its success would be dwarfed by Nintendo's next product.

Introducing the Game Boy

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The 80s was a good decade for Nintendo. Following the success of the Game & Watch, the company released a home console called the Nintendo Entertainment System. It hit stores in 1983 in Japan before being released in North America in 1985. The design of the controls is based on the Game & Watch, which features cross-shaped directional buttons. The NES proved to be a lucrative investment for Nintendo and it sold over 61 million units in its lifetime.

Despite establishing itself in the home console market, Nintendo was not done with the portable scene just yet. The company released its next portable console, the Game Boy, in 1989. It is an 8-bit device that cannot play games in color. The Game Boy is not anything fancy, and it lacks many basic features such as a backlight, which makes it near unplayable for modern gamers. However, it is an incredibly important device, as it sparked the beginning of what would become one of the best-selling gaming console lines of all time.

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The Game Boy was followed up by the Game Boy Color which features a color screen. Next came the Game Boy Advance in the early 2000s, and it improved on its predecessor in numerous ways. It is a 32-bit device that ditches the Game Boy's portrait layout for landscape orientation. Unfortunately, some of the flaws of the Game Boy carried over to the Game Boy Advance.

Most notably, both portable consoles lack a backlight, which makes them difficult to play in areas with low lighting. This flaw was finally addressed with the Game Boy Advance SP which sports a backlight as well as a clamshell design. The Game Boy Advance SP was followed by the Game Boy Micro, a tiny device small enough to fit into the palm of one's hand.

Games on the Game Boy line of portable consoles saw astronomically high sales. Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire sold over 16 million units while Super Mario Land sold over 18 million units. Altogether, the Game Boy handheld consoles sold over 200 million units worldwide. Though those numbers are unbelievably high, Nintendo's domination of the handheld market would not stop there.

The Nintendo Dual Screen Era

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After the resounding success of the Game Boy, Nintendo had to follow up with something equally as innovative and appealing. The company's next handheld console was dubbed the Nintendo DS.

The DS stands for "Dual Screen" which refers to the system's form factor. What makes the console special is that the bottom screen is touch-sensitive, allowing for new gameplay using a novel input method. Plenty of games take advantage of the touchscreen in creative ways. This includes the Trauma Center series which allows players to perform virtual surgeries. The touchscreen is also utilized extensively by Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day! which features many cognitively stimulating puzzles that can be answered using the DS's touchscreen.

Several models of the Nintendo DS were released. The first revision was the Nintendo DS Lite which is slimmer and lighter than the original handheld. Soon after came the DSi which features two digital cameras, although it does lack a Game Boy Advance cartridge slot. Next came the Nintendo DSi XL which, as one might guess, is larger than its predecessor to accommodate its larger screens.

The Nintendo DS would not enjoy the handheld market on its own, however. In 2004, Sony stepped into the handheld scene and introduced the world to the PlayStation Portable. Sony had already become an established name in gaming thanks to the PlayStation 1 and the PlayStation 2 which reigned supreme among home consoles. Compared to Nintendo's handhelds, the PSP is far more technologically advanced. It has a higher screen resolution, greater processing power, and it is capable of displaying graphics comparable to the PS2, something the DS can never hope of doing. The PSP is also able to play various forms of media, including films.

Despite the technological gap between the DS and the PSP, Nintendo's handheld console managed to outsell Sony's offering. It managed to sell over 154 million units globally — 80 million more than the PSP — and several games also saw impressive sales on the platform. New Super Mario Bros. sold over 30 million units, Nintendogs sold close to 24 million copies, and Pokemon Diamond and Pearl sold over 17 million units. Competition between Nintendo and Sony would not stop with the PSP and the DS, because both companies would release their own respective successor handheld devices.

Nintendo Goes 3D

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While Sony was pushing the handheld market technologically, Nintendo was introducing plenty of innovation and novel ideas. This trend continued in the eighth generation of gaming when Nintendo released the 3DS. In many ways, the 3DS looks almost identical to the DS. However, there are a few key differences. It has superior processing power as well as greater multimedia capabilities. Most importantly, it can also display 3D images without the need for 3D glasses. It achieves this amazing feat using stereoscopy which combines two images to create a 3D effect.

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The 3DS underwent multiple revisions, including the larger 3DS XL as well as the New 3DS and New 3DS XL. Outside of increasing the size of the console and upgrading the processor in the case of the New devices, the variations are mostly the same and 3DS games can work on all versions. The most significant change came with the 2DS which was released, in part, to address concerns with the effects of stereoscopic 3D on eye health. The 2DS is incapable of displaying 3D effects and it rejects the clamshell design for a slate form.

The 3DS's main competitor was the Sony PS Vita. The two are incomparable in terms of processing power, with the Vita being capable graphics just shy of PS3 quality. However, Nintendo demonstrated once again that good graphics are not the be-all-end-all in the eyes of gamers.

The Vita has its fair share of graphically mind-blowing games such as Uncharted: Golden Abyss and Need for Speed: Most Wanted. Nevertheless, the Nintendo 3DS's games outsold the Vita's bestselling games. Forever a blockbuster franchise, Pokemon sold over 16 million copies on the 3DS with Pokemon X and Y. Mario Kart 7 sold close to 19 million copies, and Animal Crossing: New Leaf boasts sales figures of close to 13 million.

Overall, the Nintendo 3DS sold 75.94 million copies. Although this is less than what the DS and the Game Boy sold, it was enough to maintain Nintendo's position as leaders of the handheld market.

Nintendo Switch and Beyond

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Nintendo's current handheld console, the Nintendo Switch was released in 2017. As a hybrid device, gamers can use it as a handheld console or it can be docked and connected to a television. By default, it makes use of Joy-Con controllers which are two devices that are motion sensing and are held in either hand. However, the Switch can also make use of a more conventional controller. The device also features a touchscreen, multimedia capabilities, and a large collection of both first-party and third-party games.

To modern gamers, the Switch needs no introduction. As of September 2021, the Switch has sold over 92 million units, putting it ahead of the 3DS in just four years. Unlike previous devices, the Switch is also able to play a wide range of AAA games, allowing the console to share a portion of its library with beefy home consoles such as the PS4 and Xbox One.

However, games often have to be scaled down to work on the weaker Switch, and this has been done with varying levels of elegance. Games like DOOM Eternal and The Witcher 3 made the jump to Switch without too many hitches. However, titles such as The Outer Worlds were ported at the cost of a near-unacceptably severe drop in visual quality.

Nintendo is still comfortably riding the success of the Switch. Since its release, there have been two main revisions. The first is the Switch lite which comes at a lower price but can only be played as a handheld. The latest revision is the Nintendo Switch OLED which has a screen capable of producing crisper colors. As usual, Nintendo has been quiet about what its plans are going forward. However, with an enviable history behind them, it is hard to not believe that the company has plenty of creativity left in them.

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