Favorite handheld
If you can still believe it, there was a time when we didn't all have smart phones and tablets to play dozens of games on. Some of our favorite handheld systems only had one ultra basic game to play, involving no more than a couple of buttons. And rechargeable batteries? Pfft. Those were for babies.
Matt Cundy: Donkey Kong Jr. | Nintendo Game & Watch | 1982
Having been restricted by olden times technology to playing handhelds constructed of moving parts and ball-bearings through the tail-end of the 70s, upgrading to electronic LCD games was a genuine revolution in hand-based distractions. And while Donkey Kong Jr. definitely wasnt the first electronic LCD handheld I ever played (that would be Nintendos inspirationally titled Ball) it was the first one I owned and could therefore enjoy exercising all the benefits afforded by exclusive ownership rights i.e. never letting anyone else play it ever.
Lucas Sullivan: Game Boy Advance SP
All I ever really wanted out of a handheld was a portable Super Nintendo. That was what made it all the stranger when my gut told me not to buy the original Game Boy on day one--something about the shape, the screen orientation, Im really not sure what. But thank goodness I waited, because the Game Boy Advance SP was everything I couldve hoped for in a handheld system.
Sophia Tong: Game Boy
So many AA batteries were lost thanks to this system. The Game Boy was my first handheld, and it was a hand-me-down from some cousin who had parents with more money to burn than mine. Ill admit, it wasnt much to look at and it was clunky and heavy. Plus, it was tough to keep asking for batteries (it took 4 back in the day!) and I can only remember owning three games: Tetris, Super Mario Land, and The Legend of Zelda: Links Awakening. At least they were solid games with high replayabilityand I had no other choice, really.
Henry Gilbert: Game Boy Advance
I've played pretty much every portable in my time as a gamer, with a special fondness for Nintendo's many handhelds. All of them have their strong points, from the original Game Boy's deep library to the DS's diverse collection of games for so many types of people. But out of all of the Game Boy Advance is my favorite, mostly because it has so much in common with the SNES, my favorite console.
Lorenzo Veloria: Game Boy Color
My gaming system of choice has never been one of the carry-around-in-your-pocket handhelds. Id always been a home console kind of guy. But, I did spend a considerable amount of effort obtaining the one portable I'd ever owned, the Game Boy Color--which turned out to be absolutely amazing. It was the days when Pokemon Red and Blue were in their prime. Pokemon battles erupted all over my junior high school yard, and the only way I could get the clear purple console was to earn 48 clean teeth tokens from my orthodontist (which took forever).
Justin Towell: Desert Race
Before Game Gear became my first proper games console, I had a different handheld love: Desert Race by TOMY. It's a wind-up toy, but works just like a videogame. Analogue steering from that brown plastic wheel moves a physical car (well, a clear plastic ribbon with a car painted on it) left and right, giving you the impression of weaving between enemy cars that came round on two discs at varying speeds.
Tom Magrino: Tigers Sub Wars
In 1989, Tiger's Sub Wars handheld came into my possession. How is not important. Which is to say, I stole it from my brother. What's important is that it dominated my life for many several months, as I sought out and destroyed wolves of the Pacific (read: black pixels on a sky blue background). It was happiness... until one fated school day, when Ms. Williams, my first grade teacher, confiscated the device as I sat absorbed in its screen, and not The BFG. She said it would be returned to me at the end of the school year; that was a dirty lie.
Ryan Taljonick: Tamagotchi
My middle school playground was host to a number of parasitic fads. First there was the yo-yo phase (Yomega Firestorm, baby!) where kids were walking the dog like it was nobody's business. Then we started making lizard keychains out of beads and pipe cleaners. Then there was Tamagotchi. It was vicious. It crept into our lives unexpectedly--first, just one kid had one. A few days later, anybody who was somebody had one. I had three.
David Houghton: Tomytronic 3D | Shy Attack | 1983
Forget the 3DS. Theres only one 3D handheld that matters and it came out in 1983. Takara Tomys Tomytronic 3D range were the absolute future in a box when they were released, and they still feel damnably badass today. Basically the Virtual Boy with a far better design concept 12 years earlier than Nintendos machine, the magic stereoscopic LCD visors (smartly lit by a sunroof anel in the top) were the most immersive and atmospheric virtual worlds ever to be hung around the neck of a child.
Hollander Cooper: Nintendo DS Lite
Really? Im the first one picking the DS Lite? Whatever, you guys say what you want, Im going to stick to the handheld that had two original Zelda games, the best Tetris ever released, one of the best Mario Kart games ever released, and a huge supply of amazing, AAA third-party releases. Henry Hatsworth? Chinatown Wars? Ghost Trick? PROFESSOR LAYTON? PHOENIX WRIGHT?! The system is bursting with great games, and more are released every month.
