Konami's portable debut takes the form of a strange, fascinating, and pretty entertaining motorcycle racing game called Motocross Maniacs. I'm surprisingly terrible at it, even after working at mastering it for the past couple of weeks. Despite that, it's actually quite a lot of fun — and it's quite unique as far as racing games go. I wouldn't quite call it a hidden gem of the Game Boy library, but it's definitely at least on par with a respectable piece of costume jewelry.

An in-depth look at Game Boy's first licensed game: The Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle... AKA Mickey Mouse... AKA Roger Rabbit. Honestly, stick a comic book super hero in here and you have just about every major licensing property wrapped up in a single video game. The insane collision of brands involved in this single tiny Game Boy cart is honestly quite baffling.

Oh, and also, I talk a little bit about the game, too.

One part statement of intent, one part shameful confessional, it's: The first episode of Metroidvania Chronicles! The first of many to come.

Look, just go to metroidvania.com and it'll all make sense.

Slow-paced puzzle games made a perfect fit for Game Boy, and few games were slower or more puzzling than Boxxle, aka Sokoban. Shove crates — for love! Learn all about the rich history of the game that served as absolute zero on Old Man Murray's Time-To-Crate Scale.

I apologize in advance for the music, which will drive you insane. But just imagine how much worse it was for me as I edited this video.

As always, please to read Game Boy World for more of this stuff.

This update has been a long time in coming, because it's by far the most complex and challenging video project I've ever attempted by my sad little amateurish self. But here we are at last: A retrospective on the Game Boy hardware itself. 

I've attempted to minimize focus on the system's tech specs and defer discussion of specific software to those games' respective retrospectives. Instead, this feature delves into the creative culture at Nintendo that gave birth to the Game Boy, while trying to determine its place in the game marketplace of the 1990s.

Now that this massive endeavor has been put to rest, expect far more frequent updates to Game Boy World — hopefully weekly! And soon we'll be getting into Atari Lynx as well...

Check out the full Game Boy hardware retrospective on Game Boy World:

http://www.gameboyworld.com/1989/04/0...

And if you enjoy this study of Game Boy's history, please consider supporting Game Boy World on Patreon:

http://www.patreon.com/gamespite

The date is July 1989, and the Game Boy console finally gets its first-ever third party title. Kind of. Regardless of its parentage, though, we finally have a Game Boy game not published by Nintendo -- and just in time for the system's U.S. launch in August, too.

Well, it's Tetris. The big one. Even bigger than Super Mario Land, I'm afraid. You know it, you love it. It's a monster.

The Game Boy's first post-launch release is... oh. It's a new version of NES Tennis, which (like NES Baseball) was released five years before the Game Boy version. In the '80s, five years was basically an eternity in game time.

But hark! This is no mere port. Tennis for Game Boy represents a pretty substantial improvement over the source material. It's still annoyingly tough, though.

The last of Nintendo's four Japanese launch titles for Game Boy, this is the one you've probably never played, because (1) it was never released outside Japan and (2) it focuses on a pastime specific to Japan. Yes, it's Yakuman! I have no idea how to play this game, but this means that as I work my way through Game Boy's mahjong library, you can enjoy me slowly developing some degree of competence in real-time. So please forgive the clumsiness of this episode.

Revisit the heavy hitter of the Game Boy's Japanese launch lineup: Super Mario Land. Unlike its day-one peers, Mario's first Game Boy adventure felt like a legit game rather than a primitive throwback. Look at the good, the bad, and why the good outweighs the bad for this portable classic.

A look at the second of Nintendo's four launch day releases for the Japanese debut of Game Boy: Baseball. It's not a particularly great game, but given the utter lack of contemporary competition all it really needed to do to succeed was exist. And it did. It totally existed.

Travel back to the Game Boy's Japanese launch in 1989 with this retrospective on one of its first four games: The simple Breakout clone, Alleyway. The first video retrospective (of, one hopes, many to come) from gameboyworld.com.

(This being the first of these, please pardon the rough edges!)