The Game Boy firmly established Nintendo as the world’s juggernaut when it came to handheld video gaming, and despite some competition from other publishers, they continued their success 20 years ago with the launch of the Game Boy Color. The system, which arrived in Japan first on October 21, 1998 before hitting other worldwide territories the next month, was (as should be obvious by its name) the first full-color entry in the Game Boy line.
The GBC was a little larger than its immediate predecessor, which was the Game Boy Pocket – the Pocket had essentially been a super-slimmed-down version of the original grey brick Game Boy system, but its display was still only in black-and-white. Nintendo finally made the leap into a color handheld due to pressure from other game developers for a higher-end handheld system.
When the GBC first launched, it only had three launch titles: Tetris DX, Wario Land II, and Pocket Bomberman. However, it enjoyed a successful debut due to the fact that the system was backwards-compatible with the entire original Game Boy library of games – meaning that those who already enjoyed older Game Boy titles could still play them on the new system. This feature was massively popular, especially since some of the biggest titles for the original Game Boy (such as Pokémon) were launching right around the time that the GBC was slated to release. A handful of original Game Boy titles ended up having an enhanced palette that would display the game on a GBC with some limited colors; these included a number of big Nintendo titles such as Kirby’s Dream Land, Super Mario Land, and Donkey Kong.
Even outside of the backwards-compatibility with the original Game Boy, the GBC touted an impressive library of games exclusive to the system, with nearly 600 titles being developed for the GBC during its lifespan. The bestselling GBC titles would be Pokémon Gold and Pokémon Silver.
The GBC would be succeeded by the Game Boy Advance, which released in 2001. Though the GBC would be totally discontinued by 2003, it made a huge splash in the gaming world and continued Nintendo’s trend of success through the end of the 20th century.
