Nintendo Game Boy (1989)

It looks like a brick. It looks like they could have just called it the Nintendo Brick and gotten the obvious out of the way. Revolutionary or not, the thing looks like a freaking brick! The truth is that I have nothing bad to say about the design of the Game Boy, by today's standards it's big and clunky, but in 1989 it was an amazing invention. But while I can't say anything bad, I also can't say much that is positive. The look is pretty plain; it doesn't try to stand out in any way. Then again, there's something to be said about the simplicity of the system, it nothing else it excels at getting the job done. It's the kind of thing we've come to expect from Nintendo, it's reliable and it does exactly what it's supposed to. I can't rave about the design, but I can't complain about it either.

The Gameboy was a total revolution when it came out, and I still get excited when I see one sticking out of 1995's trashcan. Portable gaming was something my kindergarten self would have never thought of, and I feel the design was excellent. It conveyed the concept of a miniature Nintendo quite well, with similar colors and boxy demeanor. I loved the link capability too; nothing like sticking it to your friend in a game of Tetris from an entire system away. Since the system was rather large, and I don't know that cargo pants existed quite yet, it wasn't as portable as the later, smaller versions. Still, for the time it was just what the Doctor Mario ordered.