Several news sites are reporting that Nintendo Co. have registered a new trademark for the Gameboy in Japan. The trademark, filed in September, was recently discovered when a Japanese trademark bot tweeted out the listing and the below image.
[商願2017-123766]
商標:[画像] /
出願人:任天堂株式会社 /
出願日:2017年9月15日 /
区分:9(家庭用テレビゲーム機用プログラムほか),14(キーホルダーほか),18(かばん金具ほか),21(化粧用具ほか),25(被服ほか),28(家庭用テレビゲーム… pic.twitter.com/noRhof6vF1— 商標速報bot (@trademark_bot) October 6, 2017
Ok, this isn’t definitive proof that a classic mini version, akin to the recent NES and SNES, is on the way. Parallels however have been made by ninten-switch.com (via Kotaku) of past trademarks pointing to a potential release. Namely the Super Nintendo controller getting a trademark registration last year, 2016. Nine months later we have the Nintendo classic mini SNES.
I would love a new Gameboy. The original Gameboy was my first Nintendo machine. I was a Sega kid, well actually I was a play outdoors kid, and I got my first Gameboy second hand with a few games in the late 90s. It swiftly became my go to gaming machine as, guess what, I could play it outdoors. It accompanied me to the park to be played after football with friends, or to the beach almost every summer as an early teenager. Yeah OK, I was a little late to the Gameboy party. It wasn’t long after I got one that the pocket version appeared. Pure jealousy ensued for a while.
So what do I want? Well great games of course, yet the machine itself is a big pull. Retro gaming on the go on a genuine, old school device would be wonderful and the size of the Gameboy pocket would be perfect. An iteration on the original machine it fits the ‘mini’ momentum Nintendo have on these classic consoles. Whist the trademark image is that of an original Gameboy, size cannot be ascertained so it could be slimmed down to the pocket edition size. It should also be a full colour screen so Gameboy colour games could be brought to it. I’d go so far as to have an LED screen too so games can look super crisp, or if not that at least a backlight LCD screen similar to that of the Gameboy Advance. These features would make it stand out as a retro console but stand above mobile phones and roms.
The games then. In no particular order here is the list of games I’d like to see on the re-released classic, mini, brand new Gameboy.
The Legend of Zelda: Links Awakening
Super Mario Land 2: 6 Gold Coins
Donkey Kong Land
Tetris
Metroid 2: Return of Samus
Double Dragon
Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3
Pokemon Red/Blue/Yellow
Castlevania 2: Belmont’s Revenge
Final Fantasy Adventure (Mystic Quest)
Mario’s Picross
Micro Machines
It is a shorter list of games then the previous console re-releases but it’s a list of classic games spanning the range of genres. Some of these games are the pinnacle of a series, some define genres whilst others take a franchise down a different path.
If these don’t take your fancy what are you, a monster? Probably not, but think if Nintendo went so far as to retain the cartridge slot on the Gameboy they may be able to go someway to protect the machine from being hacked and provide a constant influx of Nintendo goodness. Imagine every few months Nintendo released a cartridge filled with more games until the entire Gameboy, Gameboy Colour and dare I say Gameboy Advance back catalogue was available. With that in mind here’s a few games I’d like from the first cartridge. A Gameboy colour cartridge.
Super Mario Bros. DX
Mario tennis
Harvest moon GB
Wario land 2/3
Donkey Kong Country
Let us know what you’d like to see from a Gameboy Classic Mini console or the games you’d include built in or on a cart.
