Game Boy inducted into Toy Hall of Fame @ Gaming Target

Written by John Scalzo on November 06, 2009

News: Joining such luminaries as the Slinky, 'the ball' and the Big Wheel.

The Game Boy has been a fixture of pants pockets and backpacks for 20 years and now it has been honored by the Strong National Museum of Play with its induction into the National Toy Hall of Fame. Nintendo's handheld was inducted alongside "the ball" and the Big Wheel and it beat out other nominees such as Cabbage Patch Kids, Game of Life, Hot Wheels, the paper airplane, playing cards, Rubik's Cube, sidewalk chalk, toy tea set, and The Transformers.

Inducted by Associate Curator Eric Wheeler, who is also a major supporter of the museum's National Center for the History of Electronic Games, the unveiling also got a hand from Nintendo's mascot, Mario.

The handheld's innovative features and blockbuster gaming library were cited by the Hall of Fame as the reasons for the Game Boy's admission:

Admitted into the hall because of its role as a major industry innovator, Nintendo Game Boy transformed the electronic-games market by popularizing handheld gaming. No video-game platform did more to put gamers Уon the goФ than this invention. And go they didЧbringing their gaming experience to school, to summer camp, and to the back seat of the family automobile. Over the past two decades, Game Boy has become synonymous with hand-held gaming fun. Its portability and efficient design, ability to allow simultaneous multiplayer gaming, and scores of intriguing games (like Tetris and Super Mario Land, featuring Nintendos' already-iconic character Mario) make it a true innovator.

The Game Boy is not the first video game system to be inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame. That honor goes to the Atari 2600, which was admitted in 2007.