
Or, I'd really love a classic Game Boy loaded with a bunch of games. I wanted the one that could play 10 classic G&W games. This new Game & Watch feels sort of like a cruel reminder that Nintendo used to make small handheld things, too. Vintage Game & Watch systems go for between $70 and $100 on eBay. But Nintendo stopped making the 3DS and 2DS handhelds, and the Switch starts at $200. $50 (£50, AU$80) is a lot to pay for something that just plays three games. That's recreated here, and it plays just like I remember.Īll three games can be paused if you swap to another, remembering your progress when you come back later, which is a nice bonus. The original used an LCD screen to flash different parts and create animation, in a herky-jerky sort of way. It's a basic juggling game, moving a blocky Mario figure's hands to catch balls flying overhead. The Game & Watch is much, much smaller than the Switch.īall is the only real Game & Watch game, and it was the first one Nintendo ever made. Both of these games are playable with a Switch and a $20 Nintendo Online subscription. It's like a Mario Expert Mode game, with an option to play as a higher-jumping Luigi.

2 in Japan, and has been around in other Nintendo compilations. Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels was Super Mario Bros. is exactly what you'd expect: That classic 1985 game, with an optional two-player swap-and-play mode. There's no alarm, so I can't wake up to Game & Watch. If I want to, I can stare at Mario jumping along while the seconds tick off and the minutes slowly change. Game & Watches were never actual watches, but they did tell time.
#SUPER MARIO BROS GAME AND WATCH PLUS#
The simple interface has a power button and a way to swap through all three games, plus a clock. Battery life, so far, has held up through hours of play. The Game & Watch charges via USB-C and comes with a mini cable. It felt like holding a worry stone.Ĭompletely classic rubber buttons. I started playing Super Mario and slipped in, playing away as I felt waves of stress (something that happens a lot lately).

So do the little rubber game select buttons near the top. The d-pad and rubbery A/B buttons feel like the Game & Watch games I used to play. The Super Mario Game & Watch feels lighter and a little cheaper, very plastic, but the display is surprisingly bright and sharp. The Game Boy Micro was even smaller, and I still have one that works, with a Game & Watch Collection 4 cartridge inside. It's not the smallest handheld Nintendo's ever made. Compared next to the Game & Watch (left) - it's even a bit smaller. I still have a Famicom edition Game Boy Micro (bottom), with Game & Watch Gallery 4 cartridge no less. It is, quite literally, a dedicated Super Mario Bros. It's a tiny little plastic handheld that plays just three games: Super Mario Bros, Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels, and one actual original Game & Watch game, Ball. Instead, I got an unexpectedly satisfying mash-up. When Nintendo announced a new physical Game & Watch, I expected something like that.


Nintendo's brought back Game & Watch games as compilations for the Game Boy Advance and 3DS. It's all about trying to get into a flow for the next high score. Game & Watch games were these kind of rhythm-based, timing-heavy survival minigames, and playing them is alternately boring and hypnotic. The simple black-and-white LCD screens beeped and flashed, and I played games like Pinball, Donkey Kong and Oil Panic.
#SUPER MARIO BROS GAME AND WATCH PORTABLE#
They were my portable gaming life raft in summer camp, back when there weren't phones or any other gadgets. This should have had more Game & Watch games.
