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The story
A post asking, “If it weren’t for Pokémon, wouldn’t the Game Boy just be rated on par with the WonderSwan?” sparked a wide-ranging debate on 5ch’s Nandemo Jikkyo G board. The Game Boy launched in 1989, while Pokémon Red/Green didn’t arrive until 1996 — leaving a seven-year gap. Opinions split over how to read that gap: some argued “it held up fine thanks to Tetris and Mario,” while others countered that “before Pokémon it was a plain handheld with no major hits.” Many posters backed up their arguments with actual million-seller sales figures, and the discussion also expanded into comparisons with the PlayStation’s popularity at the time.
What people said
Makes you wonder what would've happened.
Their home consoles later got wrecked by the PlayStation and pushed out of the market, so yeah, it would've been rough.
Pokémon Red/Green release: 1996
That's a 7-year gap — that's wild.
Well, it was in development for 6 years.
That's because it had Tetris.
Kind of like Monster Hunter for the PSP?
The Romancing SaGa 1 port.
Arc the Lad Gaiden.
About the only thing was that Final Fantasy and other titles came out on the Color version.
Well, someone would've tried it eventually anyway.
48, why?
Re: #16
Lock these guys up.
You're probably like 36 yourself, aren't you.
I'd guess 39.
Though you seem like the type who'd claim 24.
Close.
I'm 40.
Mostly puzzle games — no big action or RPG hits.
Pikmin, probably.
Though it feels like it took off more because of the 'Ai no Uta' theme song than the actual gameplay.
Wasn't Pikmin a launch title, though?
Even for Kirby, most people's first game was Kirby's Adventure (Yume no Izumi).
Other than that, maybe two kids per class were really into the SaGa games at most.
There were rechargeable adapters and AC adapters available, though…
I think a lot of kids back then already had rechargeable batteries from their Mini 4WD hobby.
SaGa was seriously fun.
If you hadn't brought it up I would've forgotten about it forever.
That's exactly why this thread's title exists.
The screen was so hard to see and so tiny, it really did wreck your eyesight.
Tetris — 4.24 million
Super Mario Land — 4.19 million
Super Mario Land 2 — 2.70 million
Dr. Mario — 2.08 million
Kirby's Dream Land — 1.72 million
Wario Land — 1.59 million
Kirby's Dream Land 2 — 1.51 million
Yakuman — 1.28 million
Kirby's Pinball Land — 1.12 million
SaGa — 1.10 million
Donkey Kong — 1.08 million
Million-sellers after Pokémon (excluding Pokémon itself)
Dragon Quest Monsters: Terry's Wonderland (Teriwan) — 2.35 million
Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters 4 — 2.202 million
Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters — 1.61 million
Tamagotchi — 1.45 million
Tamagotchi 2 — 1.45 million
Dragon Quest Monsters 2: Luca's Journey — 1.241 million (Iru's Adventure: 472,000)
Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters 2 — 1.10 million
I had every single one of those.
Game Boy at that point felt like, 'seriously, that old thing?'
Before FF7, the PlayStation went through a long stretch where if Ridge Racer didn't grab you, about the only other thing to play was Battle Arena Toshinden.
It felt like people only really started coming around once Resident Evil came out.
The leap from Ocarina of Time to Majora's Mask was genuinely moving.
I remember thinking, 'games can express this much?'
I thought, 'they could basically make a movie with this.'
Then Wind Waker came out afterward and I was incredibly disappointed.
What do you mean by 'that's exactly why'?
You really are the real deal, huh.
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
The Game Boy launched in 1989, and Pokémon Red/Green didn’t arrive until 1996 — a genuine seven-year gap. Early titles like Tetris and Super Mario Land carried the console through that stretch; the million-seller list shared in the thread shows Tetris at 4.24 million units and Super Mario Land at 4.19 million, proving there was already a solid sales base before Pokémon. The debate split between the view that “without Pokémon it would’ve been just a puzzle-only machine with no major hits” and the counter-argument that “games like Kirby and SaGa already had a loyal following” — the latter camp pointing to titles that stayed popular even without hitting the million mark. There’s also testimony that when Pokémon launched, the PlayStation was just starting to take off in the home console space, and handhelds in general were seen as a bit of an afterthought — meaning Pokémon’s success wasn’t just a sequel hit, but arguably rescued a fading platform at the edge of the ring. This timeline isn’t obvious from the article alone, so it’s included here for context.
※This article is compiled and summarized from the 5ch (Nandemo Jikkyo G) thread “Would the Game Boy only be rated on par with the WonderSwan if it weren’t for Pokémon?“.
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