YouTuber buys every Nintendo handheld to ever exist and gives viewers an ‘existential crisis’ with nostalgia
One YouTuber has taken the ultimate trip down memory lane for Nintendo fans, by purchasing every one of their handheld consoles to ever exist.
Dedicated gamer or not, his video was certainly a throwback to simpler times.
We all remember the grip our DS consoles had on us back in 2004, playing Nintendogs and training those virtual puppies like there was no tomorrow.
Not to mention endless Mario Kart tournaments and multiplayer on Super Mario Bros.
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Deciding to take a look at how their technology has advanced over the years, Arun Maini, aka the YouTuber known online as Mrwhosetheboss, uploaded a video in January 2023 where he walked through every Nintendo handheld.
And buckle up, cause there’s a lot of them.
The video begins with the first ever Nintendo handheld game console, dating all the way back to 1980 - It’s the Game and Watch, which Maini calls ‘the start of modern day gaming’
Initially thought up by Nintendo’s head of research and development, Gunpei Yokoi, was on a train in Japan where he saw a bored businessman playing with his calculator to pass the time. (Those were the days, huh?)
He then suddenly had a genius idea - a portable device that could play a proper game whilst also telling you the time, hence the very literal name of Game and Watch.
The design of the console is very simple, and you can only play one game where the objective is to catch as many balls as possible without dropping any.
Although simple, the YouTuber admits it is pretty fun. After all, sometimes simplicity is key.
They did however make 60 more versions of the Game and Watch, each with a single game - such as an Octopus version, as well as one with a dual screen.
After this came the iconic Gameboy - released in 1989.
Maini booted up the console to play The Legend Of Zelda, where he was immediately taken back by the nostalgia that hit him from the theme tune.
He goes on to explain that the one thing that made this stand out from every other console at the time, was the interchangeable cartridges.
This was then followed by the likes of:
Game Boy Colour (1998)
Game Boy Advabnce (2001)
Game Boy Advance SP (2003)
Nintendo DS (2004)
DS Lite (2006)
DSI (2009)
3DS (2011)
3DS XL (2012)
2DS (2012)
New 3DS (2015)
Switch (2017)
Switch Lite (2019)
Switch OLED Model (2021)
The video left viewers overcome with nostalgia, and they took to the comments to share their thoughts.
One viewer wrote: "That ds noise… I don’t know how to explain it, it’s so nostalgic and making me Fr have a existential crisis"
Another said: "The nostalgia on these videos is absolutely OFF THE CHARTS! Incredibly fun to take a dive back considering handheld gaming was the beginning for many gamers"
A third took a second to reflect, writing: "Nintendo is iconic and gave joy and laughter to many generation of kids, i’m so grateful for that"
We don’t know about you, but it might be time to dust off some old consoles.