Remember how awesome Gameboys were? Our kids don’t think so.
It wasn’t always possible to placate a screaming child with one of Apple’s many portable distractions. Gaming outside of the home wasn’t even a plausible concept until Matel introduced a range of portable gaming devices in 1978, shortly followed by the advent of Nintendo’s original Gameboy. But try handing your kid one of these on a 4-hour train trip and see how long you can keep them distracted.
Youtube’s ‘Kids React’ series did just that and the results were hilarious. But ‘Kids React to Gameboys’ did not evoke the kind of reaction we expected at all.
The aptly labelled device was pinpointed by some as "a really old Nintendo" or "the old DS or something". And as a few children pointed out - "it even says 'Gameboy,'" - but that didn't magically explain how to operate the thing.
After some trepidation, a lot of confusion and a little bit of feminist rage around the name of the device the kids finally figured out what was going on.
That was until they were handed the game to slot into the device... “Wait a minute you don’t just turn it on and get the apps?”. Nope. And the size of the thing? Well that was definitely a topic of discussion too.
While kids these days have the luxury of colour-screen backlit devices, gameboys were basically useless when going through a tunnel or are night. The solution? Attachable devices in the form of torches and magnifying glasses. More things to try and jam into your pocket or travel-bag.
But that wasn't the only real annoyance with the Gameboy. There was no pleasure in hearing the device required batteries to operate - and that'd be a real struggle apparently. And the lack of touch-screen? What sort of archaic technology requires you to actually press buttons to use it? Scandalous!
Nintendo's 'Gameboy' was one of the first widely-available handheld video gaming devices- and it sure was something back then. But this generation of children? They'd rather throw it in the trash.
Except maybe this kid - his facial expression says it all.
You can watch the full video here:
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