GAMES

Cartridges, cards and consoles America could not put down.

1990 · #7
Game Boy and Tetris
The emergency was always the same: you needed the long block. Tetris made arranging shapes feel urgent, and Nintendo’s Game Boy allowed that urgency to follow players into cars, waiting rooms, and anywhere else a few spare minutes appeared. The gray handheld and its monochrome screen were not flashy, but Tetris did not need much scenery. Its rules took seconds to understand, while the gaps, towers, and increasingly desperate mistakes could keep someone occupied far longer. By April 1990, Nintendo reported more than 2.5 million copies of Tetris sold across its home-console and Game Boy versions.
1990 · #2
Super Mario Bros. 3
Before many American players could buy Super Mario Bros. 3, they saw it featured in the 1989 movie The Wizard. When the game reached the United States in February 1990, Mario returned with flight, ability-changing suits, connected maps, hidden secrets, and the coveted warp whistles. Magazines, strategy guides, and schoolyard conversations helped those secrets travel. One player knew where an extra life was hidden; another insisted there was a route everyone else had missed. A later report quoted an analyst estimating $400 million in 1990 revenue for the game, though that was not a verified Nintendo year-end total.
1998 · #3
Pokémon Arrives in America
Red and Blue hit U.S. Game Boys in September 1998, with the cartoon close behind. Kids who had never cared about a Japanese import were suddenly trading, battling and quoting Pikachu in the cafeteria.
1999 · #1
Pokémon Mania
Cards, Yellow, the movie, the lunchboxes. If 1998 was the landing, 1999 was the occupation. Parents hunted packs. Kids dueled at recess. Charizard became a blue-chip rumor.