When Nintendo‘s first Game Boy dropped in 1989, it totally changed the the way kids played video games. No longer were we chained to our televisions: We could spend long car rides and school recesses with Mario, Legend of Zelda, and Castlevania. Portable gaming today is a different story, though, and kids don’t remember a world where you couldn’t play full-color, high-res games on a smartphone. Just watch this young girl try to operate the OG Game Boy, with its D-pad and two buttons.
What!? Why isn’t it working? She’s touching every part of the screen, and the game just won’t go!
This video by Chris Cohoon is the purest version of the “kids react” genre, without any of the framing and setup. It’s just a genuine moment of confusion that fills us ’90s kids with warm nostalgia for the early days of handheld gaming. Plus, it gives us a rare chance to laugh at the toddlers whose technical knowledge will very soon outstrip our own.
Ah, the joys of geek parenting!
