Nintendo's Game Boy "died" in 2003 but it wouldn't be right to let pass the 25^th birthday of the game changing console that made gaming truly mobile.

Game Boy hit the Japanese market on April 21, 1989 in its 8-bit guise. It was then introduced in the USA in August.

Nintendo advertised the boxy console as a handy game machine. It was originally bundled with Tetris, a puzzle game that has since become a classic. 

Game Boy swam in a market against competitors that included the Atari Lynx, the Sega Game Gear and the TurboExpress. Its competitors were technologically superior handheld consoles, but Game Boy achieved tremendous success because it allowed easier game play. Just insert a small game cartridge and you were ready to play.

Game Boy also had fantastic games. Among these were the iconic Super Mario and Donkey Kong that eventually evolved into global franchises. Game Boy's worldwide success made the small Kyoto-based firm called Nintendo into a global videogame giant. 

Game Boy's budget price and its popular software blew away the competition and pushed mobile gaming into the mainstream. And it's true that at one point, portable gaming was synonymous with the Game Boy. 

Game Boy also allowed users to connect with another gamer through a link cable, giving birth to the online gaming networks that now number in the millions of users.

Nintendo sold 119 million original Game Boy consoles during the console's heyday. It sold another 81.5 million units of the next-generation Game Boy Advance series launched in 2001.

Let's hear it for Game Boy. Hip, hip. Hooray!