Game Boy inducted into National Toy Hall of Fame

Over the past eleven years, The Strong Museum of Play has been busy establishing a National Toy Hall of Fame, to help us remember exactly why childhood is fun and adulthood is a horrible slog to the grave. The latest toy to be inducted? Why, it’s none other than the Game Boy!

Nintendo’s gaming handheld turned 20 earlier this year, and now sits alongside Scrabble, Checkers, G.I. Joe, Mr. Potato Head, and many others (including, erm, a cardboard box) as a National Toy Hall of Fame inductee. You can see the full list here.

The Game Boy isn’t the first piece of gaming hardware to enter the National Toy Hall of Fame – the Atari 2600 was bestowed that honor in 2007 – but it is a superb choice. Here’s The Strong Museum of Play’s reasoning for including the iconic gaming handheld:

“No video-game platform did more to put gamers “on the go” than Nintendo Game Boy. And go they did-bringing their gaming experience to school, to summer camp, and to the back seat of the family automobile. Over the past two decades, Game Boy has become synonymous with portable gaming fun.”

And so say all of us, etc.

[Museum of Play, via Kotaku]