The original NintendoGame and Watchwas one of the earliest gaming handhelds on the market. These early precursors to the Game Boy sold from 1981 to 1991 and let players experience a variety of Nintendo games while on the go. Nintendo revived the brand withtheSuper Mario Bros.handheldreleased last year, bringing them back as a nostalgic, if not the most practical, way to experience classic Nintendo titles.
Reddit user AirDancerExtreme was examining their newZelda Game and Watchwhen they noticed an interesting Easter egg. The Triforce engraving on the back of the devices isn’t just the inert green plastic that it initially appears to be. Instead, the symbol lights up when the handheld’s turned on.
Related:Nintendo Switch Online Offering New Free Trials
Nintendo released the originalZeldaGame and Watch in 1989. Like the other devices in the series, it played a single game and doubled as an alarm clock, hence the name. The gameplay was similar toZelda II: The Adventure of Linkfor the Nintendo Entertainment System. Meanwhile, the modernZeldaGame and Watch is a bit more advanced,featuring four old-school Nintendo games. It includes the originalThe Legend of Zeldafrom 1986, 1988’sThe Adventure of Link, and 1993’sLink’s Awakening. The fourth game is an original Game and Watch title calledVerminthat Nintendo re-skinned with Link as the main character. The handhelds sell for around $50 from most retailers or significantly more on sites like eBay.
AirDancerExtreme shared their discovery on r/casuallynintendo. Comments were overwhelmingly positive, as one might expect from a subreddit for mostly hardcore Nintendo fans. One even revealed how the light-up Triforce worked. It turns out that the Game and Watch’s designers left a Triforce-shaped cavity connecting the plastic shell to the LCD’s backlights.
The 2021 version of theZeldaGame and Watch launched November 12th to celebrateThe Legend of Zelda’s 35th birthday. The initial stock sold out online in seconds. Unfortunately, though, as with many recent hardware releases, a significant number of these purchases seem to have been by scalpers. Said scalpers are not only making the Game and Watch harder for real fans to get but are also turning around and selling the handhelds at an extreme markup.
Still, as with theSuper Mario Bros.Game and Watch released last year, there is very clearly a market for these collectible, retro-inspired handhelds. So, it’s not unlikely that we’ll seemore Game and Watch handhelds in the future. Hopefully, though, it will be a little easier for Nintendo fans actually to get their hands on one.
TheZeldaGame and Watchis available now.
