10 Best Launch Video Games Ever
5. Tetris (GameBoy)
Many titles here can claim to have played a big part in their system’s successes, but only Tetris and the number one pick can claim to have inspired an entire mode of gaming. Without Tetris on the GameBoy, handheld gaming might look very different today, or might not even exist at all.
The little Russian game that could had been available on a variety of platforms before it helped launch the GameBoy in 1989, but it was the move to handheld that propelled it into another stratosphere. The deceptively addictive puzzler is the epitome of easy to learn, a lifetime to master, and holding it in your hands made the ‘just one more game’ pull so much stronger.
Mobile and handheld gaming now has thousands of puzzlers, and it’s not unreasonable that many players have a host of favourites ahead of Tetris. However, all of them owe their existence and the existence of their medium to Tetris’ success.
Even today, Tetris is still going strong, reinventing itself with the likes of Puyo Puyo, Effect and 99. It’s not the most traditional launch title, but it’s too great to leave out.