The Game Boy family of handheld consoles was groundbreaking, making gaming more accessible to millions worldwide. Nintendo's portables beat off technologically superior competition from the likes of Sega's Game Gear and Atari's Lynx. They became home to foundational moments for the medium, from what is still arguably the definitive version of Tetris to the birth of Pokémon. Yet with the iconic gray monolith launching in 1989, it's now pushing 40-and playing those important classics gets tougher every year.
Sonic the Hedgehog is well known as Sega's enduring mascot, especially during the publisher's nearly two-decade stint as a console manufacturer from 1983 to 2001. The company is also a pioneer in the arcade space, with many of its most important games starting out as groundbreaking arcade cabinets. However, despite that, the original Sonic the Hedgehog never got its own dedicated arcade version--until now. Sega is teaming up with My Arcade on a new Sonic the Hedgehog Joystick Player mini cabinet.
When Lego announced its near 1:1, 421-piece Nintendo Game Boy set I wrote that it was charming, but "sadly not playable." Now that it has started shipping (as of yesterday), creator Natalie the Nerd proved me 100 percent wrong. She added the power to play genuine Game Boy cartridges, using real hardware and not an emulator, according to her post on Bluesky and a story on .