Topic: Which is better overall - NES or Game Boy?

(Imo) GB.

To tell the truth I have never been able to fully appreciate the NES as a console, outside of a few games even I could enjoy, most of its game feel old and clunky to me.

I grew up in the window of time where the GB started to imitate the SNES.

Edit: ok that was the last edit.

This is one of the craziest threads I have seen on Nintendolife.

I love the Gameboy more

@WaveBoy
I put 4 brand spankin' new Double A batteries in my original Gameboy last night and I noticed it had a bunch of vertical lines on the screen.

When I get more time on my hands (and the proper tools in my possession), I plan on googling how to fix this. But, as you said, the motion blur on the original Gameboy games is so horrendous that it's almost not worth it.

You don't have much of a imagination, do you my friend? NES visuals can be a complete eyesore at times. Hell, Mario sprite in Super Mario Land 2 looks miles better than any Mario on the NES. Same goes for Link, Samus, and pretty much every game series that got brought over to the GB.

You really have a lot of imagination.

Even though I grew up with Pokémon, I'd still say NES.

The original Monochrome pea soup green 'look' was kind of neat, but the motion blur completely bogged down the games.

If we were comparing the actual consoles and not just the games, then yes - the NES would win. The green blurry screen and battery life are huge flaws of the original version of the Game Boy.

As far as games go, I think the NES has the better Kirby, Contra and Double Dragon games. But you're lying if you think NES Zelda is better than GB Zelda.

The sprite flicker that the NES has far too frequently I think is worse than any of the flaws in the Gameboy. (Causes migraine for me - far worse than any of the other issues).

Not only do I find the original LoZ on NES to be vastly better than Links Awakening, I see it as one of the best and most influential games of all time. Most people view Ocarina of Time as groundbreaking. I can see that.

OoT changed our perceptions of what a Zelda game could be. The original Legend of Zelda changed how we perceived video games, with the first concept ever of an "open world".

Link's Awakening, that poor little thing, is a wannabe clone and a carbon copy, at best, of the greatness that was started in The Legend of Zelda on NES.

Oh god that's a difficult decision. On the one hand, I really liked the handheld games in the Mario and Zelda series, and both the Pokemon and Wario Land series with Game Boy exclusives (and favourites of mine). On the other hand, Super Mario Bros 3 is a better game than the Mario Land titles, and the original Zelda game might be better than Link's Awakening.

Sorry, but I have to go the Game Boy. How can I not pick the console with Wario Land 1 to 3 on it?

@WaveBoy
Well, the GameBoy games ran better on Super GameBoy, GBC, GBA, and GameBoy Player. So it depends on what GamBoy device you had, because the games did run better on other GameBoys, aside from the original and pocket.

I played on GameBoy Color, so they were basically tied for me, but I otherwise agree that the GB games weren't nearly as good on the original and pocket GameBoys.

Speaking of Gameboy...I framed my old-school Gameboy insert. I'm currently looking for some other frames for some other oldschool posters I still have.

Two words....

Final Fantasy - defined a genre

Actually that was Dragon Quest a year earlier.

I haven't played anywhere near the full library on each, but while I generally prefer NES, the Game Boy had some amazing games. Like others have mentioned, I prefer Link's Awakening to The Legend of Zelda, the Super Mario Land games were amazing, and Metroid II is one of the best Metroid games ever created. Really phenomenal libraries on both, so a case could be made for either.

I notice Game Boy games tend to have really good music, too. NES obviously gets a lot of recognition in this area, but I think a lot of Game Boy soundtracks are overlooked.

I'd say NES in a heartbeat. The only Game Boy titles I'd bring into the conversation are Pokémon and Link's Awakening, both of which are at least on par with even the best NES games.

The NES for sure. The Game Boy on the other hand had titles like Link's Awakening, Donkey Kong, Wario Land and Pokemon. I know that the NES couldn't really compete with that, but it had the Mega Man, Castlevania, Contra and all the cool action platformers with the catchy music and the nicely-colored graphics.. these games were too short to justify a save feature or they only had a password system (like Metroid). I also prefer Zelda: Link's Awakening DX over the NES Zelda games. 60/40 for the NES.

OC Remix agrees with you! Download the (free) tribute album if you have a chance. It's excellent. http://gameboy25.ocremix.org/

That's awesome, I gotta check that out. I've heard a lot of quality covers from more obscure games on OC Remix. I've done a few Game Boy covers myself, though aside from one from Link's Awakening I think most of them are from Final Fantasy Legend. There are a lot of Game Boy games I still need to play.