Uploaded July 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
In 1995 the whole world was sitting around waiting on a color Game Boy. This is what Nintendo actually handed them instead.
The Play It Loud line landed on March 20, 1995, six years after the original. Same machine. Same 8 bit guts. Same pea soup monochrome screen. The only thing that changed was the plastic. Nintendo had already said out loud a year earlier that Game Boy sales were so strong they were in no rush to build a color successor, so this was the answer. New shells and a louder slogan.
North America got five to start. Deep Black, Gorgeous Green, Radiant Red, Vibrant Yellow, and High Tech Transparent, the clear one that let you stare straight at the board inside. Over in the UK that clear model picked up the nickname X Ray. Blue only ever shipped in Europe and Japan. White was mostly a Japanese release with a small UK Toys R Us run, which is exactly why the white one is now the rarest color Nintendo ever made for the original Game Boy.
In Japan the line was not even called Play It Loud. It was called Game Boy Bros. There was also a limited edition red one in the UK plastered in Manchester United logos. And this is the campaign that started everything. Every Nintendo handheld since, from the Pocket to the Color to the Advance to the DS, ships in a rainbow of colors because Play It Loud proved people would buy the same machine twice for a different shell.
One thing worth knowing before anyone argues in the comments. These are the original 1989 Game Boy in new clothes, not Game Boy Colors. That machine was still three years away. Here is a stat almost nobody expects too. In 1995 Nintendo of America said 46 percent of Game Boy players were women, compared to 29 percent on the NES and just 14 percent on the SNES. Which color did you end up with, or were you holding out for the clear one? Subscribe to Game Forest GF for retro gaming content every single day.
#gameboy #playitloud #nintendo #dmg01 #handheldgaming #gameboybros #retrohandheld #transparenttech #retrocommercial #vintagead #90sgaming #1995 #gamingnostalgia #retrogaming #gameforestgf #youtubeshorts #gaming
In 1995 the whole world was sitting around waiting on a color Game Boy. This is what Nintendo actually handed them instead.
The Play It Loud line landed on March 20, 1995, six years after the original. Same machine. Same 8 bit guts. Same pea soup monochrome screen. The only thing that changed was the plastic. Nintendo had already said out loud a year earlier that Game Boy sales were so strong they were in no rush to build a color successor, so this was the answer. New shells and a louder slogan.
North America got five to start. Deep Black, Gorgeous Green, Radiant Red, Vibrant Yellow, and High Tech Transparent, the clear one that let you stare straight at the board inside. Over in the UK that clear model picked up the nickname X Ray. Blue only ever shipped in Europe and Japan. White was mostly a Japanese release with a small UK Toys R Us run, which is exactly why the white one is now the rarest color Nintendo ever made for the original Game Boy.
In Japan the line was not even called Play It Loud. It was called Game Boy Bros. There was also a limited edition red one in the UK plastered in Manchester United logos. And this is the campaign that started everything. Every Nintendo handheld since, from the Pocket to the Color to the Advance to the DS, ships in a rainbow of colors because Play It Loud proved people would buy the same machine twice for a different shell.
One thing worth knowing before anyone argues in the comments. These are the original 1989 Game Boy in new clothes, not Game Boy Colors. That machine was still three years away. Here is a stat almost nobody expects too. In 1995 Nintendo of America said 46 percent of Game Boy players were women, compared to 29 percent on the NES and just 14 percent on the SNES. Which color did you end up with, or were you holding out for the clear one? Subscribe to Game Forest GF for retro gaming content every single day.
#gameboy #playitloud #nintendo #dmg01 #handheldgaming #gameboybros #retrohandheld #transparenttech #retrocommercial #vintagead #90sgaming #1995 #gamingnostalgia #retrogaming #gameforestgf #youtubeshorts #gaming
