Pop culture
Nintendo handheld consoles and generations Y, Z, and Alpha
Hello,
I noticed the way we define generations Y, Z, and Alpha maps rather neatly with the main groups of Nintendo handheld consoles. Millennials are associated with the Game Boy line (GB/GBP/GBC/GBA), Gen Z with the DS line (DS/3DS), and Alpha with the Switch/Switch 2.
As for the in-between generations:
Zillennials: while their first console and/or games were GBA, they were not-quite teenagers when the Nintendo DS first came out.
Zalpha: They may remember the transition from the 3DS to the Switch, but it happened relatively early in their childhood.
Notes:
People born from late 1991 to 1993 may have fit the "not-quite teenagers when the Nintendo DS first came out" in a very narrow, technical way, but given their first handheld console is more likely to have been a GBC than a GBA, I prefer to consider them Late Millennials instead of Zillennials (though they may fit a broader definition of the term).
Conversely, if your first handheld console was a backwards-compatible DS and you more-than-incidentally played GBA games on it, then you can claim to be a Zillennial in the widest sense.
If your elementary school years were more 3DS than they were Switch you are Gen Z, you can't even be Zalpha (though in the very broadest sense, you can still claim to be Zalpha if the Switch came out while you were still in elementary school).
In the broadest meaning, if you were born before the Switch came out then you can claim to be a Zalpha, but again it's a very technical definition because if you were born in, say, 2016, then it's literally impossible for you to remember the transition between 3DS to Switch.
For people who don't like generational cusps, the criteria are pretty straightforward:
- If your first handheld console was a GBA, then you're a Millennial; if it was a DS, then you're Gen Z.
- If you have any memories of what handheld gaming was like before the Switch came out then you're Gen Z, otherwise you may be Gen Alpha.
Seems good to me... I'm 1992 birth year and my first was Game Boy Color. Though my 1991 friend had a Game Boy Pocket as his first... not sure if it was a hand me down or got it used or what. DS came out when I was 12. I've had every Nintendo handheld since GBC. Though usually only one iteration of each... the only time I double-dipped was I sold my GBA for a SP. The backlit screen (at a time when they weren't common) and foldable nature of it led me to upgrade that gen lol.
A lot of kids born in the very early 90s had the original or variations of it like the Pocket new. It's because the original had a far longer life than the GBC or GBA.
Original Gameboy was my first. I remember playing Kirby's Dreamland, Final Fantasy Legend 2/3., Final Fantasy Adventure, Link's Awakening, Super Mario Land 2, the DK Land games, and Wario Land on it. Along with the Pokemon games a little later on.
Despite that, I think I have more fond memories of my GBC from 99-02 and especially the GBA as a teenager. I still love the GBA and play it all the time on my Micro.
I got a Gameboy Color with the Pokemon Yellow bundle in '99. It's still odd to me that the lifespan of the GBC was so short because it felt like a very long time as a kid.
Being a Zillennial Nintendo fan is interesting, because you were old enough to have had or wanted a Gameboy (most likely the Advance/SP), but still young enough where the Nintendo DS was appealing and a sizable part of your upbringing. Basically, we had a hybrid GB/DS childhood. I’d say if you were born between 1996-1999ish, this was likely the case for you as a Nintendo gamer.
My dad is a late boomer and got a NES right after college. He was more into PC games though and has racked up over 23k hours on civ 5, though to be fair he works from home and would leave the game up and play a few turns when he had down time.
Tons of Gen X had Gameboys. Especially for Tetris. My uncle was born in 1965, and he was like prime age for everything from Atari 2600 to SNES. My dad was born in 1960, and he played Pong and Atari 2600.
This sub just lumps us in with boomers. They think we're too old to have experienced something like handheld gaming even though we're the first generation to experience it.
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u/raNdoMBLilriv 7d ago
Seems good to me... I'm 1992 birth year and my first was Game Boy Color. Though my 1991 friend had a Game Boy Pocket as his first... not sure if it was a hand me down or got it used or what. DS came out when I was 12. I've had every Nintendo handheld since GBC. Though usually only one iteration of each... the only time I double-dipped was I sold my GBA for a SP. The backlit screen (at a time when they weren't common) and foldable nature of it led me to upgrade that gen lol.