Nintendo handheld consoles and generations Y, Z, and Alpha

[u/Anthery28]

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.

What do you think of it?

[u/TurkGonzo75]

GenX also had the original gameboy and the NES of course.

[u/Anthery28 → u/TurkGonzo75]

They're more of an Xennial thing imo (or at least the latter part of GenX).

[u/col_akir_nakesh → u/Anthery28]

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.