Handheld video game

A handheld video game is a video game designed for a handheld device. In the past, this primarily meant handheld game consoles such as Nintendo's Game Boy line. In more recent history, mobile games have become popular in calculators, personal digital assistants (PDA), mobile phones, digital audio players (e.g., MP3), and other similar portable gadgets.

In the past decade, handheld video games currently have become a major sector of the video game market. In 2004 sales of portable software titles exceeded $1 billion in the United States for the first time, an 11% increase from the prior year.

For dedicated handheld games that do not have interchangeable cartridges, disks, etc., or are not reprogrammable, see handheld electronic games. For games on mobile phones, see mobile games.

Handheld video games grew out of handheld electronic games that were popular from the 1970s through the mid-1990s. The key factors in contributing to the advance of handheld video games were the increase in processing power, technological advances in liquid crystal displays (LCDs), and the reduction of power requirements. Handheld video games grew immensely in popularity, thanks to the Game Boy released in 1989. Tetris was considered the killer application for the console, and popularized the action puzzle genre.

Due to the portable nature of the platform, the game genres that are popular on video game consoles are not necessarily the same genres that are popular on handhelds. This is partly due to a constant game of technological catchup for handhelds; they are usually about 1-2 generations behind in graphic abilities than alternating current (AC) powered games. Further, there is a demand to keep the device small, so there are much fewer controls on handhelds than on other systems; this results in games that cannot be as complex. Typically due to the limited time that most users have when on the go, the average play duration is much shorter. Hence games that are quick to play, such as sidescrolling platform games and action puzzle games are very popular. It is important to note that there is solid-state storage for handheld titles, whether it be in the form of a memory card, or EEPROM. On the whole, even with the ability to save games, consumers prefer less time-consuming titles. More complex game types, such as adventure or first person shooters, are less popular.

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