If you haven’t heard, today is Pokemon Day, and it’s also Pokemon’s 30th birthday. Earlier today, The Pokemon Company broadcast its annual Pokemon Presents livestream with news and updates, and nestled among the reveal of the next generation of Pokemon games and other updates was the Game Boy Jukebox, a curious replica of the original Game Boy handheld that only plays music. GameSpot recently went hands-on with the device at New York Toy Fair, and it evokes the spirit of the 1990s in more ways than one.
The Game Boy Jukebox comes bundled with 45 replica cartridges, each representing either Pokemon Red or Blue. Each has the label for the corresponding game on one side, and an image of a scene from those original Pokemon games on the other. Each cartridge, when placed into the Game Boy, plays the music of the scene depicted in the in-game image through the speakers of the replica Game Boy.
For example, one cartridge shows Red riding his bike. When you place the cartridge in the replica Game Boy’s cartridge slot–with the in-game image facing the “screen” so it looks like that scene is playing on the device–and “turn on” the Game Boy, you’ll hear the familiar Game Boy start-up sound, followed by the bike-riding theme from Pokemon Red and Blue.
