As you’ll see in the many images below, this Game Boy doesn’t rely on miniature hats for its iconic fuchsia A and B buttons — Lego has seemingly created pitch-perfect buttons that appear to recess into the frame.
And unless I’m very much mistaken, it comes with printed tiles rather than sticker labels to help replicate the Game Boy’s many, many iconic labels for its buttons, volume dial, on-off switch, “Dot Matrix With Stereo Sound” highlight, as well as larger features like the Game Boy’s mono speaker grille, battery compartment latch, and serial number around back that have proven difficult to emulate in bricks.
But perhaps best of all, this Lego Game Boy can show off actual scenes from the classic games using swappable lenticular lenses that’ll show you different images when viewed from different angles. You can pop in a brick-built cartridge of The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening or Super Mario Land, and “watch” the classic Nintendo logo drop as you rotate the screen downwards (you’ll have to imagine the Game Boy’s da-DING beep). Or, pop in a different lenticular lens to see Link cozy up to Marin on the beach in Awakening’s most melancholy scene:
I built Nick Lever’s fan-designed Lego Game Boy myself, and have the real deal that plays actual cartridges too, but I’m going to be mighty tempted to pick up the official Lego one as well. If those buttons move when you push them, I doubt I’ll resist! Do wish it came with Tetris, too, though.
