History Platform / GameAndWatch

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Applies to the ''Silver'' series of games which had limited LCD capabilities. Some of them had odd rules as well.

** ''Ball'' has no second chances; dropping a ball ended the game then and there. Also, catching a ball in Game A is worth one point, ten in Game B.
** ''Flagman'' is two different games: In A, you repeat the sequence the flagman gives you. In B, you press the same number as the one shown on the screen.

** In ''Fire'', points are awarded only if you bring a victim safely to the ambulance. In a wide screen remake, catching someone with the life net was worth one point.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Nintendo did a lot of things here that they would probably never get away with now [[GrandfatherClause with the exception of rereleases]].
** ''Fire Attack'' was about fighting back TheSavageIndian horde who was trying to burn down your settler's fort. Oddly enough, this one got a full remake in ''Gallery 4'', albeit with the enemies replaced with more generic sprites.
** ''Mario's Bombs Away'' has Mario (yes, ''that'' Mario) fighting in UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar, [[NoSmoking with someone visibly smoking]]. This is available as an unlockable minigame in ''Gallery 4''.

* EpicFail: In ''Safebusters'', you're a bank robber trying to blast open a vault door. If you dump too many bombs on the left instead of the right, however, or if you miss one, then you blow up everything '''except''' the vault door.

* ExplosiveStupidity: Not only can the smoking troop [[CigarFuseLighting blow up the bomb in your hands]] in ''Mario's Bombs Away'', but Mario also has to dodge the oil spill he keeps setting ablaze.

* Mario Bros. (1983): Very different from the [[Videogame/MarioBros arcade game of the same name]]. Mario and Luigi[[labelnote:*]]debuting a full 3 months before his first arcade appoearance[[/labelnote]] are in charge of a bottling factory, and must get the cases of bottles through the factory belts safely. Playable in Gallery 3 and 4, where the bottles are replaced with cakes.

* Mario Bros. (1983): Very different from the [[Videogame/MarioBros arcade game of the same name]]. Mario and Luigi[[labelnote:*]]debuting a full 3 months before his first arcade appoearance[[/labelnote]] are in charge of a bottling factory, and must get the cases of bottles through the factory belts safely. Playable in Gallery 3 and 4, there the bottles are replaced with cakes.

* Mario Bros. (1983): Very different from the [[Videogame/MarioBros arcade game of the same name]]. Mario and Luigi are in charge of a cake factory, and must get the cakes through the factory belts safely. Playable in Gallery 3 and 4.

* BalloonBelly: If you drop food in Chef, it becomes a large meal for a mouse who gets bigger upon eating it. Misses are also represented by fat mice.

* AntiFrustrationFeatures: In ''Mario Bros.'', if you fill the truck or drop a case the game pauses for a quick animation (of the brothers on break until the truck returns, or the foreman reprimanding the brother that dropped the case, respectively). When the game resumes. any cases that were close to falling off the conveyor belt mysteriously disappear, giving you slightly more time to get back into your rhythm.

* EverythingsSquishierWithCephalopods: The antagonist of ''Octopus'' is terrifyingly huge, or should be [[{{Greed}} but]] your divers keep going back in the water with it and refuse to return to the boat if they are not holding treasure.

When ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosMelee'' came out, there was a strange character that nobody except the most hardcore of Creator/{{Nintendo}} fans recognized. [[BaitAndSwitch His name was]] [[VideoGame/FireEmblemShadowDragonAndTheBladeOfLight Marth]].

When ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosMelee'' came out, there was a strange character that nobody except the most hardcore of Creator/{{Nintendo}} fans recognized. [[CompletelyMissingThePoint His name was]] [[VideoGame/FireEmblemShadowDragonAndTheBladeOfLight Marth]].

* SpikesOfDoom: Thorny/brambly vines/roots hang down in climber

When ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosMelee'' came out, there was a strange character that nobody except the most hardcore of Creator/{{Nintendo}} fans recognized. [[CompletelyMissingThePoint His name was]] [[VideoGame/FireEmblemAkaneia Marth]].

The games were rereleased on a series of UsefulNotes/GameBoy games called the ''Game & Watch Gallery'' series. These games featured several ''Game & Watch'' games in sets of four with both the old unaltered version and a new better looking version featuring the staple ''[[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario]]'' cast as well as a couple of bonus features. These games tracked high scores separately for either version. This was actually one of the first remakes for a console game (albeit handheld), long before the days of the [[UsefulNotes/SuperNintendoEntertainmentSystem SNES]] and UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance. Several ''Game & Watch'' games (in their original forms) were later released as part of UsefulNotes/DSiWare, with much more faithful graphics than the Game Boy editions thanks to the DS's increased capabilities.

!!Tropes that apply to the ''Game & Watch Gallery'' series:

* AnachronismStew: [[spoiler: The Cast Credits in 4 feature the Modern and Classic characters interacting with each other]].
* AntiFrustrationFeatures:
** The ability to suspend play by pausing and turning off the power. Earning 1,000 points can take roughy a half an hour if successful on the first try, so this was a welcome feature.
** In the original ''Mario's Cement Factory'', the moving platforms were lethal if you weren't immediately on their level when trying to board them, falling right through any other platforms that might be on the screen at the time, which could get ridiculous if the platform was about to rise and you just pressed the button a tiny bit too early. In the Modern version, jumping down onto a platform ''below'' you is possible and you won't take damage.
* ArtifactTitle:
** The games no longer have watch or alarm functions. [[CaptainObvious But you probably already knew that]].
** Some modern versions of the games in ''Gallery'' also qualify compared to their classic counterparts:
*** In ''Vermin'', you control Yoshi who must defend his eggs against Fly Guys, Paratroopas and Boos instead of vermin. Oddly enough, a Monty Mole will allow Yoshi to clear a miss by giving him a heart.
*** In ''Ball'', the character you play will juggle many items not resembling balls.
*** Subverted in ''Egg''. Instead of catching eggs laid by hens, Yoshi must catch cookies on a conveyor belt. If he eats enough of a type of cookie at the right temperature, he will lay an egg.
*** In ''Turtle Bridge'', you control Toad who must cross a makeshift bridge of Goonies across an open sky instead of turtles across a pond.
*** In the original ''Rain Shower'', a man is trying to keep his hanging clothes dry from a passing shower. In the remake, Mario must protect his friends from paint balloons thrown by Bowser.
*** The remake of ''Mario's Cement Factory'' takes place in a cookie factory.
* CanonImmigrant: ''4'', released in 2002, officially adopts the Mr. Game & Watch design used in ''Melee''.
* CompilationRerelease: Good thing, too, because by the time the ColbertBump arrived, the original line had been out of production for ten years.
* DeathThrows: Some of the modern versions of the games use this to indicate a miss.
* EasterEgg: In Modern Helmet, if you get a game over with less than 100 points and choose to retry, you'll play as Wario.
* GaidenGame: The first official game in the series is ''Game Boy Gallery'' which was only launched into [[NoExportForYou UK and Australian markets]] in 1994. It includes Ball, Manhole, Vermin, Flagman and Mario's Cement Factory (renamed to just Cement Factory). The games are simply the classic variants with updated visuals, there are no Mario characters or references whatsoever and it noticeably lacks features that made the rest of the series more enjoyable (suspend play, unlockables, score saving etc.). The only reason it can be considered part of the series at all is that Australia used ''Game Boy Gallery'' as its MarketBasedTitle for all future ''Game & Watch Galley'' releases.
** For those interested into game coding, ''Wario Land II'' uses the ''Game Boy Gallery'' version of ''Flagman'' as the basis for one of the minigames, including the Super Game Boy border.
* OneHundredPercentCompletion: Unlocks the Cast Credits. [[NintendoHard Good luck with that]].
* {{Retraux}}: The Game Boy is clearly capable of more than calculator graphics, but that would defeat the purpose, wouldn't it?
* SongsInTheKeyOfPanic: In Modern versions of the games, the music will get faster as your points get closer and closer to a hundred. They go back to a slower tempo once you get those next hundred points.
* SuddenlyVoiced: ''4'' is the only time that Mr. Game & Watch has ever talked.
* UpdatedRerelease: The Modern versions, and to further that, ''4'' contained further-remastered versions of several of the games in the previous three in the series.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen: In-universe. ''3''[='s=] version of ''Fire'' was an early factory beta that was less detailed and reversed right-to-left, included and playable as a historical curiosity.
* WolverinePublicity: [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario]] and friends were the main attraction, as Mr. Game & Watch wouldn't be recognizable or appealing to contemporary audiences until 2001.

The games were rereleased on a series of Game Boy games, in sets of four with both the old unaltered version and a new better looking, with a couple of bonus features, version, and tracked scores on each version separately. This was actually one of the first remakes for a console game (albeit handheld), long before the days of the [[UsefulNotes/SuperNintendoEntertainmentSystem SNES]] and UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance. Several ''Game & Watch'' games (in their original forms) were later released as part of UsefulNotes/DSiWare, with much more faithful graphics than the Game Boy editions thanks to the DS's increased capabilities.

** ''Fire Attack'' was about fighting back TheSavageIndian horde who was trying to burn down your settler's fort. Oddly enough, this one got a full remake in ''Gallery 4''.

When ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros Melee'' came out, there was a strange character that nobody except the most hardcore of Creator/{{Nintendo}} fans recognized. [[CompletelyMissingThePoint His name was]] [[VideoGame/FireEmblemAkaneia Marth]].

''[[{{Beat}}...]]''

(''{{Beat}}'')

* [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZelda Zelda]] (1989): Another condensed version of the console game; the only Game & Watch title featuring Link, a definite ending and the ability to continue should the game be over by Link dying. Appears as the final game in Gallery 4.

* [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZelda Zelda]] (1989): Another condensed version of the console game, the only Game & Watch game featuring Link. Appears as the final game in Gallery 4.

* GameOver: The game shuts off after you lose your third life in most of them.

The games consisted of you controlling some guy doing some simple task, whether it was rescuing people jumping out of a burning building with a trampoline in ''Fire!'' (you had to bounce them three times before they'd get to the ambulance), or moving a single manhole cover to make sure people don't fall down as they walk across holes. Points were awarded each time you prevented disaster (such as when someone successfully walked across the gap in ''Manhole''), and should you fail, you were marked with a miss. Three misses and you were done. The game would [[DifficultyByAcceleration speed up and get more difficult as you went on]], but there were methods to clear your misses, usually [[EveryTenThousandPoints after two, five, and seven hundred points]] or similar. The Game and Watch Gallery series would usually throw you a heart you'd have to catch once you broke the point marker.

* TemporaryPlatform: The ''Turtle Bridge'' turtles dive if a fish swims under them, resulting in you falling in the water if you remain standing on or jump where th