The WonderSwan family of consoles was a series of handheld portable gaming systems designed by former Nintendo hardware specialist Gunpei Yokoi for Bandai as a low-cost alternative to the Game Boy family of handhelds. The family was particularly notable for having two pads of fully-customizable buttons and its ability to run on a single battery, where the Game Boy would require two or four to operate. It was only released in Japan.
The WonderSwan Color was the second unit in the family, released in Year 2000. While the original WonderSwan had only a black and white screen, the color version features 64k of RAM and a larger color LCD screen.
Prior to WonderSwan's release, Nintendo had a practical monopoly in the Japanese handheld market. After the release of the WonderSwan Color, Bandai took approximately 8% of the market share in Japan, partly due to its low price.
Another reason for the WonderSwan's success in Japan was the fact Bandai managed to get a deal with Squaresoft to port over the original Famicom Final Fantasy games with improved graphics and controls. With the popularity of the Game Boy Advance and the reconciliation between Squaresoft and Nintendo, the WonderSwan Color and its successor, the Swan Crystal, quickly lost their competitive advantage.
Final Fantasy titles for WonderSwan devices[]
WonderSwan[]
WonderSwan Color[]
Cancelled[]
- Final Fantasy III
- Dice de Chocobo (later released as Chocobo Land: A Game of Dice for the Game Boy Advance)