The modern 'cross' D-pad design was developed in 1982 by Yokoi for the Donkey Kong handheld game. Titles available in Game & Watch form vary from Mickey Mouse to Balloon Fight, including Nintendo staples such as Donkey Kong, The Legend of Zelda, and Mario Bros. The Game Boy Advance SP, Nintendo DS, and Nintendo 3DS later reused this design. Different models were manufactured, with some having two screens and a clamshell design (the Multi Screen Series). The units use LR4x/SR4x 'button-cell' batteries, which Yokoi opted for because they were small and inexpensive. The series was discontinued in 1991 with the console game 'Mario the Juggler'.

After its success, multiple variations of the console were released and developed, and was also the main inspiration for the Game Boy, a console Yokoi later created. This led up to the creation of Ball, which became one of Nintendo's first major hits. Yokoi designed the controls for this portable system based on the success of Nintendo's arcade game Donkey Kong incorporating a single button along with a d-pad for movement. Within the week, Yokoi was invited to a meeting between Nintendo and Sharp, giving him the go-ahead to develop his concept. Though Yamauchi had not said anything during the drive, the meeting he was at included the CEO of Sharp Corporation, and the two discussed Yokoi's idea. Later, he had been able to pitch the idea to Nintendo's president, Hiroshi Yamauchi, when Yamauchi requested him to chauffeur him to a business meeting. Yokoi then thought of an idea for a watch that doubled as a miniature game machine for killing time. While traveling on a Shinkansen (bullet train), Yokoi saw a bored businessman playing with an LCD calculator by pressing the buttons. At the same time, the first arcade and home video game consoles had been developed in the United States, and Nintendo had quickly caught onto this wave in Japan. Game designer Gunpei Yokoi had been head of Nintendo's Research & Development division in the 1970s, designing physical toys and games until the 1973 oil crisis, after which the market waned for these products. The patented design of a Multi Screen Game & Watch The units are based on a 4-bit CPU from the Sharp SM5xx family that include a small ROM and RAM area and an LCD screen driver circuit. It was the earliest Nintendo video game product to gain major worldwide success. The series sold a combined 43.4 million units worldwide, including 12.87 million units in Japan and 30.53 million overseas. The models from 1981 onwards featured an alarm in addition. Created by game designer Gunpei Yokoi, the product derived its name from it featuring a single game as well as a clock on an LCD screen.

The Game & Watch brand ( Japanese: ゲーム&ウオッチ Gēmu & Uotchi called Tricotronic in West Germany and Austria, abbreviated as G&W) is a series of handheld electronic games developed, manufactured, released, and marketed by Nintendo from 1980 to 1991.

The game watcher little man