 Absent Miyamoto 's direction , the development team used elements new and inconsistent with the series as Super Mario Land shrunk elements of the series to fit the portable device 's small screen . Yokoi , the head of R & D1 , served as producer , and Satoru Okada served as director . They had previously developed Metroid ( 1986 ) and Kid Icarus ( 1986 ) together , and the two subsequently designed the Game Boy — Yokoi on its industrial design , and Okada on its engineering . Their Super Mario Land was planned as the portable console 's showcase title until Henk Rogers brought Tetris to Nintendo of America and convinced Minoru Arakawa that the addictive computer game would help Nintendo reach the largest audience . The company subsequently chose to bundle Tetris with every Game Boy purchase . 
