Ah yes, the wonderful world of handheld gaming. Though we’ve seen some pretty good handhelds come out in the past (Sega GameGear and Nintendo DS), for the most part they’ve just been extremely disappointing. Modojo’s top 10 list of handheld failures lets gamers reminisce on how much money they threw down the drain over “promising” portables. I myself took a blow when I purchased a Sony PSP. It wasn’t all bad though, I did have my fun with Burnout Revenge for a while, that was until I decided to give the Nintendo DS a chance. Sometimes, I still find myself wishing I had a Sega GameGear, maybe I should check out that Caleco portable sometime soon.
10. Atari Lynx
The Atari Lynx, released in 1989, featured a 16-bit gaming and a 4096 hue color palette. Not only was the Lynx huge, but it also drained batteries and ran for $190. As soon as it was released, it was marketed by Game Boy, which quickly pwned the Atari Lynx into the number 10 slot for handheld failure.
9. Sega Nomad
The Sega Nomad offered gamers the ability to play Sega Genesis games on the go, and was fairly popular when it first released. Too bad it didn’t stick around. I remember wanting one when I was younger, but by the time I had saved up enough money to own one, it had disappeared. Where did it go? Apparently to the number 9 slot of worst handhelds.
8. Nintendo Virtual Boy
The Nintendo Virtual boy featured a headpiece a user would have to place over their skull, a controller and a world of red. That’s right, every game displayed in red. Sorry Nintendo, but Virtual Boy turned out to be virtual boring.
7. Game Boy Advance 1.0
In all honesty, the Nintendo Game Boy Advance wasn’t that bad of a handheld. Sure it had horrible battery life and one of the worst handheld screens ever (you couldn’t play in the Sun), but it still featured something most handhelds don’t: Fun factor. Game Boy Advance still gets number 7 on the list for the simple fact that we aren’t vampires.
6. Nokia N-Gage
Like the crew over at Modojo, I can’t figure out who would want to buy the Nokia N-Gage either. This thing was huge, expensive and didn’t offer many games, and the games it did offer sucked anyway. For anyone who actually purchased the Nokia N-Gage, I’m sorry to say, but this wanna-be flashy and expensive product will never get you laid. Ever.
5. Bandai WonderSwan
Bandai, action-satisfaction. Not.
4. Sony PSP
Here’s one of the not so smart decisions I made when PSP came out: I purchased it. The PSP features a flashy screen, great design and could play UMDs, Sony’s 3rd format failure. The Sony PSP promised gamers a handheld experience like they had never seen, too bad that experience came in the form of playing ports from the PlayStation 2 that sucked. Yes, the PSP successfully made the great Metal Gear Solid into a card game. And really, Modojo hits it right on the dot, where the hell is Final Fantasy 7!?
3. Tiger Game.com
Tiger Game.com featured PDA functionality, a touch-screen and modem support. Yes, Tiger Game.com had some good ideas but just couldn’t get the right support for their product. Good thing Nintendo took all those ideas to a whole new level, and you know, included a color screen instead of having a black-and-white interface like the Tiger Game.com.
2. Game Boy Micro
Nintendo’s Game Boy Micro was a bad idea right from the beginning. The features were out dated by the time the product was released, and really didn’t have anything new to add to the already out Game Boy handheld. Nintendo also released a pink version with a Pokemon on it. For some reason or another, America just didn’t catch on…
1. Gizmondo
Taking the spot for the worst handheld failure in gaming history is the Gizmondo. The Gizmondo combined bad marketing, even worse product support and awful pricing into one big ball of crap. Like the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, the Gizmondo came out in two different versions. The lower end version, which forced users to watch ads, ran for a massive $229. The higher end version, which was ad free, ran for a even bigger $400! The console didn’t last long (obviously), and only released 8 games in the US, all of which were no-name games like Toy Golf and Sticky Balls. This thing is so bad that I kind of wish I had one on the shelf, just to say that I own a rare piece of video game history.
Top 10 Worst Gaming Handhelds [modojo]