one of my units smells really strong of glue and i cant figure out which one.
GAUNTLET
this is a cool one, it recreates running around mazes killing monsters, and you look for keys and can use bombs. i bet i would have liked this as a kid, it feels much bigger and deeper than it actually is. my copy needs a massive clean. playable in mame.
MEGA MAN 2
only partially works, half the screen is all faded out. doesn’t look like i’m missing much though, it’s yet another go right and react to the enemies that show up.
DOUBLE DRAGON 2
starts out dead boring with just walking right and reacting to enemies, and you can cheese it a lot with jump attacks so it’s very dull BUT then it adds platforming! and it sucks, the NES version is better. at least they knew that platforming was a part of DD2’s appeal(?).
SONIC THE HEDGEHOG
hold right and react to enemies!! except this is somehow worse than all the others because it’s so hard to parse how/where to react to things and how you’re getting hurt. also i sometimes you go too fast to react to things so faithful to sonic amirite!!! playable in mame
SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 2
the same as the first except now there are loops you need speed to go through and also tails is here. is easier to parse than the first… there are pits you can fall in and you need to use platforms to reach some enemies. better than the first but still a mess. playable in mame.
HOME ALONE 2
i saw someone play the first one (in mame) and its kinda cool, it’s like spy vs spy a bit… you wander around the house and find traps and stuff and hurt the bandits as much as you can (you can see them on a radar even). this sequel is pretty much the same except instead of moving around one floor of a house, you have a multiple floors of a mall to explore. so in the first you could go left, right, up, down in certain rooms, where as in this one it’s just left or right and sometimes up or down an escalator. i think i prefer the original. anyway this is a neat concept for a tiger handheld. one of the better home alone games tbh (though it is a bit clunky)
STREET FIGHTER II
I think some of the buttons dont work so i cant fully judge. playable in mame.
MATTEL BASEBALL
a 2001 re-release of the iconic toy. this is actually really neat! love how they used such basic technology (leds) to make a simple game. i mean it plays like shit but its neat lol.
BATTLETOADS
this is based on the second level of the game for some reason? the one where you bungee down and smack birds around. the gimmick here i think is that you swap between toads who have stronger attacks in different parts of the screen? cant test it properly though because i think one of the attack buttons is busted. playable in mame.
GUITAR HERO
play a crunchy ass version of smoke on the water! this kinda rules lol
TOTAL RECALL
another akklaim one and they really were worse than tiger most of the time. in this case you play arnie and have to run through an exit when it appears, and dodge other stuff in the mean time and pick up bonus items. not as interesting as that sounds
THE SIMPSONS
another akklaim one. here maggie is throwing muffins and you gotta catch them and give them to marge when she sticks her head out. if you get the max amount of muffins before dropping them off you get a bonus, but you run the risk of dropping them all. not very bart-like, being helpful! then homer tells everyone to get on the couch, and you have to sit before lisa does, i guess blocking her? that’s more barty. this is actually pretty addictive… it’s simple fun in the way old game and watch games like vermin are. plus the art is great
THE LITTLE MERMAID
clearly marketed for young girls, it’s impossible to get a game over and is instead a score attack game. you swim through the levels trying to touch as many butts (boats) as you can, and picking up human trash off the bottom. there are things that will slow you down (stopping you from scoring big as the levels are timed) and there are even boss fights, but you beat them with the two male characters of course (including impaling ursula with the boat). for the most part it really is just moving up and down to dodge/collect shit though. could have been worse i guess. for some reason this and a couple of other tiger handhelds were re-released a few years back
DOUBLE DRAGON 3 REVISITED
turns out this is even cooler than i thought, you can pick up weapons enemies drop and you can recruit some bosses to your side (but only billy has the cool spin kick). so yeah, one of the better beat 'em up adaptations to LCD.
FIRE ATTACK
my only actual game and watch and it’s a racist one lol. you defend a fort from native americans trying to set it on fire. some damage to the screen but still fully playable, it’s pretty boring though. just changing to four different spots and attacking when an enemy is there. will be saying good bye to this one for sure
MOTORCYCLE RACE
a generic handheld. one of those very basic driving games where you just go forward and dodge things by moving left or right.
RIPPA MONKEY
was looking forward to this one because rippa is an australian brand but it’s busted