Forget PS5, Hasbro’s Console is the Only Next-Gen Experience You Need
Hasbro is bringing back Tiger Electronics, its 90s LCD handheld games including Transformers and the X-Men. | Source: Hasbro
- Hasbro are re-releasing some of the 90s Tiger Electronics handheld games.
- The new line includes, Sonic 3, The Little Mermaid, X-Men and Transformers.
- These games are clearly nostalgia-bait for adults, rather than anything a child would actually want to play.
Somethings are better off left in the past. As much as I am fond of my VHS tapes, I’m not out there demanding they start making them again. Similarly, I’m not sure anyone was crying out for Tiger Electronics games to make a comeback.
Unfortunately, Hasbro who now owns Tiger’s IPs has decided that they should be just nostalgic enough to sell. Welcome to 2020 I guess. Now we can get those crappy LCD-screen games brand new for $14.99.
It’s like it’s 1994 all over again.
Tiger Electronics Games Have an ‘Interesting’ Reputation
If you’re too young to remember, or you just suppressed the memory, Tiger Electronics handhelds where the budget option back in the mid-90s. Instead of shelling out a fair bit of money for a Gameboy or GameGear, you could spend a fraction of the price on one of these bad boys.
Using a basic LCD screen, a game was made using the same few collections of sprites. It was about as ghetto as it got. These games were all as basic as hell, universally featuring a single level and very rudimentary controls.
Now Hasbro, who absorbed Tiger in the early 2000s, is bringing back a handful of these Tiger Electronics games. 4 of the games, including Sonic 3 and Disney’s The Little Mermaid, are now available for pre-order on GameStop’s website. They’ll run you $14.99 each, but there’s no release date as of right now.
It’s Pretty Clear Who These Abominations are For
Make no mistakes. These Tiger Electronics games are purely for nostalgia bait. Back in the 90s, these sorts of games were seen as a legit alternative to expensive handhelds. These days, it’s unlikely that any kid is going to play with one for more than 5 minutes before getting bored.
These things are going to end up being cheap gifts for adults. People who actually had one or more of these games as a kid and will enjoy seeing them again. It’s hard to know exactly how nostalgia-blind you’d have to be to actually play one of them for an extended period of time.
Who knows, if these are successful we could see the entire lineup making a comeback. I’m sure there’s probably a collector out there who wants to get their hands on these things…for some reason. Although, I have to admit. As stupid as these things look, I sort of want the Sonic one.
