Great bright screen. The simple fish game here is a favorite.
 Something for your Pocket from Performance Design Products!




I Released in the US by Performance Design Products 2005.
VG Pocket Review
      During the Christmas Holiday of 2005 all the Hoopla was focused on the the biggies of handheld video games, the PSP and the DS. While something nice slipped through the war zone and landed  quietly on the shelves. I am speaking of the VgPocket.


       

     In the box you have the unit itself. They come in many colors. I chose the white face plate. The build seems of fairly thin plastic and light weight. The batteries add weight to it and gives it a sort-of "solidness" when handling. The roundness of the unit has a smooth feel to it. It also has an auto off after 3 minutes of non-use. It comes with user manual, the A/V cord for TV out and 3 AAA batteries. The cord seems very short, 6' 6",so plan on setting up close. You just plug it in the TV and play. They claim that you get 15 hours of gameplay on a set of batteries. I have not had a chance to check this out. Wikipedia online claims that some people think that it has NES-on-a-chip technology. I have read that others have confirmed that. Meaning that if you could hook up an NES cart to this little system, it would work. It is "NES style" graphics. The games are sharp and colorful. Is that scrolling going on there in that game? Yep! It shows some depth in a simple little game. Some games seem tiny on the screen, but playable. With the TV out, the games look just as good as any other 8-bit games.








Pros:
Very bright backlite screen
Retro gaming
Nothing else to buy

Cons:
NO HIGH SCORE OR GAME SAVE FEATURE!
The SAME TUNE Continuously
No AC adaptor capabilities



TV out is a neat addition to a portable. Great option. The headphone jack is also a must have. Both are on the top and out of the way.
 Games:

     The games are built-in. No carts, no disc, nothing else to buy. I picked up the one with 50 games. There are three models. One with 30, 50, and 75 games. The more games built-in, the bigger the screen size. Go figure. Many of the games are clones. But it is definitely simple old school retro gameplay. Maybe even some old Atari  and early NES gameplay here.  There is Bump "n" Jump, Pooyan, Space Invaders, 1941,  Battleship, Nibbles, Pong, Arkanoid or Break out, Duck Hunt(this one is even better), Penguin Wars, and maybe Xevious. They don't use those names, but you do see the similarities. You might even see some other games that remind you of something. Motor Rally reminds me a little of Hang On. There is even a Columns. "Earth's Star Fighter" has some really good power ups and is a real decent little shooter. Quickly becoming a favorite on this little thing. The game menu is categorized as "action, racing, shooting, sports, and wits." The manual gives you a good little description, along with gameplay and buttons used on each game. On the down side, there is no "hi score" or "game" save feature. You lose the hi scores when you turn the unit off or when you boot a different game. Some games do have an unfinished feel.
Controls:
    Very tight good responsive controls. There are a few games the control seems bad, but I feel that it is only the games themselves. There is the typical cross button, on/off button, reset button, and four other buttons with the familiar diamond layout. The unit fits my hands nicely with that game controller layout feel. Everything is in the right place. Clicky buttons. The chrome button color looks cheap. Another choice of color would have made this unit look nice.

Sound:
The volume control on the side is an act of mercy by the manufacturers. The sound is much better sounding over the TV speakers. And it seems like the same theme music is used for everything or variations there of. The tiny speaker on the unit seems to have a slight hum, but not that noticeable. It has a headphone jack. The sound is much better over headphones. NES quality game sound. That is the only way I can describe it. Game sounds from that period of gaming history.


There are a lot of simple games like the one below that make this a good little system in your pocket.
 What you can't see is the layers of scrolling going on in the simple game shown below that shows depth.
Screen:
     It has a hi resolution 2.0" color  backlit TFT screen. Very impressive "GB micro" bright. You know the "GB with a brighter screen" bright. No blur or ghosting! Very clear and sharp.  The screen is not recessed, so it would be easily subjected to scratches. It comes with a plastic overlay on the screen. I wished that the makers had made the plastic overlay clear so it could be used as a protector. I have kept this and am putting it back on after play until I come up with some money for a screen protector. I am sure that the GB Micro one would fit.
        
 

Final Thoughts: I like it. I thought before hand, when I reluctantly purchased it, that I would maybe find a couple of games on here that I would like. I have found that, overall, it is packed with old retro arcade fun. There is a lot of variety here. Simple little time wasters. A lot more than I expected. I feel, that for $29.99 USD, it was money well spent, if you like that  "retro gameplay experience" to carry with you. Great for that "I am standing here waiting" sort-of feeling. The size is just right, a little bigger than a cell phone. Not as slim and trim as the GB Micro. I only wished that it had included a clone of Centipede, Mario, Pacman, a side scrolling shooter, and Galaga. That would have rounded this out to be a killer little system. 

 


Redesigned by Retro Junkie