Well, that came out of left field. Hasbro plans to revive the Tiger Electronics line of handhelds, starting with games based on Sonic the Hedgehog 3, X-Men, and Transformers. These won't be exact duplicates of the original games released in the early 1990s, but rather will be "inspired" by them, which doesn't tell you much about the finished products. Should we expect any improvements from the original designs, like color screens or more realistic sound effects? Perhaps, but with a retail price of $14.99, you probably shouldn't get too optimistic.
Most people don't look back fondly on Tiger handhelds... they were never up to the standards of Nintendo's Game and Watch series, and by the mid 1990s, these budget-priced systems were biting off way more than they could chew. Would you believe Castlevania: Symphony of the Night got the Tiger handheld treatment in 1998, the same year Nintendo released the Game Boy Color? It happened, but heaven only knows why.
However, when you're too young to know better, and too poor to afford better, you take what you can get. Back in 1987, I got a Tiger Electronic Pinball for Christmas, and it proved invaluable as a time-waster for those long, uncomfortable trips from one divorced parent to the other. There's little point in these stone-age handhelds now, but once upon a time, they had their place.
Random observations on the classic gaming scene, courtesy of the former editor of The Gameroom Blitz.
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