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United Kingdom, Belfast
1 Level
735 Review
86 Karma

Review on 363 Frogger Micro Arcade by Jon Smith

Revainrating 2 out of 5

Compared to Tiny Arcade they are terrible. However, they are still a bit funny.

I bought almost the entire Tiny Arcade series from this company, I really liked it. Games are simplified and reprogrammed for the tiny screen - MAME emulation, not emulation. But overall they give the right feel to the games and are a lot of fun to play. These are very, very bad ports. I've played a lot of bad Atari ports in my time, but these are some of the worst. Super Breakout is incredibly slow and the ball behaves ridiculously. The asteroids are destroyed by the fact that the titular asteroids don't follow any physics - after you blow up one of them, the pieces will scatter in all directions. Team. Missile Command is full of bugs - it just randomly spams "OUT" and "LOW" ads in some old spot on the screen, all by accident. It's hilariously nerfed - I survived many rounds with missile batteries destroyed because the Russians just couldn't aim at something they hadn't already leveled. Missiles explode instantly, and the explosion disappears almost immediately, completely destroying the game's strategy. And while it's a lame version of a real game, it's still a surprisingly entertaining game in its own right. The centipede looks really bad. The game doesn't work well with the control scheme, and the bubble buttons are an even worse substitute for a trackball than regular D-Pads. Everything is out of order and poorly placed - the centipede is in the bottom row in a matter of seconds. I thought it was the least fun of the four "core" games. Bonus game - Pong. Pong is Pong without a controller. To be honest, I'm disappointed that I'm still enjoying it so much. However, they're still a pleasure to use as the old LCD Tiger handhelds could be. They're really a far cry from the originals, but they're nice to have on hand in a pinch. The build quality is bizarrely untrue. The bubble switch buttons have a very strong resistance, but I like them. You've got an audio on/off switch that's sorely lacking on Tiny Arcade machines, and the back of the machine feels great, but the actual screen area scratches like it's made of butter. I received a used Revain Warehouse Deals and had to return it because the screen was just unusable. Tolerance for cheap portable crap, it might be worth your penny. But buyers beware - LOTS of tolerance is required.

Pros
  • cool product
Cons
  • keep silent