If you have a soft spot for arcade machines well look no further. Introducing the DreamGear 200 Classic Video Game Mini Arcade Cabinet. This lightweight little mini Ultra portable arcade machine comes with 200 games pre-installed. There is no need for a smartphone or any external hardware as everything comes packed inside this little cabinet. There is no external console hardware needed. It is so small that I actually can fit within the palm of your hand.
The built-in screen is 2.5 inches in size measured diagonally. It requires three AAA penlight batteries in order to function.
Let’s take a closer look at the controls. On the front panel on the left hand side there is an eight directional joystick. The little red joystick looks pretty cute too – it looks like a mini red lollipop – and it actually does feel pretty comfortable when I play games with it while using my thumb and index finger. On the right hand side you have your action buttons and in the middle of the front console there are three small function buttons. From left to right you have the reset button the start button and volume button.
At the rear of the DreamGear 200 Classic Video Games Mini Arcade system you can actually see the holes where the external speaker is located and on the upper right-hand side you can see the power switch. You will need a mini Phillips screwdriver in order to remove the battery cover when replacing the three Triple-A batteries.
When you turn on the switch you are greeted with a menu which shows you a list of 1 to 200 games that you can play instantly. In order to play the game of your choice you simply scroll down to the game you want to play and once it is highlighted you just press the start button and the game begins. What I like about the reset button is that when you press it it automatically takes you back to the top of the games list and then you can start looking for games again.
And now these retail for about $25 which is a good deal and this little mini arcade wonder only weighs a mere 0.6 pounds.
After looking at most of the games they look like cheap knock-offs of the real thing but they are pretty playable and a good handful of them are very fun to play.
After going through each and every game I must admit that they can go into three categories:
- The first category of games look very similar to some of the popular classic games and I must admit that the quality of the graphics, sound effects and game play are quite good indeed.
- The second batch of games are okay, but I would not end up spending countless hours playing them.
- The third batch of games are just plain crappy ones and I guess that they were just fillers to make up the 200 total which is great for marketing the product.
But all in all for the price it’s definitely worth getting as a collectible item as it looks really good when it adorns my desk at the office.
So after going through all 200 games I found a handful which I consider as some of my favoruites to play:
- F-22 is similar to the original game called 1943 which is a scrolling shooter.
- Racing fighter is another scrolling driving game where you shoot other cars while driving on the road and this is very similar to the classic game called Spy Hunter.
- Seawolf is also another cool game whereby you control a torpedo launcher on a submarine. You then attempt to blow passing warships out of the water.
- Another nice game is called Spacewar and this is has a similar look and feel to the great classic space invader style game called Galaga.
So that is my review of the DreamGear 200 Classic Video Games Mini Arcade Cabinet which gives you a choice of 200 video games to waste hours of your life on. It makes a great gift for any video game junky who would have grown up playing arcade machines back in the eighties and nineties. These guys would have ended up spending all of their lunch money feeding quarters into these arcade boxes while shooting down aliens and eating fruits while running away from monsters.
You can also check out my YouTube review video below. Feel free to visit Amazon here to buy yourself one of these.