My Arcade is known for a plethora of miniaturised handheld retro gaming devices that range from handhelds and mini arcades, to accessories like gamepads and oddities including a Famicom to NES cartridge converter. Their products are also usually licenced, incorporating IP’s such as Bubble Bobble, Dig Dug and Ms. Pac Man.
Their next venture integrates all these elements but also includes a partnership with Konami (or Konami Cross Media NY Inc, for all you corporate types out there) to bring the Contra series to a battery-powered device near you. In the words of Amir Navid, who’s the SVP Product Development and Creative Director of My Arcade (there’s some more needlessly long corporate talk for you):
“We’re honored to be working with Konami Cross Media NY on Contra, one of the top games of all time and one of my personal favorites. It’s been almost 30 years since its introduction and we’re pleased to celebrate that milestone by giving fans another way to experience the game and show their love for it!”
The licence will be divided between two devices: a handheld called the Contra Pocket Player and a mini arcade that will likely be too small for my sausage fingers, the Contra Micro Player. Both will play the original arcade version of Contra, while the Pocket Player additionally includes the arcade version of Super C.
Interestingly, there’s also a co-op feature that is possible through a link of some assortment between two of the same devices. Not much is known yet about how this is physically done – My Arcade just refer to it as their new “CO-VS technology” which I’d guess is some sort of wireless magic. I can’t see any ports for link cables in the press images, after all.
So far, the launch window is a vague “this holiday season” with no price given either. My Arcades similar handhelds and mini arcades sell for $35, so that might be an estimate to expect – but otherwise, you can stay updated through My Arcades website.
Growing up while the fifth generation of consoles reigned supreme meant that Brendan missed out on much of the 80’s and early 90’s of gaming the first time around. He either lacked the cognitive ability to play them, as naturally, he was a baby - or he simply didn’t exist yet. Undeterred, Brendan started a blog called Retro Game On in 2011. This followed his exploits as he collected and played everything he could get his hands on no matter what the release date. While RGO is mainly YouTube focused these days concentrating on video reviews and historical features, the itch to do some old fashion writing never went away. More recently, Brendan has been a staff writer for the gaming website, GameCloud, mostly focusing on the indie gaming scene in his locale of Perth, Australia.
