Pokémon Mini

Hey guys, I know I haven't exactly been active as of late, but I've had alot of things to do,
a new Youtube video, revision, and I've been getting out alot more recently, I just haven't had the
time nor energy to get this blog done.
So I decided, instead of one, how about three posts?
I'll start this with the Pokémon Mini.

Not alot of Franchises get their own console dedicated to them but Pokémon did!
The Pokemon Mini, despite it's looks, is not a virtual pet game or a console with only one game built into it.
It's actually an actual handheld console with interchangeable cartridges just like the Game Boy that came out in 2001.

Showing the comparison between Pokémon Mini and GBA cartridges,

It plays pretty simple, monochrome games similar to the look of the original Game Boy games.
This console is quite impressive because of it's hardware features,
the Pokémon Mini included a real-time internal clock, a vibration function, a shock detector for very basic motion control and an infra-red transmitter to play with up to 5 other players.
These some of these features were actually a first for handhelds and really impressive for a console of it's time, especially since this console only measured about 7.5cm to 5.8cm, about the size of a Game Boy Cartirdge!



This console pretty much went under the radar for many people and it wasn't a huge hit,
and that could be for a few reasons. Firstly, the price...
At launch the Pokémon Mini was going at £40 for the console with a game included,
now for a console of this size and the short nature of the games I think that £40 is a bit too much to ask,
and you're still expected to pay out £20 for each game!

A Pokémon Mini playing Pikachu's Rocket Start

The other reason that I think the console didn't do as well as it should've was the game library.
The total number of games released for the system was a measly 10! And that number was even smaller for Europe, who only got 5 games!
Some people did reverse engineer the system to allow the games to be played on other platforms,
some people even made their own games that were capable of being played on the console itself!

The Pokémon Mini is quite a cool and quirky console and, not having one myself, I hope to find one soon

Toku-R