Tiger Handhelds

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envytomdead
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Joined: October 27th, 2015, 11:56 am

Tiger Handhelds

Postby envytomdead » October 27th, 2015, 12:08 pm

While cleaning my house I rediscovered my Gauntlent and Double Dragon tiger handhelds. I know that tiger handhelds don't get much love but I found these fun and good for a real quick diversion.

My question is are there anymore that are cool or did I just get lucky with those two. I really don't get the hate as I had gotten these things pre game boy back in the day. Were people really expecting them to be more sophisticated than they were?

eneuman96
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Joined: April 13th, 2015, 11:16 pm

Re: Tiger Handhelds

Postby eneuman96 » October 27th, 2015, 3:41 pm

The Angry Video Game Nerd has a great video on these things. The main reason they got so much hate is because they were outdated the instant handhelds like the Game Boy came out, and very few of them were legitimately enjoyable to begin with. Unlike Nintendo's Game & Watch games, which petered out soon after the introduction of the Game Boy, Tiger handhelds just refused to die for the longest time.

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Rev
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Re: Tiger Handhelds

Postby Rev » October 27th, 2015, 6:30 pm

I think parents bought these for their kids so they didn't have to spend more money on a game boy (young kids will play nearly anything and think it's good). I used to have a Street Fighter 2 one and I remember playing it religiously all the time. I loved it back then but I think it was more because I could play it anywhere. Thinking back on it, it was pretty bad and very unresponsive.

Hardcore Sadism
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Joined: April 7th, 2015, 7:10 pm

Re: Tiger Handhelds

Postby Hardcore Sadism » October 27th, 2015, 9:58 pm

They're only really remarkable because they were spinoff cash grabs of big time games and films. You could print a comprehensive encyclopedia from the sheer amount of LCD crap Tiger produced.

I have a Jurassic Park game, but the face plastic chipped off. They are extremely hard to find in this state. I think they are 'interesting crap' at least. I have a perfectly functional Pinball game, in extremely flamboyant Blue/Pink. Kinda wish I could find the Mortal Kombat and Sonic games though.

envytomdead
Posts: 55
Joined: October 27th, 2015, 11:56 am

Re: Tiger Handhelds

Postby envytomdead » October 27th, 2015, 11:38 pm

Rev wrote:I think parents bought these for their kids so they didn't have to spend more money on a game boy (young kids will play nearly anything and think it's good). I used to have a Street Fighter 2 one and I remember playing it religiously all the time. I loved it back then but I think it was more because I could play it anywhere. Thinking back on it, it was pretty bad and very unresponsive.

The controls do seem to be a bit sluggish at times but I did find rhythm to these things that makes them engaging in their own way. I may grab a few cheaper ones of eBay just to see. So if anyone has any recommendations.....

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Rookie1
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Joined: August 6th, 2015, 7:42 am

Re: Tiger Handhelds

Postby Rookie1 » October 28th, 2015, 7:33 am

I have a box full of these. I love them. I remember going to school with them and playing with a couple other guys during lunch. Even after Game Boy came out they were still pretty big as not everyone could afford a Game Boy.

Somes of my faves were the TMNT series, X-Men, Sonic, Star Trek, and Ninja Gaiden. Latter on they had the talking ones, and then ones you could slide cards through for power ups (though I sill have not figured out how that works). I have my power rangers one with all the cards still, but im missing the cards for my Mortal Kombat. My talking X-Men doesnt talk anymore either :(

ThePixelatedGenocide
Posts: 1232
Joined: April 29th, 2015, 9:06 pm

Re: Tiger Handhelds

Postby ThePixelatedGenocide » October 28th, 2015, 3:28 pm

I still prefer Simon's Quest on LCD to the NES original. It's got a streamlined charm. Unlike most Tiger games, it knows what it's trying to do, and works with the format, instead of trying to fight it, or worse, simply giving up because kids will play anything.

Unfortunately, I've never found another game from them that was even half as playable. It's like another team made it.

Voor
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Joined: April 14th, 2015, 8:08 pm

Re: Tiger Handhelds

Postby Voor » October 30th, 2015, 9:06 pm

AvGN was right....everyone knew that they were barely video games and as primitive as you can imagine....yet EVERYBODY had one.

Gameboy was affordable, but most people would rather buy 2-3 new NES games, that the gameboy plus a game (of sub-NES quality) and a ton of batteries.

This was an uber cheap alternative.

Luigi & Peach
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Joined: August 19th, 2015, 9:30 pm

Re: Tiger Handhelds

Postby Luigi & Peach » October 31st, 2015, 3:23 pm

I remember having a handheld version of Madden when I was around 7 or 8. I mastered the heck out of that thing. Had a pretty simplistic Ghostbusters handheld too, but for some reason I thought the case was smaller than your standard Tiger handheld.

Shapur
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Joined: July 31st, 2015, 8:10 pm

Re: Tiger Handhelds

Postby Shapur » November 3rd, 2015, 4:48 pm

I had a bunch of these as a kid and kinda liked them actually. The gameplay was extremely simplified and there wasn't a lot of depth but hey it was a way to kill time if I didn't have access to the TV(and my parents weren't gonna shell out for a Game Boy).

I remember After Burner, a Sonic one, Double Dragon the most. I sunk a lot of time into that Double Dragon one.


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