For many years now, nostalgia has been big business all across entertainment. Remakes of movies and games are common and new products that leverage consumers childhood memories and affection for a property will probably always be a thing.
Over the last few years in video gaming we’ve seen all manner of retro consoles, both those that are officially licensed such as the Nintendo Entertainment System mini and those that allow players to play their old cartridges on modern TVs such as the Retron consoles.
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Then there are another category of devices which embrace the old with the new at the same time, like the Evercade handheld and home console which has a focus on bringing older games to a new system, but has also had newer games released as well. Taking that one step further is the new Intellivision Amico console which is a family focussed console which is due to release at the end of 2021 after several delays.
What is the Intellivision Amico?
The Intellivision Amico is a new console that features innovative new controllers that call back to the original 1979 machine, but featuring lots of modern innovations. The games for the system also have a focus on family friendly games, up to 8 player games and affordable download games.
Will Nostalgia Be the Key to Success?
The makers of the machine have lined up new versions of classics like Frogger and Burger Time, which retro fans are sure to eat up, but it is yet to be seen if the appeal of the Intellivision is too retro at this stage.
In the last few years we’ve seen the Nintendo NES and Super NES classic mini consoles be a big success for Nintendo, as has the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis mini for Sega. These consoles have the benefit of marketing backing from Nintendo and Sega who have had a continual presence in the gaming world for decades, but that isn’t true in the case of the Intellivision. Whilst respect can be paid to the retro Intellivision by the new machine’s creators, this isn’t the same Intellivision company behind this in the same way as the Sega/Nintendo machines. The Intellivision was a thing throughout the 80s, but since then the Intellivision brand has only ever really existed to promote retro collections and plug and play consoles and doesn’t have the same level of portfolio to call upon as others.
It should also be noted that as the original Intellivision pre-dates even the NES by a few years the demographic of players who ate up the classic NES are now themselves 5 years older and that mid to late 30s demographic who felt nostalgia for the NES are now in their early forties and with the Intellivision being that much older the nostalgia factor may be targeting players who are mid 40s to 50 at this stage. This isn’t to say there isn’t a market for retro nostalgia of the Intellivision, but with with even the Classic PSOne not getting the expected sales with the more modern games and brand power of Playstation, it can be questioned if nostalgia is a significant strength here.
New Innovations
Fortunately for the Intellivision Amico, the team behind it haven’t simply rested on their retro laurels and there are several cool features which will help the machine forge a new legacy for the Intellivision name. The machine features standard modern features such as wi-fi connectivity to download new games, HDMI support, and micro SD card usage, but beyond these the machine also features a cool lighting feature built into the actual console.
The edge of the console itself can light up and whilst this may look cosmetic and like someone has spruced up their Mame Arcade machine with lights, the lights actual have a practical use that can be part of gameplay. This innovation can have all kinds of applications such as indicators for health or Time, or Simon says or rhythm based games as well.
Beyond this, the console also has controllers that on first look may appear like the original Intellivision controllers, but boy do they pack in extra features. Firstly they’re motion controlled which mean Wii style games are possible, but they also feature a touch screen on each controller which means private stats and cards can be concealed from other players. Now obviously this idea was explored both on the Dreamcast’s VMU memory cards which plugged into the controllers and the Wii U Gamepad, although in the case of the latter there were never any games that were compatible with two Wii U Gamepads at the same time. Of course, neither of those examples proved to be on successful consoles, but maybe the Amico may lead to a new era in second screen gaming.
The screen on the controllers are 3.2 inches in size so don’t expect games to be playable on the control only, but it’s worth noting that games will be able to use smart phones as additional controllers if you don’t have all the needed controllers for multiplayer games.
It’s also worth noting that the controller only has 4 shoulder buttons and a directional pad in addition to the touch screen, so it’s clear this machine wasn’t designed with twin stick FPS games or all the lates console games in mind.
Exclusive Games
All of the games that are released for the Intellivision Amico are designed to be playable for single or multiplayer game experiences. Perhaps the biggest game announced so far out of the 80+ games scheduled for the machine is Earthworm Jim 4. This game will play to the nostalgia of the SNES/Mega Drive era of gamers and looks to be a follow up in the style of the first two 2D games rather than the 3D third game. Other games listed include ToeJam & Earl, R-Type, Sesame Street Math Fun and Asteroids. So whilst these are some recognisable names, they do play into either the 80s/90s nostalgia or children’s licences.
So Will It Be Successful?
At this stage it’s hard to tell for certain how successful it will be, or for how long. Also nowadays with retro consoles and limited runs of niche games it’s hard to tell what the marker is to be successful. Will this outsell the PS5? No, that isn’t on the cards, but can it sell enough and get a steady flow of gaming experiences to succeed for a few years? Quite possibly. It will depend if they can hit their late 2021 release after several delays (mainly due to the pandemic and lack of components which is also due to the pandemic)
What are your thoughts on the Intellivision Amico? Are you planning to pick one up? Let us know what does/doesn’t appeal to you about the system in the comments!
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