6 Novelty Video Game Consoles We CAN'T BELIEVE Exist!
Updated: Sep 15, 2021
We're here with our list of novelty video game consoles both real and fake; some we wish were real, and some are just a stain on the gaming community. We're not here to judge...we'll leave that to you!
1. Tiger Electronics LCD Handheld Games
Company: Tiger Electronics Ltd
Release Year: 1980s – 1990s
Novelty Factor: The only other (& much cheaper) portable gaming option to the Game Boy, Tiger Electronics Handheld Games mastered the art of licensing franchises. Most major movie franchises, and quite a few TV shows, had their own LCD game. Tiger Electronics even got the licenses to many video game brands like Castlevania, Double Dragon, Duke Nukem, Ninja Gaiden, Sonic, Street Fighter, and Virtua Fighter; many of which can still be bought on Amazon or eBay today!
2. Bud Light BL6
Company: Anheuser-Busch
Release Year: 2020
Novelty Factor: The Bud Light BL6 is the world's first self-cooling six-pack console that also plays video games. It's 1/2 Coozie, 1/2 Console, 1/2 Projector. That's 3 halves so you know it's good, just don't ask it to do the math!
3. KFConsole
Company: Cooler Master Technology Inc.
Release Year: TBD (initially announced in June 2020)
Novelty Factor: The KFConsle debuts the world's first built-in patented Chicken Chamber – never risk letting your chicken go cold again! The KFConsole utilizes its own natural heat and airflow system so you can now focus on your gameplay and enjoy hot, crispy chicken between rounds.
4. Okama GameSphere
Company: Okama
Release Year: 2001
Novelty Factor: The Okama Gamesphere was a revolutionary console, satirically said to have 128 Gigahertz D-RAM, priced at $399.99, and a parody of the real-life Nintendo GameCube on the hit series South Park. Thanks to Reddit user u/mafnxxx for this amazing artist rendering.
5. The Game Sphere
Company: Nickelodeon (Drake & Josh)
Release Year: 2004
Novelty Factor: It's only the most sophisticated gaming experience ever created by humans. AND, it's spherical. SPHERICAL! To this day we still don't know how Granny was able to get her hands on this console 3 months before the public release but she did! So, in all honesty, the GameSphere was a Memorex BoomBall with an original Xbox controller, affectionately known as "The Duke", paired with it.
6. Soulja Boy Handheld Console
Company: SouljaGame
Release Year: Doesn't matter
Novelty Factor: The Gen 1 handheld was clearly an emulator of the major console companies’ hardware. Soulja Boy quickly ran into legal trouble with Nintendo for not licensing the thousands of games available on the console despite publicly stating that “everything is 100 percent legit” and that unspoken deals had taken place.
Editor's Note: His new console attempt was promptly taken down on his website in favor of a handheld console version instead. We're not going to bother keeping up with his fly-by-night gaming scam. If you want to hear an unbiased opinion (less judgy take), check out the video below.
Novelty game consoles are a fun reminder of how creative ideas can take familiar technology in completely unexpected directions. Even unusual products can tell us a lot about design choices, user experience and what makes something memorable. I see the same value in level 2 counselling skills answers, where clear examples can make core ideas around communication, listening and empathy much easier to understand.
This was such a fun read because some of these consoles sound like ideas that should have stayed on a drawing board, yet they actually existed in one form or another. I especially enjoyed the GameSphere reference and the strange mix of creativity, nostalgia, and pure novelty behind these gaming devices. It is interesting to see how companies and creators have tried unusual designs to make gaming feel different.
As a student, I found Public Relations Assignment Help UK relevant because these unusual products also show how creativity can attract attention and generate conversation. Academic assignment help UK can help students explore similar ideas around branding, audience engagement, and communication. This article definitely reminded me that gaming history can be much stranger…
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The idea of novelty consoles being designed around unusual gimmicks rather than simply trying to compete with mainstream gaming hardware was what caught my attention, especially the examples where the controller or physical design becomes almost as important as the games themselves. The concept of consoles built around things like unusual shapes, niche audiences, or unexpected features is strangely fascinating, because it makes you wonder what manufacturers were thinking when they decided there was a market for something so specific. I also found the contrast between genuine experimentation and products that seem almost impossible to imagine being commercially viable quite funny, since gaming history has plenty of examples where an odd idea eventually becomes memorable simply because it was different.…
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