Retro-Inspired Video Game Phone Case REVIEW
Some people can go all day on the iPhone without draining their battery and yet others hardly make it through the day before needing to juice up. With games like Fortnight and PUBG on mobile devices now battery life has to be slipping away right through our fingertips. For some of us, the newer games on mobile devices are wonderful but they really don’t bring back the kid in us. That’s where retro games like Pac-man or Tetris come into play. And now, you can have that same enjoyment with the Retro-Inspired Video Game Phone Case, which has a handheld gaming system built into the base of the case. For those of us in our 30s, these are the games we grew up on and for someone who is using their iPhone for work, having a case like this allows us to bring back a child-like state of wonder and enjoyment while saving the battery of our modern phones.
Details
This Retro Video Game Case is available for all modern iPhone models (iPhone 6 or newer) and it comes in four different colors (red, blue, black, and white — the red and blue are only available for the iPhone X). The case was designed to look like the original Nintendo Gameboy and is complete with a monochromatic 8-bit display. The case is protective for your phone as it covers all four sides and the back quite nicely. The game system comes with a variety of different games to play. They are all stored internally so there are no tiny game cartridges to worry about. The gaming part of the case is actually powered by one CR2032 battery. This way the case is not draining your phone’s battery when you are playing games. The material the case is made from is dirt resistant and the gaming side of the case is explosion proof and smudge proof.
User Experience
The case arrived in a fairly simple box. The back of the box had a colorful mural pictured along with the brand name “WANLE” pasted around the borders. The front of the box was clear so that you could easily see the product inside. There was a sticker placed in the bottom right-hand corner with the name of the case printed on it (VC-061 iX White — Game Machine Designed — Mobile Phone Case). Other than that the box seemed a bit generic as there were no details about the product available on the case.
Unboxing the phone was simple. The iPhone case is behind a clear plastic shield. Once you open the box you will pull the case away from the fortified plastic and below it, you will see a small pamphlet with horribly small text. It’s a bilingual pamphlet that provides instructions on how to play the games on the case. It’s actually a good thing that this is included, otherwise, I’m not sure that you could easily find the game you hoped to play. Inside the box, you will also find two type CR2032 batteries for the gaming system. I don’t know how long they will typically last with regular gameplay since my original battery hasn’t died yet and there are no details available about that from the product designer. I’m not sure why it was decided to use a battery to power this case, but I would much rather see it be rechargeable instead of powered by a CR2032. I say this as someone who hates non-rechargeable batteries. Being a retro case I see why you might want to use batteries to power it but at the same time using these style of batteries rather than making it rechargeable is just a bad move. On more than one occasion, I noticed the game was turned on by me placing the case into my pocket. Fortunately, I caught the problem before it completely killed the battery.
Installing my iPhone X into the case was very easy. Even though the case is protective, the sides were flexible enough to be able to slide my phone into place without much problem. Once the iPhone was snapped into place I could easily see that there wasn’t much of a lip on the screen side of the case. This ‘lip’ helps to provide protection for the screen when it falls flat on its screen. The lip isn’t non-existent, but it is very minimal. If I were going to add something for protective purposes it would be more screen protection. Other than that the case seems to hold up well to daily use. I don’t know how it would fare against heavier trama though and because of the gaming system on the back, I didn’t attempt any stress tests on the case. I found the case to have good cutouts for all the ports and buttons.
Now, as for gameplay, I have to say that it was enjoyable. I would love to see a brightness control added to the screen because it was a bit dim and became difficult to see. The games I played worked well and I enjoyed having retro gaming at my fingertips again. The only major problem I had with the case was the sensitivity of the buttons. Almost everytime I handled the iPhone, I found myself turning the game on and I would have to immediately turn stop work with my phone to turn it off. I think the design could have been better by finding a way to power the case off without it randomly coming back on in your pocket or in your hands while answering an email. Another issue I had was hearing the sound. I have a hearing impairment and it makes it difficult if not impossible for me to hear higher pitches. I actually thought that the sound was not functional at all until my fiance played with the case. She said while playing the Tetris-style game that the sound was very high pitched beeps and we discovered that I just couldn’t hear it.
Conclusion
I have personally seen cases that have that retro look to them but can’t do anything besides protect the phone. As someone who likes to game but feels that this case is sort of underwhelming in that area, I still find it to be a decent buy as normal fashion cases can cost between $29-$49 dollars. This case protects the phone and allows you to play a game or two at the same time. Despite the minor issues I had (sensitive buttons and screen protection), I can still recommend this case — especially to 80s babies.
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Originally published at macsources.com on May 10, 2018.
