DreamGEAR Gamer V portable / My Arcade 220 Review
This is the dreamgear 220 Gamer V portable / My Arcade device I recently purchased at Target for about $20. I was intrigued by it and the fact that it had 220 games to play.
Let’s take a look at the products description on Target’s website. You see there are a couple of photographs here. This is the game gear V, portable or the dreamgear 220, myarcade and hear on their website, they talk about the products features and they have a description.
Soar the skies, solve puzzles, play golf or tennis, and much more. Gamer V is loaded with 220 fun and easy to play video games! Simply power on the system and start playing, anywhere, anytime! The gaming system is perfect at home, in the car, or just about anywhere you can imagine! Fits easily in your pocket, purse, bag or backpack! You’ll always have your games at your fingertips with the Gamer V!
Features
• No console required
• Take your games anywhere
• 220 Video games built-in
• Perfect for travel
• Volume control
• Powered by 3 AAA batteries (not included)
The dreamgear 220 takes AAA batteries, and you will need a small phillips head screwdriver to open up the battery compartment. My first impression of the unit are that it IS really neat looking and I was impressed with the graphics and I love the fact that it is small and portable.
When you first power it on using the on/off switch on the back left side of the device, you are presented with a game selection menu. Using the D-Pad you can navigate up or down to select a game and left & right to “page” up or “page” down within the menus. The unit has an A and B button to use during game play, the “Start” button which will begin a game and the Reset button which will immediately end the game and return you to the menus. On the back right side of the device there are two additional buttons for volume up and volume down.
What I decided to do in this video is show a few seconds, maybe 5 or 6 seconds on each game, before moving on to the next game, which is why this video is sooo long. I am reviewing the unit first so that you have all the information you need before bailing out. So let’s jump into it. I am about to discuss some criticisms of the device, but don’t get me wrong, I am just pointing out some stuff, I still like the device.
Using the menu system to select a game also shows a quick image preview of what’s to come on the left side. This really helps, especially since some of the game names are hard to remember. I love some of the interesting game names on the unit by the way.
At least one game name is truncated in the games menu system which is not obvious until you start the game.
The volume keeps lowering back down every time you press the reset button. Also, upon pressing reset, it always goes back to the first page. It would have been nice if it would return back to the page you were previously on..
Many of the games have introduction or title screens, and some of them are nicely animated. A few games just jump right in to play mode with no title screen.
After a while all of the games sounds start to blend together, and sound similar between all of the games.
There are many games on the unit that are repeated with slightly different variations, such as the swimming games or the whack-a-mole style of games. There are also several shark-shark and astrosmash style games on the unit. So although it boasts 220 games, it’s kind of an exaggeration.
It would have been great had there been a high score save feature built in to the unit. That always makes it funner.
Another feature I would have liked would have been the ability to have a favorites list, so you can keep track of your favorite games on the unit and get to them quicker.
I had high hopes for the manual included with the game, but was quickly disappointed when I found out it only HAD a one or two page description of the unit itself, which was translated into a few different languages. I could have used instructions for a few of the games.
The Least enjoyable games: For me on the unit are the
Card games / Swimming. Some of the card games have a mouse interface I am just not a fan of that.
My 10 Favorite games on the device in no particular order are:
Cannonade
hexapod war
Lunarian
Greedy
Jig Chick
Jump Jump
Diamond
Defier
Worm Dream and
Mowing
The dreamgear 220 has excellent battery life utilizing three AAA batteries. I have used it for about 4 or 5 hours and it’s it is still going strong.
Most of the games on the device are easy to learn and many are fun. It fits in my hands nicely and of course the portability is a great plus.
I would say the target audience for the device would be mostly children who have not been introduced to a more advanced device like the Nintendo DS. Having said that, it is still fun to play and I recommend it. Coming up is a snapshot of all 220 games, about 5 seconds, ea , most of what you will be seeing is my very first attempt at playing the games.
Vendor: www.Dreamgear.com
Youtube Original Post Date: 04/28/2017
