New Game Footage Suggests The Intellivision Amico Will Struggle To Pull Families Away From Switch

This is a stupid ideal. Who would pay so much when their parents all have Apple TV, Roku, and Fire Stick that does the same thing better and cheaper.

Cheap games is fine, although $2.99 isn't that cheap for free/99c games on mobile. Starting at $179 seems a lot for what it is too.
This will only really appeal to collectors or those with nostalgia for Intellivision.

Are we sure that isn't just a cordless landline phone?

Seems like junk to me. Aside from one title (that'll probably end up on other platforms eventually) there's no real draw to this.

I'm still getting one regardless. Even if only to play Earthworm Jim 3 and cause I never had the original console back in the day.

YouTube comments on the trailer seem to be going crazy about it and I’m having trouble figuring it out. My only theory is that some of the games are remakes of some classic Intellivision games, but honestly the majority look like games found on Steam, eShop & mobile. Not saying they are bad, just nothing I would say would get people screaming with joy.

I respect them for trying to make gaming affordable and accessible. This will work for families with young kids I think. I had a vtech socrates growing up along side my Genesis and SNES and I loved that darn thing. So there is a place for games that aren't "Hardcore". That being said I wonder if things like apple's gaming selection might fill this void a little easier since you can use apple tv for more stuff...

@Ryu_Niiyama Plus can get Apple Arcade which is great for families.

This project made it so Doug TenNapel got Earthworm Jim back, so a lot of good came out of it.

Don't really see the appeal of this at the systems price when it essential looks like the games would run on any android box for a cheaper price point. It seems like an Ouya with gimmick controllers to me.

@mesome713 "idea" not "ideal."

I've been keeping an eye on this since it was announced. The Intellivision name hasn't meant anything in decades, but I liked the concept for the console and there's some decent talent behind it. That sizzle reel though... more like fizzle reel, am I right? That sort of thing is meant to generate excitement, not strangle it in its crib. I have a feeling this will be dead on arrival, like OUYA and that Atari thing that, like this, just gets sadder the more we learn about it.

Most of those look way more basic then most indie games.

No clue this existed. This is a horrible idea. The hardware itself is kind of interesting, but why wouldn’t they just do a much simpler intellivision mini kind of thing and market it to boomers? Why attempt to enter a crowded market with software this lame?

The next Ouya. In this day and age it would take something truly special to break into the big 3 consoles' market.

@Yogsoggoth Thank you.

Those controllers are interesting and I feel a similar desire to pull for the Old Dog to learn a new trick and carve out a niche, but for many of the reasons stated above and in the article, I am highly skeptical that this system will find success. A pity. Maybe they should have waited til their games looked better before boosting them, or featured more clips like the one from that dice game where you use the controller like a backgammon dice holder and shake them out onto the screen.

All I see are old Intellivision games spiced up with 3d graphics. Not interested.

Finally it’s the Ouya Twoya!

@FX102A Tbh I can... sort of see why? Looking at it, it seems to tap on the market not of competing with other consoles... but rather markets similar to that which the likes of the NES/SNES/Sega minis are meant to cater to: nostalgia and their ilks.

The faux wood finish of the console itself seems also specifically targeted toward the people who recall the era of pre-NES gaming where it was a common features of consoles designs in the west and the general aesthetic of that era... despite not being itself a console of that era. The fact they managed to reproduce that look on the console itself without making it an outright facsimile of an original console of that era(as was the NES Mini to the NES) is actually a neat design trick in fact.

This doesn't mean it WILL sell because of what people pointed out about the games, but at the same time I could see why it MIGHT sell if it ends up selling okay amounts. Plus game-design wises... most of the games featured are very much of the style of a lot of the games previously seen during that era?

Like I can see why that would fail but I can see why nostalgia appeal might still end up working from looking at the design of the console itself. I'm sure that if I showed this to my dad who's in his 60ies, the reactions might not be completely negative.

I am kind of tempted to pick one up. Intellivision was my second console after the NES and seeing some of the classic games remade is pretty exciting. My girlfriend enjoys pick up and play casual games (wii bowling, big buck hunter) and this console seems to be a pretty great fit for things we can play together.

I wondered what this was going to be when they announced they were making it. Intellivision is an odd name to revive as its value is limited. It was in the wake of the Coleco Chameleon disaster. I'm not sure the controller design looks like something that should have been resurrected. I always knew this system would be a tough sell. On top of that, an Earthworm Jim sequel does nothing for me as I was never much of a fan of that property.

I wish Tommy well in this venture but for someone who has had such a rich history in video games and been involved on so many levels, this just looks really poor. Laughably so tobe honest. i don't even think kids would be that into it as they have better stuff in their pocket.

@AstralSoul64 This is in no way intended to do that, obviously.

Yeah I'll pass and I'm keep my Switch too. I didn't look at specs but this thing looks like it's running off of a mobile processor... Wait?

1. The hardware looks neat, like a proper IntelliVision successor. Is that controller good?

2. The trailer shows only games that are not available on Switch. Keep the exclusives coming! I love that it's not just a reel of ports that you can play elsewhere.

3. Many of the games look like fun remakes of the Atari / Intellivision age. Retro fans will definately find something here - but the console's missing a proper revolutionary turning-heads must-have title. Why wasn't the new Amico-exclusive Earthworm Jim game shown in the trailer?

At least the design of the system itself is cool.

So it’s like an Ouya? Ok then

There is literally no market for this system. Casual players will find comparable games on mobile and (get this) the hundreds of well-made, family games ALREADY AVAILABLE ON CONSOLES.

At the price point this was pitched at... I really am at a loss as to how ANYONE got on board with this.

Doug Tenaple is such trash, no wonder EWJ is exclusive to this junk

I'm actually getting one.

There ARE some neat concepts in going on with Amico. As a Switch user, I've always said, I don't need the best graphics in the world, I just want my games to be fun. And Amico has games that look like they might be fun.

It's also half the price of the Switch and cheaper than a Switch Lite. But I would drop the price of the Amico just a little further if they could.

I don't think this is ever going to be a super hot item, but I can already see that there WILL be some fun things to play on the system.

So Pong, Combat, Space Invaders redux....good luck.

These look like the type of games you could find on some PC game labeled "10,000 Games"

@Crockin Not just releasing in a crowded market, but releasing around the same time as the PS5 and Xbox Series X. I figure the only chance something like this has to get any traction in the market is to, you know, not launch at the exact same time as two huge console launches. It's like they WANT to fail.

The seem to think they'll get the family market, but no, Nintendo has that market locked. Intellivision hasn't been a name in the industry since the 80's. The way to go was to appeal to the nostalgia crowd and early hardware adopters and have a good enough product to build an audience on word of mouth. Instead it's a budget machine full of shovelware that no one will buy.

This is the "1-2 Switch" of consoles

@Donald_M more importantly, if you can't offer an experience that isn't already on every single phone in the world, why bother?

Needs a mascot platformer... something real cute looking

I thought the point of Amico was to be the "simple and easy alternative", so why is it $179? Maybe if it was like $50 or something I could possibly see where they're going with this. Also $3-8 per game is extremely expensive these days; those would usually be free-$0.99 games.

Still disappointing that they hadn't show us the new Earthworm Jim or Toejam and Earl. At least some early footage of those would be nice.

@JayJ My thoughts exactly. You used to get them in PC world circa 99'

“with names like Dave Perry and Tommy Tallarico involved”

Like we’re supposed to know who these people are.

@Ryu_Niiyama
The genesis was pretty hardcore:)
Not realy a console for very young kids in those days. More a console for the cool teenagers hanging around the arcade.
The console itself was not cheap also.
Just before the snes arived it costed around 499,- in my country, while the snes launched at 299,-

Btw i like this whole idea to bring the intellivison back to live. It was first console where i had love for and had to play on.
Lady bug, h.e.r.o, donkey kong etc.

Games looked pretty nice too for those days, much better then games on atari a2600

So it looks like they are just android games

@superpotion
Well its not easy to get into console bussines.

I wonder how powerfull it is, or are we paying for sentiment and design?

@PALversusNTSC I don’t agree. I believe that gaming demographics go through conditioning phases. NES and Genesis games mimicked/drew inspiration from arcade games of the 80s and 90s but were still simple 2-3 button layouts. Most of it, like arcade games imo was a mixture of memorization and sometimes poor/unintuitive level design as young devs had to switch from the quarter eater mentality to making games that were entertaining but beatable. A child over the age of 5 can handle that.

Games now on consoles have kept evolving to becoming 10-14 button affairs with complex gameplay systems and sprawling worlds that you can’t memorize without possessing an eidetic memory. That is too daunting for a child, plus the loss of many b-c rank studios means that genre variety has shrunk a bit in the modern production landscape. The middle and entry level games have faded some from modern big devs and that leaves a large swath of potential gamers left out.

Most tech completely consumes consumer thought and habits; radio used to be everything, then tv, then smartphones and internet. But gaming while very popular still fails to become universal. Part of that is due to the tribal mentality that saturates “hardcore gaming” and the rest is that lack of accessibility in price, genre and mechanics. There is a reason the mini systems/tv plug and play systems sell so well. They harken back to a time when gaming was more accessible. It wasn’t just gamers who already owns most of those rereleased games on current systems or more recent ones but lapsed gamers that played as a child and lost interest later.

That’s why I think indie, mobile and PC are great. There are more females gaming than ever and that isn’t due to consoles that have pushed gaming to a complicated, expensive and often monotonous affair, not to mention the gatekeeping by an aging gaming population unwilling to accept that game companies can’t cater solely to them. Gaming is some sectors is reverting back to a more accessible, fun form and I am always happy to see that.

Gaming for everyone.

Edit: in response to your edit I am from the US, so while the consoles weren’t cheap they weren’t that expensive. Also, like many 90s kids I didn’t have many games I personally owned due to the relative cheapness of rental stores. I was most certainly not a teenager when got my genesis. (NES at age 3, Genesis at 6 due to it being a xmas present, snes at age 9 again due to Xmas).

I'm sorry but everything about this looks like something you'd find while browsing an Argos catalog, and I genuinely don't see anyone other than a bunch of ignorant parents and some truly hardcore old-school Intellivision fans picking this thing up. That's not to be a **** but just to express what I'm thinking and feeling whenever I see and read anything about this console. I feel that this is a product that doesn't really have a customer base outside of a small handful of people, and, if I'm just being blunt, I don't think it really needed to exist.

This looks like another Ouya, giving you the ability to play smartphone-caliber games on your TV. I don't see a market for this. Who is going to pay $2.99 to $7.99 for what are essentially smartphone games? It's hard to compete with games that are free. Also, is there any real nostalgia for the Intellivision? If you ask me, the Intellivision was a terrible console. It may have had better graphics than the Atari 2600, but the controllers were atrocious, and most of the games were a joke because they were two-player only. So if you had no one to play with you, you were sunk.

This new version of the console looks a heck of a lot more stylish than the original all-white concept, so it does now definitely give that nod to its original predecessor, and although I do have a soft spot for the original Colecovision, I do have the same reservations that some of the other commenters on here have, but I'm willing to wait and see how this is going to pan out.

Hey, I forgot about this thing. Still don't know why they're choosing this thing to put Earthworm Jim on.

I remember a few years back Intellivision tried launching a Gen2 line that was fun. But it wasn’t on Nintendo devices so it missed the audience that would of purchased them.

I'm looking forward to it. These are exactly the kind of simpler games I think my kids will love ...and I'll love playing with them

It's sad to see the otherwise perfectly intelligent Tom Tallarico put so much effort into such an idiotic idea. So this is a system that plays classic-style 2D games, so someone tell me why anyone would buy it over a Nintendo Switch which has tons of much better games of that ilk? Price? Well, people who want to play classic 2D games have already bought the NES Classic Mini for half the price of the Amico, and it came with 30 awesome games, not to mention the ability to hack it to add hundreds more.

These guys are also oblivious to the fact that kids nowadays play games in the palm of their hand, whether it be on their phone or tablet. The Intellivision was a terrible console that only twelve people bought because the Atari 2600 had far more great games. The Amico is for those twelve people - who will try but fail to get their kids to play these mobile games on anything other than their mobile.

If you guys want proof of the fact that Tommy Tallarico is driven by nostalgia alone, just listen to his interview on the youtube show "The Video Game Years" where he desperately tries to convince people that the ridiculous Intellivision controller was good. It's clearly unusable - no controller since then has been like that. Also, if you just emulate the Intellivision and play its most highly regarded games you'll realize what a load of rubbish it was.

I ordered a Founders Edition. It sold out (2600 units) at $100 USD deposits in about six hours.
There is demand. The question will be will the games expand the audience beyond those who yearn for the nostalgia of the original system.
We shall see what happens.

I see no value in this. I would have been interested if this was a pixel art/indie box, but the mobile feel of a lot of these titles doesn't do it for me. The low cost doesn't help either as the budgetness just means none of these games are "must buy." Would rather have more expensive titles if that meant I was getting higher quality games.

Overall it's much better just to save your money for something more worthwhile.

The console itself is really not necessary. With the $250 US buy-in Amico is going to face reluctance with consumers. There's a kickstarter going right now that let's one stream their mobile games from their phone. Why not do something like that?

@Woomy_NNYes @FX102A They curate the comments. There's a bit of a cult surrounding the Amico.

Tommay Tallarico and the few hundred people in the comments blinded by nostalgia seem so oblivious to the fact that this will flop hard, it's crazy. 99% of Intellivision games aren't any good, so unless they've added substantial new content to the remakes no one's going to want to play them more than a couple times. Like, Shark Shark is fun for five minutes... The remake they showed looks literally exactly the same, but in mid-2000s PC game 3D.

Don't even get me started on the controller. I appreciate trying to do something different but only if it has potential to actually work. How on earth are you supposed to use that for games not specifically designed around it? Can you imagine trying to play a platformer like Earthworm Jim with that? Like, do you use the awful disk pad for movement and the touch screen for buttons?

There is literally zero market for this thing. There will be people who buy it because nostalgia but it will collect dust fast once they realize the games weren't as good as they remembered. Save for one or two actually good games the system will hopefully have. Besides those people, no one into gaming will be interested, and casual gamers/families (The audience which Tommy Tallarico seems to think will want this) are either going to be content with the games on their mobile devices, or they'll dust off their Wii if they really want a family video game night.

@rshmglsky So they delete all the negative comments? Makes sense. There's no way not a single person has posted a negative or critical comment on that video.

"While some of the titles shown are marked as still being early in development, many of them look like they've stepped right out of the iOS App Store form a decade ago."

I do not play games on smartphones any longer so I will take that comment as dipped in reality but I agree the games shown here are lacking in originality. There are some good games like Breakout and Night Stalker along with some other unnamed concepts I have seen. I have been keeping an eye on this one and I do like it more so than the Atari concept which seems even shakier at the moment. I am more interested in the Atari as a complete package as I had some of the consoles but the hardware they are using seems lackluster based on tech descriptions posted so far.

The controllers are the linchpin to the Amico system much like they were to the Wii. If they settle in the casual family simplistic fare and utilize the controller in a way that brings the player deeper into the game they may be successful. It is a big risk and I may just be into it for the hardware but at one time they were very innovative. Is there enough nostalgia to overcome the lack of solid titles? Also it could fail much like the Wii U did when players reject the concept. The other interesting divide is the pricing for the Atari and the Intellivision. This is another area which may help the Amico stick the landing.

@AlexOlney I want to say something about your Pokemon but in the current climate I just want you to be play safe.

@Bermanator
I think these games appeal to a specific audience and if you were around for the OG systems then I think you appreciate the simplicity of these games. Nintendo uses the same strategy but over time they have advanced the genre to suit newer gamers. Sometimes there is nothing better than playing a less challenging game that you can waste some time with and pick up whenever you like much like 8 and 16 bit games that have come back into vogue.

@TheWingedAvenger 3 million is a bit more than 12 but to be fair Mattel did a terrible job marketing and supporting the unit. They were far ahead in regards to technology but they also made many missteps as well. The controller is difficult to use because it was designed for more than casual games which Mattel refused to explore.

So much negativity, most of you seem to enjoy trashing on a system you know absolutely nothing about. Maybe it’s not the system for you, but it might find a market for a group of older gamers trying to bridge a gap between themselves and their kids. My kids love their switch, but the system hasn’t bridged that gap for me. Why is a company that’s trying to add something to the industry a bad thing? I think it’s great that they’re trying to simplify games and bring families closer together. If you don’t, fine. Don’t play it...but to simply trash on it before it’s had a chance is really quite pathetic.

I wish this thing would hurry up and release already. The cult of curated comments on everything they post is the worst kind of gaslighting. They pull down anything remotely critical, such as the vast majority of comments on this story.

I see at least two direct ports from old mobile games in this video. The Evel Kneival motorcycle jumping game is a mobile game from 2015 and is on the Google, Apple, and Amazon app stores for next to nothing. Emoji Charades by GameCake is an iOS game from 2017 and is also on Steam.

The hardware looks like a footbath and if you want to see some seriously unhinged rants, search for "Tommy Tallarico Introduction and Q&A" to find him cutting loose in a classic game forum.

I used to think he was a harmless minor celebrity who made game music and used to be on a review show. You can really see some delusions of grandeur on full display in his forum posts.

The game shown at 2:45 looked a bit interesting but there’s not much that excites me. While I am a big fan of indie retro style games the switch has plenty.

" as well as the allure of that classic Intellivision branding"

Seriously!?! I'm one of the kids that grew up with an Atari 2600. About 2 or 3 years later I was able to get a NES with some games at a garage sale from a neighbor.

Point is I have wonderful nostalgic feelings and still enjoy playing NES games today. Atari 2600 games I have absolutely zero nostalgic feelings. in my humble opinion it was crap then and it's crap now.

Curious how many of us actually had in televisions and actually are nostalgic for it.

Hate to say it.
But this looks absolute garbage.

hmmm for that price, I could buy several more games for my Switch. I think I will do that instead.

Hard pass for me, these are the type of games that seem fun to play for 5 or 10 minutes at most.

I'll only buy this if theres a sequel to B-17 Bomber with the voice.

So much negative chat. I’ve pre-ordered and look forward to this. I don’t see it as competing against the big 3.

Looks like the game selection on OUYA desu.

WHICH, I might want to add, I was quite fond of!

BUT, I might add, only to the extent that they allowed everyone to self-publish precisely what they felt like. This meant I got to play the entirety of Terry Cavanaugh and Stephen Lavelle's backlog of bizarre experiments. I don't think the Amico will allow those types of games.

Meh. Think I'll just get a PC-Engine Mini.

I'm gonna take a "wait and see...but hope" approach to Amico. Same with the VCS - which is really interesting, isn't it... to be discussing an Intellivision vs. Atari situation in 2020 with upcoming NEW devices, by the way.

Now, there is most certainly some very healthy skepticism to be had as to whether either device will be successful in the long run, and even a sizeable dollop of doubt on top of that over whether the VCS will even see the light of day to begin with (that Amico will at least see retail existence is pretty sure).

Still, as a "to-this-day" owner of both devices' original late 70's parallels, plus a fondness of Tommy Tallarico and EWJ, an excitement for the retro back catalog of both system's older analogues at the ready on modern TVs, and the prospect of having the VCS double as a modest but viable back bedroom Linux PC, I do hope they both see release, and I do hope to eventually own them both.

And at that point, as one with vested interest, I would most certainly hope that both not only find success, but even exceed our wildest, farthest flung hopes and dreams and expectations. If I do end up with them, I will make sure to take pictures with their ancestor consoles by their sides. Of course, for the sake of the old badges and the legacies behind them, I'd hope they succeed regardless of whether or not I own them..assuming they both even see the light of day....well, the one, anyway.

Cheers!

Remember, Earthworm Jim 3 is coming to this thing, if it is good it actually may be worth it just for that one game lol.

Seems to me they'd be better off releasing the original Intellivision titles rather than these "updated" versions. But then they'd still need some solid new exclusive titles like Earthworm Jim 3 to justify a $150+ console. I wish them luck with all that . . .

Who would this appeal to?
Who is actually going to pay $150-$180 for this?
As I've said before, it won't take off and it won't even find a niche beyond the initial impulse purchases.

I love Earthworm Jim and Doug TenNapel's work but it's too bad the new EWJ game will basically be locked behind an ill-conceived paywall.
Hopefully by the time the game is finishing development, (it's not even a launch game) they'll realize this platform is going nowhere and make plans for a Switch port.
At the very least, the development of Earthworm Jim's comeback will be the one good thing that comes out of this console.

I will most definitely be buying this console. I think a main strength of the Amico will be its ability to fit nicely as a child's first intro into gaming while sharing their interactive experiences with friends and family.

When you look at consoles like the Switch, Xboxes and Playstations, these consoles aren't targeted for children between the ages of 4-12 or even 5-15 really. They are for more experienced gamers who are used to the complex gameplay associated with multi-button controllers, load/install delays, high end graphics, and cinematic solo experiences.

The 3DS may be more of an intro console but its library is diverse and its handheld form is most suited to an isolated, solo gaming experience.

With the Amico there are no open-world, solo gaming experiences. Every game is either co-op or multiplayer and the games it plays will leverage the simplicity of the Intellivision era. Easy to play and non intimidating. I don't see why it would need to pull people away from a Switch when it's targeting a younger, exclusively multiplayer-centric demographic.

@LordStu69 "but it might find a market for a group of older gamers trying to bridge a gap between themselves and their kids. My kids love their switch, but the system hasn’t bridged that gap for me."

What does this even MEAN?

Conceptually, what can this console possibly offer to both kids and adults that the Switch doesn't?

@Turbo857 "When you look at consoles like the Switch, Xboxes and Playstations, these consoles aren't targeted for children between the ages of 4-12 or even 5-15 really. They are for more experienced gamers who are used to the complex gameplay associated with multi-button controllers, load/install delays, high end graphics, and cinematic solo experiences"

...

Lol What?

There's nothing more "intimidating" about the Switch than the NES that we started playing when we were 4-5 years old. (or the SuperNES, Genesis, N64, PSX, PS2, GameCube, or whatever your first consoles were at that age)

Obviously a parent is going to load up a game that's appropriate for their children and won't frustrate them, that's what parents are for, just as you wouldn't even throw this thing in front of a small child as their first game system without assistance and guidance.

And did you really imply modern consoles are too complex for 12 or 15 year-olds? Lol
Have you spent much time around kids?
Were you ever a kid yourself?
I've seen 10 year olds build things in Minecraft that put modern architects to shame.
My young family members are incredibly adept at games and competitive play, moreso than I was at that age.
I was more skilled at games at that age as well, since they were more of a singular focus when playing.

You have a very low opinion of kids, when most of these Zoomers could probably run circles around you.

@Impaler-D What it MEANS, is that I had an intellivision when I was a kid and the reimagining and updated versions of these games look like fun to both myself and my kids. My understanding is that these games will have a competitive and fun “game night” feel to them that might appeal to both generations. Can I play an updated version of Astrosmash, AD&D, Night Stalker, etc on the Switch? No I can’t. So this system will offer ME something that the Switch can’t. These games likely mean nothing to you and that’s fine...but they do to me. I played Super Mario Brothers on my NES...but Mario Party Switch isn’t my thing. Maybe there’s a nostalgic aspect that’s drawing me to this system but I’m willing to give it a chance and share it with my kids. Have you seen this system in person? Have you played this system? No, you haven’t. All I’m saying is that it might be a ton of fun, so why arbitrarily dismiss it out of hand?

@Impaler-D

Lol, run circles around me? Depends on the game. Smash bros. no, Call of Duty, maybe.

You completely misunderstood where I was coming from.

To say that a Switch is as unintimidating as an NES to say a 5 year old getting into gaming for the first time, is just plain crazy. The NES doesn't have analog sticks. I think a child from ages 5-9 getting into gaming for the first time may struggle first with 3D gaming.

Of course today's kids can eventually adapt to 3D games with varying degrees of complexity. But these aren't first time gamers we're talking about. Sure you can have parents pick out games they think will be suitable for their kids on any existing console.

However, the point is parents will have to dig through big libraries and spend time finding the games that are good for their kids. With the Amico, you won't have to worry about that because all the games for the console are focused on that demographic. You can't deny there is a convenience there.

There will be a user friendly interface and an appealing first time gaming accessibly that other consoles just don't have. That's all I'm saying. I think the Amico will really appeal to parents who wish to introduce gaming to their children for the first time.

As someone that has played games since the atari erea, I think this will appeal to the retro gamer. Retro gaming is really big right now. I think this will sell. It doesn't have to compete with Sony or Microsoft. I plan on buying one. These are real games. It doesn't matter about the fastest processor or best Graphics. The games are fun to play, and that's what matters.

@Turbo857 Even if you believe analog sticks are more intimidating or frustrating to young children than a D-pad, (and I've seen NO evidence of this through my experience, not to mention joysticks having been a staple of gaming since the arcade and Atari 2600 days) this controller certainly doesn't look any less potentially confusing, with the developers of this console stubbornly basing it's design on the original Intellivision controller, which is pretty universally regarded as being awful. (I certainly don't relish the thought of playing Earthworm Jim with this... thing)

Even if I were to believe the Switch were too complex, or functionally more complex than an NES, for a small child, I would honestly rather just give them an NES Classic, SNES Classic, Genesis Mini or, again, buying a USB NES and SNES controller and firing up the Switch Online apps.

I just don't see these borderline Flash-browser/mobile games fostering the same sense of wonder, challenge, imagination and captivation as playing Super Mario Bros. for the first time.
Consoles like the Atari 2600, Intellivision and especially Colecovision were good for their time, but the NES was a game changer that introduced ageless game design and fun to the masses, it was the foundation of modern gaming; nothing in the Intellivision library can compare, even with shiny new graphics.
For that matter, even introducing your kids to simple touch screen gaming on their phone, tablet or set-top box would be more feasible to most than going out of their way to purchase this. (though I don't personally condone mobile gaming at all)

It will fail hard, maybe some crazy collector youtubers gonna buy this crap, maybe games are cheap, how much game could be polished for 3-8$ and also heard that price gonna increase because of coronavirus and gonna be close to regular Switch or same as Lite! I also think that lots of youtubers was paid, because their vision is very rainbowy - I see only mobile game quality of gfx for not small price.

Looks very weak...yup, this will fail.

The funny thing about this is people keep bashing this system by comparing it to smart phones when apparently you can get an app for this system that lets you use your phone as a controller. Yes the graphics look bad and the games that are revealed so far look like bad plug-in-play games BUT a lot of games for this are still in development and it’s specifically made as an entry level console. It’s a bridge for people who are normally “phone people” to play games while enslaved to the couch. It’s games are apparently offline with the co-op focusing on socializing with real people next to you. That said I think the COVID-19 killed this idea and console already unless it gets marked with masks included. I think I will try to get one of these though. It’s going to be exclusives only and that means that it’s open to having some interesting things to come about. It’s going to have a budgeted look but all it needs is that one fun game worth masking up with your buddies like the brave souls who dare go to Disney World. It will be worth it just to see how bad it will be or how much of a pleasant surprise it turns out to be.