These days we take gaming portability for granted. We may kill time playing a bit of Angry Birds on our smartphones while waiting for the next bus to arrive or waiting for our dental appointment. Back in the early ’90s you could carry around a Game Boy or Atari Lynx, but neither was particularly pocket friendly. The clever people at Nintendo saw a gap in the market – a wearable product that could provide the time, an alarm and truly portable gaming: the Game Watch wristwatch. This fusion would breathe new life into Nintendo’s Game & Watch range. Nintendo capitalised on this idea and licensed its big name franchises to be made into Game Watch wristwatch products.
In this showdown, the Nintendo Battle is on your wrist! The gauntlet is thrown down and the gloves are off between Star Fox (made by Nelsonic) and Super Mario Bros. 3 (made by Zeon).
Round 1: Aesthetics
As the bell rings, both watches come out fighting - Star Fox (SF) with its triangular face and Super Mario Bros. 3 (SMB3) with its more traditional square look. The SF watch takes up a fair bit of wrist real estate. Even though the watch is bigger than its counterpart, the screen is smaller – this makes a big difference when playing the game. Also, the time is tucked up right at the top of the screen, making it hard to see when taking a quick glance. But what the SF watch has that the SMB3 doesn’t is a headphone jack. As we all know, nothing upsets people next to you more than hearing repetitive blips coming from your game.
The SMB3 watch is a sleek unit. It feels comfortable on the wrist and the LCD is bright and clear. This watch’s colour scheme makes the face stand out, with the red mode buttons and the Nintendo logo on the wrist band complimenting it perfectly.
Both watches look great on the wrist; I’ve received numerous complements and positive comments from passersby for both. They are different in appearance, so it comes down to personal taste.
Winner: Draw
Round 2: Gameplay and controls
The important round is nigh – how do these watches provide entertainment with their games, and are they any good to control? Primarily being watches, these units are always going to struggle to provide hours of gameplay entertainment. These Game Watches are merely intended for short bursts of time-killing.
The SF game is quite easy to get into - Fox McCloud and his team of mercenaries fly their Arwing and blast away oncoming flying enemies, while avoiding the obstacles on either side of the screen. The Arwing is controlled by four directional buttons, left, right, up and down, and two weapons buttons found on the right side of the watch face. The left and right buttons are nice and round, giving good feel to steer the ship with your thumbs, while the up and down keys are smaller and triangular, making them difficult to use due to their size and positioning. The laser and bomb keys on the side are great; your index finger is naturally poised over the buttons for some quick firing action.
On the other hand (no pun intended), the SMB3 game is a lot more difficult to play. The player controls Mario with the three directional buttons, left, right and jump on the face of the watch. This game is all about timing. Mario must avoid the Goombas by jumping over them, manoeuvre himself to avoid the fire spitting Fire Bros. and finally get past King Koopa (a.k.a. Bowser) to rescue Princess Toadstool. Sounds easy, but it isn’t. The detection is hit or miss and the concentration required to get the timing right proves very frustrating. Although, this frustration paradoxically makes you want to play again, not to rescue the princess, but to practice getting the timing right and move Mario around without getting stomped by the Goombas, or incinerated by the Fire Bros / King Koopa.
Winner: For its addictive qualities - Super Mario Bros. 3
Round 3: Spirit of their console counterparts
As mentioned in previous rounds, with limited screen real estate, there isn’t much gameplay from the original console counterparts found on these watches. Gone are the huge levels, hidden areas, challenging gameplay and awesome power-ups. The ‘spirit’ of both games is present in their respective watches, but only if you are wearing rose-tinted glasses.
Winner: Draw
And the winner is...
These wristwatches provide all the functions you would expect from a digital watch - they keep accurate time and provide an alarm to wake you up; both get positive attention when you are sporting them on your wrist. If you want conversation starters that you can also use to kill five minutes playing stripped down Nintendo games, then you can’t go wrong with either watch.
Overall winner: by a whisker - Super Mario Bros. 3
Comments 29
I still have my super mario watch, it came with a set of head phones.
I also had a few others, they were made by tiger electronics.
I had Batman, Dick Tracy, and a simpsons game where you Play as Bart and Shoot Homer with a slingshot while he tries painting a fence.
cool! i'll try and get one one ebay or something
It's no contest really. Star Fox in a knock out in the 2nd round!!
this just makes me want smb3 on the 3ds vc
DIGIVOLUTION!!! GAME WATCH DIGIVOLVE TO!!!!! POKETCH..... MON! seriously, it looks like a cross between a digivice and a poketch.... IT LOOKS AWESOME!! HOW COME IVE NEVER HEARD of these things.
Not a Nintendo watch, but I have a game watch based on Ghostbusters II. You control a Ghostbuster on the bottom of the screen in the courtroom and shoot at the Scoleri Bros that fly around.
I say this is biased towards SMB3, but if it wasn't I'd be surprised. Both seem like fun games. Seeing this brings back memories. I remember running to the jewelry section of K-Mart to play the Game Watches while my mom shopped.
I used to have the Starfox one, It was the first Starfox game I played.
I used to have the mario 3 watch, was great to play in lessons at school. I also had the tetris watch-now that worked far better...
I used to have the SMB3 and Zelda ones. The SMB3 one was by far my fave <3
So....the Starfox game is easy to get into and the controls feel nice, the SMB3 game is less fun to play and more frustrating (and doesn't have a headphone jack either)....and the winner is SMB3? Eh? Did I read that wrong?
You should do an deal one the Sega Happy Meal mini game toys.
Boooo! star fox is better!
i think i still have the SMB3 and Zelda watches lying around somewhere...
@ToxieDogg SMB3 does have a headphone jack.
@baba_944
"But what the SF watch has that the SMB3 doesn’t is a headphone jack."
@baba_944 This (Zeon made) version of SMB3 does not have a headphone jack.
@KLZ haha, it was hard to split them. I would wear both, one on each arm, but people might look at me funny.
@GumbyX84 haha, no bias. I interchange the wearing of these watches. It is amazing how people notice them and it gets conversations started. The white (Nelsonic) Zelda is another fave of mine.
I used to have the Tetris Game Watch. It looked almost identical to the Mario one pictured here and it was downright awesome. In junior high, everyone thought it was so great that I had a Tetris watch because I could play it in school and the teachers never noticed what it was.
wow, slow day. these both look terrible and barely qualify as "Nintendo" outside of the license. I would rather forget that these things exist since the technology was no longer relevant after about, oh, 1989. It's generous to say that they have any spirit of the actual franchises at all. Anyway, this is nicely written but I prefer to forget that these things are still out there. I have a totally analog Tomy "Digital Derby" with a physical car that you slide side to side avoiding other plastic cars that roll by and it's far more fun than I think these could be.
These things are the early ancestors of shovelware to me, but if anyone here has fun with them, cool, you're more patient than I.
I used to enjoy hours of fun with the Super Mario Bros. 3 game watch back when I was a little kid. Heck, I think I still have it lying around somewhere in my room to this day buried away.
I remember drooling after eying a donkey Kong sports watch promotion on the back of a cereal box over dinner. Unfortunately, I was at a boot camp for teens, and despite my begging, my coordinator would not let me take the empty cereal boxes for the UPC codes. I'm 99.99% positive the codes went in the trash unredeemed.
I only have one Game Watch and it's Super Mario World. I'd say the SMB3 explanation on how the controls work apply to the SMW watch as well. I always wanted a Star Fox watch.
I had the Super Mario Bros. 3 watch as a child, and darn was it cool!
@folks who responded to me. Sorry for the false info guys.
I had a "Donkey Kong" one (that looked alot like the Star Fox one pictured here) that was based on level 1-3 (the city) level of GB-DK/DK'94. (The Gameboy game.) Funny thing is, the Corn Flakes cereal box (where I ordered it from) advertised it as level 0-1 in the pictures.
I love and collect old portable games (LCD and LED). I have a small collection of watch games: Super Mario World, Star Fox, Donkey Kong, Jurassic Park, Tetris, and Legend of Zelda. All in working order. Personally I love the novelty and nostalgia attached to these games. I want to add to my collection so if anyone would like to negotiate a sale feel free contact me.
does anyone know if these watches have any value? unused and in packaging?
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