Casio would try their luck again a decade later, realizing that they needed a gimmick in order to stand out. The result, the Casio Loopy, was based on the gimmick that it was made specifically for girls, complete with eleven stereotypical games to go with it. Once again, it did not catch on and Casio realized they should stick to keyboards and calculators.
7. Tiger Gizmondo
The Gizmondo was a handheld that had certain smartphone concepts built-in, most notably a GPS, and the hardware specs were nothing to sneeze at. In the right hands, it could have been something special. Unfortunately, the people at Tiger Telematics were using their own hands to cut their cocaine supply into lines.
The top brass had some rather overzealous ideas about how to spend money on the console, including a star-studded release party in London, a store made specifically for selling the Gizmondo and its games, and even executive Stefan Eriksson driving a Gizmondo-sponsored Ferrari in the 2005 24 Hours of Le Mans race. It should be noted that this is not the same Ferrari that Eriksson totaled so badly from driving under the influence that it was literally cut in half from the damage.
Between all of that extravagance and the horrific sales, Tiger Telematics went bankrupt within a year. While they were likely doomed no matter what, part of the problem was that they were going to release a better version of the Gizmondo with widescreen and made the mistake of telling that to the public before the first one came out. Great job! Your lack of foresight cost us a Carmageddon port.
6. Game Wave Family Entertainment System
Released in 2005, the Game Wave was essentially just a DVD player MacGyvered into something resembling a console. Because of this technology, none of the games are AI-based in any way but are instead just an elaborate set of menus manipulated by four remote controls. Because of that, all of the console’s 13 games are trivia or puzzle-based.
In a perfect world, this would mean you could at least play something interesting (though incredibly stupid) like Plumbers Don’t Wear Ties. Incredibly, though, the Game Wave was intended to be a family console with a Christian bend to it. Hence, even though there were off-brand knockoffs of Trivial Pursuit, Wheel of Fortune, and so on, they did get that sweet VeggieTales license action with VeggieTales: Veg-Out! Family Tournament. It was just a collection of minigames and trivia that tried to jump onto the Mario Party train.
Laura Adams is a tech enthusiast residing in the UK. Her articles cover the latest technological innovations, from AI to consumer gadgets, providing readers with a glimpse into the future of technology.
