Tiger R-Zone - The strange handheld console of the 90s

The 90's were fabulous for many gamers, as they discovered incredible consoles with extraordinary video games, but not everyone was so lucky, as there were some consoles that represented a resounding commercial failure in every way. Under these circumstances we can get multiple systems, but in this article we will focus on a little known one, the Tiger R-Zone.

Tiger Electronics is a very famous company in North America which made many toys, but on several occasions wanted to enter the world of video games with different systems, one of them was the Tiger R-Zone, a portable console that was launched in 1995 which is considered very strange for its way of interacting with the user.

Many will remember the animated series Dragon Ball Z, in it there were certain devices where you could measure the power level of the characters, this was placed on the head and had a small screen that covered the eye, showing certain symbols, under this same concept was created the Tiger R-Zone, a console which was placed on the head and had a small screen where in theory the games should be displayed.

In order to run the games, they had to be inserted into a small slot, this suggests that it was a console with interchangeable cartridges, among them were some very recognized in the industry, such as Mortal Kombat Trilogy, Virtua Fighter, Primal Rage, among others, however, there was a small detail which did not allow to properly enjoy their titles, the screen.

This was the great Achilles heel of the Tiger R-Zone, since on its screen practically nothing could be seen, making it impossible to play correctly. This defect caused the company Tiger Electronics to make several revisions over time, in order to increase sales of the Tiger R-Zone, however, all these attempts ended in failure.

Each cartridge of this console had a small screen, this was to be shown as a reflection in the plastic that covered the eye, but unfortunately the colors and backlighting did not help at all, causing the user to not enjoy their games. The developers, seeing the low demand, were not very interested in programming games for this console, so it only had a total of 27 titles released.

Through a control that was wired to the console was the way in which you could turn on, turn off and play all their video games, the only negative point is that this control is not a device that can be disconnected, something that Virtual Boy did have. In addition, 3 AA batteries had to be inserted to power it and be able to interact with it.

The Tiger R-Zone ended up being one of the biggest failures of the 90's, selling only 250,000 units and lasting only 3 years in the market, that is, in 1997 would be the official date on which the Tiger R-Zone was discontinued.

Did you know this Tiger R-Zone? Tell me your opinion about this console in the comments section.