Jakks' Superman

[Atari Dogs]

I just saw Jakks Pacific Superman at Kmart today. It has 5 games on it and is $24.99. Oddly enough, it did not have the expansion slot for the GameKey. Has the GameKey ideal been shelvedl? The controller was actually kind of cheap looking. It only had the directional pad and a couple buttons. I expected the "systems" to become more advanced and to have better games with each release, but this does not appear to be.

 

Has anyone purchased Superman yet? I would like to read how the games actually play.

[onmode-ky]

I've seen the Superman TV Game show up in stores recently, too. I saw it at an unusually high $30 at the local Toys 'R Us, which is odd, since I think it was the typical $20 at Target. A Jakks Pacific spokesperson said in an interview with some online magazine a few months ago that they were holding off on the GameKey line for now and were concentrating on getting new titles out instead. This is reflected in their recent releases: the power rangers, Super Pac-Man, Superman, Shrek, Disney 2, Bob the Builder, and X-Men TV Games have all launched without GameKey slots. The Scooby-Doo one launched with the slot, but the new blister-pack release has none (in fact, all the new, blister-packed (which I guess is a cost-cutting measure) TV Games have no GameKey slots).

 

I thought the Superman controller looked fairly solid. Then again, the only plug-and-play games I've thought were "melts in your hands, and in your mouth" shoddy were the ones from Techno Source, Majesco (the monumental disappointment that was their Konami Arcade stick), and Jungletac. Also, the two controllers in Radica's Genesis Street Fighter II Play TV Legends set were noticeably more flimsy than their normal Genesis plug-and-plays' controllers.

 

As for these things becoming more advanced, I think they've currently hit 16-bit sophistication and are staying there at the moment. If you're looking for Saturn or PSX quality, maybe we'll get there in a few years, assuming the market doesn't totally collapse (which it shouldn't, though the retro games part of it might).

 

onmode-ky

 

P.S. Speaking of recent releases, I have updated my comprehensive listing thread with a new pnpgames.20060826.txt file attachment. Jakks Pacific has been pretty active in the past three months; of course, they also plain have more product in this market than anyone else. Other companies have added 1 or 2 new products each. Also, I've added a Japanese market section (unlabeled, but obvious) to my file and modified the Flashback developer credits.

[Atari Dogs]

I've seen the Superman TV Game show up in stores recently, too. I saw it at an unusually high $30 at the local Toys 'R Us, which is odd, since I think it was the typical $20 at Target. A Jakks Pacific spokesperson said in an interview with some online magazine a few months ago that they were holding off on the GameKey line for now and were concentrating on getting new titles out instead. This is reflected in their recent releases: the power rangers, Super Pac-Man, Superman, Shrek, Disney 2, Bob the Builder, and X-Men TV Games have all launched without GameKey slots. The Scooby-Doo one launched with the slot, but the new blister-pack release has none (in fact, all the new, blister-packed (which I guess is a cost-cutting measure) TV Games have no GameKey slots).

 

I thought the Superman controller looked fairly solid. Then again, the only plug-and-play games I've thought were "melts in your hands, and in your mouth" shoddy were the ones from Techno Source, Majesco (the monumental disappointment that was their Konami Arcade stick), and Jungletac. Also, the two controllers in Radica's Genesis Street Fighter II Play TV Legends set were noticeably more flimsy than their normal Genesis plug-and-plays' controllers.

 

As for these things becoming more advanced, I think they've currently hit 16-bit sophistication and are staying there at the moment. If you're looking for Saturn or PSX quality, maybe we'll get there in a few years, assuming the market doesn't totally collapse (which it shouldn't, though the retro games part of it might).

 

onmode-ky

 

P.S. Speaking of recent releases, I have updated my comprehensive listing thread with a new pnpgames.20060826.txt file attachment. Jakks Pacific has been pretty active in the past three months; of course, they also plain have more product in this market than anyone else. Other companies have added 1 or 2 new products each. Also, I've added a Japanese market section (unlabeled, but obvious) to my file and modified the Flashback developer credits.

 

I did not know that Jakks Pacific has had so many recent releases. My local Walmart and Kmart have not gotten in Shrek, Bob the Builder, or X-Men yet. I have only seen one Scooby-Doo at ToysRUs.

 

I have only seen a couple GameKeys by themselves for sale. Can you use a Sponge Bob GameKey in a Star Wars controller? I think the box says to use in the Sponge Bob controller, but I did not know if I had to.

[Dreamwriter]

Nope, the keys check to see what game they are plugged into and won't work if it's the wrong system. Probably to keep support calls down since the controls are completely different on most of the games.

 

As for the Gamekeys, Jakks seems to have given up on them really early - the whole point was to sell the keys separately, but to my knowledge they've never done so, even though they sold plenty of "Gamekey Compatible" systems without keys. Kinda sucks, the second StarWars key had a couple great games on it, it'd suck if that never made it out.

[jaybird3rd]

I wonder if Jakks' (apparent) abandonment of the GameKey idea has anything to do with the failure of "Atari" to follow through with the Flashback 3. The FB3 was to have been a cartridge-based system, but now that it isn't coming (at least not from the bumbling "Atari"), maybe there isn't as much motivation for Jakks to make their own systems expandable via the GameKey.

[Flojomojo]

I wonder if Jakks' (apparent) abandonment of the GameKey idea has anything to do with the failure of "Atari" to follow through with the Flashback 3. The FB3 was to have been a cartridge-based system, but now that it isn't coming (at least not from the bumbling "Atari"), maybe there isn't as much motivation for Jakks to make their own systems expandable via the GameKey.

Maybe, but you probably have the causality reversed. The Gamekey idea probably wasn't a big hit, since it defeats the whole purpose of having an all-in-one plug and play system by adding fiddly add-ons. Atari probably realized the Jakks systems (as well as their own) are being blown out at huge discounts and don't want to take another manufacturing risk.

 

That's pure speculation, I don't really know. Maybe the Gamekey Pac-Man units are selling like gonzo and Atari just has some cranio-rectal insertion issues instead ...

[onmode-ky]

I noticed something in the most recent TV Game releases which may be a concrete sign of Jakks' abandonment of the GameKey concept. The new releases all use plastic blister packs instead of the previous cardboard boxes (and none of these releases have had GameKey slots), but the most recent blister packs are slightly different from the first ones. The outside border of the first blister packs was a uniform shape, sort of an inflated vertical rectangle. The newest ones have an extra circular shape at the upper right corner, and the inner cardboard label at the inside of this circle has a number with "Edition" above it and a series name, like "Pac-Man" or "Avatar," below it. It's a number indicating which model in the series it is; e.g., the Super Pac-Man TV Game is #3 in the "Pac-Man" TV Game series, and the "Fry Cook Games" TV Game is #2 in the "Spongebob" series, while the new Avatar unit is #1 in the "Avatar" series. The inclusion of this numbering would seem to be a sign that Jakks intends to make multiple TV Game models within each given license, rather than make one model with multiple GameKeys. If this is the case, that's too bad. I liked the GameKey idea. Less clutter.

 

As for the FB3 possibly being a factor in Jakks' decisions on GameKeys, I would be willing to bet that Jakks didn't even know about the FB3.

 

onmode-ky

[Lucky Man]

This is somewhat disappointing. Although I was initially irritated by the multiple release of the same controllers with and without gamekeys, I eventually purchased quite a few with the gamekey slots for my daughter, including the Scooby-Doo controller that I've been patiently waiting for Jakks to release a gamekey for. It looks like this isn't going to happen. Too bad.

[[d2f]Iggy*SJB]

I rather liked the game-key option as well. The only key capable stick I have is the Ms. Pac Man, which came bundled with 2 keys. Everytime I am at WalMart(or another store that carries those things), I look to see if any keys are available. I guess I should stop wasting my time. Maybe a letter/e-mail writing campaign is in order? Just to see what their intention is.

As a side note, I've passed over a couple of their non-key compatible sticks, hoping that they might come out with key compatable models. In a way, that has cost them sales.

[onmode-ky]

The response from Jakks Pacific to an inquiry on what's up with the GameKey project is:

 

Unfortunately, we are negotiating with our retailers on getting these

out. Once the negotiation is over our game keys are expected to be out

in stores.

 

Assuming the representative was neither out of the loop nor just blowing smoke (and it should be noted that customer service reps have been known to be completely wrong), it looks like Jakks hasn't given up on the GameKey idea completely just yet. Maybe the retailers have, though.

 

onmode-ky