Lexibook TV Game Console
(Redirected from Lexibook)
| Lexibook TV Game Console | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Yeno, this is a pretty amateur attempt at trying to copy the Nintendo Wii.
| ||||||||
|
The Lexibook TV 200-in-1 Game Console (or simply Lexibook TV or just Lexibook) is a bootleg plug-and-play video game "console" originally published by Yeno Games, with the console initially being known as the "Yeno TV Game Console", but was later rebranded to Lexibook TV Game Console. Despite the Lexibook company being located in France, the console (like most bootlegs) was developed in China. Lexibook then released another model of the same console (the Lexibook JG7425), which has a different shell, and an extra 21 games.
Why It Sucks
- For starters, the name. The company's name "Lexibook" (which also produced some educational Windows CE laptops) sounds like it would be a better fit for some online dictionary/reading website than for a gaming console. Not to mention the logo that is on the console looks like something you would find on said website.
- Much like the Wireless60, it is very clearly just a rip-off of the Nintendo Wii, trying to cash in on the success of the latter console but failing.
- Like a lot of other video game console bootlegs, the motion controls are very inconsistent, unresponsive, and barely work due to the controllers using infrared like a TV remote, rather than just using Bluetooth like the Wii Remote/Wiimote, and if you look closely at the inside of the controllers, you can see some of the wires jutting out.
- As stated above, despite Lexibook being located in France, the console was developed in China, with the SD Card that is required for the console to work containing files (such as .wav audio files) for the games that are written in Chinese, some of them even having Chinese voiceovers.
- The console (as shown in the picture on the right) has a fake disc slot, possibly to trick buyers into thinking that it can play discs, when it can't, as it's just translucent black plastic.
- Sub-par graphics, with the 32-bit games' graphics not looking any better than that of a fifth-generation game released during the Nintendo 64/PlayStation era.
- The controllers are badly designed, as they look like shampoo bottles that you would find in Walmart.
- Poor menu navigation. For some reason, the "Sports" games have a section with a text-to-speech voiceover reading out every selection/highlight, and all of the games in the "Game Player" section are just listed in alphabetical order with folder icons, and for some reason, there is a cursor at the top left of the screen which "implies" that you can use motion controls, but due to the controller using infrared instead of Bluetooth, it is not possible.
- Speaking of the "Game Player", at the bottom of the list, there are .wxn files (encrypted homebrew NES ROMs from the bootleg game developer Waixing Technology) that were most likely just taken from the Internet, and the only reason the console can run these games is that all of them are just running on a cheap emulator.
- There are 3 save slots that can be used to save the player's progress, but they all get wiped out as soon as you exit the game.
- Some of these games look so low quality to the point where they resemble Atari 2600 ROMs instead.
- Almost (if not all) of the games are unoriginal, with many of them just being rip-offs or straight-up clones of popular video games. This includes, but is not limited to:
- Candy Bear is a notable example of this, as it is just a flat out clone of the original Super Mario Bros., sharing identical level design and layouts, enemy placements, powerups, etc., with the music being stolen from New Super Mario Bros., such as the credits theme and World 7 map theme, with the sound effects being stolen from other 2D Mario games as well, such as Super Mario World, Super Mario All-Stars, and Super Mario 64.
- Bomb Superman is just a flat out clone of Bomberman, or more specifically, Super Bomberman, but a lot slower.
- Crazy Fish is just a rip-off of the online game Feeding Frenzy, sharing similar graphics and gameplay.
- Crazy Step is just a rip-off of Q-Bert.
- Dr. Genius is just a clone of the shareware PC game Professor Fizzwizzle, with the player character being recycled from Crazy Step.
- Marble Blaster is just a clone of Puzz Loop and Zuma, and steals sound effects from the latter game.
- Flying Rabbit and Firebolt Swordman are just clones of most horizontal-scrolling shoot-em-ups, such as R-Type and Einhander.
- Forest Adventure is just a rip-off of Adventure Island/Wonder Boy, except unlike the two games, you can stop running.
- Puzzle Bobble and Cake Shop are literally flat-out clones of both games with the same names!
- Bricks Climber is just a rip-off of Ice Climbers.
- Western Hero is just a clone of most run-n-gun games, specifically Sunset Riders with its wild west theme.
- The bullet icon that is used for the lives is the Bullet Bill from the New Super Mario Bros. games.
- Blazing Fighter and Sword Soul are just clones of Street Fighter and Samurai Showdown, respectively, with the latter game being a reskin of the former.
- Wave Man is just a rip-off of the arcade game, Snow Bros, as you turn enemies into balls and use them as projectiles.
- Many of the games tend to have repetitive, on-loop music that last for about 7-10 seconds before looping again, annoying sound effects, and as well as ear-bleeding audio, with the latter mainly occurring in the NES games.
- While some of the games do have voice acting, they are mostly terrible, such as in the circus games.
- Several of the games (specifically the sports ones) tend to re-use the music from the console's Calculator app a lot, which gets annoying fast. Plus, some of the games even steal music from the Naruto anime series, such as Kurama's theme and Lightning Break.
- A lot of the games are either just reskins of other games on the console, or just flat-out re-use the same assets.
- Sword Soul is just a reskin of Blazing Fighter, sharing the same gameplay and sound effects, just with different characters that were also recycled from other games on the console.
- The character from Bomb Superman is re-used again in several other games on the console, such as Move Ball.
- The characters from Little Ninja are re-used again in Ninja Hero (misspelled as Ninga Hero).
- A lot of the games tend to have really poor and choppy-looking animation, with them usually running at 10 FPS or lower, despite the console being capable of a much higher framerate.
- The console's manual says that you can download more games, but doesn't even list the website.
Redeeming Qualities
- The music that plays whenever you try to boot up the console with the SD card removed is admittedly pretty catchy. However, they didn't bother trying to loop it.
- The design of the console is at least decent.
- A majority of the games can be ironically funny to play despite still being bad.
Reception
The console was critically panned by several reviewers alike, mainly due to it trying to cash in on the success of the Nintendo Wii, stealing assets from several popular video games, re-using games from older plug-and-play systems, etc.
Videos
Comments
Loading comments...