THG 2003 Holiday Buyer's Guide

"Old School" Mattel Hand Held LED Games Make Great Stocking Stuffers

Mattel's hand held Baseball and Basketball games flanked by the original Football II hand held game.

Imagine our amazement when we saw remakes of the original "old school" Mattel hand held LED games being released. Many of us in our 30's years remember these games as one of the "must have" items that ushered in the era of video gaming.

The fun began with the original hand held Mattel "Football I" game that did not even offer passing or the ability to run backwards, and this was expanded to include a complete series of games for nearly every popular sport. All of these games featured very simple LED electronics, where a series of "blips" (some bright, others dim) tried to outwit you with their cunning logic.

While times have changed, the design of these re-released hand held games has, as well. These games feature LCD displays with red colored overlays to emulate the original look and feel of the original games. While the buttons are the same, the new versions take AA batteries (the original games used 9-volt batteries). The new release of these games still have the look and feel that we were smitten with in the originals as kids.

Available at an affordable $12 US per title, you can introduce your children to where gaming all began. It isn't about GameBoy, as I have told my kids. Available games currently include Classic Football, Football II, Basketball, and Baseball. While we are not sure if Mattel will release some of the other Mattel classics (such as Auto Racing, Hockey, Soccer, Armor Battle, and Sub Chase) we certainly hope they do. We found our hand held reproductions at a local Target retail store, and you will likely be able to find these hand held games at other retail stores, as well.