Ok, so I've had this portable in my possession since around August 27th 2012, (give or take a day) and I gotta say, it's grown on me even though it carries a few somewhat negligible, flaws.
I'm going to be perfectly honest and unbiased as possible with my review here.
First off, Amazon sent me Hyperkin's latest version of the Supaboy which comes in a black carton box that's graphically designed to resemble an official SNES product by Nintendo, which was very smart, as it keeps the light out and possible UV rays from damaging or yellowing the system's shell. I was very pleased to see the packing was neat and professional looking. Non of the parts or cables looked corroded or used in any way which is something I've come to expect from 3rd party/unlicensed products. In a nut shell, the presentation was excellent and not embarrassing to open up in front of your friends. (if you know what I mean, lol).
The system comes with a TV out cable, a charger (which they updated to USB now, an excellent idea), a fancy little velveteen pouch to hold and protect your supaboy, with Hyperkin's Supaboy logo on it and a Lithium Ion battery *which I'll talk about later in this review*. Also, my Supaboy had 2 protective laminates on the screen. Not just one. Not sure if this was done on purpose or if it was a manufacturer error but another person claimed the same, so who knows. It was a good thing. Instructions and 6 month warranty is included.
I have around 60 SNES games which include:
- Super Metroid
- Chrono Trigger
- Secret Of Mana
- Star Fox
- Yoshi's Island
- Zelda
- Donkey Kong Country 1 & 2
- Super Mario World
- Mortal Kombat 2
- Killer Instinct
- TMNT Tournament Fighters
- Final Fight
- Megaman X
- Samurai Showdown
- TMNT - Turtles In Time
- Super Mario All Stars
- Super Mario Kart
- F-Zero
- Final Fight 2
...just to name a few. They all WORKED. Every single one of them. However... I found that I had to really clean out my game's connectors and remove as much dirt as possible (using a little rubbing alcohol with Q-tips) before inserting them, or else I'd be prone to getting a black or blue screen. Also, with some games, I had to insert the cart in a special way for it to load. Either inserting it as far right from the center as possible or vice versa. Sometimes directly centered. Never move your cart around while the power is on or you may lose data like many have mentioned.
The Supaboy didn't wipe out my data upon inserting carts like Super Metroid, etc. My data was wiped out because I was messing with the cart while the power was on and resetting continuously until a picture showed up. I have learned to make sure the power was off before fiddling with the cart. Now all my current saves are intact. So far...
This is a negligible issue. It didn't bother me as much as I thought it would.
I've since, finished an entire game of Super Metroid on this portable with no issues what so ever, as well as games like Street Fighter 2 Turbo and Mortal Kombat 2. I'm going down the list of my library.
Now.... the real problem. This is something that reallllly disappointed me about the Supaboy. On the box and anywhere else you see the Supaboy advertised, it mentions it transmits sound in STEREO. This is NOT the case. While there are 2 channels (2 physical speakers)on the portable, they both reproduced sound in MONO. Even with headphones on, it was very obvious there was no stereo sound bumping. This is VERY unfortunate in my opinion, because many SNES games like Donkey Kong Country and RPG's like Final Fantasy 3, have beautiful music and stellar SFX in stereo. While Hyperkin did fix the continuous high pitch noise, the sound quality is still far from perfect. There is still system noise coming through because non of the wiring inside the machine (i opened up my system to see the internal hardware) is protected. Also, the sound amp is a little finicky, depending on the game you load, you may notice the volume levels vary. Some louder than others.
I really Hope Hyperkin reads this and considers fixing this problem. It's quite honestly, the only real draw back I have against this portable.
Now, don't get me wrong. The sound is not atrocious when you're playing without your headphones. It's hardly noticeable that way. But when you pop your headphones on, you may find yourself taking them right off again, unless you're completely fine with a little buzzzzz sound along your game's sound.
The portable also acts like a console when connected to your TV, which is pretty cool! But, I'd only recommend hooking this up to an older CRT television (the big ones with the glass screen) for best image quality. I compared it to my real SNES and this new version of Supaboy delivers great picture. It was kind of weird seeing a portable become an actual control deck.
SNES control pads can be hooked up to your Supaboy, but ONLY if the system is hooked up to a TV. Otherwise, they won't work in portable mode. This didn't bother me one bit. But others may chime a different opinion.
The battery... This Lithium Ion only lasts 2.5 hours, give or take a few minutes, before having to recharge. If you're playing at home, you can use the charger to power up your game play for as many hours as you please. But for travel, 2.5 is all you get. Oh well, no biggie. It's not like I play that long before stopping for a break anyhow.
So...overall, despite the flaws, I am truthfully happy with this portable. It's quirky and the design is totally awesome and funny at the same time. lol.
Each day that goes by, I appreciate it more.
They just really need to get on top of the stereo sound issue. If this baby had full stereo, it'd be an amazing thing.
I'd recommend it if you or someone you know still has and loves his/her SNES games. It's the perfect gift for retro game fans. :)
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Amazing product, with one moderate flaw. More like 3.5 stars, if I could give it that.
Reviewed in the United States on April 22, 2014
First off, I'll say, I'd likely give the Supaboy more like, a 3.5 rating, if it were possible. It doesn't deserve 4 stars, in my opinion, but it deserves more than 3.The Supaboy is fantastic. Every game I have tried works phenomenally. The unit is very comfortable to hold. It beats the hell out of the RetroDuo portable, in that respect (The L and R shoulder buttons, to be specific). The speakers, at least on the revised units sound more than adequate and get plenty loud. Really, you can't expect cinema quality from speakers so tiny, but they do the job just fine. The screen is definitely decent. I wish it was a little brighter or that there was an option to increase the brightness a bit, but it still looks good. On occasion, you may notice a little noise on the screen in the form of very tiny wavy lines, obviously this is due to cheap internals, but you don't always see it on every game and even when it is present, you really have to squint and get damn close to the screen to notice. It's not something that's going to bother you or that you'll even see most of the time, but it is there, on occasion.I had no problem with the game clicking right into the unit and holding tight. There's a little switch on the back that slides against the cartridge to hold it in, but it's not even necessary to use. From what I've read, the RetroDuo portable lets the cartridges wiggle around quite a bit once they've been inserted and it can cause quite a bit of games to stop working while you're in the middle of playing. The Supaboy does not have this problem. The cartridges click in nice and tight. And all of my games have worked so far. I've tested about a dozen.The one and only major problem with the Supaboy is the d-pad. It works well and feels pretty solid. The problem I have is when it comes to pushing certain directions a little hard. For example, if I press left on the d-pad and I push too hard, all of a sudden my character will shoot off to the right, as if I'm pressing right. The same thing happens if I push right, too hard... my character will shoot off to the left. This also happens quite a bit when you want to push a diagonal direction. I was climbing a fence in Super Mario World and was trying to go down and to the left and when I tried to push that way with down+left it sent me up and to the right. This doesn't even make sense. How is the d-pad designed in such a way that pushing down and to the left would send me up and to the right? Also, when pushing left or right, if you even slightly push the lower portion of the left or right button, it will cause your character to duck or go downward. I had read some reviews where people said their games controlled pretty well, so I thought maybe I got a bum unit, so I ordered a replacement. Well, my second Supaboy had the exact same problem. So clearly, this must be a flaw to a degree with all or most of them. If they fixed this in a future revision of the Supaboy, this would be a 10 star unit!Battery life seems pretty good. I've played for 2-3 hours straight with no loss of power, but I can't say how long it lasts as I stopped played after those couple hours. The unit does come with a user replaceable cell phone battery, though. I haven't searched the net, but I'm sure you could find the exact same model battery for pretty cheap and order a spare or two. The unit doesn't get hot or even warm when it's charging, so there's nothing to worry about there.All in all, the Supaboy is still worth it. The d-pad issues don't completely ruin games, they're still totally playable. It can be a minor annoyance, though, to all of a sudden, be sent off in the wrong direction and die, due to the bad spots of the d-pad. The unit will be loads of nostalgia for most people and it really is a decent handheld. You do have to take into account that this isn't a $200 official Nintendo handheld. It's currently going for $50-$60 dollars, so that's about the quality you're getting, not good, not bad, just average.I'd still recommend the Supaboy any day of the week to people who are into retro gaming!
Reviewed in the United States on April 22, 2014
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