Can you remember the days of the Game Boy Pocket, the handheld that you could literally slip into your pocket and take around with you to a friend’s house or for playing on the bus? How about the GBA or the DS Lite? They were great times, and thanks to emulators like Delta on the iPhone, we can still take our favourite games with us wherever we go. But what happens when you want that controller experience?
Have you tried walking around with a Pro Controller in your pocket? It’s not exactly comfortable, and unless you wear massive baggy trousers with 14 pockets in them like my friend Josh, you’re not going to be able to carry around a controller for each of your favourite games or fit a Nintendo Switch in your pocket. That’s why the MCON Magnetic Gaming Controller looks like it could be a solution for gamers on the go like me, a more streamlined mobile gaming experience that could put Backbone on the back burner. (Honestly, I’ve got loads of terrible puns like this, but I’ll try to keep them to a minimum).
I travel a lot these days and admittedly I do play a lot of games on Delta, but when it comes to playing games on PS1 emulators like Gamma, the touchscreen controls just don’t hack it. The last time I tried to play Kingsley’s Adventure on Gamma I almost threw my phone into the river! Products like the GAMEBABY are a great solution if I want to play old Pokémon titles or revisit classic NES games, but what if I want to play Banjo-Kazooie on the go or hook up to my PS5 to play some God of War: Ragnarok? I can’t exactly stick a PS Portal in my pocket while I’m hopping on a plane without walking like I’ve got tree trunks for legs!
North Carolina-based company Ohsnap! are the brains behind the MCON Kickstarter, a campaign that has already blown its $25,000 goal by raising over $750,000! That’s some achievement, and with 35 days still to go, I’m confident that number will surpass 1 million dollars before the campaign is out. Ohsnap! have made it their mission to create functional and lightweight phone grips made from premium materials. The MCON works with all smartphone brands and has a thin Magsafe adapter to work with iPhones below iPhone 11, meaning you don’t have to have the latest phone to take advantage of this unique mobile gaming experience. Just stick it onto your phone and away you go!
The MCON looks like the Swiss Army knife of gaming, turning into a controller with the push of a button. Your phone springs up to reveal the buttons and Hall effect joysticks underneath, with two handles flipping down to create a comfortable grip. It stands at just 0.72 inches thick which is 1.83cm. Even when attached to an iPhone 16 at 0.31 inches (0.79cm), the whole thing comes in at under half the size of an Xbox controller and is much more streamlined to fit inside your jeans pocket.
Looking at pictures, it looks like slipping an original DS into your pocket and seems much more compact than the Backbone series of controllers. The fact that it uses a Bluetooth connection too and doesn’t rely on having a specific phone type or charging port means it could be swapped and changed between devices and also loaned to friends for them to use very easily. It could be the no-nonsense mobile gaming controller that I’ve been searching for, and I’m looking forward to testing one out in person!
Prices for the MCON start at $99 on Kickstarter with an RRP of $149 once the campaign ends. It comes in black and white, and shipping in the US will cost around $10, with Canada seeing a cost of $15 and $20 for the rest of the world. Head to the Kickstarter campaign to find out more!
