With so many handhelds arriving on an almost weekly basis these days, it takes something truly special to capture our interest and attention. Look at the Playdate, for instance, a handheld with a wholly unique way of playing that implements a hand crank in its games. It's a handheld that takes the kind of hands-on approach that old arcade machines used to, just like this new handheld concept, the 'CoinPlay'.
Designed by Yaoxin Cai, Yuxiong Dong & Yaoxin Cai, this handheld's USP is a coin slot on the top of the console. Now I know what you're thinking, and the answer is no - you won't need to 'pay to play' or anything like that. It's not a handheld to prevent you from gaming or to save up your pocket money with - the coin slot is for using little plastic discs or 'Power Coins' to help you with the gameplay.
The idea is that you'll have three coins with different powerups for each handheld, leaving you to decide when to use them to give you the edge in your adventure. I like the fact that you can see the coin in situ when it's been used too, but once you've slotted one in, you won't be able to use the powerup again until you turn the game off. So, use them wisely!
According to Yanko Design, blue coins could help you out with a new life or handily restore your health bar, while red might give you a new weapon or important items to use. The orange coin might give you an attack power boost or a defence upgrade; it certainly would make games more tense with you deciding when to cash in your lifeline!
The handheld really reminds me of the PiBoy DMG in its design, although the CoinPlay looks a lot more put together and thought out, and it probably won't sound like a jet engine is setting off when you use it. If you haven't held a PiBoy, then there are some loose shades of the Game Boy DMG here in terms of console thickness, though that's where the similarities end.
There's a D-Pad and four ABXY buttons as well as shoulder buttons placed where your index fingers would sit on either side of the console. To be honest, that looks as though it would be pretty uncomfortable; I would move those buttons to the back of the handheld as it would feel a lot more natural there in my opinion. The 1:1 screen takes up a large portion of the console too which I like; it would be perfect for 'CRT Friendly' arcade-esque titles like Metal Slug, Sonic the Hedgehog, Gunstar Heroes, and many more epic titles.
Obviously, this is still a concept and in the design stages so we won't be getting hold of a CoinPlay to test any time soon, but the idea has definitely intrigued me. What do you guys think; would this be something that you could see yourself using, or is it an unnecessary distraction that might ruin your gaming experience? Let us know in the comments!
