Remember, you can't spell Nintendo Famicom without Amico! ;-)

Seriously though, my attention was returned to the Amico - which is being designed by "new Intellivision" - thanks to the videos they have been posting recently on their YouTube Intellivision channel. They are sending some really mixed messages via this medium and wherever else they are re-posting these videos. On the one hand, they are claiming to be for casual gamers and local multiplayer. But their videos with their "tension-inducing music" seem to be aiming these ads and updates more at the hardcore gamer crowd with the percussion-driven, heavy musical tracks and the "We'll show you all!" attitude. Where's the emphasis on single player gaming? I spent a lot more of my time with solo gameplay than multiplayer back in the 80's & 90's and even today, and I know I'm not the only one. However while their emphasis is on local multiplayer, the videos they have shown so far of their games and remakes seem to confusingly only show single player gameplay with no multi-player footage. I understand they have a lot to prove, but I think if they want casual gamers to buy the Amico then their videos should be more like the classic Nintendo Wii advertisements from 2006 through 2009.

It seems like modern Intellivision - lead by Tommy Tallarico - is going for a combination of Nintendo's Wii with the "casual console" and Apple's classic iPod with the "simple controller" (though it is obviously also inspired by the Intellivision controller's design) for the Amico. Their goal seems for the Amico to be as accessible and popular as either one or preferably both devices. But with the Amico's Internet access requirements for purchases as well as a credit card or debit card or gift card just to be able to buy games by downloading them (even if it will work offline after the games are downloaded), I've got to wonder if it will really be enough to make the world care. It's not like physical copies of games will be sitting on store shelves to act as a form of advertising or marketing for the thing, and look at how quickly "everyone" forgot about the Ouya without physical games on the shelves to remind them. Heck, look at the money and advertising that Sony put behind the PlayStation Vita, and yet without lots of physical games sitting on retail shelves to remind people that it is still alive and getting new games, most people figured the Vita (ironically meaning "life") was dead long ago.

The reasons the Nintendo Wii was so popular for casual gaming might have been in small part thanks to a simple controller and motion controls and accessible games and local multiplayer and the "lack of DLC and in-app purchases" (although those actually existed on the Wii in a limited capacity), but the main reason was that the "smart phone revolution" where everyone had a phone that was good enough to play Wii-quality games or better hadn't happened yet... but did a few short years later, "killing" off the Wii when the general public all had smart phones and were bored of motion controlled-games. Granted, the Wii didn't really die off until Just Dance 2020 was released as the final Wii game on November 5th, 2019, but most Wii players (not counting retro gamers) had moved away from the Wii sometime around 2010.

It would be nice to play some Imagic, Atari, and Intellivision remakes, though, such as Tempest, Centipede, Adventure, Miner 2049'er, Moon Patrol, Yars' Revenge, and Thin Ice. Thankfully most of those have been announced for the Amico even if Thin Ice has not. (Thin Ice was so much fun and one of my favorite Intellivision games, so it really deserves a remake - if nothing else, please at least pay attention to that important last point, new Intellivision! ;-)) However, as some or all of these will probably be ported to PC or consoles eventually, we can likely purchase them gradually via, say, Steam in the next few years without an Intellivision Amico. And ironically, if that happens, we'll be able to play them with Steam's Remote Play Together to play local co-operative and competitive games with the local multiplayer portions both offline *and* online contrary to only on a couch or chairs in the same room as the Amico's designers envisioned.