Over a dozen Intellivision Amico games were revealed in a lengthy developer stream featuring company CEO Tommy Tallarico and other employees from the company.
The Intellivision Amico stream opened up with a brief overview of the console's history in the 80s, closing out with a picture of Tommy Tallarico playing on his own original Intellivision console nearly 40 years ago.
From there, Tallarico detailed the five categories of family-friendly games that the Intellivision Amico would be targeting. They are:
- Original IP
- Sports & Recreation
- Kids & Edutainment
- Retro Reimagined
- Casual/Board/Dice/Card
He further added that all games are rated either E or E10+, cementing the Intellivision Amico as a family-friendly console.
If you've missed the stream on its first go-around, you can watch it in full below; we'll break down the major highlights of this Intellivision Games stream.
Intellivision Amico Release Date Delay Announced
Following a rundown of the games, Tommy Tallarico moved on to talking about the release date. He also shared a heartwarming story about why he chose October 10, 2020, as the Intellivision Amicro release date.
"You know, three years ago, when we embarked on this journey, I picked the date 10/10/2020 for the launch," Intellivision CEO Tommy Tallarico began. "Yeah, it's a cool number, but the real reason was more important and personal to me. I had a younger sister Karen, and she was born on 10/10. Unfortunately, she passed away, and I made a promise to my mom, and my family, my dad, my brother, that I was gonna put out Amico in honor of Karen and 10/10. Unfortunately, you know, things are happening that is making that very difficult to accomplish. The bottom line is: we're not gonna be able to make that date."
From there, he explained that he fought "tooth and nail" to make the original release date. Confronted with the potential for compromising on quality, Tallarico and the Intellivision team made the decision to delay the launch. The new Intellivision Amico release date is April 15, 2021; the company is making an effort to get Founder's Edition consoles in customers' hands on 4/3/21 — a perfect date for a launch considering that it reads like a countdown.
It should be noted, however, that Intellivision might have to delay the launch further. Tallarico shows an unwillingness to compromise on quality and reliability.
Intellivision Amico Stream Highlights Pack-In Game Astro Smash
The stream then moved on to showcase one of the pack-in games that will be included with the console: Astro Smash.
Astro Smash plays much like many classic titles of the era with gameplay that is well-familiar to many. Asteroids are falling down from the top of the screen and the player commands a laser platform that can shoot them down. As with many titles on this console, multiple players can join in on the action.
The gameplay concept is simple, but that doesn't mean that there won't be any variety; a short video showed off several variant game modes with the same core gameplay.
More Intellivision Amico Games Revealed
Following the reveal of the first pack-in game, Tallarico continued with revealing some more games that are coming to his company's new console.
Intellivision Battletanks
Intellivision Battletanks is based on two games from the original console: Armor Battle and Battle Tanks, the latter of which was included in the bundle game Triple Action. We've seen a bit of this title before, but today's Intellivision Amico stream gave us a more in-depth look.
Essentially, Intellivision Battletanks plays like a top-down tank-battle game. While the tanks have a more realistic look, the game still maintains a classic arcade feel with power-ups and intense action.
Sesame Street
Sesame Street games will be coming to the Intellivision Amico, although no details have been shared just yet.
If you're somehow unaware of Sesame Street, it's a long-running children's television show using a mix of live actors and puppets. It's often shown on public broadcasting around the world, and many countries have their own unique cast of characters.
Intellivision Board Games
Another brief addition was the reveal that three tabletop games will be coming to the Amico. They are:
- Telestrations
- Blank Slate
- Incan Gold (Diamat)
Hot Wheels
A Hot Wheels game was announced for the Amico as a platform exclusive, although no footage was shown as of yet.
Monster Spades
Monster Spades is, well... Spades, the classic card game that's been around pretty much forever. Concrete Software has experience making digital tabletop games (including titles like Uno) and they'll be leveraging that to take a card game classic and make it work well on the Amico.
Break Out
The developers of the bit.trip franchise are going to be making the next game in the Break Out franchise.
Break Out is yet another classic title whose gameplay is well-known and often-cloned. Players control a floating paddle on one side of the screen and use it to bounce balls at a bunch of colored bricks in an attempt to break them. The bit of gameplay we saw showed intense, colorful action, catchy music, and a score system that rewards combos.
Missile Command
Stainless Games will be making Missile Command, another classic game that is well known to arcade and some of the earliest console gamers. Players will control missile turrets in an attempt to shoot down incoming projectiles.
As with most Amico games, this version of Missile Command will feature multiplayer options. Players can enjoy the game in co-op, versus, or team play game modes.
Liar's Dice
Liar's Dice was another title announced in the Intellivision Amico stream by Stainless Games. We didn't see much in the way of gameplay footage, although we did see a few screenshots of an in-development version.
We do, however, know what the game will probably be like. Liar's Dice is a tabletop game. Players roll a number of dice and must correctly guess their opponent's dice while bluffing about their own; deception is the key to victory in a game like this.
Finnegan Fox
The next game revealed was one of the first platformers coming to the Amico at launch: Finnegan Fox.
The developers decided to share a few gameplay screenshots and a wealth of concept art of the various creatures you'll encounter in the course of the game. According to Tommy Tallarico, this new game is based on an Intellivision original called Fox and Forest but is otherwise an all-new game.
After the reel of concept art was over, we saw a very short clip of gameplay showing the titular character shooting a rifle at a cartoony enemy.
Bomb Squad
Heavy Burger co-creator Scott Barrett revealed his company's upcoming game for the Amico: Bomb Squad.
Bomb Squad has people working together to disarm explosives by solving puzzles. The console's online LEDs will track your success or failure. The controller's lights, sensors, and touchscreen all play a part in defusing the bomb.
Space Strike
Combining Rocket League, Star Castle, and Asteroids, Space Strike will be a brand-new, exclusive game for the Intellivision Amico.
The Intellivision Amico stream showed a fair bit of Space Strike in action. Two goals are placed at opposing corners of the screen. Each player's ship can tractor in the "ball" in an attempt to get it into the goal. Players can also tractor asteroids to block or otherwise move the ball, or they can deploy a shield to force it to bounce off of them.
Nitro Derby
Nitro Derby will be a casual racing game for all ages featuring miniature cars, much in the style of stuff like Micro Machines.
Cars can zip around ten unique tracks with their choice of 14 stylish cars. Winning your races will earn you cash to unlock more cars, and the best players in the world will place on leaderboards.
Rigid Force Redux Enhanced
The relatively new SHMUP Rigid Force Redux will be one of the new Intellivision Amico games, but there's a twist — as with most other titles, this game will feature multiplayer.
Earthworm Jim 4
The final big announcement for the Intellivision Amico games stream was Earthworm Jim 4. Tommy Tallarico jokingly called it a match-3 game, but it's obviously not going to be in that genre.
We then got a quick sneak peek at Earthworm Jim 4. We didn't get too long of a look at the gameplay, but it certainly maintains that classic Earthworm Jim style while maintaining the same classic look.
Aside from these big hits, some other titles got a brief mention. Cloudy Mountain is another upcoming title, and Intellivision is in talks with Disney to produce a Tron game. Tallarico also noted that more Intellivision games will likely be coming after launch.
After the reveal of a bunch of new Intellivision Amico games, Tommy Tallarico went over a breakdown of the internal components of the Intellivision Amico. HIlariously, he highlighted several components like the polycarbonate screen and then immediately stated that he had no idea what it actually did. A few amusing mishaps happened, too, such as when one of the springs managed to get away from him and fly off somewhere off-camera.
Tallarico then moved onto a quick gameplay demo of Intellivision Skiing, demonstrating that skillful play of video games isn't exactly part of his skillset, either. We then moved on to some brand-new footage of the revived Moon Patrol game, one of the Intellivision Amico games that was previously announced.
Intellivision Amico Hardware Specs and Game Sizes
Aside from a wealth of games, we've also learned a bit about the hardware specs. Here's what we know:
- 32 GB internal storage (doubled from the originally announced 16GB)
- More storage can be added via MicroSD
- Games will generally be 300 MB–1GB in size
The roster of Intellivision Amico games is shaping up to be pretty impressive. You'll be able to play all of these titles and more when the Intellivision Amico launches on April 15, 2021.
What do you think of the Intellivision Amico games revealed today? Do you think this console can be a success? Let us know in the comments below!
