E3 2021: Intellivision Amico Console Detailed

Tommy Tallarico, CEO & president of Intellivision, hosted a stream about the Intellivision Amico, the upcoming console. Tommy spoke of his experience in the industry, then talked about the Amico itself. Amico means “friend” and that’s the philosophy behind the handheld console. It’s basically Couch Multiplayer: The Console, with a focus on simple to use, easy to play games that everyone can jump in on.

The Amico comes with two wireless controllers which have their own colour touchscreens. It supports up to eight players, with additional players using either Amico controllers, or mobile devices with the Amico app.

The controllers are an integral part of each game, in a similar way to the Wii U was with its controller. It shows you your hand of cards, lets you roll dice and will even give you hints if you’re falling behind in certain titles. The dial is touch-sensitive, so as well as turning it, it will detect how hard you’re pushing it. What’s more, placing your controller in another Amico system lets you access your games on someone else’s console.

Intellivision are focused on family-friendly gaming, with games that are appropriate for all ages. The Amico comes bundled with six games, and additional games will cost between $2.99-$9.99. Five of the game titles are:

• Skiing
• Astrosmash
• Shark! Shark!
• Cornhole
• Farkle

There are also classic titles from Atari and Intellivision’s back catalogues, which have been updated for the Amico, and some educational titles starring Sesame Street and the Care Bears. Tommy also teased Dolphin Quest, which was developed by the team behind Ecco The Dolphin.

Some titles support drop-in play, and there are extensive leaderboards. There will be physical titles released in some way, at some point, though Tommy didn’t give specifics about those.

The Intellivision Amico is available to pre-order now, and will be released on 8th of October 2021, priced at £249.99.