Dingoo A320 Micro Game Station review

Dingoo has bundled several of its own Chinese-developed games on the A320, but the console comes alive by shamelessly ripping off the foreign games they claim to fight against.

Through its variety of built-in emulators, the Dingoo plays over 8000 classic games originally played on Nintendo and Sega consoles such NES, SNES, MegaDrive, as well as arcade platforms.

A dream console for fans of classic gaming formats, the A320 is a nightmare for legal teams across the globe.

The Dingoo is not supplied with any of the classic games it plays for good reason – the rom images themselves are illegal. Whilst you can easily find these games in darker corners of the internet, you run the risk of being saddled with a massive fine if you download them.

Is that a Dingoo in your pocket?

It was on long journeys that the Dingoo made its mark as a credible handheld. Whilst the A320 isn't gifted with the huggable ergonomics of its rivals, it weighs in as the smallest handheld, measuring just 12cm across and 6cm high. The Dingoo happily fits in your pocket.

With its tiny 320x240 QVGA screen, the Dingoo delivers performance close to its quoted seven hours of battery life, even when regularly switching between the console's in-built Aladdin's cave of features.

You look familiar

As far as the interface goes, never before has a console been graced with such a shameless Sony XMB rip-off. Yep, it's very very similar the the XrossMediaBar interface found on the Sony PS3, PSP and new Sony Bravia TVs.

Imitation is the greatest form of flattery, as the A320's front-end allows you to easily find the function you want to use within seconds of switching the console on – despite Dingoo's amusing use of English.