Remember all of those Nintendo clones promising 100s of great games, all combined into a Nintendo 64-like controller? In September or October [2004] I had heard some vicious rumors that Nintendo was in court with the Chinese companies producing these controllers, trying to get them pulled from mall kiosks. The lawsuits raged on for several more months, and the pirated controllers were still in kiosks by the time Christmas rolled around (though they were quite overpriced at $50 or $60 USD). I wanted to grab one of these units before they were totally pulled off shelves, my friend Chris owned one that he wanted to get rid of. After a brief trade and a few weeks of slow postal service, my Super Joy III arrived.

The first thing which I noticed about the Super Joy III was the fact that it is shaped exactly like a Nintendo 64 controller. The controller features a [useless] analog joystick, ports on the side of the controller so that one may plug in a light gun or second controller, switches on the top of the controller to turn the unit on or off and nice battery pack in the back of the controller (if you don't want to plug your SJIII in). The icing on the cake is that there is a Famicom cartridge slot on the back of the Super Joy III, no more Famicom adapters for me!

Moving on to the other parts of the Super Joy III. The second controller looks like a Sega Genesis controller. If one is not satisfied with a normal D-Pad, the pirate outfit was even so thoughtful as to include a nice removable joystick adapter for one's use. The light gun is very light weight (hence the name, just kidding) and is also very accurate. I had a much easier time picking the ducks off of Duck Hunt with this baby than with Nintendo's own gun!

The most disappointing part of this package was the built-in games. I supposedly received 76000 different games; however I could not seem to locate all of them. Most of the games included were typical multicart games, Super Mario Bros, Hogan's Alley, Duck Hunt, etc. Nothing too exciting for someone who already owns several Famicom/Nintendo multicarts. The kiosks did sell extra game cartridges including more multicart goodness, but these were expensive at $25 a piece.

The Super Joy III is a nice unit for people who want to experience a bit of retrogaming. If you are a seasoned collector, you might be bored with it. However, the SJIII also has some nice features so if one can grab it for a low price (not $50), he or she might consider buying it for something unique.