Got my FC3 today at the Digital Press store (thanks Joe!).

I'm not sure if I'm going to do a huge, blow-out review with pictures and video like I did with the Retro Duo ... because as nice as this unit is (I DO like it) there really isn't much, other than the fact that it plays all three cartridge types to say about it.

So, here are my thoughts in broad strokes.

The unit is slightly longer than the Yobo FC Twin and shaped a bit more like the Super Famicom than anything else I can think of. Matte black plastic, it has a nice weight to it, likely from all the hardware inside of it.

It outputs in standard composite AV only. The on-screen colors are a bit over-saturated. Not horrible, but not as crisp as the Retro Duo.

The controllers are proprietary, much like the Gen X system. They look very similar to Genesis 9-pin inputs, but are not shaped the same and you can not use a real Genesis 6 button controler in place of them. The controllers have a nice shape and have an a,b,c - x,y,z button layout like a Genesis pad, as well as an L and R button like a SNES pad. While I find the D-pad to be functional/passable in games like Street Fighter II, it feels dangerously "weak". I'm certainly not going to break it, but I wouldn't be surprised if other people do. The system comes with a light gun modeled after the NES Zapper. It's not the same mold, but it's very amusing and a nice extra. It ONLY works for NES games.



The NES portion of the system is like every other Yobo system on the market. No Castlevania III compatiblity. In fact, you should be able to reference any Yobo NES clone compatibility chart on this one to find out what does and doesn't work. Much like the Gen X, and every other clone coming out of Hong Kong these days, it suffers in most cases from backwards A/B button syndrome. In games like punch out it's alleviated by the fact that button C is wired up to function as A+B but it ALWAYS triggers A a millisecond sooner.

The Genesis portion of the system seems to have superior sound output to the Gen X system (I recall Sonic having issues with dropping volume when rings were picked up, no sign of that here) but one very strange thing I noticed was a "rolling" on screen during any period of the game where the on-screen display would read as "nothing" or total black. Hard to explain really. If I do make a video I'll show it. It didn't interfere with any GAMEPLAY portion of any game I tried ... but it was certainly strange to say the least. There's also a region code switch on the back for Japanese/Euro Mega Drive games.

The SNES portion looked and sounded good ... unfortunately that damned "backwards button syndrome" really stuck out in Super Mario World / All Stars with no way around it as buttons c/z don't function in SNES mode.

Final verdict?

This is NOT the be-all-end-all of clone systems by any means. For every thing Yobo does right, they do something bone-headed. The bacwards button thing CONTINUES to baffle me ... there must be at least ONE person involved in the development of these things that realizes that they're not doing it right (and haven't been for quite some time now) ... the "convenience" factor of this unit is nice. If you're a fan of saving space (as well as amusing people with novel devices like this) it's a winner ... and if you have a standard CRT TV set, the included Zapper is a nice touch.

Of course, there is NO substitute for the REAL THING. An NES, SNES and a Genesis are the best way to play your old cartridges if authentic compatibility and accuracy is your thing. I don't argue with that.

AND if you're looking for a high-end NES clone the Retro Duo is STILL the way to go in my clone-system-collecting-book.

however, this thing surely is "NEAT" there's no other system on the market that will allow you to have a copy of River City Ransom in the NES slot, a copy of Super Mario World & All-Stars in the SNES slot and the Nomad 6-in-1 cartridge in the Genesis slot all at the same time.