Today’s retro recreations are so good at replicating the Game Boy’s look, feel, and portability. The problem is, my pockets are already occupied with my mobile supercomputer that contains my life behind a 6.3-inch pane of glass. If my phone has a powerful processor and excellent AMOLED display, why can’t it also become my gaming device when I’m on the go? MCON, the controller hyped to hell and back by young engineer Josh King and brought to market by phone peripheral makers OhSnap, could be enough to make me leave my handheld at home.

I first saw the $150 MCON phone peripheral back at CES 2025; only it was a very early prototype using 3D-printed parts. Even then, I came away impressed with the collapsible phone controller. I had to duck and weave through many, many halls at IFA 2025 to find the miniscule stall for OhSnap. The company let me wrap my exhausted hands around the new, black and clear plastic MCONs that will be shipping later this year after successful Kickstarter in February.

MCON has surprisingly clicky controls

When I glance back at most modern phone controllers sitting above my desk, whether they’re the Backbone, the 8BitDo mobile controller, or a Razer Kishi, I find they all boil down to an Xbox controller split in half to make room for a phone. Some of those devices offer better controls or larger cavities for up to the size of a 13-inch iPad. While they’re slim enough to fit in a backpack, the issue with the traditional phone controller design is they can’t fit in a pant’s pocket. MCON is about the size of a phone itself. It’s compact enough that it may fit into cargo pants-sized pockets or into a pocketbook. The collapsible mobile controller also uses a MagSafe magnetic attachment point while it communicates with the phone over Bluetooth, rather than a physical USB-C connection (the company is planning to launch a 2.4Ghz dongle for PC and mobile gaming separately). With the phone and controller together, it likely won’t slip into most thin jeans without tearing a hole in your pants.

You can think of MCON as a Nintendo DS or a slide-out PSP Go, though without a screen or PCB (printed circuit board) of its own. With the press of a button, the spring-loaded front plate shoots out to reveal twin thumbsticks, four face buttons, and a D-pad. Two fold-out wings fan out from the base to create a pseudo-controller feel, though you can game without them if you can retreat to your Game Boy glory days, before gaming companies cared a lick for wild concepts like “ergonomics.” The extra benefit of MCON is how it keeps the screen angled up toward your face, like the Game Boy Advance SP’s or Nintendo DS’ hinged display. This may prove more comfortable when sitting and gaming compared to Steam Deck-like handheld PCs or the Switch 2, where the controls are on the same plane as the screen.

The version I used was a prefab design, though it’s the closest model the company had available before the device went into full production. The full-size drift-resistant TMR (tunnel magnetoresistance) joysticks didn’t feel constrained despite being deep-set into the controller. While the buttons had a pleasantly shallow and clicky feel, I wouldn’t have been able to hear how loud they were in such a crowded convention hall. The real surprise was the two triggers. Despite being so thin and close to the device, they dipped to a surprising depth. I didn’t feel as much resistance for each trigger as I may have liked from my favorite controllers, but I would still prefer them over the clicky triggers of many thin, DS-like devices.

There’s time to work out the kinks

I didn’t have the time to play anything but Warped Kart Racers, a racing game that automatically accelerates for you. There are many other titles I would want to try with MCON’s design. I imagine most people who backed the MCON controller are more interested in games without solid touch controls. It may be an option for cloud gaming when you ha ve access to a strong Wi-Fi connection. What may be more exciting for me personally is how it could be used for retro emulation. The MCON’s MagSafe dock can slide out and reposition vertically for playing old-school Game Boy games on emulators, like Delta on iOS.

The pop-out mechanism felt fast and smooth, though I found it was difficult to push the magnetic plate back into place. It took two hands, offering a grating feel as the rail ground against itself. OhSnap told me it was working on making that mechanism smoother as they run into full production. This is the kind of device designed for taking out while ignoring the world on your daily work commute. Such a controller would need to collapse with just one hand and slip it into your pocket when you need to hustle. Hopefully these niggling issues will be ironed out before release. OhSnap said MCON should launch some time late in October, so we’ll know then if my phone might finally become the Game Boy I wanted it to be.