Tiger Handheld Games of the 90s: A Collector's Identification Guide

Tiger Electronics built a whole business model around cheap, single-game LCD handhelds licensed from whatever was popular that year, which is why so many exist and why identifying a specific one can take some detective work.

LCD gameplay

Nearly all Tiger LCD handhelds share the same basic format: a fixed monochrome LCD screen with pre-printed background art, showing only a handful of possible sprite positions rather than freely rendered graphics.

Licensed themes

Tiger secured licenses across movies, TV shows, and even other video game brands, releasing handhelds for franchises like Jurassic Park and The Karate Kid alongside game-branded ones like Sonic, Street Fighter, Castlevania, and Virtua Fighter.

Model and packaging clues

Each unit's specific model number and printed packaging art are the most reliable way to identify an exact release, since Tiger reused very similar hardware shells across many different licensed themes.

Originals vs. reissues

Hasbro (which now owns the Tiger Electronics brand) began releasing retro-styled reissues of some of these handhelds in the 2020s. These are new, modern-manufactured units built to resemble the originals, not the same 90s hardware, so check whether a listing is an original or a reissue before assuming which one you're getting.