Watara Travell-Mate

Another handheld by Watara, looking to spin-off the Supervision. Taking on the physical body from their GB-2000 handheld, this little known console hold a high value among video gaming collectors.

This is as rare as you can get, despite it being under Watara which had the Supervision along with it. You know, I'm not sure if it's because the costs of marketing or something else, but it seems the company's inconsistency attempting to keep up with Nintendo's Game Boy really made them produce the same handhelds but branded differently. Also, look at the bottom right corner of the box as it reads "Original WATARA Seal of Quality." That stamp is styled the same way as Nintendo's "Seal of Quality" sunburst stamp. Watara couldn't create their own style?

If you've seen pictures of the Supervision, let alone read our review, you'll notice this variant is very much a clone of the Supervision GB-2000. Only difference is it's a lighter gray with yellow buttons. The cartridge for the games are also the same design but are "cross compatible," if you will, with the other Supervision/Quickshot games.

The quality of the screen is a tad better (not by much) but it, too, suffers from motion blur. It gets hard to look at while playing, especially for high-motion games related to racing, block breaking and such, for example. Also, if you have the rare but ugly Supervision TV-Link, the games are compatible with it as well.

There's really not too much to say about it, other than being another differently-branded handheld under the same company. I suppose the lesson learned is how important marketing is when distributing your products and/or services. Depending on the choices of marketing, it can be expensive, however that's why you need a proper and solid business plan. Nevertheless, Watara tried and gave it a shot and at least made its mark in video gaming history.

Just a little note: Being born and raised in the United States of America, naturally learning American English, we spell it "travel," not "travell." It's tough as to what is the correct spelling for certain words nowadays, like is it "travelling" or "traveling?" Perhaps the name "Travel-Mate" was already trademarked, and they forcefully just added another "L" since they possibly didn't have time to ponder another name for a handheld. Alright, anyway, I'm getting off topic here....

It's a very rare handheld from Watara and something I truly recommend for your video game collection. Other than that, it's not too much different from the second Supervision model.

Kris Caballero

Founder and operator of KCU Network, Kris has been writing since he managed a personal blog created back in late 2005. Despite publishing articles and reviews from time to time for the network's website, Kris enjoys studying the sciences, namely Math, playing old video/DOS games, reading non-fiction books and listening to sports radio.

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