This tiny $12 gamepad sticks to your screen and makes smartphones feel like a real handheld

Playtiles, the little gamepad that caught the attention of many mobile gamers ever since its pre-orders jump-started in July, has finally started shipping its first batch to early backers. The first hands-on reviews are in. While it seemed too good to be true, or crowdfunding-vaporwave, for that matter, Playtiles is real, and it costs just $12.

For the uninitiated, Playtiles was presented as a small credit-card-sized piece of plastic with a D-pad and two action buttons, which would stick right onto your phone’s screen. The interesting part is that it doesn’t use any adhesives, batteries, or Bluetooth for that matter. 

Playtiles merely presses down on your virtual on-screen controls, allowing gamers to get physical buttons on any phone, making it somewhat of a modern handheld. Playtiles works on any modern iPhone or Android device, provided it's wider than 68mm and the game in question allows you to reposition on-screen controls.

Another interesting feature Playtiles adds to the mix is a QR code that, upon scanning, opens the browser-based Playtiles OS, giving gamers access to a catalogue of titles to play. Early backers who snagged the Season 1 bundle will get 12 weeks of bite-sized retro games made in GB Studio.

Playtiles production ramped up in October, and content creators received review units first, followed by Season 1 developers, and then pre-orders were fulfilled. Now, in mid-December, initial shipments are already landing in backers’ mailboxes across the US and Europe.

Early backers are impressed with Playtiles, with many enjoying the compact design and the ability to run their own GBC ROMs. Others noted how sturdy Playtiles was for a product the size of a credit card.

Some customers initially encountered a few minor issues when trying to access Season 1 titles, but a quick QR code rescan resolved them. All in all, early adopters of Playtiles are having a good time with a tactile upgrade that lets them kill time by playing games on their phone screens without fumbling with touch controls.

Some customers critiqued the product for being too basic up close, but for a mere $14 for the basic Lagoon Pack or the $28 pack with Season 1 games, it’s a steal for retro gamers.