We doubt it’s going to be the best-sounding mobile Bluetooth speaker you’ll ever play your music on, but if you’re thinking of firing up a playlist of theme music from your favorite 8-bit and 16-bit games, we can’t imagine anything more suited than the 8Bitdo Retro Cube Speaker. I mean, look at the darn thing.
A NES-themed Bluetooth speaker, it brings aesthetic elements that mimic various items from the 8-bit NES console’s original controller. The speaker grilles, for instance, look like red action buttons from the classic game pad, while the actual playback buttons are done up in the form of a four-way directional pad. Basically, it’s the kind of thing you can easily mistake for a novelty controller. Except, you know, it’s for playing music and stuff.
Like any Bluetooth speaker, the 8Bitdo Retro Cube Speaker can stream music from your phone and other music sources via Bluetooth, playing back all your tunes for up to 8 hours in a single full charge. Sound is piped through a pair of 1.5-watt dual voice coil speakers, with a built-in mic for taking hands-free calls. Oh yeah, the directional buttons on top control power, playback (play/pause/next/prev), and volume, so you can feel like you’re wading through an 80s-era platformer every time you try to do anything with the speaker. Features include a bass reflex system for playing low-frequency sounds, an 800 mAh battery, an auxiliary port if you want to scrimp on power, and a LED power indicator.
Available now, the 8Bitdo Retro Cube Speaker is priced at $35.