Attack of the Clones: Send in the Clones!

I will admit that I’m pretty fond of my Super Joy 3, but lately it has been giving me problems. I think the batteries are going dead, but with anything made in China, it may also just be dying for good. Recently I found a functional Power Joy that may take it’s place, so I figured what better to do than to give the Power Joy it’s own review!

New (Left) and the old one (Right).

The Power Joy also has the N64 controller resemblance, but takes it a few steps further from the Super Joy, for the integrated light gun. The first thing you’ll notice is the toy jet design on the front, as well as the toy gun like handle, with trigger, underneath. The toy jet design may have been added to throw off the N64 controller shape, but the handle and trigger are essential and feel quite comfortable when you’re playing one of the many shooting games packed into this unit. Also, the light gun’s accuracy is surprisingly good!

Black is the new one and blue is the old one.

At the bottom of the handle is the second controller port, as well as the hardwired AV cables, with optional power input. The cables are decent in length and don’t get in the way, despite their placement. Underneath the unit you’ll also find a 60 pin connector and the battery storage, which has an extremely weak feeling cover. The Power Joy does play Famicom cartridges, but the unit isn’t quite big enough to play them comfortably, so your fingers might be cramped until you find a comfortable playing position.

On top of the Power Joy are the controls, which are setup much like the Super Joy’s, but with a few exceptions. Here the D pad is still inaccurate, the reset button is much smaller but still too easy to hit in a hurry, the power switch is right above the reset button and start and select are the same. One feature the Super Joy lacks, but I enjoy on the Power Joy, is a fully functional joystick, which is more accurate (just slightly) than the D pad. A minor drawback is that the A and B buttons (including their turbo counterparts) are backwards, which takes a little time to adjust to.

My new Power Joy came with the cartridge, so I had a chance to see what it could offer. I honestly think the cartridge alone was worth the $3 I paid for the whole unit! The PJ-008 is packed with playable games, and it even works on the NES, with a Famicom to NES converter. Out of the 84 games on the cartridge, there are only a handful of failures. That isn’t to say they’re not functional, they’re just not games I enjoyed. It is noteworthy to say that most of the games packed on the PJ-008 are simply pirated, very few are hacks.

I like it, just not that label!

Overall, again, I am impressed with this cheap, Chinese toy. I enjoy sitting in front of my TV and having many choices right at my finger tips, which the Super Joy and Power Joy units provide in abundance. The controls are whacky, the games are mostly pirates or hacks of games we already know and love, but this system is a pretty cool little device. Thanks to my new Power Joy, I now know that my other Power Joy works as well, it just needed the battery cover to power up properly. I don’t expect them to live long, but for what they are, I will enjoy them as long as I can.

Here is the list of games that the Power Joy offers, as well as the PJ-008 cartridge. I know they released a few different versions, so I would imagine the games differ from cartridge to cartridge, so this is a list of what I’ve got on my system.


Games in the Power Joy

Power Joy Title Extra Info
Shoot Copter Hacked Duck Hunt
Falling Bricks Fairly decent Tengen Tetris Hack
Shoot Copters Hacked Duck Hunt
Panzer Fly Car Road Fighter Hack
Debar Bomb 1 Hogan’s Alley Hack
Shooting Hacked Hogan’s Alley – Can shoot
Debar Bomb 2 Hogan’s Alley Hack
Future Tank Battle City Hack
Space War Exerion Hack
Shoot Glass Hacked Duck Hunt – Clay Shooting

Games in the Cartridge

Power Joy Title Extra Info
80 Days Puss ‘n Boots: Around the World in 80 Days
1942 1942
Arkanoid Arkanoid
Aladdin III Magic Carpet 1001 (Infamous Pirate)
Argus Famicom Argus
Adisland Famicom Adventure Island
ASCII Famicom Penguin-Kun Wars
Arabian Famicom Super Arabian
Badminton Famicom Super Dynamix Badminton
Baltron Famicom Baltron
B-Wings Battle Wings/Famicom B-Wings
Bird Week Famicom Bird Week
Boat Race Seizure inducing F1 Race Hack
Boom Man Bomber Man
Brush Roller Hack of a Pirate called Bookyman
Clay Shoot Hacked Duck Hunt
Chack and Pop Famicom Chack’n Pop
Circus Chablie Circus Charlie – Menu is spelled wrong
City Connection City Connection
Challenger Famicom Challenger
Dig Dug Dig Dug
Dough Boy Famicom Dough Boy
Druaga Famicom Tower of Druaga
Devil World Famicom Devil World
Ding Dong Famicom Binary Land
Door Door Famicom Door Door
Dynamite Bowl Famicom Dynamite Bowl
Elevator Action Elevator Action
Exerion Famicom Exerion
Formation Z Famicom Formation Z
Front Line Famicom Front Line
Fire Dragon Interesting clone of the Atari game Surround
Flappy Famicom Flappy
Flipull Famicom Flipull
Filed Combat Field Combat – Menu is spelled wrong
Galaga Galaga
Galg Famicom Zunou Senkan Galg
Geimos Famicom Geimos
Gyrodine Famicom Gyrodine
Goonies Famicom Goonies
Gotcha LJN’s Gotcha! I like this one, since the Power Joy is also the light zapper!
Galaxians Galaxian
Gradius Gradius
Hyper Olympic Track and Field
Joust Joust
Karateka Famicom Karateka
Kage The Legend of Kage
Lode Runner 1 Lode Runner
Lode Runner 2 Championship Lode Runner
Lunar Ball Lunar Pool
Macross Choujikuu Yousai Macross
Magic Jewellery Pirate of Magic Jewelry
MagMax MagMax
Mappy Mappy
Millipede Millipede
Othello Pirate of HES’s Othello
Pooyan Famicom Pooyan
Pac Land Famicom Pac-Land
Paper Boy Paperboy
Pandamar Hacked Super Mario with a Panda
Penguin Famicom Obake no Q Tarou: Wan Wan Panic/ NES Chubby Cherub (w/ drastic changes!)
Route 16 Famicom Route 16 Turbo
Raid on Bay Raid on Bungeling Bay
Road Fighter Famicom Road Fighter
Sky Destroyer Sky Destroyer
Space ET Space Invaders
Star Gate Famicom Stargate/Defender II
Star Force Star Force
Son Son Famicom Son Son
Spartan Famicom Spartan X/NES Kung Fu
Spelunker Spelunker
Spy vs Spy Spy vs Spy
Squoon Famicom Squoon
Starslider Star Soldier
Star Luster Famicom Star Luster
Tag Team Tag Team [Pro] Wrestling
Tank Battle City
Twin Bee Famicom Twin Bee
Wrestling M.U.S.C.L.E.
Wisdom Wisdom Boy – Puzzle game of unknown Origins
Warp Man Famicom Warpman
World Cup World Cup 2002 Chinese hack of Soccer
Xevious Xevious
Zippy Race MotoRace USA/Zippy Race

Posted August 24th, 2011

About the author

Samuel Floyd first fell into video gaming with the Atari 2600...in the mid-90s! Always late into the system wars, Samuel enjoys that as he acquires them when they're cheap and the hot titles of yesteryear are bountiful. Samuel loves RPGs, his favorite being Crystalis for the NES.


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