It is said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. In the days of the 7th generation console wars, fake consoles have also shown up to capitalize on the major console’s successes. Most of these fake consoles have the looks of the real consoles on the outside packaging, but on the inside, its a completely different story. Let’s take a look at some of these fakes:

The Wee: A cheap knockoff of the Nintendo Wii as shown here being sold in Japan. Makes a pretty convincing cover, but don’t be fooled. It doesn’t even feature a Wiimote on its package.

The Vii: Another Wii imitation, but this time, they even got advertised on a Chinese magazine! Its a more convincing advertisement this time as they even show models playing with a Wiimote clone.

UPDATE: It seems that the Vii now has its own TV ads:

X-Game360: You guessed it, from the name alone you know that it tried to rip-off the XBOX360

Super PolyStation 2: One of many in the PolyStation series which tried to copy the PlayStation. You’ll never guess that this console plays brick games!

FUNSTATION 3: And to top it off, the FUNSTATION3! This big black box can play… NES cartridges…

The PopStation, wow this one certainly is one to laugh about. Based on the PlayStation portable or PSP, this clone only plays an LED game.

And last but not the least: The Neo Double Games. This console takes the cake in terms of pure novelty. Based on the popular Nintendo DS, you just replace the LEDs and voila! a new game is playable… well not really as you can see in the video.

Just remember that when some things are too good to be true, it usually isn’t. Always check the contents and the label carefully before buying a console. It always pays to be careful, espescially now that the holiday season is near.