The Pocket Taco is the best way to turn your phone into a Game Boy

My ongoing quest to move my iPhone into 1 of my favourite consoles of each clip has led maine to a curiously named controller. GameSir’s Pocket Taco is only hardly pocketable, and distinctly lacking successful taco fillings, but for $35, it’s an fantabulous and easy measurement to move your telephone into a Game Boy-inspired handheld for playing retro games that don’t require a brace of thumbsticks.

Unlike the Abxylute M4 mobile controller that attaches to phones utilizing magnets, aliases the Backbone Pro that sandwiches your instrumentality betwixt a divided gamepad, the Pocket Taco uses a hinged system that, for deficiency of a amended description, bites onto the bottommost half of your smartphone.

Inside the Pocket Taco, you’ll find soft silicone pads connected either broadside that securely grip your instrumentality without scratching it aliases leaving immoderate wound marks. The clasp feels satisfyingly secure, and while my iPhone could somewhat displacement from broadside to broadside while wrong the Pocket Taco, astatine nary constituent did it ever consciousness astatine consequence of falling retired connected its own.

The Pocket Taco’s hinge expands wide capable to connect to smartphones still wrong bulky cases, and its unfastened sides tin accommodate phones and devices wider than the controller itself. You could usage it pinch an iPad Mini, for example, though I didn’t person the chance to trial the ergonomics of specified a setup.

8BitDo announced a akin Game Boy-style controller for smartphones astatine CES 2026, featuring a beforehand sheet that tin afloat flip down. I couldn’t understand why anyone would want that feature, but aft playing pinch the Pocket Taco for a week, I now understand why 8BitDo took that approach.

The beforehand sheet connected the Pocket Taco tin only hinge outward astir 45 degrees, blocking the little portion of your smartphone’s surface while attached to your device. 8BitDo’s FlipPad gives you afloat entree to your smartphone’s surface and UI while it’s attached, but I often recovered myself having to wholly region the Pocket Taco if I wanted to flip complete to different app, aliases moreover conscionable unlock my phone.

I haven’t tested the USB-C 8BitDo FlipPad yet, but a large advantage of the larger Pocket Taco is that it connects to your instrumentality complete Bluetooth and has its ain 600mAh rechargeable artillery that won’t drain your phone. Opening the Pocket Taco powers it connected and automatically pairs the controller pinch the past instrumentality you utilized — successful my case, an iPhone 16 Pro. GameSir doesn’t database iOS arsenic being officially supported, only Android, but I was capable to link to the Pocket Taco and my iPhone recognized it arsenic a “DualShock 4 Wireless Controller.”

The Pocket Taco turns disconnected automatically erstwhile you region it from your phone. It powers up and reconnects quickly, though, truthful having to occasionally region the controller to entree your phone’s surface isn’t a immense inconvenience.

The Pocket Taco’s location fastener tin besides beryllium utilized to manually powerfulness it connected and disconnected erstwhile it isn’t attached to a device, allowing it to beryllium utilized arsenic a standalone rechargeable Bluetooth controller. It was easy to brace pinch the Switch 2.

The controller’s 4 look buttons and D-pad each consciousness bully pinch a coagulated click erstwhile pressed, and contempt it being a small narrower than the original Game Boy, my ample hands recovered the Pocket Taco highly comfortable to play with. The double brace of enarthrosis buttons connected the backmost were easy to reach, and the rounded edges connected the bottommost of the Pocket Taco didn’t excavation into the fingers I was utilizing to support the controller and my phone.

There are conscionable a fewer things you’ll want to support successful mind erstwhile choosing what games to play, aliases really to play them. Unlike the Abxylute M4 aliases the Backbone controllers, GameSir made nary effort to compression thumbsticks aliases sliding joysticks onto the Pocket Taco. So it’s amended suited for playing retro games from the 16-bit era and earlier that don’t person 3D environments pinch a camera to control.

I chiefly tested the Pocket Taco pinch Game Boy, Super Nintendo, and GBA games played done the Delta emulator and RetroArch connected iOS. The Pocket Taco worked awesome pinch both, but you’ll want to make judge you’re utilizing an app pinch skins aliases layout options that tin position the crippled person to the apical of your device’s screen. When I first tested the Pocket Taco pinch Delta, I turned disconnected the emulator’s default tegument to region on-screen controls. That resulted successful the crippled being vertically centered connected my iPhone and partially covered by the Pocket Taco. It was easy to fix, but statement that the controller tin only beryllium utilized successful a vertical orientation.

8BitDo hasn’t announced pricing aliases a merchandise day for its FlipPad yet, truthful I’m still funny really effective that smaller accessory will beryllium astatine turning my smartphone into a handheld console, fixed its limitations. The Pocket Taco isn’t expected to vessel until March 2026, but for $35, you get fantabulous controls, coagulated ergonomics, reliable Bluetooth connectivity, astir cosmopolitan smartphone compatibility, and the expertise to usage it arsenic a standalone wireless gamepad.

Photography by Andrew Liszewski / The Verge