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

My continued quest to turn my iPhone into one of my all-time favorite consoles has led me to a controller with a curious name. GameSir’s Pocket Taco is barely pocketable and clearly lacking in taco toppings, but for $35, it’s a great and simple way to turn your phone into a Game Boy-inspired handheld for playing retro games that don’t require a pair of controllers.

Unlike the Abxylute M4 mobile controller that attaches to phones using magnets, or the Backbone Pro that sandwiches your device between a split gamepad, the Pocket Taco uses an articulating mechanism that, for lack of a better description, bites onto the bottom half of your smartphone.

Inside the Pocket Taco, you’ll find soft silicone pads on each side that securely hold your device without scratching it or leaving bite marks. The grip feels secure enough, and while my iPhone could move slightly from side to side inside the Pocket Taco, at no point did it feel like it was in danger of falling out on its own.

The Pocket Taco’s hinge extends enough to attach to smartphones still in bulky cases, and its open sides can accommodate phones and devices wider than the controller itself. It could be used with an iPad Mini for example, even if I have not had the opportunity to test the ergonomics of such a configuration.

8BitDo announced a similar Game Boy-style controller for smartphones at CES 2026, featuring a fully folding front panel. I didn’t understand why anyone would want this feature, but after playing with the Pocket Taco for a week, I now understand why 8BitDo took this approach.

The Pocket Taco’s front panel can only swing outward about 45 degrees, blocking the bottom portion of your smartphone screen when connected to your device. 8BitDo’s FlipPad gives you full access to your smartphone’s screen and UI when docked, but I often found myself having to remove the Pocket Taco completely if I wanted to switch to another app, or even just unlock my phone.

I haven’t tested the 8BitDo USB-C FlipPad yet, but one of the big advantages of the larger Pocket Taco is that it connects to your device via Bluetooth and has its own 600 mAh rechargeable battery that won’t drain your phone. Opening the Pocket Taco turns it on and automatically pairs the controller with the last device you used – in my case, an iPhone 16 Pro. GameSir doesn’t list iOS as officially supported, only Android, but I was able to connect to the Pocket Taco and my iPhone recognized it as a “DualShock 4 wireless controller.”

The Pocket Taco automatically turns off when you remove it from your phone. However, it powers up and reconnects quickly, so having to occasionally remove the controller to access your phone’s screen isn’t a big inconvenience.

The Pocket Taco’s home button can also be used to manually turn it on and off when not connected to a device, allowing it to be used as a standalone rechargeable Bluetooth controller. It was easy to pair with the Switch 2.

The controller’s four buttons and D-pad all feel good with a solid click when pressed, and although it’s a bit narrower than the original Game Boy, my large hands found the Pocket Taco extremely comfortable to play. The dual pair of shoulder buttons on the back were easy to reach, and the rounded edges on the bottom of the Pocket Taco didn’t dig into the fingers I used to prop up the controller and my phone.

There are just a few things you need to keep in mind when choosing which games to play or how to play them. Unlike the Abxylute M4 or Backbone controllers, GameSir made no attempt to squeeze the thumbsticks or slide the joysticks on the Pocket Taco. It is therefore better suited for playing retro games from the 16-bit era and earlier that don’t have 3D environments with a camera to control.

I mainly tested the Pocket Taco with Game Boy, Super Nintendo and GBA games played via the Delta emulator and RetroArch on iOS. Pocket Taco worked great with both, but you need to make sure you’re using an app with skins or layout options to position the game closer to the top of your device’s screen. When I first tested the Pocket Taco with Delta, I disabled the emulator’s default skin to remove the on-screen controls. This resulted in the game being centered vertically on my iPhone and partially covered by the Pocket Taco. This was easy to fix, but note that the controller can only be used in a vertical orientation.

8BitDo hasn’t yet announced a price or release date for its FlipPad, so I’m still curious how effective this little accessory will be at turning my smartphone into a portable console, given its limitations. The Pocket Taco isn’t expected to ship until March 2026, but for $35 you get excellent controls, solid ergonomics, reliable Bluetooth connectivity, near-universal smartphone compatibility, and the ability to use it as a standalone wireless gamepad.

Photography by Andrew Liszewski / The Verge