GameStick Kickstarter

It's going to be a big year for gaming — the competitive landscape for portable, high-def consoles keeps on growing. GameStick, a small, pocketable console that uses your TV as a screen, completed a stellar Kickstarter campaign on Feb. 1 ($647K pledged of a $100K goal) and is available for preorder online starting today.

The idea behind GameStick is affordable, portable gaming. At $79, GameStick costs less than half of most traditional consoles, and the small form factor allows the GameStick to be ready for play at any time. The console's creators also wanted to harness the power of the mobile-game market by developing GameStick on an open Android platform.

At this year's CES, we met two other handheld gaming devices: NVIDIA's Project Shield and the Razer Edge Tablet, and we're curious to see how the GameStick stacks up to the competition.

Before you rush to order, see the GameStick close-up and learn more about how the console works.