With its hexagonal shape and gaudy lights, the GameScent itself looks right at home among other gaming peripherals. It's basically a diffuser that puffs out different smell canisters based on what's happening on screen – whether that's games, or even just TV and movies. Scents vary from pleasant, like Forest, Ocean and Storm, to questionable, like Gunfire, Explosions and yes, Blood. The idea is to help immerse you in the game (or movie) world, apparently thanks to AI that figures out what smell is needed by listening to the audio.

The whole stunt reminds us of Smell-O-Vision, a technology to pump scents into theaters that was used for exactly one movie before being abandoned. The idea was later sent-up by John Waters with Polyester, which plied audiences with the scent of roses to get them breathing nice and deeply, after which they quickly found themselves huffing farts and stinky shoes.

Whether it's a good idea or not, it got us wondering which video game series we'd want to play with a perfect-world version of GameScent – that is, one that actually works, packs an unlimited range of smells, and knows when to let 'er rip to match the onscreen action.

One of the most comprehensive worlds in all of gaming, it's hard to imagine a place with a more varied scentscape than Pokémon. Even just among the critters themselves – half of them are literally flowers, after all, and sometimes you just have to stop and smell the Roselias. Mr. Mime, meanwhile, looks like he gives off a pleasant cotton candy waft.

Others might have us busting out the nose pegs. Machamp – a gym junkie with four armpits – would surely have a bit of a locker-room stank to him. And then there's Trubbish, literally just a sentient bag of trash. Battling these guys would have a bit more of a sense of urgency with a GameScent in the room.