My Favorite Retro Handhelds of 2024 (So Far)

[Music] hey everybody this is Ruster Metro gamecore Believe It or Not 2024 is now halfway over and so I think it's a good time to just pause and reflect on all the different retro handhelds that have released so far this year so we're going to do a Roundup of my five favorites altogether and there have been a ton of different handhelds releasing so far this year and so it was very hard to narrow it down to five I spent a lot of time hemming and haing and I will have some caveats and Runners up that I'll mention throughout the video as well and when you put them all together it's pretty exciting how many good quality handhelds have released so far this year and it does make me excited to see what we'll see throughout 2024 and so without any further delay let's go ahead and Dive Right [Music] In now before we jump into my favorites let's set a couple ground rules the first is that every handheld shown here today was released in 2024 there have been a bunch that came out in 2023 and are still awesome but I rounded all those up in my favorite handhelds of 2023 video I'll leave that one link down below if you haven't seen it already in addition in order to narrow it down to just five different handhelds I did have to keep the categories pretty Broad and so these are all going to be retr based handhelds that are focused on emulation but we're not going to do a deep dive into each of these categories in fact just a couple months ago I did a video about my favorite handhelds under $100 and that I would say is a a lot deeper into the whole budget category than what we're going to talk about here so I'll also leave that video link down below because I think it's one of my favorite categories all together I love the idea of being able to play as many games as possible for the least amount of money as possible as well and so that's really it when it comes to the ground rules has to be released in 2024 and we are going to use somewhat broad categories but I think other than that we're ready to go so let's start with what I'm calling my favorite game boy and this is going to be the funny playing Game Boy Color like with all the devices we'll talk about today I have in-depth reviews about them and in this review I found that I really enjoyed this for just a very typical game boy style experience for example if you just grew up playing the game boy or Game Boy Color and you want to relive that experience then I think this is going to be your best bet it really does have that same level of Simplicity you can throw in your cartridge flip on the switch and Away you go now this one's unique in that you actually put it together yourself think about it like a Lego set so it takes about 20 minutes to put together and that's part of the satisfaction as well is that you can choose all the different color options that you want and then put it together into something of your own and thankfully the shell that they have is a Game Boy Color clone and so it feels almost exactly like the original so I really enjoy that as well now besides just feeling like an original console it does have some Modern upgrades including a rechargeable battery with a USBC connection and then also a backlit LCD display which looks night and day better compared to the original now this device is actually using an fpga which is a sort of Hardware emulation and so it really will behave like an original Game Boy and Game Boy Color and it comes with both of those cores so you can boot it up and it'll think that it's a Game Boy or you can switch it over to Game Boy Color and it'll think that it's a Game Boy Color now in addition to the old Game Boy and Game Boy Color carts you can put in the back it also is compatible with a flash cartridge so you'd be able to put a bunch of games onto an SD card and then boot them from that and so really it is very much so like a Game Boy or Game Boy Color but upgraded for 2024 and the best thing about it is that it is relatively cheap it's only $83 after shipping and all that and I think that a great deal especially if you tried to update an old game boy or Game Boy Color it's going to cost you a lot more than that and I don't think that a modded game boy is going to be as good as an FP GBC anyway and so this is definitely a top pick for me and my favorite way to play game boy right now now let's say you don't have a hankering for just Game Boy and Game Boy Color you want to try out some other systems so let's move into the next category which I'm calling my favorite budget pick and this one is actually a two-way tie and I know it's totally cheating but hear me out here to start let's talk about my choices so we have the amernick rg35 xxh and then the rg35 xxsp and both these devices use the same chip and they have the exact level of performance and they can even share software in terms of performance you can expect it to play all the way up through PS1 perfectly and you can play a good amount of Dreamcast and Nintendo 64 as well now because these devices are so similar in terms of the software and even the hardware underneath it really comes down to the form factor and what's a better fit for you let's start with the RG 35xx this this is a horizontal handheld and has a couple perks over the other one including analog sticks as well as stereo speakers so I think this one's a better pick if you're going to be focusing on whether or not it's going to be functional and comfortable because I think the rg35 xxh is better in that regard now the RG 35xx SP excels in different ways I think number one is the fact that it is just so nostalgic it looks so much like a Game Boy Advance SP but a little bit upgraded as well and I know there are a lot of people who are driven by a love for this form factor and so I totally get it and I think this is an excellent match right there on top of that because it's a clamshell I think it's more durable you can just kind of close it up throw it in your pocket or your bag and you don't really have to worry about using a case with it and so both of these devices are very good and are my top pick it really is going to come down to what fits you the best and like I mentioned there are a ton of different software options for these devices and they're compatible between the two you can even swap micro SD cards to try them out between one and the other I just recently made an entire starter guide about this series where I talk about to your custom firmware options and even show you how to get some of them up and running and these devices are relatively affordable you can usually find them somewhere between 50 and $75 depending on where you shop and so I think that's well worth it considering the amount of performance that you're going to get here and even for me I'm just torn about which one I like the best there are times when I'm playing the SP and I'm like oh yeah this one's definitely the best of the bunch but then other times I grab the H and I'm like oh no this one's the best and so I'll let you decide which one you think is the best fit for you but either way you just can't go wrong with picking up either of them okay next we're going to scale things down a little bit and talk about my favorite micro device right now and this is a pretty hot topic because there have been three that have released so far this year that I think are really great the first is the gkd pixel this one is actually a vertical metal handheld it's a really unique device and this one's been slowly winning over the hearts of people who have been buying it but I still think that it has quite a few shortcomings including the fact that it just feels pretty small and cramp to use when it comes to this category of Micro Devices which are smaller handhelds that you can kind of just throw in your pocket and take around town then I've always found that horizontal versions work the best for me just because they're a lot more comfortable to use and so the two that I've been weighing back and forth over the past 6 months or so have been the amernick RG 28xx which is just a smaller version of the other budget ones we were just talking about and then the new Miu a30 and both these devices released around the same time and initially I really preferred the RG 28xx it has a little bit more performance and I think that the screen is better as well however since then the Miu a30 has slowly but surely been upgrading itself in fact I ordered a new model maybe about a month ago and that came in the mail and this one actually has better controls than the review unit that I had it's a little bit less mushy and more tactile it's not quite to the point of passing the Contra test but it is a lot closer than it was previously in addition there have been some software updates that have fixed the overall experience including a firmware update but then also custom software as well it all started with ra30 which is an SD card overhaul made by one of these same develop Vel opers for the original onion OS and so this has basically improved a lot of the preconfiguration for the device to streamline the user experience after that another OS solution came out called Spruce which builds upon ra30 but then gives it a nice streamline skin as well so this allows you to navigate through your games much like the original operating system but then when you boot it up it has all those preconfiguration and so this is a really good mixture between the two and has definitely tipped me over in favor of the a30 over the ambern RG 28xx another thing that doesn't help with the amberik model is that I've never gotten used to these really small face buttons I think these could have been a lot bigger and that would have made the whole experience a lot better for me now among all the micro handhelds that have released so far this year none are perfect even the a30 still has some other issues including the fact that it gets a little bit more warm than I would like however among all of them I surprise myself in finding that it's the Mio a30 that I like playing the most and I think as long as we keep seeing software updates for it over the rest of this year it'll continue to be one of the Front Runners among this category okay next we have a category which I'm calling my favorite retro machine and this one is going to be the amberik RG Cube which just recently released I'll leave the whole review video link down below but in a nutshell this one is a compact and smaller handheld that runs Android and has a unique 720 X 720 Square aspect ratio screen and even though that might seem like a weird aspect ratio it actually works out really well for certain use cases and so when it shines it really does shine some of my favorite types of games to play on this include vertical shooter games as well as Square aspect ratio systems including p8 Game Boy Game Boy Color neoo Pocket color and so on I've also found it to be surprisingly good when it comes to standard 4x3 content you're going to get some black bars at the top and bottom but they are very easy to ignore When You're In the Heat of the Moment playing a game and the device has quite a bit of power it's able to play most GameCube in PS2 games and I found that to be one of my favorite things about it is that it's so Compact and small and comfortable to use but it also packs enough power to be able to play some Gen 6 systems and so I've been playing through games like Paper Mario and really enjoying that experience now like with all these devices this one is not perfect for example it's quite expensive it's about $170 or $180 but then also the analog sticks on this are just not the best they don't have much of an analog style input to them instead they behave more like a traditional joystick with an eight-way control additionally there have been issues with light bleed with this screen especially with these early units and so I talk about this a lot in that review video which I'll have linked down below but yeah it's not a perfect device but when it comes to just playing retro games I found that I've really enjoyed that experience now I get it this device kind of looks like a toy but that's part of the appeal for me because it reminds me of a GameCube which if you look at it it kind of does look like a little bit of a toy as well and when you combine that with the fact that this can play GameCube games I found it to be an excellent match so in terms of just playing older retro games this has been my top pick and finally we're going to go into my last category which is going to be my favorite device all around and this one is actually one that came out right at the beginning of the year and it's called the retroid pocket 4 Pro now the reason why this handheld gets My overall pick in terms of just favorite handheld device is because of that price to Performance it cost $199 before shipping but the performance on this is quite a bit better than anything else we've talked about so far here today this is a device that can reliably play just about every PS2 in GameCube game but then also upscaled to increase the resolution and of course every system below it including things like Sega Saturn which is pretty hard to run also plays really well now in addition to all that Retro Game emulation it also has a widescreen 16x9 aspect ratio which is going to be really good in many contexts to start there are many games up through like Dreamcast Nintendo 64 GameCube and PS2 that work with widescreen sheets or hacks and so you can blow up the image to the entire screen and it's going to look great it almost feels like a remastered version of these older games in addition if you wanted to play more widescreen systems like PS P or even try your hand at Nintendo switch or PS Vita emulation those are all going to play pretty well on the screen too and then finally if you wanted to use it for game streaming either from like a PlayStation or an Xbox or maybe using some game pass on the cloud or even streaming it from your home PC you can do all that here and it's going to scale really nicely on that 16x9 display and so that's the reason why the retroid pocket 4 Pro is my favorite allaround because for the price you get some really excellent performance and it's compatible with more systems especially the more modern ones now my my only complaint about the retroid pocket devices is that the screen just feels a little bit small when you're playing more modern games it's only 4.7 in I think that if it was actually a full 5 in it would be much better and that actually leads to my two runnerup devices within this category and I want to give them a quick shout out because these both have 5 in or larger displays and so they might be worth your consideration as well the first will be the ambern RG 556 this one has a better screen it is 5 1/2 in and AMOLED and it looks amazing I also think it has better ergonomics it's just a lot comfier of a grip even though it is a larger device as a result and this one has the same processor as the RG Cube and so same performance here it can basically play most PS2 and GameCubes not all of them like the retroid pocket 4 Pro but very close and I think this one is priced right as well it's about $175 which I think is a good price to Performance ratio as well just bear in mind this one like all the others is not perfect and this one has those same analog sticks as the RG Cube which just don't give you that full analog inp that you might expect and then finally my last runner up in this category is going to be the Odin 2 mini now this one is excellent in many ways it has a 5-in display which is actually mini LED and super bright and it's also a very Compact and comfortable handheld and it looks like a PS v which is kind of amazing in addition this one is quite a bit more powerful than all the others we've talked about this has a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 which means that anything that can play on Android this will be able to play however I do have two Hang-Ups with this device the first is that it's relatively expensive it starts at $340 and I don't think that there's a $140 price difference between this one and the retroid pocket 4 Pro and so if you are looking for the best bank for your buck again the retroid is going to win that $140 price difference between the two is pretty large and also the way that I see it if you are going to buy a high-end Android device this one is not my top pick I prefer the original Odin 2 which came out last year which again was on my list of top devices of 2023 and of course I'm not saying Odin 2 is a bad device obviously it's a runner up in this category but if I had to choose between the two and with that price difference in mind I think that the retroid pocket 4 Pro is my overall favorite in this category and so really that just about wraps it up I wanted to categorize each of my favorites so far in 20124 and just show you which ones I like the best now I'm really curious to hear which ones you like the best that have come out so far this year like I mentioned there have been so many good handhelds that have come out and I'm really excited to see what's going to happen throughout the rest of 2024 so let me know what you think in the comments down below and if you want to learn more about any of these devices I will have links to their full reviews down below as well as always thank you for watching and be sure to like And subscribe if you found this helpful and we will see you next time happy gaming [Music]

Channel: Retro Game Corps

Views: 177,949

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Id: gfL1-awyt0o

Length: 14min 56sec (896 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 28 2024