JayJ

Never understood valuing games by how unopened they are.

The sad state of the gaming community these days.

This looks like a device that I would have thought of as really cool and high-tech back in the early 00's.

Looks like one of the best accessories without much to do with it. I mean After Burner was a good game back in the day, but we have really moved past it, and 16-bit games don't really demand a fight stick unless you're someone who really misses the old arcade feel.

I really love the design of this, but that said it doesn't seem to do much that my older Anbernic handheld like this can't do. I mean if you're getting a handheld without an analog, the PS1 is about as far as you're going to go, and they had good performance for that back when I bought mine. I'd probably buy one if I didn't already have one like it though.

Wonderswan, now there's an odd old handheld platform.

Great article! The Neo Geo is pretty much prime 90's greatness.

Best name for some unreleased handheld

@RetroGames Same. The game we got in the end wasn't the game I was always looking forward to.

One of the few I got is a picture my sister took of me when I was playing StarCraft on my old Windows ME PC, the first PC I ever had, back when I was gaming on an old basic Compaq with a 15" CRT monitor.

Cool if they could get a simple plug-in accessory for it to work.

Great, now if only someone didn't steal mine.

@Hikingguy Yeah, I'm pretty bummed out about it myself. Sad state of affairs.

@Hikingguy Sadly this sort of thing is nothing new, I remember hearing about how they had to be careful and ship consoles to retailers at some odd hours in the middle of the night back in the day in Japan to avoid having things stolen by criminals who prey upon the usual shippers.

That said, seeing how distinctive and limited these are, it would probably be hard for the thieves to unload them without getting caught. I mean it's not like this is some mass produced popular platform.

As someone who pre-ordered this, I am pretty sure I've been effected. This really sucks, but so long as I get one before long I should be fine. I'm just glad I didn't need it as a gift.

This guy was probably largely responsible for getting me into gaming, some of my fondest memories with video games was the Genesis era and Sega Channel, as that was my first console. Sega Channel was truly something special for it's era, and the games they had back then always stood out to me. His only big mistake was the 32X and the way everything fell apart with the Saturn. Heck I remember how by the time I finally upgraded from my old Genesis I went straight to a PS1 because the Saturn was pretty much dead already. Luckily the Dreamcast was amazing, a last hurrah for Sega, but that was a different era.

I think this mini-retro computer concept is a really neat idea. Would love to see more of this, especially if they can deliver the authentic retro computer experience with a keyboard and mouse if you needed one.

I always thought it would be cool if they went back to a retro setting like the 60's or 70's. After GTA4 and 5 I am kinda tired of the modern setting. It's nice, but I would like something that feels fresher and different.

It's funny how humble the series origins were, because I think GTA 1 and 2 were rather niche/cultish games back in their day. Like I remember playing the GTA2 demo a lot on old PC's back in the day, but outside of that it was a series that hardly anyone seemed to play. GTA3 is what caused it to really blow up, probably because it was essentially the first big ambitious 3D open world action game. Driver 1 and 2 really laid the groundwork for what GTA3 captured, but they were focused simply on driving cars and nothing besides driving around really. GTA3 made the on-foot action as important as anything. I think that's also why Driver 3 had such a poor reception, because it came out after GTA3 so everyone had far higher standards than before, and it's on-foot action couldn't compete.

Nothing could have saved the 32X, because it was genuinely awful hardware and a terrible idea.

Rockstars early years are incredible, I even consider their PS2 era to be early these days, but that PS1 era brought about some stuff that felt very fresh for it's time.

How could there be only one of these left in the world? Always wanted to play the game on one.

@MSaturn That reminds me of what happened to Namco after the Bandai merger. They went from making a wide variety of games and being one of my favorite developers to focusing heavily on anime games and IMO they were making better games before.

@SuperToe Love how covid has been the excuse for, like, every failed business venture over the past 2 years.

I've been waiting on these to play DC and N64 games smoothly before I plan on buying another. Been really happy with the Anbernic devices I already got though.

@Zverik Yeah without articles like this I would probably just be ignored or laughed at for even trying to casually bring up the topic of the Intellivison Amico. Now we can discuss it, in all it's doomed glory!

Oh wow, glad I never bought the original, this update looks a lot better.

Glad this has managed to succeed in it's own cultish way. So many of these ambitious side-platform consoles seem to go belly-up before they really accomplish much of anything.

I love the Anbernic handhelds, got 3 of them and the quality has always been excellent. That said I don't think I would pick up this one simply because I think it's size factor competes with the Switch too much, that and I am planning on getting a Steam Deck soon which should be the king of emulation handhelds.

Still, that said these things are just excellent for anything up to the PS1 in my experience, the latest hardware might even be able to play N64 and DC smoothly, platforms that the older hardware used to struggle with emulating. It's hard not to love these things once you get them setup properly.

The only problem I got with this is how expensive it is. The only sites I can order it from are not exactly ideal, and it's going to cost about $450 for the system shipped with a paddle controller.

One of the appealing things about the NeoGeo Mini and the Sega Astro City Mini were how relatively cheap they were. I thought the NeoGeo was ideal for a little novelty system like this, and the Astro City was about as expensive as I thought it could be worth. Admittedly this is even more sophisticated, but it's still just a mini arcade deal and it's expensive enough to be competing with more full sized arcade cabinets that I can get from companies like Arcade1Up. I mean if I go all out on this Taito system it's about $600, which seems kinda crazy to me considering what it is.

@smithyo What I have seen from the racism claim is that a traditional style sunhat is somehow racist? Like the freeze frame in the claim was a frame of a character getting attacked if they were referencing the goofy way they looked. Heck the game seems to be going for a cartoony, goofy look anyways for all the characters. Really grasping straws there.

Love how you guys keep writing articles about these devices, it's like you just got into the whole retro handheld scene that I was into earlier this year. This is definitely one of the best devices on the market for the money, and a must-have for fans of the original Game Boy design.

@Tedikuma Yeah same, the 351 V and M are easily the best right now, I got both of those, but the P is also great and pretty much a cheaper M.

The Gameforce is also worth looking into, a bit more ergonomic and it sort of blends the advantages of the two different Anbernic 351's, you got the 4:3 screen with a horizontal handheld, but like most things it's got it's own advantages and disadvantages. These are the 3 I got right now, but I also got a 280V which is a cool little mini take on these, it's actually the first one I got that got me into these.

I think the Anbernic is the clear winner here. I actually got into these devices fairly recently and the Anbernics are very impressive, well made and I love how everything feels focused around retro gaming with the 351 interface. The Retroid is cool for people who want Android and a bit more that they can do with it, so it's all on your needs really. I just think the Anbernic 351M is pretty hard to beat though, a real top quality device for the money.

@HammerGalladeBro Yeah that's how I feel. Atari was before my time so I have no real attachment to that brand or it's early consoles. That and this isn't a real Atari anyways, it's just some low-end PC with Atari branding. The whole concept just looks really lame, and I bet people will wind up just using these for emulation.

Well this seems to be the issue with these consoles, they are interesting but the availability sucks.

The problem I got is how there was too much of a focus on their 80's games and not enough of a focus on their 90's games. A lot of those old 80's games got console ports so I have played them already while there is tons of great Sega arcade games from the 90's that never got a decent home port. I guess I am still waiting for them to release them.

Looks like something that could have been released about 20 years ago. I am not impressed.

This is kinda neat but it's also just way too small to be useful. They should have made it bigger so I could actually enjoy playing games on it. As it is I just gotta pass on this despite being a big Sega fan.

This just reminds me of the touch screen control method era back when they didn't have an analog stick or slider pad so they had to try and replicate that with a screen... that was a dark era.

@SuperKMx Yeah I feel like this will mostly appeal to people who would actually get good use out of the multiplayer. The games are sorta aimed around that and it would be a fun setup for people doing that with the stand.

@stevep Yeah most of the SNK fighting games haven't really aged that well IMO, they might be more fun if you play them vs local multiplayer but I never really seem to play them that way. In single player the computer is usually too difficult/cheap and they usually have the unbeatable boss syndrome, a thing that was really common with their fighting games. It's pretty much everything else that I really enjoy the most on the platform which is why it's a real shame how they seemed to focus so heavily on the fighting games for this.

@SuperKMx Yeah the game selection feels like the only thing that could be a real deal breaker for me. I was fine with the limited game selection on the Neo Geo Mini since it was just a cheap and small novelty item, but this is a far bigger and far more expensive item so I would want it to have some more essential games. If it had the entire Neo Geo catalog it would be an instant buy for me, but as it stands it's a tough thing for me to convince myself to buy.

Got some mixed feelings on this. I think it's ridiculously cool how it looks like the old arcade cabinets, and I love the arcade controls, this is far more appealing to me than the Arcade Stick Pro ever was, but it's also really expensive for what I'm getting and the game selection is nothing special. I already got all these games and more on my Switch and I have the Hori arcade stick for that so this really isn't adding anything that I don't already have. I would just be getting it for the novelty really and I think it's a cool novelty item but there's also numerous arcade cabinet deals for the same price range or less and it's just not the type of thing I really need.

This is why I haven't bought any of those analogue consoles, this seems like the best solution for the money.

Does it play Sega CD, 3DO, Saturn, and Dreamcast? Can it play Atari Jaguar cartridges? If so this is a total must buy.

Screw next gen consoles, this is what I want for the holiday season!

This is the retro console that I have been waiting for. The Analogue consoles are cool and all but they are expensive in their own right and it's more hardware to deal with.

@KitsuneNight Yeah that's the problem with the old approach to digital games that Nintendo had. If your console died you lost all your games since they were tied down the console, not an account. Luckily that isn't an issue with accounts.

@PixelMist I have bought plenty of games that later got delisted, but it has never effected my digital library. Games still work, I can still download them whenever, it's only a problem if you missed out.

@TheWingedAvenger Yeah this is one of those things where I see it having a niche market with aging retro gaming enthusiasts who are nostalgic for old games from the 80's and early 90's. Can't say that I could see anyone else wanting it though unless it gets really cheap with a bunch of game collections included. Most kids who are interested in classics will just play them on their Switch or mobile phone with an emulator. They don't exactly have the money to be going out and buying a handheld and lots of games like this when it doesn't have anything else to offer really. A Switch is more expensive but it's got far more to offer kids who are likely to be desiring Fortnite over old Atari games.