I start this write up by emphasizing that above all else, I probably consider myself a handheld kind of gamer. I've only just recently started to come around to mobile gaming thanks to my chronic timesink Wild Rift, but literally one of my earliest memories is playing tetris on the Gameboy. While I don't think this makes me uniquely qualified to tackle the absolute Swiss army knife that android gaming, and for this write up in particular, Android Emulation encompasses, I want to emphasize that this is a device made with people like me in mind. For all my countless hours spent on lengthy RPGS like Star Ocean, Persona, or any MOBA or MMO type games that reward that constant interaction, minute for minute, hour for hour, I still have more time in handheld gaming than consoles. The PSP, the GBA, DS, 3DS, not the vita because I'm broke, Gameboy, you know what I'm talking about. I am on the go a lot- I work a job that has a 40 minute commute, and sometimes it's ridiculously dead and since I'm left to run the department by myself, I have a fair share of down time. Me and Retroid were on a collision path- set to meet with each other sooner or later. And, in the case of the flip, my current fascination....
...Well, I met it's older siblings and had a lot of fun with them too. This ain't a summer romance. This is a lineage of worthy successors. But it does specifically scratch an itch I haven't felt scratched since the SP days, grinding mindlessly in Fire Red or Lufia. Retroid is a company that I've been aware of personally since the retroid 2- I was intending to get the first iteration of the retroid 2 when they released the summer colors that captured my nostalgia- and I was...Not quite blown away? I liked it well enough and it served me through a few experiences. I made it through MMBN6 Cybeast Falzar, having only completed Gregar in my youth, stress tested some PSP games and felt frustrated when Crisis Core and Dissidia wouldn't run properly, then played a bunch of N64 games and SNES RPGs until I got bored and probably went back to using my switch. Then the 2+ comes out and I'm...Actually hooked. The touch screen helps a lot- you'd have to hold down a button and change the input method here or there to navigate on the 2 so this was a major step up, allowing DS Emulation. First thing I did was emulate pokemon ranger, only to discover the touch screen...left a little bit to be desired. If you touch outside of the designated area, it drops the input, which perfectly makes sense. There's no pressure. But in a high intensity game like Pokémon Ranger where dropping the input means giving up on progress for the monster you're working to capture...yeah. However, returning to Crisis Core, I beat it in its entirety with little to no stutter on the hardware. I was impressed. It could even handle Dreamcast Emulation nearly flawlessly. I played SA2 meticulously in my youth so I could recognize when it would struggle here or there but overall, it was super decent. I even took the task of getting the notoriously finicky Sega Saturn to work, allowing me to play Panzer Dragoon Saga, which I've always wanted to do. There are some issues, but overall, I liked where the system was headed. I skipped out on the 3 seeing as how it's specs were largely similar to the 2+. But when the 3+ was announced, and the specs were quite the upgrade, I once again got interested.
As information trickled out, there was a lot of speculation. GameCube Emulation? PS2 Emulation? How far have we come? And to answer those questions now before you lose your mind in this lengthy post, decently to GameCube, in your dreams to PS2, and far enough that I'd give it an 8.5/10 for the average human, and 10/10 if you're a freak who can play Deus Ex at 50% chug. I'm that freak. I also want to make it clear that I skipped out on purchasing the 3+ - I actually did order one, but after a few weeks of it not being shipped, i realized it wouldn't have been here in time for a trip, and canceled my purchase. I do have experience with it because a friend of mine gave me the money to purchase the storage, set it up for use, and to purchase the console. I still have it for now, but I stress tested some games, beat megaman legends 2, and enjoy looking at it every so often because he has not come for it yet.
So, what would set the Flip apart from even the 3+, which by comparison, goes for a nintendo-switch inspired design? For one, it's gorgeous bulging hinges. It's an SP for the modern era, though I suppose it's more like the "Game Slave" from Invader Zim than anything else. I really felt like I was a kid again, going from the flat GBA to the SP, going from the 3+ to the Flip, the slight changing of my head's position just felt right. It sounds weird, but my hands feel like they have space to breathe properly. The overall specs outside of that are the same- Retroid touts that the Flip has better ventilation, but to be quite honest, I've never experienced any major issues from either console, unless i plan on playing them on the charger. It can run a little hot when you push it to it's limits that way, but, what do you expect? The battery is also slightly better! Not by enough to make a major difference, but the extra little juice was noticeable by me. The Retroid 2 had pretty mediocre battery life, and honestly, for a portable system, I think this is potentially one of the most underlooked features. Both have USB-C charging so no big deal there. I can usually get it ready to roll with me from dead to full in under an hour and a half, and the battery drains fairly slowly, obviously depending on the intensity of what you're up to. Last night for stress tests for instance, I ran off of the charger for a consecutive 2 hours or so of a mix between lower intensity activities for less than 10 minutes like menu navigation, extraction, etc, and the bulk being Gamecube emulation, probably the most it's capable of. On top of that- I'd record small gameplay segments, further putting stress on it, and the whole time I was deliberately using it's overclocking features to see what it was capable of. The temps never rose high enough to be a concern, and I was left with about 70% battery, which tells me it can comfortably handle about 5 hours of intense emulation per charge. Not bad. Meanwhile, the Retroid 3+ would sit at about 61% with the same settings.
But of course, we're here for the power. What can this baby pull off? Of course, the major gate here will be the emulators you select. Not every one is created equally- I generally have an easy time with most emulators, but for instance, the old Mupen64 app tends to run things absolutely terribly. My proof here isnt perfect as this is me going off of an N64's custom software developers take, but it seems that games taking a screen shot of the current scenario to overlay a menu over it, giving the illusion of it rendering both at once, tend to have an issue. On top of that, for whatever reason, pulling certain 2D assets has some...very buggy visuals.
But, at least with M64+FZ, it seems moooostly fixed. It isn't perfect- There's some disappearing menu icons in Pokemon Stadium now, but this is the only game I've personally noticed any issues with. If you have any personal requests, lemme hear em and I'll get back to you. There's a lot more I could type with my individual experiences with emulating certain consoles, but it's a fair assumption that if the system has good emulation with little issue, it's likely safe here. If you want to emulate something like Sega Saturn...It'll be difficult. If you can handle vaguely flawed emulation, you should be perfectly fine. Once over- this is why I would say it's more of an 8.5.
That being said, let's keep it interesting.
GBA Downwards [32bit emulation and below, essentially]: 10/10. No noticeable issues- the closest to a situation i noticed anything wrong was sharp lefts and right for menu navigation during WarioWare twisted have an ever so vague slowdown inflicted on the console, but that's so freaking minor, and I'm the only one who's gonna notice that. It could've been in the original, but I really don't think it did. Even so, that's literally the worst I could say about it. If you plan to play nothing else but, this is a great option.
DS: 10/10. Outside of physical issues limiting play, absolutely perfect. No complaints here!
3DS: 1/10. Citra is in it's early stages. But ooof. That's early.
PS1: 10/10. No noticeable issues no matter what I run. I'm admittedly less familiar with PS1, but the games from my childhood I'd notice issues on like Spyro, or Crash are perfectly fine- as is FFIX.
PS2: 2/10. I'm not going to sugar coat it. Spotty at best. Do not try this.
PSP: 10/10 Do try this! Absolutely perfect. I have a lot of experience with PSP and this does it justice.
N64: 9/10, as I said before it's got it's issues, but it's so minor I can't dock it any more than 1 point.
GCN: 9/10. Sliiiight slowdown on creation of large particle effects, otherwise perfect. Animal Crossing crashed once. That was weird. That's the worst it did otherwise was warn me about this issue in Soul Calibur 2 as well as Fire Emblem, which is remedied by swapping it to consume less processing, at the cost of about 50% run speed. It didn't have any issue with me ignoring the warning, but I AM ignoring a warning about it saying it'll likely crash, so! there's that.
Wii: ?/10, the very little bit i tried did not seem to work. I'll mess with it soon, but I wouldn't really know what to do on here. Any suggestions?
Sega Saturn: 7/10 I have no familiarity with this console, and Panzer Dragoon had IMMENSE visual issues. Seems hit or miss tho- Panzer Dragoon Saga worked like a charm. A charm that loses it's audio if you back out and replaces it through high decibel torture noise, but hey, PDS kicks ass.
Sega Dreamcast: 10/10 Yeah, this works immensely better. No complaints! I have no real experience playing this in person, but the frames were consistent and I couldn't notice any issues with the games I knew like the back of my hand on other consoles- SA/SA2, Crazy Taxi, and Skies of Arcadia.
General Android Gaming: 8/10 My phone is middle of the line, and runs stuff like LoL: Wild Rift more consistently. Could be the specs- but also, things like Ping and Steam Link are going to depend a lot on your internet. Mine's mediocre! So! I don't use it for that. But, I've gone through Planescape Torment, Shadowrun Hong Kong, and Dead Cells on it to general success.
FINAL THOUGHTS: With the most basic shipping, the console runs at 179$ straight from retroid. It's affordable, firmly cheaper than it's Odin alternative [though a little less powerful] and, at least for the flip, sells itself mostly on nostalgia and form. For me, it worked. 10/10 From me, big roxx recommend for anyone who is me. If you're worried about investing almost 200 smackaroos for a console you may not use, I'd say this probably wouldn't apply to you as much. Buuuut if you're feeling burned by Nintendo, or the encroaching death of the classic video game library, and have tech know-how, the Retroid Flip just may be for you.
See y'all on the flip!