Welcome to the Retro Handhelds Weekly newsletter! Whether you’re a seasoned modder or just getting started with classic gaming on the go, you’re part of a passionate group that keeps the retro handheld scene vibrant and fun. Dive in for the latest reviews, guides, and community highlights.
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Game of the Month: Join our monthly club to play curated retro titles and compete for RH merch. Get involved by joining our Discord community.
🎮 The guts behind the glory
- AYN Clears the Air About The Odin 3 RAM Speed ‘Controversy’: After an Odin 3 owner reported findings suggesting AYN was using slower RAM with newer batches, many began to wonder if we had another '-Gate' on our hands. Thankfully, AYN squashed those concerns, providing a succinct response.
- PS Portal rumored to get refreshed with OLED screen: It's been two years since the PlayStation Portal was released, and in that time, it's functionality has grown immensely. Now, rumors are starting to swirl suggesting a new version could be on the way, this time sporting an OLED display.
- Original N64 controller now working on Sega Dreamcast: Leave it to the community to find unique ways to enjoy our favorite games. This time, someone was able to get the original N64 controller working properly on the Sega Dreamcast.
More Hardware News
- AYN Odin 3 and Thor Officially Arrive on AliExpress…Kinda
- Hyperkin Mega 95 Is Not Vaporware, Actually
- Can It Cook Doom?
- BSS 01: The Socialist Pong Box That Cost Half a Paycheck
- Virtual Boy Owners Finally Get the Flashcart They Deserve
- Sega’s New Mini Cabs Are Here to Destroy Your Shelf Space
- GameStop Closing Hundreds Of Locations, Again
- Nintendo Year-in-Review
- The RAM Shortage Unfortunately Gets to Framework as Prices Jump
👾 Game of the Month: January is for the Backlog
GotX is short for “Games of the X“, which can be split into three categories: Game of the Month (GotM), Game of the Quarter (GotQ), and Game of the Week (GotW). Games of the Month are chosen according to a theme selected by community users who have previously beaten a GotM game for the prior month, aka “GotM Champions.”
January is a bit different from other months. You can play any three past winning Games of the Month or Games of the Quarter for your standard three completions. You do not have to follow the usual early, mid, and late date ranges, and can instead play any set of three previous winners you wish from any time period.
Game(s) of the Week
🕹️#200 (1/17-1/24) - Golden Axe II
🕹️#199 (1/11-1/17) - Kid Dracula
🕹️#198 (1/1-(1/10) - Toki
RPG of the Quarter (1/1 - 3/31)
🕹️ Your gateway to pixel-perfect worlds
- AYN Issues a Massive Thor Update: A new update is rolling out to the AYN Thor, bringing with it a total of ten different changes. These include a few different bug fixes, but it also brings an "OLED screen protection feature," along with "updated audio EQ configurations."
- Last Crown Warriors Is A New GBC Game Mashing Up Zelda and RTS: Last Crown Warriors looks like someone mashed up Link’s Awakening and a light RTS, and it bills itself as an “action-tactics” game, blending overhead action-RPG combat with territory control and base-conquering mechanics.
- Ghostship: A New Super Mario 64 Port!: As part of the unrelenting community support for N64 decompilation projects and PC porting, Harbour Masters takes on the mantle of producing their own version of the Super Mario 64 port.
More Software News
- SEGA Hopes You're Ready to Celebrate 35 Years of Sonic
- Donut Dodo is Being Ported to N64 and Dreamcast
- Cory In The House Might Be The Greatest Game Of All Time
- Sharpie fantasy console
- AMD AI Bundle
- NVIDIA DLSS 4.5 Super Resolution Available Now
- Cheevos Multiset is now out of beta
- Be careful sharing NexusMods links in Discord (could result in 2-year ban)
- EmuDevz is “a game about building emulators”. Now released on Steam
- Quest 64 Gets The Recomp Treatment
- Bubble Bobble: Lost Cave Gives C64 the Sequel It Deserved
- Archivist Recovers Footage From Monolith’s Scrapped Nolan-verse Batman Title
- New Saturn Shooter Took Five Years and Pushes Hardware To The Brink
- You No Longer Need $8K to Enjoy Delisoba Deluxe
- Super Robot Wars 64 Finally Getting English Translation
👾 Emulators: Relive. Replay. Rewind.
🗓️ Upcoming Releases
- AYANEO Pocket Vert - Shipping to begin "End of January"
- KTR2 - February 5 (Magnesium Alloy) / March 20 (Plastic)
- OneXFly Apex - February 10
- KinHank K59 - February 28
🧅
Our good friend, Russ from Retro Game Corps, just launched a newsletter of his own. So be sure to head over and sign up for the Retro Game Corps Newsletter!
Sign Up Here
Sign Up Here
✍ Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Write, Watch
AYN Odin 3 Review: The New Go-To - Retro Handhelds
In the last two years since the Odin 2 release, the handheld market has made drastic changes. Three handhelds later AYN releases the Odin 3, but is it any good?
Ban
Five PSP Games on the Mangmi Air X - Retro Handhelds
Who doesn’t love a top-five list? We take a look at five great PSP games on the Mangmi Air X, a budget handheld that feels made for the PSP.
kalkeg
PortMaster Roundup: January 1 – January 15 - Retro Handhelds
There haven’t been a huge run of new PortMaster games so far this month, but there’s a heavy emphasis on free, ready-to-run titles!
Jim Gray
Guide: Crank Up Steam Deck Performance on the cheap with Lossless Scaling - Retro Handhelds
Want smoother Steam Deck performance without new hardware? Use LSFG VK to unlock Lossless Scaling style frame gen on SteamOS and tune per title.
Nick
Epomaker RT82 Review: Retro Modern? - Retro Handhelds
Retro colorways, tiny screens, thocky sound. Sound good to you? Then the Epomaker RT82 might be the keyboard you’re looking for. But is it really any good?
Ban
Budget Beatdown: Mangmi Air X vs. AYANEO Pocket Air Mini - Retro Handhelds
The Mangmi Air X and AYANEO Pocket Air Mini are both heavy hitters in the budget retro handheld space, so we compare the two to see who comes out on top!
kalkeg
How To Upgrade Your ASUS ROG Xbox Ally Internal Storage - Retro Handhelds
Follow this simple how-to guide to upgrade the internal storage in your new ASUS ROG Xbox Ally and give your game library the space it needs.
Nick
On the YouTubes
Not only is this where you'll find the latest videos from Stubbs and Zu, but you'll also likely see a few familiar names crop up as we want to share what others in the community are up to!
💸 Achievement Unlocked: Big Savings
- Miyoo Mini Flip
- R36T
- TrimUI Brick Hammer
- ASUS ROG Xbox Ally
AliExpress Discount Codes
- USBS04 – $4 off $35+
- USBS08 – $8 off $69+
- USBS12 – $12 off $109+
- USBS25 – $20 off $209+
- USBS40 – $40 off $329+
🗣️ Stay Connected
Want more classic gaming goodness? Join the Discord, or follow us on YouTube for live podcasts and reviews every Monday at 6pm Pacific. Your feedback, mods, and stories make this community what it is, so keep sharing!