My journey into the world of emulators has begun once again with the new Retroid Pocket 3+. The new emulation device scene that has popped up over the past couple years has really been interesting. Basically someone in China realized they had a bunch of smartphone spare parts and figure it out something to do with them. I've been dabbling in it off and on for over a decade now, so I thought it was time to see what all the fuss is about.
The first observation I have is that at this point in time, the updated systems are coming out fast and furious. Back in August I thought about picking one up. The Retroid Pocket 3 was just about to be released, and the Retroid Pocket 2+ had a nice little discount on it.
Just a few weeks later though, they announced the 3+ was going to come out, and it was a far superior device with a lot more power and a hard drive about four times bigger. This apparently pissed a whole bunch of people off who had just bought the standard 3. There's even one big reviewer of these systems out there who while giving the 3+ a nice review adamantly said no one should buy it because of how quickly the turnaround was.
That seems to be the norm right now though. These handheld emulators are going to see minimum to updates a year for the immediate future. It won't last too long I don't think, but it looks like the developers are finding ways to easily refine the setups and they're getting access to better and better cards.
Anyway, I'll be setting this up for another day or so, but I'm going to try and give some regular updates just in case anyone might be interested in picking one of these up for their kids or younger family members.
The first observation I have is that at this point in time, the updated systems are coming out fast and furious. Back in August I thought about picking one up. The Retroid Pocket 3 was just about to be released, and the Retroid Pocket 2+ had a nice little discount on it.
Just a few weeks later though, they announced the 3+ was going to come out, and it was a far superior device with a lot more power and a hard drive about four times bigger. This apparently pissed a whole bunch of people off who had just bought the standard 3. There's even one big reviewer of these systems out there who while giving the 3+ a nice review adamantly said no one should buy it because of how quickly the turnaround was.
That seems to be the norm right now though. These handheld emulators are going to see minimum to updates a year for the immediate future. It won't last too long I don't think, but it looks like the developers are finding ways to easily refine the setups and they're getting access to better and better cards.
Anyway, I'll be setting this up for another day or so, but I'm going to try and give some regular updates just in case anyone might be interested in picking one of these up for their kids or younger family members.
Recently Spotted:
*crickets*
Really makes me think that Marvel and Capcom need to get together and work out some licensing issues and maybe put out a Marvel collection of games, similar to what they did with the Disney Afternoon collection. Between the beat em ups and the 2D fighters, Capcom pumped out a lot of great Marvel games in the early and mid-90s.
Overall it's very smooth. The sound hiccups and stutters of little bit, but that's really the only issue I've come across and that's not bad since I can't really have the sound on in the lobby anyway. I also have to admit I'm kind of giddy being able to play this on a handheld.
Nintendo really need to HD remaster The Thousand Year Door.
My first thought was to boot up the SNES version. But after a few minutes of that, I remembered that the DS version existed. It had to cut scenes that were included in the PlayStation port and it had a few added features of its own. I never really spend any time with that version so I thought I would try that out.
The Retroid does play DS games well enough, but it's a little awkward having both screens positioned horizontally. It worked okay for Dawn of Sorrow, but it's a lot easier if you're just looking at one screen at a time. Chrono Trigger DS moved its menu to the second screen, and it's not that difficult to toggle back and forth, but it definitely slows things down. The DS version also took a hit on the original version sound which I thought was kind of odd. Because of those two issues, I didn't think I'd end up playing very long.
Then I remembered one last version that is out there. Years ago S-E made a mobile port that was very maligned, and considered a very low effort job. I purchased it, with the intention of maybe checking it out one of these days, but years later I never have.
Apparently when they released Chrono Trigger again on steam, they went back and fixed all the problems on the mobile version, so it's actually very playable now. Additionally, they added controller support to the game. For reasons I don't understand S-E does everything they can to not add controller support to their games. They're determined that mobile games can only be played with touch screen controls. Normally it's not a big thing, but it's not my preferred way to go.
Since the retroid fully supports Android games, I was able to play this with an actual built-in controller. I've now been playing it for the past 3 hours, and I've just been marveling at it. You forget just how good this game was even released in 1995. Additionally, it now has widescreen layout support, and the graphics have been touched up a bit. It's not mind-blowing, but I certainly played enough of the original that I can see how things have been smoothed up a bit. It's a genuine improvement.
At the end of the day, I would actually argue this is the ideal way to play this game in a handheld format, if not the ideal way to play it period. It looks great, sounds great, and you're not stuck with two screens or unfortunate touch screen controls.
And so far the game is pretty much as I remembered. It starts up painfully slow, but once you get a couple hours in, the game switches from constant tutorials to just tons of fun. Soundtrack is excellent too.
Anyway, Chrono Trigger got put on the back burner, and I will get back to one of these days, but I think this is going to be where my attention lies for a while.
At some point I think I will give Persona 3 FES a try. I'm definitely going to need to put some time in between the two games though. As it is I'm just a bit burned out on the formula, and the reality is P4 was the better game as far as how balanced all the aspects are. So going backwards is going to be a little bit rough, though it does have the better story if you compare the two.
As far as what's next I'm not sure. Supposedly there are several 3DS games that are handled pretty well so I might check out one of those. I may do a little more experimenting with some of the GameCube library or the PSP. Probably going to wait for the weekend though.
Unfortunately Chibi Robo pushed the GC more than I realized. The screens have a lot going on all at once so it's unfortunately too slow to enjoy.