If you asked people when their “golden era” of gaming was, I imagine you’ll get different answers from every single person. However I suspect the results will correlate strongly with age.
For me my console history went along the lines of Gameboy Color, PS1, PS2, Gamecube, PSP, PS3, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One X. Only in the last couple of years have I got my hands on a PS4, and admittedly it hasn’t really got much use. I still have the Gameboy Color and the PS1, and they both still work perfectly, a true testament to older tech’s reliability.
However I wouldn’t describe these two as being in the golden era at all. Gameboy Color was too limited, the lack of a backlight limited gameplay to outdoors or a well lit room. The PS1, despite being revolutionary and insanely popular with players and developers, and me having very fond childhood memories with it wouldn’t get the title from me either. Being the first generation of 3D graphics, a lot of the games were clunky and still fairly limited.
The PS2 and Gamecube were a big leap, and I loved them both dearly. Legend of Zelda Windwaker, Katamari Damancy, GTA San Andreas, Gran Turismo 4, Ratchet and Clank, Jak and Daxter, Red Faction, I could go on. The catalogue of excellent games for these consoles was endless. I still go back and play games from this generation, and I’m sure I will for years to come because there are so many of them but for me this still wasn’t the golden era, the hardware was still limiting what the developers could do.
For me, the golden era of gaming was the Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii generation. I started with the PS3, but moved over to Xbox 360 through the constant hiccups with the PSN online play. I remember when Call of Duty modern warfare came out and the only way we could play online was private games, matchmaking was completely broken. That was the final straw. For the rest of the generation I played the Xbox 360 to death. Halo, Forza and Horizon, Gears of War, Call of Duty were some of my favourite exclusives but the sheer amount of brilliant games that came out in this generation are impossible to ignore. We got not just one, but two GTA games on this platform, we got Fallout 3, Fallout New Vegas, Oblivion and Skyrim too. The Assassins Creed franchise started with this console. Oh and Far Cry made its jump to consoles in this generation too. I could go on and on about all the games for these consoles but I’m sure you can find a top 100 PS3 or Xbox 360 games list that paints a much better picture.
I practice what I preach here too. 90% of my current gaming is still done on a PS3. I have 5 working consoles and a couple of spares, and about 6 working controllers and 4 for spares. I’m into this generation for the long run. Hell I even learnt to de-lid the Cell and the RSX to ensure their longevity. I’ve got at least 150 games for the PS3 to play through, and I’m slowly working my way through them.
The beauty of this generation of consoles is that it still has all the creature comforts to not be obstructive. You don’t have to deal with component cables or scart leads, the controllers are wireless, they have Wi-Fi (except some of the Xbox 360’s), they have USB ports and they use simple 2.5″ SATA HDD’s.
If you’ve never played this generation of consoles you really should consider it, even if you did play it and have since left it behind you should pick one up. The consoles are at rock bottom at the moment.
Some of the online servers are still up on the PS3 too. This was the first and only generation of consoles that did online play properly. No micro transactions, in the case of the PS3 no subscription, just good fun online play.
I see where gaming is going, and I don’t like it. Politically correct, corporate, micro transactions, perpetual subscriptions, dopamine abusing brain rot. I don’t want any part of modern gaming if that’s it’s future. I’ve got enough games to last me a lifetime, and enough consoles to play them on. If you want a break from whichever battle royale with micro transactions style game that’s currently popular, consider a humble PS3 or Xbox 360.
Some of my most memorable gaming memories come from handheld gaming consoles. My earliest being my beloved Game Boy Color (same as the one above). My first games were Pokemon Red, Harry Potter – Philosophers Stone and Turok. Pokemon Red, Pokemon silver and Pokemon Pinball were where the majority of time with this console was spent. I have extremely fond memories of trading Pokemon in the school playground using a link cable, or sat in the back of the car on long road trips, trying to use the illumination of passing street lights to see my screen.
My childhood Gameboy Color is still alive and well, putting in a couple of AA batteries and a game cartridge brings it back to life and I have no doubt it will continue to function indefinitely, things were built to last in the 90’s!
Following the GBC I got a Gameboy Advance SP which with it’s breakthrough feature of a back light, the ability to play Game Boy Color games and a rechargeable battery largely made it’s predecessor obsolete. I really only played a few Pokemon and Zelda titles on this console, and didn’t explore the huge GBA library beyond that.
A few years later I got a PSP, this was really the first handheld that gave the ability to play console level games on the go. I had GTA Liberty City Stories, a Need for Speed title and Loco Roco. Unfortunately my PSP collected dust for the most part though, the UMD based games and proprietary memory card meant that for a young lad relying solely on pocket money, Christmas and Birthdays that expanding my collection for this console was prohibitively expensive.
My timeline is a little hazy, but somewhere along the line I got a DS Lite. I have very fond memories of the DS Lite, thinking about it now I’d actually love to own one again. The console was simple and reliable, but the 2 screens allowed developers to do completely new things. I had the usual brain training games, and Mario but there were games like Zelda which used the touch screen for movement and Plants VS Zombies used the touch screen the same way a PC game would allowing for accurate input. The console also brought about an excellent, often overlooked feature which was sleep mode. When folded away the DS would go into a low power state, and when opened it would resume a game from where you left off. This made fitting gaming sessions into very small windows of free time possible. I used my DS Lite extensively when I was travelling to and from my Apprenticeship around 2012. Waiting at bus stops, train stations or while on the transport it was now possible for me to play something without having to spend time turning the console on and off or loading saves.
The DS Lite was also where I first dipped my toes into the world of homebrew and emulation. I got a M3 flash cartridge and could extend my library beyond what my past cash strapped self could’ve afforded (Obviously I don’t advocate piracy, but downloading and playing a game that would’ve never been purchased anyway is not a lost sale to the publishers).
Following this I didn’t do much mobile gaming at all, I completely avoided the PS Vita for the same reason the PSP didn’t get much play time. I did get a used 3DS but this got very little use, and didn’t seem to get the same big library the DS did. The Wii U set the stage for the Nintendo Switch, but was largely a flop and I had no interest in that either.
When the Switch came out it instantly grabbed my attention. It had all the handheld features I appreciated from my DS, but with the added bonus of outputting to a big screen for more traditional gaming. I bought a launch edition switch (which I still have to this day, working perfectly) and amassed a huge collection of games. I still hold that Mario Odyssey is my favourite platformer to date. Pokemon Sword and Shield, while quirky and somewhat empty feeling revolutionized the franchise and I really enjoyed the Pearl remake. Where the switch really stood out was that it was bringing full Triple A quality console titles and giving you the option to play them on the go. Legend of Zelda breath of the wild is one of my all time favourite games, and it’s accessibility of being able to play it either on the go or sat on the sofa probably helped it achieve that rating in my head. I can safely say I played it about 50% handheld and 50% docked, with my playthrough lasting around 100 hours. Would I have put that much time into it being limited to only a big screen? Who knows. We also sunk countless hours into Mario Kart and Mario Party, between gatherings, evenings on the sofa and even sat on the plane. Having two controllers for certain games at all times attached to the console opened up loads of opportunities for social gaming.
Later on in my ownership of the Switch, especially as I stopped gaming online I did install CFW on, again mainly to expand the games I had access to and to try games I’d never otherwise purchase. I also began emulating other consoles on the Switch, which is surprisingly good at, especially since Nintendo re-released their old titles in the virtual consoles.
The Switch revitalized the handheld market which was previously slowing down, it showcased that the quality of a game didn’t need to be compromised just because of the consoles form factor. We now have behemoth handhelds such as the Steam Deck or ROG Ally which run Linux or Windows operating system and are capable of playing Desktop PC games. While these consoles are no doubt a technical marvel, and which are beloved by their fanbases I’d argue they’re simply too big to have that convenience factor the older generations of handhelds had. If it can’t fit in your pocket, the chances are you won’t have it with you when it’s convenient to play. Also with the sheer computational power of these new generation of consoles the battery life has taken a major hit. I noticed this even with my original Switch, I didn’t often have it with me like I did my DS. That lead me to purchase a Switch Lite, which while it lost it’s ability to be docked it had a much smaller form factor and longer battery life. It’s clear that I played this console much more than the full sized switch due to the fact that one of the analog sticks now has drift. I’ll get round to fixing that… One day!
There are alternatives to these behemoths though. Lots of companies popped up, seemingly overnight offering what are often referred to as “handheld emulators”. These consoles, from companies such as Ambernic and Powkiddy don’t offer any titles developed for them specifically but come with the ability to play games from other, older consoles. I purchased an Ambernic RG351P a few years ago, and while it would be considered archaic now it’s ability to play some games from the past hasn’t dwindled. I can play PS1, GBA, SNES, NES, Megadrive and pretty much anything earlier. The battery lasts hours and it has a very similar form factor to the original GBA. If I’d had access to this when I was a child my mind would’ve been blown, and the fact that these consoles can be bought so cheaply is astounding. Because the titles are emulated save states are available, meaning you don’t need to rely on the games own save/load system unless you choose too, which brings with it convenience and accessibility to have these shorter gaming sessions which handheld gaming lends itself so well to. The market for these consoles is absolutely saturated at the moment, so you can choose one in pretty much any form factor you can think of. As long as expectations are reasonably set (most won’t play PS2, GC and later well if at all) then you can’t really go wrong.
However, there is yet another option. You may even be reading this article on it. Android Smartphones. The majority of Android smartphones are majorly overpowered for their application if it’s a midrange or flagship device and emulators can take full advantage of this power. PS2, Gamecube, Wii and in some case even Switch titles will play better than on original hardware on these phones. Throw in a controller that grips onto the phone and you have an absolute power house of a handheld gaming device that you keep on you at all times! I’ve recently began delving deeper into Android emulation, and I feel like this deserves it’s own post so I’ll leave this topic here for now.
Overall though I’m glad to see handheld gaming still flourishing, even in a different format. In all honesty I can’t see the Switch 2 doing as well as the original Switch, I feel Nintendo have gotten far too greedy. With the Cartridges no longer containing the games, the price of games and the pushing of their online services they’ve ruined the recipe for success they once had. Unfortunately for Sony, and Nintendo the future of gaming is something they’ll struggle to capitalise on. It lies in playing games that were originally intended for other systems. Steam have done really well by making PC gaming more accessible, and it’s yet to be seen if Microsoft will try to bring a handheld that has access to their game pass library to market. If Microsoft do choose to do that, I’d hazard a guess that it’d do well. Aside from the big companies, handheld gaming sits firmly in the murky territory of playing digital copies of older games. Personally I like this, no developers are being hurt by this as the games are no longer for sale and it’s breathing new life into titles that were confined to obsolete gaming consoles, that struggle to even display on modern TV’s.
