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.