A R36S Retro Handheld Video Game Console Review ► Ludology Now!

I saw an ad on Facebook and clicked on it, because I am old, yes, but because it was offering something that looked like a Game Boy with joysticks and a good screen, and claimed it could play Nintendo 64, PS1, and Dreamcast games, along with loads of others. This was an absolute win in targeted advertising, I must admit.

However, the product page it showed me, that ad on Facebook, it was for a device that cost $200. That was too much, too steep for me, especially for something I was half-sure might be fake and poorly made.

Because it seemed like it could be lies, I Googled it and found a Reddit thread of people talking about that exact device. Everyone said “Yes, this is real, but don’t pay $200 for it. You can get similar devices other places online for like $30-$40.” Those people provided examples, links. I followed them.

Turns out, those people on Reddit were telling the truth. One visit to Aliexpress later and I purchased a “R36S Retro Handheld Video Game Console,” which cost me $36 plus shipping. It’s got arcade games, NES, SNES, Famicom, N64, and, yes, even a few Dreamcast games – though not very many. At first.

How many games are on the R36S really?

All in all, there are 15,634 games which came pre-loaded on the R36S, an impressive number which gets slightly less impressive when you know that a good 10,000 of those are games you will never actually play yourself, but that’s fine. It’s got some great stuff both for me and for my kids.

There’s no beating around the bush – it’s just a bunch of emulators on a small motherboard running Linux. It’s not that special. If you are already in the retro emulation scene, this gives you nothing you can’t do on your computer basically for free. The only benefit of the device is, well, the device itself.

Anything released on console before the N64 era works fine on the R36S Retro Handheld Video Game Console with hardly any issues at all. N64 games, on the whole, tend to stutter. I’ve had mixed results with the PS1 and Dreamcast offerings, but all the Game Boy, Game Boy Advance, and DS titles I’ve played seem fine.

Of course, this is just how it comes out of the box. As expected, the R36S (and other Retro Handheld Video Game Consoles like it) have a large and dedicated modding community, and as I type this I am in the process of flashing a SD card just to see how well it all works. So far, so good.

The R36S is great for kids

If you have kids, I can’t recommend getting one of these enough. I watched my 3-year-old daughter play Kirby 64 handheld while laying in her bed. My son tried Castlevania: Symphony of the Night for the first time because he saw me playing it on the R36S. I’m playing Harvest Moon: Back to Nature on my porch, just like Natsume intended.

In real time, in between these last few paragraphs, I’ve figured out how to add my own roms to the R36S, and it’s now my favorite gaming device I own. Not only can I add whatever game I want, the R36S Retro Handheld Video Game Console also plays PICO-8 games. This might not matter for many people, but it’s very important to me, because I made a PICO-8 game.

In 2023 I participated in a game jam which required the use of PICO-8 as the project’s engine. I had never used PICO-8 before but was intrigued, and for the game jam I ended up creating Quiet Helix, a game and story that I’m unnecessarily proud of. It’s basically my take on the Metal Gear Solid formula, but de-made to original Game Boy levels, and more about evasion than action.

Is the R36S worth it?

With the R36S, I have been able to play the Game Boy-style game that I made on a Game Boy-style handheld console with my own hands. Playing your own games on PC doesn’t have this same feeling – there’s something so much more tangible about playing a game on a dedicated console. Holding my own game in my hands like this is something akin to magic, like the first time I saw a book I had written for sale in a bookstore.

In the most recent episode of Game Maker’s Toolkit, Mark Brown announced that Mind Over Magnet (which I reviewed and recommended heavily last year in this same column) is out on Nintendo Switch and Switch 2, as well as all other current consoles. He spoke about how special it was to play his game on what is basically the successor to the Game Boy, and (paraphrasing) how it feels like a dream coming full circle.

The R36S is not a Game Boy, not by any official means. Truly, its open and editable nature puts it far, far away from any and all official Nintendo products. But it kind of looks like a Game Boy, kind of talks like a Game Boy, and kind of walks like a Game Boy, even though it’s a Game Boy that can play N64, PS1, and PICO-8 titles.

For me, that’s good enough to call it coming full circle, too.

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EDITOR'S NOTE: This issue of Ludology Now! was delivered orally via a 12:30 a.m. radio broadcast and transcribed by two Bonus Action interns. Throws to commercial breaks, caller comments, and political jokes have been excluded for flow and brevity.

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