I’ve done emulation for years- mostly on Raspberry Pis via Retropie- but the past month or so I’ve gotten really into retro handhelds. It turns out that over the past few years, the custom handheld market has matured so far that there is a bevy of retro gaming handhelds at sub-$100 prices that can fit in your pocket, last like 8 hours, and emulate everything from Gameboy to PS1 perfectly. And if you’re willing to pay a little closer to $200, you can get Gamecube, Wii, and PS2 emulation that is also pretty much perfect.

I recently got an rg280v that is small enough to play with one hand and I’ve been loving it. Ngl, my prime use-cases are playing JRPGs while eating, brushing my teeth, in bed, or sitting on the toilet (I’ve got a designated clean hand, don’t worry about it!).

I’m playing through Dragon Quest III (Gameboy Color version), which is awesome so far. At first, I thought it was too basic and would be boring without a deep story, but the combat is still fun and the world is deeper than I expected. And the writing is funny and often cleverer than I expected, too!

Also playing Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (GBA) and enjoying it. I love a good Castlevania game.

I think I’m gonna end up playing a good number of JRPGs on this thing. Hoping to play FFVI, Chrono Trigger, and Fire Emblem at some point.

I also ordered an Odin 2 handheld which hasn’t arrived yet but I’m super pumped to use. It’ll let me play Gamecube, Wii, and PS2 in a Switch-like form-factor. It’s gotten pretty great reviews. Supposedly it can even emulate a good number of Switch games like Breath of the Wild. Although tbh since I already own a Switch I don’t expect to use it for that.

In regards to Kingdom Hearts: I’ve heard awesome things. It looks cheesy but I think I’ll pick this up on my Odin eventually to see what the fuss is all about.

In regards to Sierra adventures: I love point and clicks but the Sierra games seem so old and maybe rough-around-the-edges that I’m not sure I could get into them. But I do think I should give one a solid try at some point just to see.