I missed the original handhelds era. When the Game Boy arrived, the idea of burning all my pocket money on AA batteries and £30 cartridges felt deranged when I could buy a C64 tape for three quid. So I clung to the C64 far too long, mostly dodged gaming while at university, and emerged just in time for Sega’s death spiral (of course I bought a Dreamcast) and then Microsoft trying to punch Sony’s face off. But it was the Game Boy Advance that really captured my imagination.
I’d long plunged down a retro-gaming rabbit hole through Mac emulators and a modded Xbox I could flip between my OutRun 2006 obsession and classic systems. But the GBA was like a handheld SNES, and its tech limitations forced developers to get creative. The games hit that sweet spot of innovation and old-school that I loved. Plus, by that point, I could afford 30 quid for a cartridge.
Next came the DS, which taught me the joy of touchscreen controls – making it doubly odd that I later loudly declared phones could never do ‘proper’ games. Oh dear. Cue one iPhone 3G purchase, followed by many hours playing and writing about hundreds of mobile titles while valiantly defending the platform online and celebrating oddball indie fare like Device 6 and Eliss.
Over time, I’ve watched ambition grow in mobile, which seems increasingly keen to replace traditional handhelds – and even telly consoles. We’ve seen everything from AAA titles on app stores to snap-on controllers. But now the Ayaneo Pocket Play seeks to shake things up further by being a smartphone that can transform into a handheld console via a slide-out controller. Given the huge Android library and Ayaneo’s experience in handhelds, this should be my dream device. So why aren’t I more excited?
Ayane-no?
It’s not one deal-breaker so much as a combination of factors. For starters, the Ayaneo Pocket Play is not an iPhone, which would mean me switching platforms. Not ideal. Then there’s the price. Anything powerful enough for AAA and fancy enough to replace a flagship will cost a small fortune. And if it doesn’t, inferior specs would make the Ayaneo Pocket Play a poor candidate as my sole device, in which case I’d sooner stick with a Retroid Pocket.
The controls and ergonomics look… optimistic. I’m not keen on recessed D-pads, tiny triggers or touchpads pretending to be joysticks. And beyond inevitable hand cramp, there’s the chonk factor. Those controls can’t magically vanish and so lurk under the phone when they’re tidied away. That means the Pocket Play will take up more of your pocket when you’re not playing it. I’m no Jony “thinny thin thin” Ive disciple, but there’s a limit.
Mainly, though, I’ve realised I often prefer bespoke purpose-built gadgets that stick to what they’re good at. Mobile games on mobile hardware. Console games on actual consoles. And for those times when I do want physical controls on a touchscreen phone, I can grab a Backbone One or a GameSir G8. I don’t need to buy an entirely new phone.
Still, who knows? I was wrong about iPhone gaming and I could be wrong again. Maybe there are millions of Xperia Play fans awaiting a triumphant return of this form factor. Perhaps Ayaneo will shake things up so dramatically that Tim Cook will hastily bin the iPhone Fold and green-light an iPhone Play instead. But there’s as much chance of that as me revisiting games I played as a kid without quickly realising my youthful skills haven’t respawned after a 40-year countdown.
- Now read: Why I’m buying my first CD player in 20 years
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