Opinion : EGX 2024 was awful!

I last went to EGX in 2019 and it was a great day out, a decent sized Retro and Indie Zone, lots of new and upcoming games to play and lots of big name stands, so when I read that this year’s event at London’s Excel was to be a joint show with MCM Comic Con I feared the worst and having spent the day there at the end of October I was right to do so.

Supposedly it was split into EGX on one side of Excel and MCM Comic Con on the opposite side which you’d have thought, bearing in mind the size of the halls at Excel would have meant a good show, wrong!  It was terrible, row after row of Sunday market-type stalls most selling things that had little or nothing to do with gaming (why was there a stall selling whisky?), a tiny Retro and Indie Zone, no big names and virtually no new or upcoming games to play (not even Call of Duty 6 which had recently been released!). Apart from an Asus stand promoting the ROG Ally, Modretro promoting the Chromatic and a couple of retrogaming shops selling their stock, that was pretty much it, if I hadn’t been there with a couple of friends of mine I’d have probably have left after about an hour as I’ve little interest personally in the Comic Con side of the event.

It was a very pale shadow of the Eurogamer Expo events of the past and made me feel that we were seeing the beginning of the end of EGX.

Also Excel might be big and modern but it’s really not a great venue, it doesn’t handle crowds well, it takes 15 minutes to walk from the halls to Custom House Station, and there aren’t enough toilets and what toilets there are you have to go down two flights of stairs to get to and then stand in a long queue.

If the show sticks with it’s current organisers and it’s another joint event next year then I certainly will not be wasting my money again on a ticket, it just isn’t worth it for the keen gamer.  

The solution is change the current organisers to a company who actually gives a damn about gamers, make it a standalone EGX event once again, bring back the big name companies if possible and loads of new and upcoming games to play and most of all, move it to Olympia, a venue which is easier to get to, doesn’t take forever to get to and from the station and hopefully has more toilets available!

Did you go to the show?  Do you agree with my thoughts, what did you think?  Would love to know your thoughts, feel free to comment!

EGX organisers over to you…….

My favourite retro emulation handhelds of 2024

First off I want to state that I'm not a hardcore collector of these devices so have not experienced all the devices that have released this year such as the Retroid Pocket 5 or the Odin Pro 2 and have based my choice solely on the devices that have released and I've purchased during 2024, so here we go.....

It's a tie between two superb devices at both ends of the market, I really couldn't choose one!

I'm not going to go into too much detail about both as have already posted reviews of them on here.....

So first we have.....

AyaNeo Pocket Micro

Coming in at the premium end of the market we have the AyaNeo Pocket Micro and as I stated in my review this is the most beautiful looking device I've ever seen, it's just stunning!

It's ridiculously powerful too for something so small capable of playing everything up to and including Dreamcast, Saturn and PSP and some Gamecube and PS2.

The whole machine is made of metal giving it a great feel and weight when playing.

Since getting it I've added quite a lot to it, some of which I didn't think would be possible, I've added a couple of my favourite Gamecube games (both of which play great), have got all the Mame Game & Watch games working perfectly and set up EmulationStation making it easier to play those systems such as Final Burn Neo and Pokemon Mini that do not have standalone Android emulators.

Literally everything about this device looks and feels premium right down to the real leather carry case, I love this machine and it has become one of the jewels of my collection.

And finally we have......

Anbernic RG35XX SP

I've always been a sucker for a clamshell retrogaming device so was rather excited when I read that Anbernic were finally releasing one this year and I was not disappointed!

The RG35XX SP is very much styled around the Gameboy Advance SP (although is slightly bigger and thicker), it's well built with good, responsive controls and good screen.

Performance wise it can play everything up to and including PS1, most Nintendo 64 and I believe some Dreamcast too (although have not yet tested this).

The supplied firmware on the machine is perfectly acceptable however for a better experience I recommend installing one of the available custom firmwares : Knulli, MinUI or muOS.  I went with muOS which has proved to be a great choice, it has a beautiful looking interface and is easy to use and navigate around.

Initially upon release the machine was a bit rattly when opened however the release of further colours later in the year has fixed this.

Due to it's increased size over the GBA SP it's a much more comfortable device to hold and use and closes with a satisfying snap just like the original GBA SP!

The best clamshell retro handheld currently available (although the Miyoo Mini Flip is reportedly due soon), Anbernic have really nailed it with this machine, a really terrific little device.

Antonblast (Switch and Steam) Review

Here at The Retro Joypad we don't usually feature modern day releases, however this new platformer states that it's inspired by the Wario platform games of the past so I felt that this qualified for a review.

Antonblast has just been released on both Nintendo Switch and Steam and straight away let me say this is the best platform game I've played in years and it does indeed tip it's hat to the Wario platformers of the past, it's very much in that style.

The game has a great sense of humour starting with the introductory cut scenes at the beginning and continuing throughout.

Each level is huge and will take a fair bit of time to complete offering a good and entertaining challenge, the graphics are terrific, done in a cartoony style which fit the game perfectly.

In the game your Wario inspired character can smash through blocks, travel to areas of the level further back on the screen (clever!) to name but two features.

As previously mentioned the best platform game I've enjoyed in years, if you're a platformer fan and own a Switch or a Steam Deck this is a must-have game, it's brilliant!

TrimUI Brick Review

For a long time now the Miyoo Mini Plus has been the best mini, pocket friendly retro emulation handheld but now a little known company called TrimUI has launched a new device called the Brick, is it good enough to dethrone the Mini Plus?   Let's find out......

The Brick comes in Black, White, Red and Purple and size wise is about the same height as a Mini Plus but quite a bit narrower.  When I received my black device I was initially surprised at how small it was, more so than I'd expected but it's actually the perfect size to play on and carry around, it feels great to hold.  The quality of the build is excellent and the d-pad, shoulder buttons and face buttons are all nice and responsive.

Performance wise the Brick can play everything up to and including PS1 with ease, currently the custom firmware options are a little limited consisting of MinUI and a pre-release Alpha build of Knulli (not yet fully featured) so I went with MinUI and I'm glad I did as it's an excellent choice and a perfect fit for the Brick.  It's a clean, simple, un-fussy piece of firmware that focuses mainly on getting out of the way and letting you play your games.

The games themselves look fantastic on the Brick's bright and vivid screen, impressive for such a small machine.

The only issue I have with this is that many of the Final Burn Neo games such as the 194x series are displayed vertically not horizontally making them very difficult to play and despite tinkering with every setting going there is no way of rotating them.  This is strange as the two Wonderswan Color titles, Judgement Silversword and Tetris that launch vertically can be rotated the right way up.  Hopefully this will be fixed with a future MinUI update.

Overall this has taken over from the Miyoo Mini Plus as my favourite mini, pocket friendly retro handheld and is well worth checking out.

Modretro Chromatic Review

On a recent visit to the extremely disappointing EGX at London's Excel one of the few standouts was a new GameBoy handheld from a company called Modretro entitled the Chromatic, I had a brief try on one and was immediately impressed by the build quality, the weight of it and how comfortable it was to use.

Well after a few weeks of waiting mine has finally arrived, has it lived up to my initial impressions at EGX?   Frankly, yes!   I can confirm that the build quality is outstanding, it has a really nice weight to it (I'd say it's heavier than the original GameBoy) and feels great in the hand to play.

The Chromatic comes in a range of colours and is capable of playing original GameBoy and GameBoy Color cartridges via the slot in the back of the machine and thanks to it's bright and colourful screen and the fact that the Chromatic offers pixel perfect renderings of these games they look amazing!  As I don't own any GameBoy cartridges I've not yet been able to test these however the two GameBoy Color cartridges I own look stunning!

Modretro have also released a range of new GB and GBC cartridges which are now available to purchase and pre-order through their website.

Like the original GameBoy the Chromatic comes bundled with a new, officially licensed version of Tetris and this is a really great version, it's in full colour, looks sharp and bright on the screen and thankfully they've retained the iconic music too! 

One downside with the Chromatic is that it’s a bit finicky with flash carts, I prepared an EZ Flash Jr. with GB and GBC roms ready to use in it, the cart itself loads fine however at time of writing none of the games will load. I’ve had it confirmed to me by Modretro on Reddit that this is being looked into and worked on so hopefully before too long it’ll be fixed.

This is a really quality device and if the rumoured GameBoy Advance they're reportedly working on is half as good as this we should again be in for something special.

A GameBoy and GameBoy Color for the 21st century and highly recommended.

POCA! Glasgow Review

And now, as they say for something completely different.  I came across this on Kickstarter a few weeks ago and decided it sounded interesting enough to support, and last week I finally received my printed copy.  It is a little pocket-sized book called POCA! which is basically the adventures of a GameBoy Camera of the same name which is switched on for the first time in years, it's owner then makes the camera fully autonomous allowing POCA to go out into the wide world and take their own photos.  

The first volume is set in Glasgow and is a mixture of comic book drawings and the beginning and images of Poca checking out various Glaswegian landmarks, the story is quite charming and highly readable.  The book is of high quality and well drawn.  I am so glad I decided to check this out as it's a very unusual and original idea.

Two more volumes are due to launch on Kickstarter in the future, volume 2 will be set in Honolulu and the final volume will be set in Japan which promises to unveil Poca's origins, can't wait!

Should you wish to purchase a copy of volume 1 for yourself printed and digital editions are now available from the author’s store at https://www.jofamo.com/store

Pokemon Race Mini Review

Regular readers will know that I'm a bit of a fan of Nintendo's smallest console ever the Pokemon Mini, it didn't have a huge amount of games released but what titles that were brought to the device were pretty good and fun.

A number of games were only ever released in Japan including Pokemon Race Mini, an enjoyable title which sees you racing your Pikachu against other Pokemon over a number of different courses to obviously come first.

In Grand Prix mode there are three difficulty levels : Easy, Normal and Hard and three cups to compete in : Rookie, Super and Hyper.  There's also a Time Attack mode, a Challenge mode and a Ditto mode (not sure what that is).

The graphics are really clear considering it's running on such a small device, the music is catchy too and the races are really fun and challenging, although a bit easy on the lowest difficulty, I won every time!

A Japanese language cartridge is pretty rare to come by these days, and when they do appear on eBay they tend to be expensive, thankfully an English language rom is available online which can be added to retro emulation handhelds and is by far the best way to play.

A fun and entertaining little race game for the Pokemon Mini, well worth a look.

AyaNeo Pocket Micro Review - the most beautiful retro emulation handheld ever!

AyaNeo have been responsible for some of the most premium retro emulation handhelds of recent times, producing such devices as the Pocket DMG and the Flip DS, and now they're muscling in on the mini handheld market with the Pocket Micro.  This comes in three colours : Soul Red (my choice, pictured), Magic Black and Retro Gray.

First off I want to say that this is without a doubt the most beautiful, premium and stunning looking retro emulation handheld I've ever seen, it looks and feels just amazing!  The screen while small is bright and sharp and perfect for retrogaming.  It does feel a bit strange playing Dreamcast, Saturn and PSP on such a small screen but you soon get used to it!

All systems up to including Dreamcast, Saturn and PSP are supported and some Gamecube and PS2 games are playable too but not the full catalogue.

It is an Android device so setting up is simply a question of connecting to Wi-Fi, signing into Google and installing whichever emulators you require then adding your roms.  I did run into a couple of minor issues during setup however, I couldn't get any games to load initially on the Yaba Sanshiro Pro 2 Saturn emulator but this was fixed by changing the aspect ratio in the Settings to fullscreen and on the GG Nostalgia Pro GameGear emulator I couldn't add the entire game directory (got an error) so had to add each game individually but other than that it was pretty straightforward as have set up a number of Android devices previously.

The Pocket Micro is made entirely of metal so has a really nice weight to it, this is a substantial unit.  Despite it's boxy, square appearance it's really comfortable to use as well.

AyaNeo have also provided two bits of software of their own : AyaHome, their own Android launcher and AyaSpace, an app for launching your retro games.  I've not tried either as yet as prefer to use ATV Launcher Pro as my launcher but if I do try them I'll come back and update.

Another issue is that if you wish to connect the device to a PC or laptop you have to switch off the controller button from the swipe-down menu before connecting but once that's done a PC or laptop recognises it just fine.

To sum up I absolutely adore this device, it has taken over a my go-to, favourite mini handheld, it is just gorgeous and I love the Soul Red colour.  This is a premium, well built device with great performance and emulation and I've no hesitation in recommending it.