Powkiddy V10
Sep. 16th, 2024 03:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chuckroThis is a squat and remarkably square device, which is more screen than anything else. The unusual form-factor was the reason I bothered with it, as it’s mostly just another device in the $30-40 range that plays the standard range of classic systems.
You’d think the squat controller setup would be uncomfortable, but at least for my hands, it was wide enough to not cause issues most of the time. (I had a little hand cramping when I was trying a speed challenge in Castlevania repeatedly, but regular play was fine.) The minus button is a hotkey button, defaulting to the now-standard controls (hotkey+X to bring up the Retroarch menu, hotkey+Start to exit games, etc). The plus button doesn’t seem to do anything. The biggest problem I had with the buttons is that there’s no volume knob: I’m sure there are hotkey controls somewhere, but the only way I could find to change the volume was to go into the EmuElec settings menu outside of a game.
It runs EmuElec and reminds me a lot of the R36S in terms of implementation. The one I got came well-loaded with lower-end systems but didn’t try to pretend DS, PSP or N64 were going to run well. (Also, without analog sticks, controlling any of those would be awkward.) It gives you full access to Retroarch for save states and cheats and additional hotkeys, in addition to things like fiddling with the video settings.
Everything I read about this said it was a great system for GBA games, and that did hold true. The screen shape is ideal (3:2 ratio) and the size is good (3.5”). The fact that this doesn’t have any analog sticks doesn’t matter when you’re using a system that never had them. That said, that aspect ratio is not optimal for pretty much anything else, especially consoles that were intended to be played on a TV. And while yes, GBA games are beautiful and run well on this...GBA games run well on practically everything. It was apparently one of the easiest systems to emulate. And I feel like the recent explosion of clamshell systems using the GBA-SP form-factor have probably sewn up the market for people who are just looking for a GBA experience.
Overall: This picked one thing to do well (play GBA games at 2X resolution on a small form-factor), but that’s kind of the only selling point. It’s not quite compact/pocketable enough to compete with one of the 2.8” screen micro devices at the same price point, but a RG35XX-H or Trimui Smart Pro has it beat on power and capability for only slightly more money. I like that it’s a little different, but I think it’s trying to stand out in a niche that’s already pretty saturated.
You’d think the squat controller setup would be uncomfortable, but at least for my hands, it was wide enough to not cause issues most of the time. (I had a little hand cramping when I was trying a speed challenge in Castlevania repeatedly, but regular play was fine.) The minus button is a hotkey button, defaulting to the now-standard controls (hotkey+X to bring up the Retroarch menu, hotkey+Start to exit games, etc). The plus button doesn’t seem to do anything. The biggest problem I had with the buttons is that there’s no volume knob: I’m sure there are hotkey controls somewhere, but the only way I could find to change the volume was to go into the EmuElec settings menu outside of a game.
It runs EmuElec and reminds me a lot of the R36S in terms of implementation. The one I got came well-loaded with lower-end systems but didn’t try to pretend DS, PSP or N64 were going to run well. (Also, without analog sticks, controlling any of those would be awkward.) It gives you full access to Retroarch for save states and cheats and additional hotkeys, in addition to things like fiddling with the video settings.
Everything I read about this said it was a great system for GBA games, and that did hold true. The screen shape is ideal (3:2 ratio) and the size is good (3.5”). The fact that this doesn’t have any analog sticks doesn’t matter when you’re using a system that never had them. That said, that aspect ratio is not optimal for pretty much anything else, especially consoles that were intended to be played on a TV. And while yes, GBA games are beautiful and run well on this...GBA games run well on practically everything. It was apparently one of the easiest systems to emulate. And I feel like the recent explosion of clamshell systems using the GBA-SP form-factor have probably sewn up the market for people who are just looking for a GBA experience.
Overall: This picked one thing to do well (play GBA games at 2X resolution on a small form-factor), but that’s kind of the only selling point. It’s not quite compact/pocketable enough to compete with one of the 2.8” screen micro devices at the same price point, but a RG35XX-H or Trimui Smart Pro has it beat on power and capability for only slightly more money. I like that it’s a little different, but I think it’s trying to stand out in a niche that’s already pretty saturated.
