Copyright XDA Developers
Anyone who knows me knows how much I love handheld gaming. I would jealously stare at the kids in class who had Game Boys or Game Gears, wishing one were mine. That was because of the rule that no video games were allowed in the housegrowing up, so I didn't get one of my own until many years later. Since then, I've owned or used a wide range, mostly from Nintendo, until the explosion of the PC gaming handheld market in recent years. But while I use my ROG Ally X for many things, my Nintendo Switch 2 for couch gaming, and have a Steam Deck and Lenovo Legion Go to round out the collection, they're all beaten in sheer hours used by one pocketable handheld that doesn't even have internal memory to store games. The ModRetro Chromatic uses Game Boy and Game Boy Color cartridges, whether they're retro classics or the newly developed games the company has published, and there are a few reasons that it's never far from my hands. Nostalgia is a heck of a draw I grew up in the 8-bit era and there is just something about cartridges Growing up while cartridge-based consoles took over the country's living rooms, I'll always have a soft spot for sprite-based gaming. The days before endless fetch quests in ever-expanding virtual maps. Before 3D took over as the dominant force. And before downloadable games. There's something about the limited resolutions, blocky sprites, and chiptune music that will always sing to me. Then there's the tactility of each game being on a cartridge, keeping a physical link to the world, even if the game was digital. The Chromatic is a grown-up Game Boy, in the same way that I've matured while still being a gamer at heart. I love my Anbernic RG35XXSP for similar reasons, but sometimes the emulated experience isn't the same as slotting in a cartridge, powering on the console, and enjoying some time with it. Tetris feels better as a cartridge to me, even though I remember playing just as many hours on the PC growing up. Retro doesn't mean obsolete The Chromatic might look retro, but as they say, beauty is only skin deep. Under the jaunty colors is a magnesium alloy chassis, an FPGA, so you're emulating the hardware of the Game Boy, not the games, and a custom IPS panel that's pixel-perfect for the games it will be playing. That's important because retro emulators usually translate games with a lower pixel count onto modern pixel-dense screens, and it's a tricky business. Having the screen perfect makes the experience better for me. It also has a few more modern conveniences, like USB-C video, so it can be used for streamed video or just playing on a larger screen. I don't use this personally, because I prefer the tiny screen, but it's a nice feature. The USB-C port has one more modern surprise, though. If you have AA rechargeables inside it (or the ModRetro lithium battery pack), plugging in a charger will recharge the batteries (and you can still play as well). I can still remember how fast the original Game Boy ripped through AA batteries, and I would have done unspeakable things to be able to recharge from the wall. Modern handhelds are hefty I'm not ashamed to say my forearms ache after a while The ergonomics of PC gaming handhelds leave something to be desired, at least without a handy pillow to prop my forearms on. It's not just the weight, which can be considerable when it's the ROG Ally X and its large battery, or the MSI Claw and its 8-inch screen, but the distance between my hands. It just isn't comfortable for extended periods, and I can't be the only one who suffers here. The ModRetro Chromatic is just over 6 oz in weight (without batteries installed), which makes it around the weight of a flagship smartphone, and much easier to hold. Sure, I've managed to play PC gaming handhelds long enough to drain their battery, but that's not that impressive when the longest playtime I've managed to eke out was a few hours. The Chromatic can last several times longer, which is good because I get very hooked on Tetris once I start playing (and I don't get put off by losing quickly). Although my pocketable console is indeed no match in raw performance It's true enough that the Chromatic can't play Hollow Knight, or other recent indie games, and definitely not what passes for AAA gaming titles nowadays. But let's not forget that cartridges were the AAA titles of their day, and the mobile versions made for the Game Boy and Game Boy Color were no less difficult or with lower production value than the games we were playing on our TVs. And there's one thing the Chromatic easily beats every one of my PC gaming handhelds in — I can actually fit it in my pocket when I leave the house. Sometimes simple is the best way for me Portable gaming is something I use to fill those little spots of down time between other larger tasks, where starting something more involved would take too long. Being able to grab one of the few cartridges I own and get gaming instantly, without trying to decide between the thousands of digital games I own (and then running the risk of a downloaded update to deal with) means I can actually get some enjoyable gaming time in, and that's priceless to me.
