Steam Deck has certainly revitalized people’s interests in portable gaming in anything other than a Switch. But if it had never happened, 2022 would still have been a year full of Switch-sized gaming devices, mostly thanks to developments in the world of emulation. At the forefront of this package is the new AYN console creator, with its collectively funded Odin handheld, and it’s absolutely fantastic.
AYN’s 2021 camp was smart. A 6-inch screen gaming device designed not to run the latest AAA and PC console games, but one capable of emulating previous generations to a standard currently lacking in the emu market. Undoubtedly, it turned out to be a popular idea: the HKD 100,000 ($ 12.7 thousand) crowdfunding target was ejected from the water, after the planet completely, and its total exceeded $ 3.6 million ($ 5 million). And then, in a big challenge to most crowdfunding-funded gaming companies, the device started shipping almost on time.
The first buyers have already received their devices, and we are lucky to have put one in their hands thanks to the very splendid RetroDodo, who lent us theirs! If you want one of yours, you’ll have to wait in line until August, something I decided to do right after a morning of playing with it, because it’s so good. This is the best new way to play in your personal collection of retro console games.
Image: AYN
In fact, there are three different versions of Odin: Lite, Base, and Pro. The Lite is a significantly cheaper machine, but significantly less powerful, at just under $ 200 ($ 278). Not having used any of them, it’s hard to see how it withstands some of the most impressive base and Pro emulations, but it can be said that it will offer a very nice way to play games from the N64 and back. So very similar to the previous generation of emulation machines, like my personal favorite, the RG351M, but with a much bigger screen and an Android operating system. But let’s move on to the main event, Odin Base and Pro.
What we have here is a 5.98-inch IPS LCD screen, installed inside a machine that feels like the magnificent love child of a Nintendo Switch and a Sony PSP. Smaller than a Switch, larger than a Switch Lite, and much more comfortable to hold than either, it carries a Snapdragon 845 and 4GB or 8GB of RAM, depending on whether you go to Base or Pro. The only other differences between the two are storage and battery life, with 64 GB or 128 GB of onboard storage and a 5000 mA or 6000 mA battery respectively.
All this in a very solid plastic housing that feels sleek and expensive. It has analog sticks at the top left and bottom right (oh Steam Deck, why couldn’t you do that?), Bottom left d-pad, and standard X, Y, A, B buttons at the top right. There are two shoulder buttons on each side and a couple of extra back buttons that sit right where your middle or ring fingers will land. It feels good and heavy, but without feeling like a brick, it is certainly less heavy than a Switch or OLED Switch, especially because it is a smaller box in general.
Photo: Kotaku
I won’t pretend to know my way around a Snapdragon CPU, but I know the 845 is a few years old, and it could immediately worry some people like the chip you’d find inside a Pixel 3. But the big news is that by some kind of evil magic (and cooling fans) Odin is able to extract a lot more, and I’m blown away by the performance. This is the first portable emulation device I’ve used that can run the classic shoot ’em up of the N64 / Dreamcast, Bangai-O, with its processor-hungry action frenzy, no smoke coming out of the sides , much less as soft as butter. Not to mention its ability with PS2 titles.
Odin comes with a custom version of Android 10, instead of the more common Linux-based operating system of most emu machines. This also paused me as I learned my way around RetroArch and this put me in lesser known territory. Turns out it was a big fool, because with the Google Play Store right there, you can just download any emulation software you like. (Including RetroArch, though I didn’t have the patience to run it.) It’s not as good as having it all in one package, but with the standard Android home screen or the launcher. ‘Odin, you can jump between applications with no problem.
That done, it’s time to loot your personal collection of old games, because, as you know, playing games you haven’t bought is piracy. And as I do with any emu device I have, the first thing I did was see if it can run GoldenEye.
My God, you can run GoldenEye. Every retro machine says it can, but they never do. Odin does it! Unfortunately, this immediately led me to the discovery that a modern two-stick gaming device is not a way to play a game designed specifically for the craziest N64 controllers. Oh well. But hey, he did!
Equally amazing was how well it handled the PS2’s Spider-Man 2, at least in terms of running at a solid frame rate. it made things quite awkward to play with. , this is the kind of thing that can possibly be fixed with enough games under the hood; the most exciting thing was the smoothness with which Spidey moved, climbed, and spun around the city.
Dreamcast emulation is managed exquisitely by redream, where I finally got my Bangai-O dreams, but I also sprinted at full speed on Sonic Adventure and down hills in Crazy Taxi. These are all games that I have not previously run properly with a handheld.
The only one I tried that Odin couldn’t put together was Outrun 2006 on PS2. But it doesn’t matter, because the PSP version worked sublime.
Photo: Kotaku
I’ve seen videos of people putting Windows 11 on the Odin Pro, with its own chip, which means you can actually install Steam on this thing if you feel the need. This allows you to use the console controls assigned to the Windows 360 driver settings for games. However, GamePass refuses to install it. But in this linked video, Cuphead runs at a constant 51 FPS, and even Skyrim gets 45-50.
But with the ease of being able to use the Play Store for emulators and, in fact, just to play all your favorite Android phone games on a great laptop, I don’t think I felt compelled to move away from this operating system. All of this is so clean that Odin has immediately become my number one way to play retro games. Except, of course, it’s not really mine, and I have to return the machine to its rightful owner! Which led me to immediately join the queue for the next production of the device, which is due in August.
A quick note on this: I recommend you do one through the AYN website, instead of IndieGoGo. It’s not as simple as it sounds at first, as the Odin homepage will take you back to the IGG, but follow this link and you’ll get it directly from the company. Because? Because it will save you about $ 100 ($ 139). For some reason, the IGG version can only be purchased as part of a “Super Pack”, which includes the “Super Dock” and HDMI cable, screen protector, hard case, headphones and a bag. The dock sounds amazing, but I haven’t been able to try one yet, and the rest is a joke you don’t need. Pick it up at AYN and it’s currently priced at $ 239 ($ 332) for the base and $ 289 ($ 401) for the Pro. There’s also the 256GB Pro for $ 328 ($ 455), but the only difference is that the extra storage space, which you don’t need, as you can stick anywhere up to a micro-card 1 TB SD.)
The Super Dock can be purchased separately for $ 68 ($ 94) and will allow you to connect it as a Switch, played on your TV via an HDMI connection, along with an Ethernet port, as well as giving you five USB outputs for to the drivers. and best of all, two semicircular ports suitable for your N64 drivers! This solves the GoldenEye problem! The weirdest thing about it is that it has a space in the back for a 2.5-inch SATA drive, which is downright quirky.
Image: AYN
I have an Odin Pro coming in the summer and I am very happy. I’m just upset that I have to go back in the meantime. It will be a step back to my small screen Anbernic to continue playing GBC Zelda games, let alone the whole other generation of 3D consoles I can’t stand. And because Brandon “RetroDodo” Saltalamacchia left Kotaku so generously for Odin, you could do much worse than check out RetroDodo’s coverage of Odin and its detailed comparison between Odin and Steam Deck.
2022 was supposed to be an interesting year for the launch of retro consoles with bigger screens, but with Anbernic’s RG552 proving a disappointment and others not showing up at the party, AYN has gained a lot. Odin is by far the best way to play emulated games today, as you can finally see the emulation of PS2, GameCube and Dreamcast running on a handheld computer, with a beautiful screen and all in an incredibly sleek casing. comfortable.