2020-2025 Retro Handheld Consoles

A game console is an electronic device that outputs a video signal or image to display a video game

Handheld consoles became popular during 4th generation of game consoles (early 90’s), with 8-bit devices like Nintendo Gameboy and Sega Game Gear.

There are modern retro handheld consoles that appeared during the 2010’s and 2020’s that wanted to keep the taste of these retro 8-bit video games.

This post features some retro handheld consoles in the 2020’s.

List of 2020-2025 Retro Handheld Consoles

2020’s retro handheld consoles:

Anbernic family
Miyoo family
Ayaneo family
Game Kiddy family
Retroid Pocket 2+
Analogue Pocket
Ayn Odin
Evercade
Super Pocket
Playdate
DragonBox Pyra
microByte
PicoPad

Anbernic family

RG552 is developed by Chinese company Anbernic. It was released in 2022.

Its launch price was $226.99.

RG552 is the successor of RG351.

Web

There are many other Anbernic products being released constantly.

Miyoo family

Miyoo Mini v2 is a handheld console running Linux that offered a 640×480 resolution screen with aspect ratio 4:3, in the same way as Gameboy Advanced.

Miyoo Mini Plus was released in 2023, and succeeded Miyoo Mini v2. It is a bit bigger than Miyoo Mini, including a larger screen.

Ayaneo family

Ayaneo Flip DS is inspired in Nintendo DS, with a double screen.

Ayaneo Flip KB is simillar to Flip DS but it has a keyboard instead a second screen.

Ayaneo Pocket DMG is inspired in Game Boy and similar consoles, and was first announced in 2024.

Official web

Game Kiddy family

Game Kiddy is a company building retro handheld consoles.

It released GKD Pro in 2021-2022 via Kickstarter crowdfunding, the GKD Mini in 2023 and has an active crowdfunding campaign in 2024 for the GDK Plus.

Analogue Pocket

Analogue Pocket is a FPGA-based handheld console to play Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advanced, Game Gear, Neo Geo Pocket, Neo Geo Pocket Color and Atari Lynx video games from both microSD and cartridges.

Unlike most modern handheld consoles, it is compatible with original cartridges from Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advanced. It has also adapters that allow it to play with Game Gear, Neo Geo Pocket, Neo Geo Pocket Color and Atari Lynx.

It uses FPGA instead of emulation.

It was released in 2021. Its launch price was 219.99 USD.

It is developed by American company Analogue.

Official link

Ayn Odin

Ayn Odin was released as a crowdfunding campaign. It was developed by Chinese company Ayn.

It was released in 2022.

Retroid Pocket 2+

https://www.goretroid.com/products/retroid-pocket-2-plus-handheld-retro-gaming-system

Retroid Pocket 2+ (RP2+) was released in 2020.

It is developed by Chinese GoRetroid.

Its OS is Android.

It was released in 2022 and its launch price was 99 $.

Evercade

Evercade is a handheld console manufactured by company Hyper Mega Tech.

It was released on May 2020.

Super Pocket

Super Pocket is a handheld console manufactured by company Hyper Mega Tech.

It was released on November 2023, succeeding Evercade.

The initial release price was 59 USD.

Official web

Playdate

Playdate was released in 2022. Its launch price was 179 USD.

It is developed by Panic, based in Oregon, USA.

Among its singularities, there is that one of its controller is a crank (that it is really a gimmick, as most games can be played without it) and a game release system that reveals a new game weekly, with the first season of games included in the price of the console.

Web

Twitter

DragonBox Pyra

DragonBox Pyra, often called just Pyra, is developed by OpenPandora GmbH, a German manufacturer. It is in pre-order since 2016, pending a release date as of 2023. Its price range from 330 to 400 €.

It seems there is no much presence of Pyra on social networks. The information about production progress can be found on YouTube channel and scattered in the official Pyra forum.

Its OS is Debian Linux.