Not too long ago we were all wondering who MagicX were and trying to discover whether they had any affiliation with Powkiddy, and now they're going full speed ahead with new and exciting handhelds that will hopefully stand out above the rest and not fall into the 'disappointing review pile'
This doesn’t look great for 3DS, frankly. You probably would have better luck with an ultrawide display on landscape mode.
Besides vertically oriented arcade games, as someone else points out, this seems to be an Android thing, so there will be a bunch of games meant for this orientation. How many need physical controls to the sides is a different question. And… well, the DS is a huge library. If people are out there doing GB-only FPGA devices this must also make sense.
But the thing for me is that this seems like it’d be a less versatile version of just finding a phone controller that can hold a vertical phone. Which is fine. It’s a good way to play DS stuff. I just don’t know that it mimics the clamshell comfort of the DS so much better that I’d go with a dedicated device for it. If I’m going for a dedicated thing I want a clamshell and I want a precise stylus that I can use with no fear of scratches. That’s what modern emulation doesn’t get me.
I’ve barely played anything Nintendo post-SNES, so my assumptions are largely academic.
But to me at least, the primary advantage of dedicated emulation devices such as this (o er a smartphone + controller), is that you’re somewhat actively invested into the games you’re playing, and not distracted by notifications etc.
For me, having access to every single ROM/ISO means I’m rarely as engaged into any single title than I was as a kid and only had access to maybe 2-3 new games a year. Back then, I played the hell out of every single title because I didn’t have a choice; that was my Birthday/Christmas present, or I saved up all of my pocket money for a while.
But to each their own, I’m quite happy with my Steam Deck - and it does the job of enabling me to play my PS2 collection admirably!
Bit of a tangent, but a thing that has absolutely rekindled that sense of exploring a thing at a time instead of being frozen by choice is Retroachievements.org.
Not only is tracking progress and having leaderboards inherently promoting that in the first place but they have a bunch of community events pointing people at interesting stuff. And they add game coverage one by one, so just looking at the “what’s new” space is a surprisingly fun tool for discovering things you missed, although I imagine jumping in today does that less, since they have almost full coverage of older platforms at this point.
Still, if that’s an issue you feel you’ve been having, I recommend messing with it for that purpose.