I played dozens of retro games this year, and these are the ones I still whole-heartedly recommend going into 2026

My Christmas present to myself was a 2TB NVMe to pop into the system JUST for retro gaming.

RetroArch backend with ES-DE frontend (until Launchbox relents and focuses on a Linux release ...)

All that space to hoard the bulkier PS2/GC ISOs and already at 100GB+ of metadata scraped in put into ES.

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I'm old enough to be nostalgic for it, but even if you're not, there's something truly magical about the earlier gens, especially the later handhelds like PSP and 3DS. Game design had come a long way and was sufficiently modern without some of the harsher edges of older retro stuff, but still hadn't given in to excessively evil design patterns. The graphics are clean, if still a little bit crunchy, which I find charming. They're compact experiences that understood (in the time) the need to be put down at any moment because you could be doing something else or running out of battery. Place that in stark contrast to the modern mobile gacha nightmares that hammer your attention constantly trying to get at your purse strings. Did you remember to do your dailies? Has your party returned from the deployment?! ARE YOU WASTING TIME BY NOT REDEPLOYING THEM! Better check in with the game!

EDIT: Curren recs,

• Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux (3DS): I've always been a lowkey SMT fan but missed this back in the day. The graphics are bright and colorful while the story is tense and claustrophobic. Fuse, fuse, fuse those demons like evil pokemon. There's something viscerally engaging to me about the old school first person dungeon crawling
• Black Rock Shooter The Game (PSP): I missed this one back in the day but it's peak late-00's. Extremely dumb, but with a straightforward narrative to work through and an interesting action RPG combat system. I thought it would be more straight shooter but there's some interesting mechanics here. Great to just turn your brain off and enjoy the ride.

EDIT EDIT: I found an absolutely FANTASTIC repository for ROMs, too. Won't post it here for fear of drawing too much attention, but DM me and I'll give you the link when I get around to it.

Disregard, install Slicks'n'Slide ;p

Brb putting FFT: Ivalice chronicles on my R36s.

Check out "ballistics". Really fun racing game.

Puzzle Bobble 2 really is good! I like the first one better though...