Anbernic RG280V

This week, I completed my first ever Metroid game (Metroid Fusion, for those interested), and for a while I thought about writing a review of it.

Well, I didn’t. But while looking at my hand, and the item I was holding, I decided to write a wee review of a little handheld emulator that I picked up a few months back, during the dark days of the Great Bit Socket Hiatus.

I’d been looking for a way to play some older games that I’d missed at the time, or ones that I loved but no longer owned, and while going down the path of modding my New 3DS (hate that name) was an option, I decided having a wee machine designed for the terrible crime of emulation was a better option. Also, I’m very lazy, and the instructions to ‘bad boy’ my New 3DS were longer than “Click this link and it’s done”.

Anyway, having spent some time researching models, I bought the one that Andi Hamilton was playing, because I know him and could DM him to ask if I was about to flush £65 down the toilet. He replied to say that it was decent, and that was enough for me.

Less than a day later, I was the proud owner of the RG280V, and let me tell you, I was surprised to find that it wasn’t a total piece of shit, and that I hadn’t been the victim of a very elaborate con.

First up, it’s a lovely little thing to look at. Styled to have that classic console look, with a nice big screen in the middle. It feels sturdy, and all the buttons have a nice crispness to them. I don’t know if that’s the best way to describe them, but it sounds like a good thing?

In hand, it is pretty small, but for me that was part of the attraction - a wee pocket pal to take on journeys or to slip into a bag without taking up much space.

The button layout is easy to get used to, although those L2/R2 buttons at the top take a bit of a stretch for a wee hand guy like me. Thankfully these only get used if you’re playing a PS1 game (which this wee beast can handle), but you won’t need to worry for Game Boy Advance games etc. At least they’re raised above the L1/R1 buttons, so it’s not often you’ll hit the wrong one.

Although it’s not advertised on the site that sells them, and for good reason, the RG280V comes with a microSD card absolutely full of games, and the emulators to run them are pre-installed. Maybe you can install new ones, but I’m too scared to interfere with what God has made.

The selection is pretty outrageous, with games for MAME, all the Game Boys, PC Engine, NES, SNES and more. Adding games to the SD card is as easy as making sure you own a physical copy of the game and then legally backing it up digitally to use on the console, Officer.

Even the PS1 games I’ve tried on it (like the excellent Xenogears) work pretty well, although it’s the Nintendo stuff I’ve been focusing on primarily.

There are a few caveats though, some of which are obvious and others that are a little confusing.

First up, it is hard to play the RG280V for any great length of time due to it’s size - even my wee hands cramp up after a while. It does mean that I’m finally taking the breaks I’ve been encouraged to for my entire life while playing games, but it’s not ideal.

For me though, it’s the lack of a standby mode that’s most confusing. While it’s easy to create save states while playing, if you decide to turn off your game to play again later, you need to turn the whole thing off. This means the battery lasts longer (and it’s a great battery, by the way), but turning the console off means having to navigate back to the game you’re playing, and as there’s no easy search option, you need to load the emulator and scroll all the way to the game you’re looking for.