Everything old is new again with My Arcade’s Super Retro Champ
Brett Venter
Everyone and their brother (plus some aliens) wants in on that Nintendo Switch form factor. At CES this year a company called My Arcade has unveiled something at least Nintendo-adjacent. It’s called the Super Retro Champ. Guess what that does…
You’ve probably nailed the ‘retro console’ aspect. If you’re observant, you’ll have noted that it’s a portable console — because of the Switch reference and, ya know, the pictures in the general vicinity of these words. But what it actually does…
What it actually does
The Super Retro Champ, as the name suggests, plays retro games. Games from Nintendo’s SNES era, as well as Sega’s Megadrive/Genesis glory days. Unlike other consoles, including Ninty’s Switch, it’s doesn’t use ROMs and an emulator to get gameplay going. Oh no, you’re going to have to lay hands on some original cartridges. For either the SNES or the Megadrive. The Super Retro Champ isn’t picky about that, it’ll do both.
The console works a whole lot like the Switch, except the controllers don’t connect to the sides of the portable screen. You plug in your cart and gameplay happens on the console’s 7in screen. Two wireless controllers let you have some weirdly-in-public fun, or you can connect the console to a TV if you’d prefer. There’s that Switch influence again. The device’s internal battery should get you about five hours of play time, which is enough to get through a bout of load-shedding. Maybe.
Pricing? That’s easy enough — the Super Retro Champ costs $110 (R1,600 or so) at launch. Launch day isn’t set yet but it’ll be out later this year.
