The Retro Freak is the answer for any nostalgic gamers disappointed by the lack of availability of the NES Classic Mini. Play all those classic NES games and a whole bunch more, either via the built-in emulator, or straight from the original carts.
Here at Recombu Towers we’re massive gaming fans, and we’re also rather old. Which means we still love blasting our way through classic NES titles, not to mention games from all of those timeless grey boxes such as the Famicom, plus Sega’s rival consoles.
Of course, that means we absolutely adore Nintendo’s cute little NES Classic Mini. This dinky plastic box allows you to play a selection of 30 NES titles, including some of the console’s biggest hits, using replica controllers. However, the NES Classic Mini is incredibly difficult to find, except for an inflated price on eBay of course.
Which is why the Retro Freak is likely to sell rather well in 2017. This is our pick of the best NES Classic Mini alternative, offering the ability to play old games from the NES on your home telly – as well as 11 other classic gaming consoles.
What is the Retro Freak?
The Retro Freak is a 12-in-1 gaming console that plays original titles from a whole bunch of 80s and 90s platforms (see below for the full list). Unlike the NES Classic Mini, which came with a pre-set number of games built in and didn’t accept Nintendo’s chunky catridges, the Retro Freak does actually accept those original games.
Slot your cartridges into the Retro Freak via the edge-mounted slots or bundled adapters and they’ll play on your TV. You get full support for save games, cheat codes and the rest too. Just as well, as a lot of those titles were a wee bit tough.
Alternatively, the Retro Freak’s microSD card slot allows you to play ROMs from any of the above consoles. So you don’t even need to still own the original physical catridges.
You get a bundled controller with the box to get stuck straight into your games, but the premium version of the Retro Freak also comes with an adapter for hooking up your original controllers from the TurboGrafx, Famicom, Super Famicom, and SEGA Genesis.
Check out our full Retro Freak unboxing and hands-on below.
What games can the Retro Freak play?
The good news is, Retro Freak supports a massive range of old consoles. The full list includes:
PC Engine
TurboGrafx-16
Super Grafx
NES
Famicom
SNES
Super Famicom
SEGA Genesis
SEGA Mega Drive
Game Boy
Game Boy Color
Game Boy Advance
Original cartridges from all of these consoles are supported by the Retro Freak, while you can also play ROMs if you didn’t keep your physical copies.
Where can I buy the Retro Freak?
We got our boxed model from FunStockRetro.co.uk. The Retro Freak costs £169 here in the UK.
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