Can a $99 Retro Handheld Play 99 PS2 Games? Retroid Pocket 2+ Test

Tested the first few minutes of a whole bunch of ps2 games on the Retroid Pocket 2+ using AetherSX2's newest version (June 18). As expected, more than half are unplayable. But there are a few surprises such as Resident Evil Code Veronica X, Kingdom Hearts I and Suikoden V that seems playable (needs further testing though).
Where to purchase?
Retroid Pocket 2+ Affiliate Link (I will earn a commission fee)
Amazon: amzn.to/3xmYoaE
Monospace's Compatibility list : linktr.ee/monospacecompatibility
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Timestamp:
0:00 Intro
0:03 Ace Combat Distant Thunder
0:02 Alone in the Dark
0:30 Ape Escape 3
0:52 Arc the Lad End of Darkness
1:04 Atelier Iris Eternal Mana, 1:22 Atelier Iris 3
1:40 Battle Stadium D.O.N.
2:02 Beyond Good and Evil
2:18 Black
2:36 Call of Duty 3
2:54 Castle Shikigami II
3:13 Castlevania : Curse of Darkness
3:31 Crimson Tears
3:51 Dark Cloud 2
4:05 Dead or Alive 2 : Hardcore
4:21 Def Jam : Fight for NY
4:37 Destroy All Humans 2
4:52 Devil May Cry 2, 5:13 Devil May Cry 3
5:30 Digimon World 4
5:50 Dragon Ball Z Budokai Tenkaichi 3
6:07 ESPN National Hockey Night
6:22 F1 2002
6:40 Fifa 09, 6:59 Fifa 14
7:16 Final Fantasy XII
7:36 Front Mission 4
7:57 Gitaroo Man
8:13 God Hand
8:28 Grand Theft Auto Liberty City Stories
8:45 Guilty Gear X
8:57 Guitar Hero III
9:16 Half-Life
9:31 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
9:40 Hitman 2 : Silent Assasin
9:57 Hot Wheels : Beat That
10:14 Jade Cocoon 2
10:32 Jak and Daxter : Precursor LEgacy
10:50 Killer7
11:08 King of Fighter : Maximum Impact 2
11:24 Kingdom Hearts, 11:40 Kingdom Hearts II
11:58 Lego Star Wars
12:11 Leisure Suit Larry : Magna Cum Laude
12:25 MTV : Pimp My Ride
12:35 Magna Carta : Tears of Blood
12:53 Makai Kindom
13:06 Manhunt 2
13:15 Marvel Ultimate Alliance
13:31 Matrix Path of Neo
13:48 Megaman X Command Mission
14:07 Metal Gear Solid 2 : Sons of Liberty, 14:29 Metal Gear Solid 3 : Snake Eater
14:47 Mister Mosquito
15:03 Mobile Suit Gundam : Federation vs Zeon
15:21 Mortal Kombat : Shaolin Monks
15:40 Moto GP4
16:00 My Street
16:13 Mystic Heroes
16:28 Naruto Ultimate Ninja 5
16:49 Need for Speed Underground, 17:03 Need For Speed Underground 2
17:22 Odin Sphere
17:32 Okami
17:45 One Piece : Grand Adventure
18:02 Phantom Brave
18:21 Prince of Persia : Warrior Within
18:38 Pro Evolution Soccer 5
18:55 Radiata Stories
19:12 Ratchet and Clank
19:27 Resident Evil Code Veronica X
19:44 Rogue Galaxy
19:51 Rule of Rose
20:08 SNK vs Capcom SVC Championship
20:22 Samurai Shodown 5
20:40 Sega Soccer Slam
20:59 Shadow Hearts
21:17 Shin Megami Tensei Digital Devil Saga 2, 21:33 Shin Megami Tensei : Nocturne
21:51 Shining Tears
22:07 Silent Hill 3
22:27 Sims 2 : Pets
22:43 Sitting Ducks
23:00 Sly 3 : Honor Among Thieves
23:14 Soccer Life 2
23:31 Soul Nomad and the World Eaters
23:47 Soul Calibur II
24:00 Steambot Chronicles
24:10 Suikoden V
24:25 Super Dragon Ball Z
24:41 Tales of Abyss
24:56 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3 : Mutant Nightmare
25:18 Tekken Tag Tournament
25:34 Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon
25:50 Urban Freestyle Soccer
26:05 Virtua Fighter 4
26:21 WWE Smackdown : Here Comes the Pain
26:38 War of the Monster
26:51 Warriors Orochi
27:09 Way of the Samurai
27:28 Wild Arms 5
27:45 Worms Fort : Under Siege
27:56 Xenosaga III
28:05 Yakuza 2
28:15 Ys : Ark of Naphistim
28:33 Outro & Wrap-up
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#Retroid #emulator #PS@ #anbernic #rg503 #oled #ps1 #psx #retro #retrogaming #game #hobby #gaming #odinpro #ayaneo #anbernic #miyoo

[@monospacechannel]

Our Compatibility list is up and running! linktr.ee/monospacecompatibility

[@elemkay5104]

Hey, check out this: kzbin.info/www/bejne/pqvPh4NvbJZggNk A game that was unplayable on your list (8:20) seems fully playable with the improvements to the AetherSX2 emulator!! RP3 is slightly better but RP2+ will get the same improvement when Android 11 arrives.

[@monospacechannel]

Making this video took waaay longer than I thought! And apparently I tested 105 games on this video alone. Lol Bare with the mistakes I made on the video, and correct me I if got something wrong! And of course, suggestions for future videos will be very appreciated! Thanks for the support guys!

[@duduoson5278]

Awesome content. Your videos have helped me choose a handheld. Now I'm waiting for something that can emulate ps2 and gamecube without many issues!

[@monospacechannel]

Thanks dude! The future looks really exciting for the emulation community with the release of many handhelds over the next couple of years

[@mathisblair2798]

Resesrch research research. Can find what you need to know/looking for with any search engine really

[@Undercoverbrother1]

@@monospacechannel your videos have introduced me to handhelds like this and also convinced me to just wait for the retro pocket 3

[@CBXweb]

@@mathisblair2798 don’t do this. Don’t tell someone to “search” without telling them what to search for

[@mathisblair2798]

@@CBXweb What? Is this really that hard? The year is 2022 and people still haven't figured out how to do some basic google searches? Ok..... I'll help you... You want to emulate ps2 perfectly? What retro handheld can emulate ps2? I want to emulate gamecube perfectly? What (insert device desired)retro handheld/mini pc/laptop/computer) can emulate gamecube perfectly? How many ghz does ps3 use? What specs are required to emulate ps3? Was ANY OF THIS.... THAT HARD TO YOU? I'm not even trying to be mean or anything. I'm out right confused... Again, and seriously. If you need help finding something else. reply to this comment; I'll help you do the search for it. research, research, research,.... Until you become FLUENT at researching. ALL caps are emphasis based and not me yelling at you ok? Hope you're having a good day.

[@grzegorz__]

Great video - now I know exactly what to expect. Especially that Retroid Pocket 3 is coming with same chipset.

[@monospacechannel]

Thanks man, yeah really unfortunate the RP3 is coming with no real significant changes

[@sabsab4863]

Was just thinking of picking up this machine looking for benchmarks and you uploaded just in time! Love what you are doing man, i picked up the miyoo mini cause of your vids and now i think im gonna commit to the retroid aswell

[@monospacechannel]

Thanks for watching! Glad the video's helpful!

[@aliceinmansonland448]

Thanks! I had just installed Silent Hill 3, but I didn't have the time to test it. I know what my Fourth of July weekend game is!

[@monospacechannel]

I only tested the first few minutes though! Given there are usually a lot of fog later on the game, it might struggle

[@lostworldvideogames]

Awesome video and thank you so much for testing rule of rose!

[@monospacechannel]

No problem! Hope it's really playable though, only tested the first couple of minutes as I got lost and didn't know where to go next lol

[@mylifematter]

I've test about 300 PS2 games that I thought the machine could run and still only half of them consider playable. If you like graphical adventures and dating sims, this system is heaven. Shoot them up runs surprisingly well, and Bandai really do know how to optimize their gundam games.

[@monospacechannel]

Talk about dedication! 2d strategy games also run well

[@OmegaKatanaXIII]

Any 2d sprite games work well and shumps most shumps work well ibara slow as hell tho.

[@Fleur_de_lis2k]

Thank you so much for seeing the trouble on this, answered so many questions. I'll probably skip this device, maybe wait Retroid's future handheld or go for Loki mini. It's much more expensive but it has a bigger screen and emulation performance will hardly be any issue on PS2.

[@monospacechannel]

Glad it's helpful! And yeah waiting for the retroid pocket 3 seems to be a good decision, it should be out anytime this year

[@pryzm3745]

Hey I’m sure you’re already aware of this but if not, you can put all of these benchmarks on the Retroid Pocket 2+ community benchmark sheet so that people get an idea for what can be played!

[@monospacechannel]

Definitely! Just need to dedicate a bit of time to put them all on the community sheet. Hope the lazy part of me won't show up anytime soon lol

[@raccoon5384]

Thank you for this test and the time you spend on it! Although I‘m enjoying the Retroid Pocket 2+ this far, I hope the next one will be powerful enough to play more of these PS2 games. I tried Resident Evil Code Veronica X and was suprised how well it runs. But I‘m playing the Dreamcast Version now, because that one runs a little bit smoother.

[@monospacechannel]

Thanks for watching! Yup eagerly waiting for the next retroid. Nice to know that the dreamcast version has better performance!

[@tukhorhassan7737]

kudos to you for testing all these games, man

[@monospacechannel]

Thanks for watching man!

[@nickson5081]

Truly appreciate your effort!

[@monospacechannel]

Thanks for watching!

[@Moontorc_]

Damn, that's pretty impressive still.

[@monospacechannel]

Yeah, especually for a device not meant to play ps2 games!

[@JoshieKona]

What were your settings for orochi?? I can't get any of the musou games to work too well. On Android 11

[@16-BitRay]

What is your Rom Pal or NTSC?

[@yekimrelssek2929]

bro yes! thank you for this! much appreciated 😁

[@monospacechannel]

Again, thanks for watching the videos!

[@yekimrelssek2929]

@@monospacechannel Hell ye bro!

[@WATCHMAKUH]

Hi nice video! I noticed dance dance revolution was not in there but I have a question…I am having trouble syncing up the buttons to the music. I have tried adjusting within the game but the retroid controls still are lagging behind in sync. Is there a controller syncing option in the general settings of the handheld?

[@brsazil3811]

Those gameplays are without frame skipers?

[@Itsfayd]

what settings did you use for WWE here comes the pain? when I tried it, it was really slow on the intro and cutscenes and the matches weren’t playable

[@audacityhour3104]

Great video.. I wanted this to replace my nvidia -maybe not

[@iluvj00]

Some of these super smooth seem to be running at like 75% speed.

[@monospacechannel]

Yeah, for the games that I never played on the PS2, I only looked at the fps and sometimes that's not the best indicator!

[@Charlie-eh6xc]

Ou literally done it for a few fighting games. You think they just run in slow motion naturally? Lol

[@alceearsberry4150]

Thank you for putting time stamps in your video great testing my phone has the same GPU but it rocks a diminsity 700 single core 544 multicore 1622 it's more powerful than this handheld but I will use your video to test these games as a guide great video thanks

[@monospacechannel]

Thanks! Yeah most mid to higher-end phones are stronger than this handheld

[@videogames3749]

Tal vez cuando salga retroid pocket 3+ ya se podrán jugar sin problema

[@monospacechannel]

Emocionado por Retroid Pocket 3!

[@chrisalvarez982]

Can you please try SOCOM2?

[@switchlite44]

Man it truly sucks that smackdown shuts your mouth / here comes the pain needs patience in order to work for this console do you think that reconfiguring settings would help it or is it just not compatible at all with this console

[@monospacechannel]

I tried a couple of settings and the one with the best performance made it to the video. But who knows I could have missed the specific settings to make it run smooth!

[@switchlite44]

@@monospacechannel I'm subbing!

[@monospacechannel]

@@switchlite44 thanks man, appreciate it!

[@falloutspring7747]

Wat settings are u running

[@planetpoog]

anyone know if there are any community configs to optimize marvel ultimate alliance?

[@Emmie87uk]

The fact it can play some games for under £100 (well I got mine for £98) even playing some of them games is great value! I see Suikoden 5 runs - can anyone let me know if 3 does? I love Suikoden and never got to play 3 as no UK release

[@monospacechannel]

Suikoden 3 runs, its on my other video!

[@sayuu8586]

Thank you so much!!!

[@monospacechannel]

Thanks for watching!

[@hudsonball4702]

Still no GrimGrimoire?

[@InsaneFuriousFlames]

Super bummed out that it can't play Tenkaichi 3 smoothly....especially when people are selling the game for $200+

[@jordanpitzen1212]

Can ir play kingdom hearts?

[@monospacechannel]

Seems playable!

[@nolosenidea8373]

if retro pocket 2+ have the snapdragon 850 and 4gb ram, the aether its almost perfect to run the ps2, example the odin lite CAN RUN ALMOST ALL THE GAME FROM PS2!!!!

[@monospacechannel]

We'll see in the Retroid Pocket 3 hopefully!

[@joaoproductionhehe5317]

How to find roms like this?

[@monospacechannel]

Legally, you could dump it out of your original games. Or... you could find one on the internet lol

[@skillzilluh7769]

Super bummed about dark cloud 2

[@Jack-fo2pc]

Jesus, well done

[@jakcarn4184]

So only 18 out of 99 games were playable

[@hamedxz]

Thank You

[@monospacechannel]

And thanks for watching!

[@lifehackertips]

That’s too bad 😢

[@Joelisdead]

Amazing.

[@eedoamitay3341]

God bless you

[@pickleeggs3340]

see if it can play 50 ps3 games next

[@monospacechannel]

There's no way it should be able to play ps3 games! But i guess that's still hypothetically speaking. Might as well test it

[@zannnanashikai]

Everything is sad in terms of PS2 emulation.

[@monospacechannel]

A higher end product is needed for ps2 emulation!

[@javierrechio9707]

era sabido que no iba a correr nada de ps2.. que video alpedo.. encima probó juegos malísimos... mosquito😂

[@monospacechannel]

Gracias por ver!

[@BoxxyFan]

LMAO not even playable

[@monospacechannel]

Yup almost half are not playable! You get what you paid for i guess lol

[@tuahcool8926]

haha my blackshark can run it better 😄 maybe the developer is dreaming to run ps2.

[@monospacechannel]

To be fair the device was never intended to run ps2 games!

[@bloodofdepanta]

Fantastic