I’m new here to the forums, though I have paid attention to this post in particular for awhile. I admit that like many others when Hyperkin announced the Supaboy I was hyped up for it like nothing else.
I received my unit yesterday and I have had about 8 hours of gameplay on it. Personally I do not believe that it deserves the amount of criticism that it receives. Yes, I more than likely received a later unit and it’s very likely that there are fewer problems with mine. However, taking that into consideration I still particularly like it.
When I unboxed the unit, the first thing I noticed that it feels great, not cheap and perfectly weighted. Bigger than I expected, but still feels pretty good. That brings us to the controls though. The buttons are great and are really responsive. The d-pad however could be better. When I first used the system, it was far too stiff, over time it started to feel better, I don’t know if it’s because it loosened up a little bit or perhaps I just got used to it, but it certainly ended up feeling better. However, it is not as responsive as I would have liked it to be; essentially it feels like the d-pad on any 3rd party SNES pad. Manageable, but certainly not desirable.
Now I must admit that I do not have as many games as I used to, a few years ago I had around 80 games, but when I moved I lost them and had to rebuild my collection. Today I only have about 20 games unfortunately. Almost every game I tested worked pretty well overall and had no probably booting up. Star Fox played fine, but occasionally would encounter graphical issues, nothing major, but still noticeable. Super Mario RPG on the other hand is one of those games that clones always seem to have a problem with and of course everyone wants to know if it works. Unfortunately, I can’t help you there. I have two copies of Mario RPG; one Japanese and one Mexican. However, the only one that runs on the Supaboy is the Japanese one. Now I am not saying that all Japanese ones will run and Mexicans won’t, because I have seen instances where Mexicans will and Japanese won’t. My advice is that if buying the Supaboy in a game store, if there are games you want to work no problem, bring them with you and try them in the system before buying.
There have been some mixed reviews on both the screen and the sound of the unit, and I was concerned about both before I received the unit. I read everything I could, and still wasn’t satisfied I had to see the unit myself. I bit the bullet and in the end I bought the unit off Amazon (though I also recommend Stone Age Gamer). The screen is great. Just big enough and the colors seems pretty accurate overall. To be honest I bought the unit more as an extra SNES home console though. However, one thing I must say and it seems to be a problem with every unit, there is dust underneath the screen. I’m used to it due to a lot of portable clones having dust under the screen, but still it was the most disappointing aspect of Supaboy. So I did buy the system to hook up to a TV, and in terms of a spare or even replacement SNES console, it’s fantastic. Easy to hook up and the fact that you can use your own original SNES controller sold me on the system. Yes, the Retro Duo Portable can take your own controllers as well, but it needs an adapter to do so. An adapter makes a system more complex and bulky, and worst of all if it breaks or if you lose it could be hard to replace. There is no lag when used on a TV, or at least so little that I cannot notice it. However, I use wireless headphones when playing on a TV, and I did notice that the sound while it seems perfectly emulated has a slight buzzing underneath. Not that annoying high pitched squeal everyone seemed so concerned about, but that typical clone buzz. The speakers on the unit itself are certainly clear, though could be a little louder. I assure you though that on my unit there is NO high pitched squeal out of the speakers, the buzzing I heard on the TV does follow though, but the buzzing is so low pitched and quiet that you won’t notice it unless you try to listen to it.
Overall, I like the unit. It has its flaws, but it plays great and is by far the best looking clone system either portable or home console ever. The FC-16 GO was disgusting looking and the Retro Duo Portable looks generic as Hell. The retro look just makes sense…. Though I wish they released a model with red, yellow, green, and blue Super Famicom style buttons . I wish there was no dust under the screen, and if someone knows how to get rid of it I would really appreciate it. That’s really my only complaint about it. One thing I want to bring up though is that I haven’t yet truly tested the battery, so I can’t give you an estimate of battery life. However, BP-4L batteries are cheap and external chargers for BP-4L are cheap too. If someone is concerned about battery life, than they could keep spare batteries on hand. You can get two batteries and an external charger for a little under $10.
Final say; if you have been looking either for a portable SNES or spare console, get it. Wait for the Retro Duo Portable if you want, but personally I think the NES and Genesis functionality (with adapter) is gimmicky, the design is generic, and I have never been too impressed with Retro Bit’s systems.
If you have any question on the unit feel free to ask me
Update: I just got my Mexican Mario RPG to boot once, but have yet to get it to boot again. I will try to determine why that might be. My Japanese one boots everytime.
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