In the rapidly maturing clone console market, the Retron 5 has become something of a legend. Announced amid great fanfare last year, this wonder system promised compatibility with a staggering number of vintage formats - NES, SNES, Mega Drive, Famicom, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance and Master System (the latter requiring the Sega Power Base Converter) - as well as technological advancements such as upscaled 720p output, image filters, save states and a wireless controller. Christmas 2013 was the proposed release window, but a manufacturing fault forced creator Hyperkin to push the machine into 2014 - yet for most of this year the company has remained ominously silent regarding any solid launch date.
Late last month, Hyperkin confirmed that the Retron 5 would finally be hitting store shelves in North America on 6th June, bringing to an end a journey which has taken much longer than anticipated and has consequently allowed rival Retro-Bit to get its own unit - the Super Retro Trio - to market well in advance. Thankfully, the lost time means little; despite some niggles, the Retron 5 is a far superior machine to its direct competitor, or indeed any "all in one" clone console released thus far.
In purely physical terms, however, it's largely business as usual. Clone consoles are rarely constructed to the same standard as the hardware they imitate, and the Retron 5 doesn't buck the trend in this respect. The plastic feels cheap and slightly nasty, and the top of the unit - where the cartridge slots reside - is covered by a shiny black section of plastic that feels like it's going to snap when you're attempting to insert and remove games and collects scuffs with worrying regularity.
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