Retro-Bit RES Plus - Review 2022

Retro gaming—specifically retro game collecting—has become a big forcefulness among sure subsets of gamers. Many developed gamers grew up with the Nintendo Entertainment Organization, and have a fondness for the games of their childhood. Nintendo embraced that spirit in the past with its Virtual Console, libraries of classic games bachelor on the Wii, Wii U, and 2DS/3DS. Sadly, the Nintendo Switch still doesn't accept a Virtual Console, and while the nostalgia-milking NES Classic is a fantastic collectible with many keen games, it's likewise impossible to observe unless you're willing to pay several times its retail price.

You don't demand to take kept your original NES in neat condition to play NES games, though. Cartridge-based retro consoles have been available for several years. Retro-Bit was one of the starting time big names in the field, with systems like the NES, SNES, and Sega Genesis-playing Super Retro Trio. Information technology was limited to standard definition output over an analog composite video connection, though, which let other systems like the upconverting, HDMI-outputting Hyperkin RetroN 5, Counterpart Nt, and Retro Freak offer much nicer-looking experiences. Retro-Bit is making the jump to high-definition with the RES Plus, a $39.99 machine that can play Nintendo Entertainment System cartridges and output them over HDMI at 720p. It'due south simple, cheap, and lets you play any and all NES carts. That makes it an Editors' Choice.

Design

Retro-Bit didn't get fancy with aesthetics, and the RES Plus isn't designed to evoke any Nintendo hardware; it's nearly every bit far from the polished nostalgia of the NES Classic equally you can get. The RES Plus is a tiny black-and-red plastic box measuring i.7 past 5.4 by 5.2 inches (HWD) and weighing just under half a pound. Its pattern looks closer to the Sega Genesis than the original NES, with a top-loading slot for cartridges and horizontally positioned controller ports on the front.

Retro-bit RES+

The pinnacle panel of the RES Plus holds the cartridge slot, which is designed to take NES cartridges (Famicom cartridge owners are out of luck unless they detect an adapter). A sliding power switch, Reset button, and red power LED sit below the cartridge slot. The front end of the system holds 2 classic seven-pivot NES controller ports. This means y'all can utilise original NES controllers if you want, but your USB gamepads must stay in 2022 where they belong. The back of the RES Plus features an HDMI port, a composite video output, and a micro USB connector for use with the included cable and wall adapter.

The RES Plus comes with two NES-compatible gamepads with six-foot cables. The controllers are familiar rectangles, conspicuously designed to emulate the original NES controllers with a few notable changes. The A and B buttons are convex, slightly smaller, and placed at an bending from each other instead of horizontally aligned. The Kickoff and Select buttons are also located college on the centre of the controller than their NES positions. These tweaks might disappoint purists, but the controls nonetheless feel very tight and well-made.

Not an Emulator

Different the RetroN 5 and Retro Freak, the RES Plus doesn't play ROMs of NES games ripped from cartridges or stored in onboard memory. Instead, the arrangement simply acts similar an NES, directly processing the inserted cartridge live and outputting the video. The HDMI output seems to be enabled past a separate analog-to-HDMI video convertor built in the RES Plus. It takes the analog, 256-past-240-pixel NES game signal (bachelor directly with the composite video connexion) and upconverts it to 720p over HDMI. The event is a crisp motion-picture show that looks good on modernistic TVs.

Because the RES Plus doesn't rip and emulate games, yous won't find any of the emulation-based tricks offered by the RetroN 5, Retro Freak, or even the NES Classic. There are no salvage states to permit y'all become by tricky parts of games, and no manner to take screenshots, remap controls, or even adjust how the HDMI video conversion works with filters. Information technology'due south as close to the pure feel of playing on an original NES as you tin can get without just hooking one up to a composite-to-HDMI convertor yourself.

Retro-bit RES+

Carts and Controls

I tested the RES Plus with a sizeable chunk of my own NES cartridge library, and the organization worked mostly flawlessly. Because information technology runs the games directly like an NES rather than ripping a ROM from the cartridge and emulating it, it's much more forgiving when you pop in a cartridge. It'll try to run anything information technology tin can, fifty-fifty if there are glitches. The cartridge slot is also very snug, helping ensure a solid fit for the pins, which helps reduce the appearance of those glitches. The only game I couldn't run on the RES Plus was Sunsoft'southward Batman, and after opening the cartridge up I discovered the only reason for that was because one of the chips had somehow croaky.

I played Dragon'due south Spirit, Little Nemo: The Dream Master, and Startropics two on the RES Plus without any issue. The games looked good upscaled to 720p, with crisp sprites that filled the screen. The 720p upconversion means 4K TVs like the Samsung MU9000 I tested the system on all the same demand to pump up the pixel size significantly, but the HDMI output ensures this second layer of upconversion is clean, since it doesn't have to deal with an analog signal (which can result in splotchy graphics).

While the included gamepads have smaller buttons than the original NES controllers, they feel just as responsive. The A and B buttons are springy instead of spongy, letting me make tricky jumps in Fiddling Nemo without whatsoever lag. The direction pad besides works well, moving any grapheme I controlled instantly and without any mushiness under my thumb.

Conclusions

The Retro-Bit RES Plus is the all-time Nintendo Amusement System you lot can buy today, mostly because Nintendo doesn't really make NES systems anymore (even the NES Classic has been discontinued, and was extremely difficult to find when it was available). It doesn't do annihilation fancy, but it plays NES cartridges and outputs over HDMI for just $40. You'll pay more that for a copy of Contra.

I all the same swear by my imported Retro Freak for its many useful emulation tricks and support for 11 unlike game systems, but it costs more than 4 times as much as the RES Plus. NES fans will beloved the unproblematic, affordable nature of the RES Plus, every bit will whatever retro gamers looking for esoteric experiences you tin only discover on cartridges. Hopefully the RES Plus is just the showtime step for Retro-Flake in 720p retro game systems, because an HDMI-equipped version of the company's Super Retro Trio would exist a natural and welcome improver, and add Super NES and Sega Genesis game support to the mix. For now, though, the $forty RES Plus is a pretty highly-seasoned device, and an Editors' Pick. If y'all actually desire to splurge, the Counterpart Nt does everything the RES Plus does, just for much more money (and with a very bonny solid metallic trunk).