Best Handhelds for Sonic the Hedgehog

Sonic is the only franchise on this site that begins on a Sega console, and that one fact shapes everything that follows. His games span twelve tracked systems and thirty-three years, from the 1991 original on the Sega Genesis to Sonic Superstars on the Switch in 2023, and the canon crosses two Sega hardware generations before it reaches a Nintendo one. The Sega Saturn sits in the middle of that run. So does the PlayStation 3.

So this is not a guide about the fastest handheld. It is a guide about four price steps, and each one is a full emulation class apart from the next:

• The Genesis era is effectively free. From $15.
• The Saturn and the Dreamcast are the first real wall. A straight A starts at $70.
• The PlayStation 3 era is the expensive one. From $599, and nothing below it plays those games at all.
• The Wii U and the Switch games are the modern step. From $209.

Where the Sonic games live

Two caveats, stated plainly. The 8-bit branch of the canon - the Master System and Game Gear versions of Sonic 1, Sonic 2, Sonic Chaos and Sonic Triple Trouble - is not graded in this catalogue, so nothing below claims anything about it; it is also the cheapest branch to run, and every device in the first three rows of the ladder handles it without complaint. And "the Saturn" here means three games rather than a library: Sonic R, Sonic Jam and the Saturn build of Sonic 3D Blast. That is a small prize for the size of the wall it sits behind.

What to look for

Three things decide the purchase:

1. Where your library ends. The Sonic ladder has four knees, and each one is a full emulation class apart from the next: the Genesis, the Sega 32-bit generation, the PlayStation 3, and the Switch. Your newest game picks the device, not your library as a whole.
2. The emulation grade, not the chip name. Our capability index grades every handheld on every system, and those grades say plainly which devices clear a system rather than merely boot it. On the Saturn and on the PlayStation 3, that distinction is the whole decision.
3. Whether you need the 2006-2011 PlayStation 3 games. This is the only question whose answer moves the price by a factor of three, and the only one where a cheap handheld cannot be talked into doing the job.

The price ladder

Every figure below is computed from the capability index: the cheapest handheld in our catalogue that reaches that grade on that system, with the grade it publishes. The right-hand column is the cheapest handheld that makes the system playable at all, which the index defines as a B or better.

Read the first three rows together and the guide's whole argument is there. The Genesis takes a straight A on 408 of the 443 handhelds we grade - 92.1% of the catalogue - for $15. Two years of hardware later the picture closes up: the Saturn takes a straight A on 146 of 442 devices, 33%, while 112 of them - one handheld in four - grade it an F and cannot run Sonic R at all. Only 33 of the 255 devices we price at $200 or less clear the Saturn at a straight A. Not one of those 255 clears the PlayStation 3.

The Saturn is the wall nobody expects

The Sega Saturn is the one console generation a Nintendo or PlayStation buyer has never had to think about, and it is harder to run than either the GameCube or the DS. The reason is the 1994 hardware itself: two Hitachi SH-2 processors working in parallel, two video display processors, and a geometry engine that has to be coordinated rather than simply emulated. The accurate way to run it is CPU-bound, and the Saturn never received the twenty years of optimisation that the Genesis and the PlayStation 1 did, because its library was trapped on hardware that sold poorly outside Japan.

Our own grades show the consequence. On the Saturn the catalogue splits hard: 146 of 442 handhelds take a straight A, 112 fail outright, and the middle is thin. The cheapest device that clears the Saturn at all costs $65 and publishes a B on it. The cheapest straight A is the Pocket Air Mini at $70, and that machine is the best value in this entire guide: an A on the Saturn, an A on the Dreamcast, a straight A on the Nintendo DS, a B on the GameCube and a B on the Nintendo 3DS, which covers Sonic R, Sonic Jam, both Sonic Adventure games and both Sonic Rush games on one $70 handheld.

The emulator side of this has only recently started to move. Ymir, the newest standalone Saturn emulator, is still labelled a work in progress by the people writing it, and it is the first Saturn emulator we have seen shipping ARM64 builds next to its desktop ones - and ARM64 is the instruction set every Android handheld in this guide runs on. Until that work matures, the accurate Saturn cores that predate it remain desktop software, which is exactly why the grades above cluster the way they do.

The PlayStation 3 is the expensive one

The wall at the other end of the canon is steeper, and it gets written about far less, because it lands after the point in Sonic's history that people stopped enjoying. Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), Sonic Unleashed and Sonic Generations are PlayStation 3 titles, and the PlayStation 3 is the hardest system in this catalogue for a handheld to run. Of the 425 devices we grade on it, 43 take a straight A - 10.1% - and 332, which is 78%, grade it an F.

The rest is arithmetic rather than opinion. Of the 255 handhelds we price at $200 or less, exactly zero take a straight A on the PlayStation 3, and the cheapest device that plays a PlayStation 3 game at all - at the index's playable floor of a B - costs $599. Nothing sits between those two numbers, and the reason is not price. RPCS3, the only serious PlayStation 3 emulator, ships for Windows, Linux, macOS and FreeBSD and has no Android build, so the whole Android handheld market is out of reach of those games no matter what its chip costs.

The honest answer about the PS3 Sonics is that they are a $599 decision, and that the cheap routes exist for some of them. Sonic Unleashed also shipped for the Wii and the PlayStation 2, and the Wii build is playable from $114 - the Retroid Pocket Classic at a B on the Wii. If Unleashed is the one you want, the budget tier already has it. Sonic Generations and the 2006 game you cannot do that with: both are PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 releases, and on a handheld the entry fee is $599.

The shortlist

The GB300, $15. A straight A on the Sega Genesis and the Game Boy for the price of a takeaway. Sonic 1, Sonic 2, Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles all run at full quality, and so does Spinball. It grades the Game Boy Advance a B, so the Advance games boot rather than shine. It is the cheapest way into this franchise that exists.

The G28, $30. The cheapest handheld that takes a straight A on both the Genesis and the Game Boy Advance - the four Mega Drive Sonics plus the three Sonic Advance games. It is a straight A on the SNES and the PlayStation 1 as well, and a C on the Nintendo DS, so it is where the 2D Sonic canon ends.

The R39S, $40. The cheapest handheld that plays Sonic Adventure. It grades the Dreamcast a B, which makes Adventure 1 and 2 playable for the price of two cinema tickets, and it takes a straight A on the Nintendo DS - both Sonic Rush games and Sonic Colours - plus a straight A on the Genesis and the Game Boy Advance. Nothing else at $40 covers three Sonic eras.

The Pocket Air Mini, $70. The value pick of the whole guide. It is the cheapest handheld to take a straight A on the Sega Saturn and the Dreamcast together - Sonic R, Sonic Jam, Sonic Adventure, Adventure 2 - and it adds straight A grades on the Nintendo DS, the Genesis and the Game Boy Advance, plus a B on the GameCube and a B on the 3DS. For $70 it covers the Sega half of the canon at full quality.

The Retroid Pocket Classic, $114. The cheapest device that makes the entire pre-PS3 canon playable: a straight A on the Saturn, the Dreamcast, the Genesis and the DS, a B+ on the GameCube, a B on the Wii and a B on the PlayStation 2. That is Sonic Heroes, Shadow the Hedgehog, Riders, Colours and the Wii build of Unleashed on one machine.

The KT-R2, $159. The cheapest straight A on the GameCube and the Wii, which is most of what a 2000s Sonic fan actually owns: Adventure DX, Heroes, Shadow, Riders, Secret Rings, Colours and Unleashed. It also grades the 3DS an A- and the PlayStation 2 a B+.

The Mangmi Air Y Pro, $160. A straight A on every Sonic system from the Genesis through the Nintendo 3DS, the GameCube and the Wii included, with the PlayStation 2 an A-. It is the cheapest machine that finishes the canon as it stood in 2013, for $160.

The RG477V, $200. The winner. It is the cheapest handheld in our catalogue to take a straight A on all nine classic Sonic systems - the Genesis, Saturn, Dreamcast, Game Boy Advance, GameCube, PlayStation 2, Nintendo DS, Wii and Nintendo 3DS. Every Sonic game from the 1991 original to the 2013 handheld titles runs at full quality on one $200 device, and only 98 of the 443 handhelds we grade can say the same.

The Retroid Pocket 6, $209. The cheapest way to reach the Wii U games. Sonic Lost World and Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric run at an A-, it holds a straight A on the whole classic canon, and it grades the Switch a C+, which technically makes Sonic Mania and Frontiers playable. It also grades the Wii U better than anything cheaper can.

The Odin 3, $299. The cheapest handheld to grade the Wii U a straight A and the cheapest to run the Switch games at a playable B - so Lost World, Boom, Mania, Forces, Frontiers and Superstars all run on one machine, with a straight A on everything older.

The AYANEO Next Lite, $299. The cheapest handheld that makes the Switch playable rather than merely bootable: a B on the Switch, which is Sonic Frontiers at a genuinely playable speed, plus a B- on the Wii U and a straight A on everything else in the canon.

The Steam Deck, $399. The cheapest handheld to grade the Switch a straight A, and therefore the cheapest device that runs Sonic Frontiers and Sonic Superstars properly rather than approximately. It also gives the Wii U a B+, which is the strongest performance on the modern Sonics in this shortlist.

The AOKZOE A2, $599. The only machine in the catalogue we grade a straight A on all eighteen systems, the PlayStation 3 included. If you want Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), Unleashed and Generations emulated on a handheld, this is the price of admission, and there is nothing cheaper that gets you there.

The honest counterpoint

If your Sonic library ends at Sonic Colours in 2010, the winner is $86 more than you need to spend. The whole pre-PS3 canon - the Genesis, the Saturn, the Dreamcast, the Game Boy Advance, the GameCube, the PlayStation 2, the DS, the Wii and the 3DS - is playable on 128 devices we grade, and the cheapest of those is the Retroid Pocket Classic at $114. It grades the Saturn a straight A, the Dreamcast a straight A, the GameCube a B+, the Wii a B, the PlayStation 2 a B and the DS a straight A, and it plays every Sonic game released before the PlayStation 3 era. That is the honest budget answer, and it costs $86 less than this guide's pick.

If the modern games are the reason you are reading, the ladder starts at $209 and there is no route around the Switch. The Retroid Pocket 6 runs Mania and Frontiers at a C+ - playable, and honestly not pleasant. The Odin 3 at $299 takes the Switch to a playable B and the Wii U to a straight A, which is the cheapest machine that finishes both modern steps in one purchase. The Steam Deck at $399 is the cheapest handheld that grades the Switch a straight A, and the only one under $500 that runs Sonic Frontiers properly. And if the three PlayStation 3 Sonics are non-negotiable, the number is $599, because the emulator that runs them does not exist for the hardware you are holding. One last note, stated plainly: console emulation sits in a legal grey area, and you should own the games you run.

Sources

• Sega - the Sonic the Hedgehog series and its 1991 Sega Genesis origin: wikipedia.org
• Sega - the full platform-by-platform Sonic release list used for the era table: wikipedia.org
• Sega - the Sega Saturn hardware, including its dual SH-2 processors and twin video display processors: wikipedia.org
• Sonic Retro - community documentation of the Sega-era Sonic releases: sonicretro.org
• Lost In Consoles - the Handheld Capability Index, the per-system grades and tracked prices used throughout this guide: lostinconsoles.com
• Anbernic - the RG477V, the winner of this guide: anbernic.com
• AYANEO - the Pocket Air Mini and the Pocket handheld line: ayaneo.com
• Retroid / Moorechip - the Retroid Pocket Classic and the Pocket 6: goretroid.com
• KT Pocket - the KT-R2: ktpocket.com
• Mangmi - the Air Y Pro vertical handheld: mangmi.com
• AYN Technologies - the Odin 3 and its Snapdragon platform: ayn.com
• Valve - the Steam Deck, the cheapest handheld to grade the Switch a straight A: steamdeck.com
• Data Frog - the GB300 and its Genesis and Game Boy coverage: datafrog.cc
• Ymir - the standalone Sega Saturn emulator, still a work in progress, with ARM64 builds: github.com/ymir-emu
• RPCS3 - the PlayStation 3 emulator, and the platforms it ships for: github.com/RPCS3

Method: the per-system grades in this guide are the frozen values published on each device's page in the Lost In Consoles capability index, and the price floors ($15 GB300 on the Sega Genesis, $30 G28 on the Game Boy Advance, $40 R39S on the Dreamcast at a B and the Nintendo DS at a straight A, $70 Pocket Air Mini on the Sega Saturn and the Dreamcast, $114 Retroid Pocket Classic on a playable GameCube, Wii and PlayStation 2, $159 KT-R2 on a straight-A GameCube and Wii, $160 Mangmi Air Y Pro on the straight-A classic tier including the Nintendo 3DS, $200 RG477V on a straight A across all nine classic Sonic systems, $209 Retroid Pocket 6 on an A- Wii U, $299 Odin 3 on a straight-A Wii U and a playable Switch, $399 Steam Deck on a straight-A Switch, $599 AOKZOE A2 on the PlayStation 3) are computed directly from that dataset. The grade counts quoted above - 408 of 443 devices at a straight A on the Genesis, 146 of 442 on the Saturn, 43 of 425 on the PlayStation 3 - are the same dataset counted in full. Prices are the tracked street price at publication and move with the market.