Games & tech

Now that’s probably the second selling point of the game stick, it’s plug-and-play, just put batteries (not included) in the controllers, plug the game stick in your TV, connect it to a power source and you’re good to go. You don’t really need to tweak anything as it’s already been done.

As you might now, I envisioned building a full-on emulation console using an old computer (see here) but in the end, even if it worked fine, it was just too much work to download all the roms and setup config files for each emulator.

With the game stick, you already have everything ready with around 60 systems and their respective games available. You could even go without changing any setting or adding any games (like Rayman PS1 which is sadly missing), there’s no work at all.

Howdy cowboy !

Adding games is fairly easy, remove the TF card from the stick, and plug it into your computer (if you don’t have one, it could be nice to buy a TF card reader with the gamestick, the cheapest one will suffice). The card is partitioned into three separate disks, one for the system, one for games and one for Retroarch, just drag and drop to the corresponding system folder in the games partition.

You can add MS-DOS game with a little tweak.

To add systems, like MS-DOS, the job is a bit harder because you need to change permissions in the Retroarch partition, (For Linux users : sudo chown -R username:username /media/username/RETROARCH), but it’s not impossible to do.

Packing a punch

Now guys, let’s be clear, this stick will play up to the Dreamcast with no or minimal lag (some glitches on N64 menus but nothing terrible). The PSP I found to be a bit laggy and not so enjoyable to play (GTA VC Stories was choppy). But anything below the Dreamcast works like a charm (except for the occasional Mame game lag, like Mortal Kombat 3 being laggy for unknown reasons, I suppose it’s a matter of tweaking FB Alpha or something like this).

What is a man ? A miserable little pile of secrets…

The S905L is quite powerful, considering it plays PS1 at 60FPS. From what I remember, when I played the original PS1 back in the days, it was not so fluid and responsive… And there was the famous loading times of the PS1, which here are reduced. For example, Castlevania symphony of the night was extremely responsive and fluid !

DOOM, now that’s a game.

The reason I bought the game stick was to play mostly MAME games, and I got to admit I was not expecting such good performance with 3D !

What is nice is that you can add shaders to each games, for example to simulate a CRT curved screen, and also change the aspect ratio of game, it’s particularly useful for games such as Ninja warriors or Darius on arcade, which need a 4:1 super wide screen display.
Impressive collection

What blew my mind was the size of the collection. Everything is here from Atari systems to the Dreamcast, and even the Amiga computer. I invite you to check out those obscure systems, and not limit yourself to mainstream ones, because there are many hidden gems there that deserve to be played. Hell, there is even DOOM on Sega-32 to give you that creepy horror-sci-fi feeling !

3D games like Mortal Kombat 4 run flawlessly at around 60 fps.

Now I seriously think I will be trying out all these strange Amiga games, I managed to get MS-DOS games on the system (using this tutorial in Spanish : link) but there seems to be a controller issue as they were designed with a keyboard in mind. Maybe you’ll find a way to make things work. (Comment if you find it please !)
Hardware

Multiplayer support works on most games ! (Except on the Dreamcast, but maybe there a setting somewhere) So you can play Mortal Kombat 4 with your friends, at 60FPS (The game is super fast and responsive), but also Sunset Riders or P.O.W. in cooperative mode.

Two controllers included !

I couldn’t manage to get my Bluetooth 3rd party controller to pair, but you get two controllers with the stick (How to connect 4, I don’t know, I guess not all BT controllers work with the stick because the stick is based on an outdated Linux kernel, note that this can also happens when you build your own retro gaming station, see here).

Sill regarding controllers, I didn’t feel any input lag at all, even at two players (and no slowdown as well). Maybe it depends on the distance you sit form the stick (I was around 6ft/2 meters from it and with fully charged batteries), but my experience was lag-less.

Regarding heat, the stick does get warm/hot when you play, but nothing special, it’s pretty normal for this kind of hardware so don’t panic. Just keep the stick in a ventilated place and it should be ok. (There’s some sort of heat dissipation opening on one side but no fan, it’s a very small device).
Verdict

This game stick genuinely impressed me with its power. Of course you cannot play PS5 on this, (I’m sure one day we’ll get cheap sticks with some sort or Ryzen CPUs for 35$ but not for today !) but if you like retro-gaming, and basic 3D game, you’ll get bang for your buck !

The settings allow for very cool effects, as well as performance upgrade tricks like changing the ratio.

Considering it comes with two working controllers, it is a very good choice to play with friends with no fuss and no setup work !

The game collection is simply huge, and adding the occasional game is not much hassle, I found a setting to copy games via the stick’s USB port but didn’t try it (Plus you would need a USB hub because you need to plug the controller adapter as well as your USB drive).

All-in-all I think the X2 gamestick is one of the best options if you’re looking for no-fuss, plug-and-play gaming, and now, it’s time to play !

Ok Colonel !

(Coming soon) some tips and tricks for your X2 game stick !

Don’t miss our tips and tricks selection, coming soon on Gorisgarden.com !