Polymega
Best Retro Consoles 2021
If you’re looking for an all-in-one retro console that can handle just about anything retro that you want to put in it the Polymega is perhaps the best, and most polished of all on the market right now and a great choice to kick off our list of the best retro consoles to buy right now in 2021.
The base Polymega has a CD drive that can play discs from the following consoles: PlayStation, Sega Saturn, Sega CD. TurboGrafx-CD and Neo Geo CD. Then, for an additional price, you can purchase modules that can be added onto the base Polymega that can then also play NES, SNES, Sega Genesis, and 32X cartridges.
The Polymega is sleek and professional-looking and can fit in with your modern consoles very nicely on a shelf. What’s also nice is that while there are no guarantees, Polymega may also in the future add additional support for new retro games via a software update or a new module.
Really the only negative is that Polymega is not cheap. The base unit is currently going for about $450, and the modules are about $80 each. You get what you pay for, though, this is a top-of-the-line retro console option.
SNES Classic Edition
Best Retro Consoles 2021
If you don’t need all the options that the Polymega provides, or it’s just too cost prohibitive, you could try your hand at acquiring a SNES Classic Edition from Nintendo.
The SNES Classic Edition retails for just under $80 and will give you a compact version of the classic 16-bit home console that comes pre-loaded with 21 classic games such as Super Mario World, Super Metroid, Star Fox, and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and two controllers to play with a buddy.
The only problem is going to be finding one that’s still going for retail price. It’s difficult to find SNES Classic Editions out in the wild and you might end up paying a large mark-up from a third-party seller to the point where you’re just better off buying a Polymega or just buying a Nintendo Switch and subscribing to Nintendo Switch Online for their catalog of retro games.
That said, if you can get your hands on one, it’s a great retro console.
Sega Genesis Mini
Best Retro Consoles 2021
As opposed to the SNES Classic, the Sega Genesis Mini is far easier to find and can more easily be obtained at its original retail price of $80. This because of any lack of quality, it’s just likely that Sega made and/or continues to make more of them, making them easy to get for anyone that wants them.
That’s great because the Sega Genesis Mini is a great retro console to own for the gamer that wants a console that can “does what Nintendon’t.”
The Sega Genesis Mini has 40 classic games such as Sonic the Hedgehog, Shinobi 3, Altered Beast, and Dynamite Headdy. There’s always going to be those who still side with the Sega Genesis or the SNES, but at least in 2021, it’s not terribly difficult to just experience all of it.
NES Classic Edition
Best Retro Consoles 2021
Like the SNES Classic Edition, the NES Classic Edition is another fantastic, miniature version of Nintendo’s iconic foray into video games.
It comes pre-loaded with plenty of the console’s greatest hits including Donkey Kong, Metroid, The Legend of Zelda, Kirby’s Adventure, and of course, Super Mario Bros. 1 and 3 and many more as well. Pretty much you can see how a major chunk of Nintendo’s most prized IPs got their start.
The problem, again, is that the NES Classic is incredibly hard to find at a reasonable price. If you can’t find it, we highly recommend once again considering getting a Switch with a Nintendo Switch Online subscription.
TurboGrafx-16 Mini
Best Retro Consoles 2021
There were Genesis kids (like me) and Nintendo kids growing up in the 90s. But was anyone a TurboGrafx kid? Probably not. Please let me know in the comments below if you were, I have so many questions.
Either way, there’s a good chance that you missed out on the TurboGrafx-16 from NEC, and all of the games it brought to market. While the console was overpriced and ultimately unsuccessful, it doesn’t mean the console or its games were bad. In fact, quite the opposite, there’s a ton of great retro games that can be enjoyed on it, and far more easy to obtain TurboGrafx-16 Mini allows you to get a taste of what it would have been like to own the original console.
Usually retailing for a couple of hundred dollars (although sometimes it’s marked up as well because of Covid-19 related shortages) you can get access to classic games such as both Bonk’s Adventure and Revenge, various classic Bomberman games, Galaga, Fantasy Zone, Splatterhouse, and many more.
If nothing else, too, it’s just a really cool piece of gaming history to have hanging around, just to say you’ve covered all of your bases when it comes to gaming in the ’90s.
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