It’s May and spring has sprung. School sessions are winding down, and it’s around the time folks start planning for summer getaways. Whether you actually have fond memories of the family road trips of yesteryear, or you prefer your trauma experienced secondhand via the misadventures of the Griswolds, the summer trip is a great time to get some quality one-on-one time with your retro handheld.
The availability of massive ROM libraries and the dreaded choice paralysis might leave you hyped up to game for your trip, only to be stuck on what to actually play when the trip arrives. Fear not! Here are a few choice suggestions of games that you can complete and enjoy during your next summer road/plane trip.
BoxBoy! – 3DS
BoxBoy! running in Citra on the Odin 2
Developed by everyone’s favorite Dog Egg logo’d developer, HAL Laboratories, Boxboy! was actually developed as a pet project while the developer was working on new entries in the Kirby series for the 3DS. BoxBoy! is deceptively simple in appearance and presentation, which might leave a lot of gamers to pass it over without much thought. Below this simple exterior, however, is a puzzle platformer where any fan of the genre should find something to love.
Things start off almost as simple as the graphics, but you’ll soon learn that the puzzles become more and more clever as you progress. You control Qbby, the box making boy himself, while he attempts to use his square-conjuring abilities to navigate a variety of obstacles. The nature of the game design allows players to jump in for quick bursts of progress, or a complete experience in about 5 hours. Perfect for the backseat.
Elite Beat Agents – NDS
Elite Beat Agents on the Moqi i7s
A rhythm game developed specifically for the Nintendo DS hardware made for some unique gameplay experiences beyond the d-pad input standards of the time. Elite Beat Agents puts you in charge of a trio of, well, Elite Beat Agents. When they detect the call of someone in peril, they rush in to help by employing the motivating encouragement of dance. The game served as a more approachable presentation of the gameplay formula introduced in 2005’s Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan.
Elite Beat Agents took this gameplay and gave it a fresh coat of paint for Nintendo’s “Touch! Generations” series, which was aimed at appealing to a broader audience of non-traditional gamers. You can get through the main story of Elite Beat Agents in about 4 hours and its tongue-in-cheek presentation and manga-influenced styling make it entertaining throughout its shorter run time. As you might expect of a rhythm-based series, replayability is high, so even if you beat it on the way to the beach, you still might feel compelled to keep playing on the way home too.
Warioland Series – GB/GBC/GBA/VB
Warioland 4 on the Anbernic RG35XX H
You’ve loaded up your retro ROM collection and stared at the same Nintendo mainstays on each system, but if you’re anything like me, the Warioland series completely passed you by in your youth in favor of his do-good counterpart Mario. This series offered a take on the platforming genre that was largely original at the time.
The control mechanics and gameplay style were something new with Wario charge-bashing his way through levels. The formula has been honored more recently in spiritual successors like Pizza Tower to great effect. If you need any additional nudge to give the series a go, Warioland 4 is currently one of our games of the month, where you can post your completion to our RH Discord server for a chance to earn RH merch!
Outland – Steam/Linux
Outland streaming on the Moqi i7s
Here’s one that may have passed you by if you missed it during the time of its 2011 release. I originally played Outland on XBLA via the 360. Looking for ideas for this article though, I was immediately reminded of this forgotten gem. Players navigate a familiar Metroidvania platform environment but with a unique twist. Everything in Outland plays with a shooter mechanic that those familiar with the Ikaruga series will be familiar with. All attacks from the player or enemies come in the form of red or blue energies that are considered to be light and dark.
Dark enemies must be defeated using light, and vice versa. What sounds like a simple enough idea eventually evolves into some very clever gameplay mechanics when applied to the Metroidvania genre. This is a compact-enough experience that can be completed in 6-8 hours with some additional exploration peppered in, and there’s a fair bit of additional content for completion obsessives to hunt.
Pocket Card Jockey – 3DS
Pocket Card Jockey on the Odin 2
Sometimes you just want something you can jump into whether you have 20 minutes before boarding or an 8-hour stretch in front of you. Something that you can pick up and put down at your leisure while still making progress. Enter the fun story progression and bite sized gameplay loops of Pocket Card Jockey. The game puts you in charge of two things that most people should be familiar enough with the basics of, the card game solitaire and thoroughbred horse racing.
This mashup might sound a bit like “nuts and gum – together at last!” to the uninitiated, but once you get a taste for it, the game quickly sinks its hooks into you. The way you handle your card game directly translates to your horse’s performance on the track. Developed by Japanese studio Game Freak, yes THAT Game Freak, this was released to a worldwide audience in 2016 and quickly found a fan base appreciative of its familiar yet innovative concept. You can jump in this summer on a puddle jumper flight or a cross-country road trip.
Bonus Entry: Pok̩mon Red/Blue РGB
Pokemon Red on the Powkiddy RGB30
Since we’re talking about Game Freak, it’s cards on the table time. I’ve never played a Pokémon game. I never had a Game Boy at the time, and the series just sort of passed me by over the years. Don’t get me wrong, I think Pikachu is adorable too, but I’ve never actually sat down and played any of the plethora of games. It always seemed a daunting undertaking.
I thought they were all huge RPGs, and while filling up your Pokédex certainly has nearly countless potential for hours spent, the resourceful folks of the internet have put together tons of strategies to blast through the main story in as little as 6-8 hours. And yeah, I get it, this is a stretch, but we’re here to try new things people, and dammit if this is what it takes for me to dive into a series, then I’m including it in the list.
Do you have a favorite road trip game? Comment here or chat in our Discord!
This page may contain affiliate links, by purchasing something through a link, Retro Handhelds may earn a small commission on the sale at no additional cost to you.