For Doomed June, Retro Handhelds is focusing on games for video game consoles that didn’t sell very well back in the day. All of the games that were nominated (including all three winners) came from consoles that had less than 25 million in lifetime sales. It’s just a coincidence they happen to be three well-known games popular enough to get sequels/remakes on other platforms.
GotX is the Retro Handheld Discord‘s version of a book club, and this month we’re playing games on consoles people tried to forget! So come on in, sit down, and let’s play some games!
What is GotX?
GotX is short for “Games of the X“, which can be split into three categories: Game of the Month (GotM), Game of the Quarter (GotQ), and Game of the Week (GotW). Games of the Month are chosen according to a theme selected by community users who have previously beaten a GotM game for the prior month, aka “GotM Champions”.
Three games in total are selected, each falling within a range of release dates, nominated and voted upon by the GotM Champions. Winners each receive their own thread in the GotM channels in the Retro Handhelds Discord, where discussions, arguments, and ultimately fun are had by all.
Game of the Quarter and Game of the Week are selected independently in styles that are slightly different from Game of the Month, and they also don’t follow the same theme as the Games of the Month. Games in these two categories have either a runtime of under two hours (GotW) or a minimum runtime of 25 hours (GotQ), according to HowLongToBeat.
Completing a game (by posting a screenshot with ending credits, a date, and your Discord username) gets you an imaginary internet point that can be redeemed towards very real merch on the RH Store.
Game of the Month (Pre-1996) – Panzer Dragoon
- Console: Sega Saturn, PC, Nintendo Switch
- Genre: Rail Shooter
- Time to Beat: 2 hours
Panzer Dragoon has you playing as Keil Fluge, a young hunter who develops a bond with a mysterious, armored blue dragon after its original rider dies. Entrusted with the task of stopping the equally mysterious Dark Dragon from reactivating the destructive Tower – a dangerous ruin from a bygone era known as the Ancient Age – Keil and his dragon embark on a journey through various biomes and environments in order to save the world.
Panzer Dragoon is a 3D on-rails shooter; you will guide Keil and his dragon through 3D levels, each with an ending boss, while aiming a consistent on-screen yellow targeting reticle. Players will have the choice of a primary rapid-fire attack or a second lock-on homing attack, and can rotate their camera by 90-degree increments to face enemies and attacks from multiple directions. It’s also really short, apparently.
Game of the Month (1996-2001) – Sonic Adventure
- Console: Sega Dreamcast, Nintendo GameCube, PC
- Genre: Action Platformer
- Time to Beat: 9 hours
Sonic Adventure has you play as the titular Sonic as he traverses 3D environments to stop the evil scientist Dr. Robotnik after awakening Chaos, an ancient and powerful being that protects the Chao and the Master Emerald, who becomes more erratic and dangerous after absorbing Chaos Emeralds. Players will control one of six characters from the Sonic universe throughout various levels of the game, with each character using their unique attributes to complete the levels and progress the overall story.
Gameplay differs pretty wildly between each character; Sonic tries to get to the end fast, Tails involves a race, Knuckles uses a radar to search for pieces of the Master Emerald, Amy solves puzzles, E-102 is more action and shooting-focused, and Big catches fish. This gives a lot of variety in level design and gameplay throughout the game, even if one of them is woefully unfun.
Game of the Month (2002 and Later) – The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
- Console: Nintendo GameCube, Nintendo Wii U, Nintendo Switch
- Genre: Action Adventure
- Time to Beat: 29 hours
Set hundreds of years after the events of Ocarina of Time, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker follows Link as he sets sail across the Great Sea to rescue his kidnapped sister, Aryll. Along the way, he will ally himself with the pirate captain Tetra and a red, talking boat known as the King of Red Lions. The Wind Waker employs extensive usage of sailing and naval combat, as the Great Flood has left the land as nothing more than a collection of various islands.
Link will explore various dungeons and outposts on these islands, with the typical action-adventure and puzzle solving gameplay found in Ocarina of Time, but traversing between those islands requires using the titular Wind Waker – a magical baton – to control and direct the wind to fill the sails of the King of Red Lions to travel across the Great Sea, among other things. Link will also engage in naval combat and marine salvage across his maritime travels, as well as a deceptively deep side quest involving a pictograph.
This also happens to be my favorite Zelda game, with one of my favorite final battles in the series.
Game of the Quarter – Racing Lagoon
If you’re looking for a meatier game to sink your teeth into, then the Game of the Quarter has you covered. GotQ consists of games that meet a minimum criterion of at least 25 hours to beat according to HLTB. Each quarter, four games are pulled at random from an extensive list of games that meet the minimum criterion, and then community users vote on which game they’d like to play for the next three months.
Completing a GotQ will still net you a single point, but there is also an opportunity to earn two additional points if you manage to 100% the game by completing all of the achievements through RetroAchievements and posting this as an additional screenshot.
- Console: PS1
- Genre: Racing RPG
- Time to Beat: 31 hours
For the last month of the second quarter of 2026, we’re continuing our playthrough of Racing Lagoon, a CaRPG developed by Squaresoft that blends street racing with RPG mechanics, like mission completion, stat building through experience, and a gripping story. Racing Lagoon takes place in a hyper-stylized version of Yokohama, Japan, in 1999. The story centers on Sho Akasaki, a new member of Team Bay Lagoon Racing, as he works through the underground racing scene to solve the mystery of the “Fastest Legend”, an event that took place 10 years ago, along with his forgotten past.
One of the most unique-looking games we’ve played in GOTQ in a while, Racing Lagoon has a certain style that just screams 90’s Square. Stylized characters and cars, killer music, and an evocative narrative help drive this one along. The progression mechanics in this game are solid, with your car parts earning “experience” with each race won, unlocking part slots and allowing for improved speed, handling, and power. This one never made it stateside, though there is a fan translation.
Game of the Week, aka RetroBits
If short games and easy points are more your speed, then each Saturday at 5 PM PST, a new GotW is announced. Each game comes with a completion time of 2 hours or less, according to HowLongToBeat, and must be completed before the new GotW is announced the following Saturday.
Completion of the GotM and GotQ will earn you one point (three if you 100% the latter), but GotW will only net you half a point. Unlike the aforementioned GotM and GotQ, the GotW is chosen entirely at random by the GotX overlord Rapid99, selected from a large database of sub-two-hour games.
Above is an example of the four most recent GotW games that we’ve played in the Retro Handhelds Discord. Beyblade is the most recent, and we’re still playing it from May 30, 2026, to June 6, 2026.
