For January, Retro Handhelds is doing something a little different for its GotX program. While this is technically the second year in a row that we’ve done this, we are doing a callback theme; you can play any three past winning Games of the Month or Games of the Quarter for your standard three completions. You do not have to follow the usual early, mid, and late date ranges, and can instead play any set of three previous winners you wish from any time period.
However, there are two catches: it must be a game that you have not already completed and earned a point for in GotX, and it must not be a game that won a Game of the Year Category for 2025 (more on that later). In other words, you have to play a previous GotX winner that you have never played before! This gives both veterans and new players alike an opportunity to revisit some older winners that they might have missed previously.
GotX is the Retro Handhelds Discord‘s version of a book club, and this month we’re strolling down memory lane. 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, which are 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.
Learning Old Lessons – January 2026
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.
January 2026: Learning Old Lessons
As mentioned previously, this month is a bit different from previous months. Instead of mentioning date ranges and winners, I will instead give a link below to the GotX Randomizer, a wonderful little program on our Retro Handhelds website that goes over previous GotX winners, nominations, stats, and all sorts of other neat little pieces of data.
Previous GotM and GotQ Winners
In order to ensure you are only looking at previous GotM and GotQ winners, please be sure that you go to the Settings filter in the top-left quadrant of the page, and make sure that only GotM Winners and RPGotQ Winners are selected. This will only populate the list with previous winners, so you can see what games are eligible for the theme.
GotX Randomizer – Game Settings
In order to ensure you are only looking at previous GotM and GotQ winners, please be sure that you go to the Settings filter in the top-left quadrant of the page, and make sure that only GotM Winners and RPGotQ Winners are selected. This will only populate the list with previous winners, so you can see what games are eligible for the theme.
Games of the Year: 2025
As mentioned previously, any game that won a Game of the Year award for 2025 is also not eligible for this month’s replay, as the Games of the Year have their own replay and point-earning system that is separate from the standard Game of the Month.
For those who haven’t participated in a Game of the Year through Retro Handhelds before, towards the end of the year, any of the games that won a GotM for 2025 are put into a tournament-style faceoff and are voted upon by members of the community until there is one overall winner.
Likewise, there are a handful of games that fall under a specific “category” that are voted upon by members of the community, ala the Game Awards. These are both driven and voted upon by users of the Retro Handhelds Discord community, just like the other gaming programs we have, so if you want to have a say in these awards, you have to play the games!
-
- GOTY Winner
-
- GOTY Awards 1
-
- GOTY Awards 2
- Overall Game of the Year: The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening
- Best Art: Goodboy Galaxy
- Best Music: Final Fantasy III / VI
- Best Story: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Justice for All
- Best Action: Risk of Rain
- Best Action-Adventure: The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening
- Best Platformer: Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia
- Best RPG/ARPG: Final Fantasy III / VI
- Best Other: Pikmin
- Game of the Week of the Year: Super Mario Land
The rules are as follows – you can play ONE of the winners over the course of the following year (so the entirety of 2026) ONE TIME for a single point. Likewise, you can play the Game of the Week of the Year ONE TIME for an additional half a point. That’s a total of 1.5 additional points through the Game of the Year system. This is why these games are not eligible for the Learning Old Lessons theme – they have their own potential point system.
You can see the Game of the Year winners for yourself in our Retro Handhelds Year-End Podcast episode below (along with some other great shenanigans), but I also cover them briefly above.
Game of the Quarter — Breath of Fire III
GotQ – Breath of Fire III
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 criteria, 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.
Breath of Fire III
- Console: PlayStation, PlayStation Portable
- Genre: JRPG
- Time to Beat: 42 Hours
For the first quarter of 2026, we’ll be playing Breath of Fire III, a JRPG developed by Capcom. There are two prior entries in the series (both of which we’ve played in GotX previously), but this is the first game in the series to feature three-dimensional environments along with hand-drawn character sprites. You play as the recurring protagonist Ryu, the last of a legendary clan of dragons referred to as the Brood, on his journey to find out more about himself, his purpose, and what happened to the rest of his clan. The game starts with Ryu during his early childhood years, and then continues with a mid-game time skip into Ryu’s teenage years.
Breath of Fire III consists of pretty standard JRPG gameplay, in that you and two other party members will engage in turn-based battles that consist of using attacks, spells, items, and skills. Additionally, since Ryu is a member of the Brood race, he has the ability to periodically transform into various dragon forms to fight enemies, which is as kickass as it sounds. There is also a ton of side content, such as a great fishing minigame, a village-building mechanic in the Faerie Village, a master-disciple skill learning system, and more!
I cannot even begin to describe how happy I am to see this game come through the Game of the Quarter. Breath of Fire III is a top-five all-time favorite game of mine. Breath of Fire III and Breath of Fire IV were made by Capcom at the height of their sprite work days, and so these games have incredible graphics that have aged beautifully. The enemy and boss designs are fun and look incredible, the story is engaging, the characters are lovable, and there’s a ton to do in this game.
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.
Below is an example of the four most recent GotW games that we’ve played in the Retro Handhelds Discord. Power Strike is the most recent, and we’re still playing it from December 27, 2025, to January 3, 2025.
-
- Space Shuttle Project
-
- Ghostlop
-
- Valis IV
-
- Power Strike
If you’re new to Retro Handhelds or the GotX community, come join us!
What did you think of this article? Let us know in the comments below, and chat with us 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.