There are many ways to experience older games, but my favorite is to pull out my phone. Hear me out—the experience is better than you might think.
The Play Store Is Filled With Classic Ports
I enjoy mobile gaming, and I keep tabs on new releases. I’ve been surprised to find that, often enough, when an enticing new game lands in the Play Store that isn’t laden with in-app purchases or bogged down with ads, it’s often a cross-platform port of an older game.
Take Limbo, a game from the Xbox 360 era that is now over a decade old. Then there are games like Hyper Light Drifter, which feels like a new title originally made for mobile phones but actually came out for many platforms two American presidents ago.
Then there are the decades-old hits that are classics by any standard. You can download the original Sonic the Hedgehog for the Genesis or experience the hit Super Nintendo RPG Chrono Trigger. I can relive some of my PlayStation days playing Legend of Mana, or I can try out the original for the first time and play Secret of Mana instead. Missed out on Final Fantasy VIII? Now’s your chance.
All of these games are available for purchase directly from the Play Store. You don’t have to dig out old consoles or fuss with emulators. They’re all right there. You just need to know how to look.
Android Is More Than Powerful Enough
Most older games aren’t what we think of as graphically demanding, but games have come far enough that there are 10-year-old games that you might not think about phone can handle. Consider Little Nightmares, which came out during the time of the PlayStation 4. This game made heavy use of light and shadow. Yet a modern phone, at least a flagship one, can play it with no problem.
Little Nightmares is on the more demanding end of mobile game ports, but it’s not alone. Alien: Isolation for mobile is the same game that came out for consoles in 2014, and it looks just as good. In fact, mobile phones are the most powerful way many of us can experience older titles. The Qualcomm Snapdragon chip in the latest phones can outperform PCs with Intel-integrated graphics. If you primarily game on a Nintendo Switch, well, a new Galaxy S25 or OnePlus 13 powered by a Snapdragon 8 Elite chip can outperform that aging handheld.
I’m Saving Serious Money Waiting for Mobile Ports
The economics of mobile games differ from that of consoles and PCs. People have shown they aren’t willing to pay high prices for mobile games, even if they are identical ports. Something about the smaller screen makes games feel smaller, even if they aren’t in any meaningful way.
So if you want to play Dead Cells for the first time, downloading at full price from Steam will set you back $25, whereas you can get it from the Play Store for $9 (and that’s assuming you don’t play the version bundled with a Netflix subscription). Morphite is an endearing 2017 indie cel-shaded game in the vein of Metroid Prime. It’s available for $15 on the Nintendo Switch, but the Android port is only $8.
Little Nightmares? It only costs $9, and I caught it for even less than that at launch. Many of these games are even included as part of a Google Play Pass subscription.
This dynamic remains the same with titles that are not as old. The Wreck came out a few years ago for the PlayStation 4 and 5, where it costs $20. The Play Store version is just $7. The same is true if you compare the price of Midnight Girl on the PC with the version on Android.
Mobility Makes Classic Games Feel Fresh
Playing these games on a phone today is worlds apart from the way most of us first enjoyed them. There was nothing portable about either the Sega Genesis or the CRT TV in was plugged into. This was the way I last played Golden Axe. Now, I could carry it around in my pocket if I wanted to. That fundamentally changes the way a game feels.
Let’s consider a more modern game, like Coromon. This Pokemon-inspired title is fun on a PC, but that’s not the way any of us first played Pokemon. Putting it on a phone feels much more in line with a Game Boy or Nintendo DS. It’s worth re-experiencing the game this way, even if you already played it just a few years ago.
Games like Coromon, with gamepad support, aren’t limited to touch controls. Once paired with something like a Backbone or a Razer Kishi, it feels more like you’re using a faster Nintendo Switch.
Then there are games like Lumino City that didn’t originally launch on mobile but feel as though they were destined to be held in our hands.
This Is the Best Many Old Games Have Looked
Some games don’t translate well to modern displays. Nintendo 64 hits that still look delightful on a CRT screen feel absolutely archaic on an LCD or OLED. The story is very different for games that came out in the LCD era.
Most of the landscape and the characters are entirely black, like shadows moving against a backdrop with color. This art style is most at home on an OLED display, where blacks are deeper than they ever were on the TVs we plugged old Xboxes into.
I also feel that 2D titles like Dead Cells and Sparklite feel better on smaller screens, where their visuals are crisp, and the pixels are less pronounced.
When many of us think of retro gaming, we think of emulation, and that is an area where Android has long excelled. There are emulators for everything from the Atari to the Gamecube. I have rarely touched an emulator, but they’re around for anyone wanting a more comprehensive selection of classic console libraries.
As for me, I like watching as ports land in the Play Store every few days. I enjoy seeing games like Universe for Sale pop up on my radar, even if the mobile port isn’t always the best. Many of these games i wouldn’t have heard of otherwise.
