RetroArch Steam Release Review

 

Emulation Gets Official-A Review of Retroarch's Steam release 

For a medium boggled down by overstepping companies trying to block preservation, Retroarch's release unto steam is a massive event for the emulation community. So what exactly does this release have to offer for those already familiar with the emulation scene?

Exciting, Yet Lacking

The first thing many will notice who are familiar with the standalone version of Retroarch is the core system. You see, Retroarch is a massive, multi-system emulator that allows for emulation of almost any retro game, but it needs cores to function as those individual systems when you boot up a game (A SNES game will need a corresponding SNES core, etc.). The standalone, non-steam, version comes packaged with all these cores, and allows you to use an online component to download any additional cores you may want for systems that aren't covered. This component also allows you to improve your cores by updating them when some of the cores get functionality improvements, making games run better. BOTH of these features are completely absent from this release (you can, of course, add them in by adding a batch of files in the install path like I did, but its still an unnecessary hurdle for new coming user), and leave these features behind by instead having players download the 10 cores available from the steam DLC store for free. 

The core overhaul of the steam version leaves much to be desired.

The issue here is the cores that up for download. Most are fine, however over time many systems have multiple cores available for each one-and the selection here is just downright questionable. Some are wonderful choices, like the well equipped sega genesis and game gear emulator genesis plus GX and game boy advance emulator mGBA, but other cores, like the less stable PCSX ReARMed, are just worse to other cores in the standalone Retroarch.  

Another thing about the available cores: there's only 10. Meaning you just straight up can't emulate your entire collection due to lack of cores. Some pretty significant systems are unavailiable-like GameCube and Wii, among others-and it really dampens this "all in one" nature of Retroarch. 

All in all, they really didn't add anything either to this release. I had some hope for improvements on the default themes of the emulation system, but its still as convoluted and overly complex as ever. Many have noted before that you need to learn Retroarch in order to properly use it, I had to as well a few years back, and its still present here. Sure for some aspects its quite easy, but in terms of custom bezels and tweaking performance it can still be a nightmare. 

Truly, the only real benefit I found with this release was the fact that steam keeps track of how long you've had a program open, meaning I'd get a raw statistic of how long I've been emulating. Other than that, I struggle to fully find a feature here that is flat out an improvement over the standalone versions of Retroarch. It's a shame really, because as much as I enjoy the idea of an emulator on steam, this was clearly not fully thought out. 

The only objective benefit to using this version of Retroarch

Verdict

I had such high hopes for what this release could be for emulation, and it basically all fell flat. Retroarch for steam is quite literally just a downgrade of the version you can get off of that website. For that reason alone, I cannot recommend you chose it over the standalone version. I can't help but commend it subtly however for entering uncharted territory and acting as a basis for future releases on steam.

4/10-Functional, But Falls To The Original Version