Obviously, you’ll want a controller
If we’re going to go all out, you’ll need one more piece before turning your phone into a mobile gaming station. Gone are the days when we had to only rely on console controllers, as there are so many different phone controllers, it’s enough to make your head spin.
- GameSir G8 Plus is my first recommendation. It relies on Bluetooth, but can be expanded to fit the 14.6-inch Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra, without much hassle.
- Do you need something that is more compact? Check out the ASUS ROG Tessen, which is one that I keep in my bag whenever I’m going to be away from home for more than just a day or two. It connects via USB-C, offers passthrough charging, and features programmable rear paddle buttons.
More recently, I’ve fallen back in love with the Backbone One, but more specifically, the Xbox Edition. It’s not quite as ergonomic as the others, but it simply looks awesome, and I like the way that the buttons feel. That being said, I’m definitely keen on checking out the new Backbone One Pro, which was just recently announced and has a few unique tricks up its sleeve.
Play PC, Xbox, and PS5 games on your phone
Before getting to my favorite part, what if you’re a console or PC gamer, and want to be able to play from anywhere? There are actually quite a few options, starting off with the obvious ones like Xbox Cloud Gaming, PlayStation Plus Premium, and Amazon Luna. While dedicated first-party apps are available for those services, you might want to take XBPlay or chiaki-ng for a spin, as I’ve found these to offer much better experiences.
- From there, we have the likes of GeForce Now and Boosteroid, which tie into multiple platforms and make your games accessible over the cloud. GeForce Now is another one of those subscriptions that you’ll have to rip from me, as I’ve been signed up for as long as I can remember.
- While I have no plans to ditch my GeForce Now subscription, there is another solution that has been slowly becoming a favorite of mine. Apollo and Artemis are community-built forks for Moonlight and Sunshine. Basically, think of it like GeForce Now, but with ALL of your games.
Get the right emulators
Now for the fun part — emulation. Even the best budget phones are more capable than you might think. For example, the Snapdragon 865, which is now more than five years old, is still capable of emulating Switch and PS3 games on Android. That’s probably more of an outlier than a rule, but it still proves my point.
- When it comes to the emulators that make all of this possible, there are a couple of different routes to take. The first of which is to download a separate emulator for each console that you want to play. However, that can be annoying and cumbersome on a good day, so it’s not really something that I’d recommend.
- Instead, I’ve compiled a list of the various emulators that I would recommend, starting with RetroArch. This single app can handle all the way up to PS2, and includes a bunch of extra features such as built-in shader support and the ability to rack up your RetroAchievements.
Turn your phone into a console
It’s great that you have all of your games, streaming apps, and emulators downloaded. But even if you throw everything into one folder, it doesn’t really give you that true gaming experience. That’s where launchers come into play, of which I rotate between three different ones.
- ES-DE is the Android version of the popular EmulationStation launcher available on x86 devices. It includes support for more than 150 different systems and makes it easy to scrape your games to show the artwork and download different themes based on your style.
- Console Launcher is a newcomer to my arsenal, but I’ve been using it on and off for the six months or so. While ES-DE might seem a bit more polished, Console Launcher feels better suited for Android, designed for the platform from the ground up.
Don’t underestimate what your phone can do
As I said before, you don’t need a dedicated gaming handheld just to play games on the go. The phone in your pocket is more than capable of playing thousands upon thousands of games. And that includes those who want to dip their toes into the world of emulation, provided that you understand the potential limitations.
Nevertheless, I hope this has helped give you some sense of direction as to how you can set up a phone or tablet to become the mobile gaming beast that it’s capable of being. It’ll definitely take a bit of time to get everything set up, but that hard work will pay off when you can just turn on your phone and start playing.