AYANEO’s $70 handheld plays a shocking amount of PS2 games

AYANEO’s first true budget handheld, the Pocket AIR Mini, is mostly noteworthy because of its $70 starting price, but today the company gave gamers a whole new reason to get excited. Not only will it be cheap, it will play games that many devices in its price range couldn’t even dream of running.

In a surprise sharing session today, the company showcased game compatibility with demanding systems like the GameCube, PS2, and SEGA Saturn. These systems are generally considered beyond the reach of sub-$100 Android gaming handhelds, and some devices in the $150-$200 range struggle to run them at full speed.

Considering the Pocket AIR Mini packs a modest MediaTek G90T and 2/3GB of RAM, conventional wisdom would say that the console would top off around PSX and N64, but that doesn’t appear to be the case. AYANEO showed a host of games running live on stream, but here are the slides listing games the Pocket AIR Mini can run. Some of the text is in Chinese, but you can infer the game by looking at the image.

Importantly, the images above also detail which games are playable on the cheaper 2GB version, which is the vast majority of the list. It includes PS2 games like God of War II, Dragon Quest VIII, Final Fantasy X, and Kingdom Hearts II. On the GameCube side, it lists Wind Waker, Super Mario Sunshine, Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, and Twilight Princess.

The Pocket AIR Mini runs Android 11, but it looks like it will have great compatibility with Android games, too. Dead Cells, Terraria, Stardew Valley, Minecraft, Balatro, Dead Space, and others are included in the list of playable games. At one point in the stream, AYANEO also showcased Genshin Impact running at 60fps, although it isn’t included on the slide.

While on paper this shows impressive performance for an entry-level handheld, there may be dips in performance or crashes during particularly demanding sections of certain games. It’s unlikely that the handheld will support the full catalog of PS2 or GameCube games, but stay tuned to Android Authority for hands-on testing in the coming weeks.

The AYANEO Pocket AIR Mini will be available starting in mid-October, and you can subscribe now to get a free screen protector with your order.