ROG Xbox Ally Video games

First, some background with a disclaimer. I’ve been writing about video games for over a decade, and I’ve been playing games for much longer than that. My handheld gaming experience dates back to the Game Boy, through the Nintendo DS, hijacked by the PlayStation Vita, and as a regular player of the Nintendo Switch (and now its sequel). However, I’m not a Steam Deck or even a big fan of gaming laptops, and while I love gaming, I don’t go deep into specs, which can often be the breaking point for someone considering a machine like the ROG Xbox Ally X, Microsoft’s new portable gaming rig that has a notorious $1,000 price tag. There are many sources that have tested this system and its AMD Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme chip in a way that doesn’t matter much to someone writing for an entertainment site and not a gaming site. It’s a good system that breaks down FPS on certain games on the system, and the results generally look impressive across the board, but those details may factor into you in ways I can’t analyze.

With that out of the way, I can explore my personal experience with the most impressive portable gaming system I’ve ever used. Coming out of the box with Windows 11 installed and a familiar Xbox user interface, the Ally You should know that, like many systems and games these days, the Ally X had some initial problems. I had a game that didn’t belong to me despite being on Game Pass (“Silksong”) and an issue where the vibrations caused a tinny sound in the fan, but both were resolved, and it’s now a consistently impressive and entertaining machine, an addictive machine that’s easy to pick up and play for an hour before returning to real life.

So how did I “test” my Xbox X? Most of the gameplay has been “Hollow Knight: Silksong” through the Xbox UI and “Hades II” through Steam. While I also played chunks of “Gears of War 5,” “South of Midnight,” “Keeper,” “The Outer Worlds 2,” “Evil West” and even “Fortnite” to see how different types of games feel on the Ally X, it was the two platformers that dominated my attention.

Two of the best games of the year, “Silksong” and “Hades II,” fit this system like a glove. While I often find shooters a little finicky on handheld systems (call me old, but I need the TV in front of me, not in my hands, to be accurate with a crosshair and for me to feel like I can move quickly enough to respond to an enemy), platformers and similarly structured Metroidvania games have always been better on a handheld. Maybe it’s just the memories of playing the “Metroid” and “Castlevania” games on Nintendo handhelds (yes, I’m old), but the joy I felt with “Silksong” (well, joy mixed with outright rage at a sometimes ridiculously difficult game) and “Hades II” were the highlights of the last month. Taking these two games – one through the Xbox interface and the other through Steam – anywhere is for casual gamers like me the real appeal of a system like the Ally.

It helps that you can play it on a system as robust as an Xbox controller. The grips on the grips really replicate the feel of a real controller in your hand instead of the flatness of the Switch model. And the interfaces, while they may take some getting used to for people used to the simplicity of the Switch, are actually relatively user-friendly. There is a button on the left side of the device that allows you to access any interface with a single click, including the Xbox UI, Steam UI, Epic games and Armory Crate, where you can adjust settings to maximize your game’s performance.

The system also includes a full Windows 11 experience, which means you can surf the web and use other Windows apps. Given our focus on the site, I also watched Netflix and YouTube TV on my Ally and they both had a crisp presentation, another nice thing to do with this device. Of course, it’s a gaming machine first and foremost, but the fact that it can also be a portable entertainment system shouldn’t be ignored, especially if you’re looking for a way to take streaming libraries and live TV on the road.

You should know that there are some hiccups in the games library. Apparently not all games purchased on Xbox allow play on Ally, including the recent “Battlefield 6.” Aside from the odd issue with “Silksong”, I had no issues accessing the games mentioned above, but they were primarily through Game Pass, which doesn’t seem to have any access issues. Even pre-received games that I technically “own” like “Outer Worlds 2” and “Keeper” (both really fun, btw – we’ll talk about them later this month) were also technically Game Pass games.

Of course, there is also the price. In today’s declining economy, four figures for a portable gaming system seems like a tough ask for those who would just like to play “Silksong” and “Hades II.” With that in mind, the Ally The truth is that this is an incredible machine, but also one that costs as much, if not more, than some powerful gaming laptops. Although it seems like most people who buy an Ally X will already have one and will be trying to expand their gaming empire instead of just creating one.

If you’re one of those people and the price doesn’t put you off, it’s hard to believe you’ll be disappointed with a system that has truly given me flashbacks to portable gaming over the past four decades of my life. When I was a kid, there was something magical about the idea of ​​taking what was in the arcades or even on my television and holding it in my hands. That magic lives on in the ROG Xbox Ally X, a system that may not be the future of portable gaming as much as a reminder of what you loved about its past.

The Company has provided a review copy of this material. It is now available.