Rog Ally Digital Pickups 2025

Hi everyone,

With the Christmas Season just having wrapped up and as we ease into the New Year I hope all of you have had the chance to enjoy the time with friends and family and more importantly catch up on our ever increasing backlog of games. In this post i wanted to share some of my pickups during the holiday that I have been enjoying. You can also view the gameplay of all the games listed below right here on my Youtube Channel

Starting off the list is Sonic X Shadow Generations, which I purchased on Steam. The original Sonic Generations from 2011 was easily one of my favorite 3D Sonic games ever released and even brought back Classic Sonic after a few missteps in the franchise. Sonic Generations is not only a collection of some of the best 2D and 3D stages in the franchise but also gave us new reimaginings of stages that were never originally designed to be in 3D (at least only in our dreams).

With Sonic X Shadow Generations, we get some noticeable improvements like Enhanced Graphics: Experience the game with upgraded visuals, including higher resolution textures, improved models, and re-rendered pre-rendered movies in 4K. New Story Mode: Dive into a new story mode featuring Shadow the Hedgehog, complete with a brand new storyline and levels. Gameplay Improvements: Enjoy gameplay tweaks such as fully customizable controls, new collectibles (Chao hidden in levels), and Red Star Rings that are tracked in-level. New Abilities: Both Classic and Modern Sonic now have the Drop Dash ability, adding a fresh move to their repertoire. Reworked Cutscenes: Multiple cutscenes have been reworked with new dialogue and voice actors, enhancing character interactions and responses.

And best of all is Sonic X Shadow Generations is not a graphically demanding game for those with a PC handheld, for owners of the Rog Ally, you can play Sonic X Shadow generations with a fairly consistent 60 FPS that rarely dips into 55-59 FPS (during more intense sequences) at 1080p will everything set to low although if you don't mind playing at 720p which still looks pretty crisp on the Rog Ally/Rog Ally X's 7 inch VRR screen you can bump up the default settings to Medium while running the game with a 25w profile. I hope to have a review of this game soon and I will be posting that here once that becomes available.

With the focus of Shadow’s gameplay on "doomlike" powers, Shadow's gameplay mechanics feel familiar to Sonic’s but control differently enough to show us all why Shadow the Hedgehog is the ULTIMATE lifeform. If this game has proved to me one thing, it’s that we NEED more Shadow the Hedgehog in our lives.

Back when the original Epic Mickey released on the Nintendo Wii, it garnered mostly positive feedback. A lot of the praise came down to the setting, world, and innovative gameplay loop, which follows our titular character Mickey as he embarks on his epic adventure through Wasteland. The world itself is inspired by classic Disney-themed park rides and classic Mickey Mouse cartoons of his early career. Along the way, players can use the magic paintbrush they obtain at the start of the game to interact with the environment, solve puzzles, and battle enemies. There is even a morality system in the game that gives players the choice between using toner to repaint the world back to its former glory, or thinning out everything in sight—essentially finishing the job that Mickey unintentionally started. In a way, it's quite similar to Infamous' morality system minus the badass superhero theme and ability to interact with the living world since Wasteland is more of an open zone with puzzles to solve throughout.

The developers over at Purple Lamp Studios (most recently known for Spongebob SquarePants The Cosmic Shake at the time of writing this blog post), in collaboration with Disney Games, have not only brought Epic Mickey in Full HD glory with enhanced graphics (and 120 FPS), improved controls, and new gameplay elements, making this the definitive way to experience Epic Mickey, especially for those who never played the original release back in 2010. Playing this on the ROG Ally is an absolute blast. Especially with the ROG Ally's 1080p 120 Hz refresh rate VRR display, platforming through Wasteland has never felt this good! A full review will soon follow, which I will post here.

Ahh, to be in the 90's again! A lot of remasters and remakes lately seem to be coming from the 90's, which I think says a lot about just how nostalgic and high-quality games from this time really are. It wasn't surprising to see Tony Hawk come back to the scene with a remake of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 and 2. While this isn't a new release, it is a game that I highly recommend sheerly for its gameplay loop of getting the highest score while performing as many tricks and chaining tricks together as seamlessly as possible. This remake features enhanced graphics, updated controls, a diverse roster of skaters, and has received generally positive reviews for retaining its kick-ass soundtrack and addicting gameplay loop. Although levels are quite limited, and multiplayer in 2025, as you might expect, is quite lacking as most players seem to no longer be online.

Whether you are picking this up for your Steam Deck or PC handheld, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2 is not a particularly demanding game. You can have a great experience with low TDP/medium wattage performance on your Rog Ally (18-15 watts is the sweet spot) at 720p, medium settings with glorious 60 frames per second. And of course, if you want to crank up your wattage to 25 watts on your Rog Ally, you can easily achieve 1080p gameplay at 60 fps right in the palm of your hand. What a time to be alive!

And saving the best for last is Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. While I didn't purchase this game outright, it is available through Xbox Game Pass Ultimate the same day it was released. Developed by MachineGames and published by Bethesda Softworks, this action-adventure game is set in 1937. It follows Indiana Jones as he embarks on a globe-trotting adventure to stop an evil entity from seeking to harness a mysterious power connected to the Great Circle.

What really caught me off guard about this game is that it's set in a first-person perspective. As someone who grew up with the PlayStation 1 and played through the Tomb Raider series, I am normally used to experiencing archaeological adventures through a third-person point of view. I was really curious to see how this would play in first person, and within just the first 30 minutes of gameplay, I can safely say that this was a very smart choice. You really do feel immersed in the world of Indiana Jones more than a third-person perspective could achieve. Battling enemies, solving puzzles, and uncovering ancient secrets in first person is something I never thought to experience, but it works great!

In terms of story, this is an original narrative that bridges the events between Raiders of the Lost Ark and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. So far, the story really holds up and is deserving of being ranked alongside the films that were released before it.

As for how it runs on the ROG Ally, I can tell you that it runs fine. While you won't achieve a steady 60 frames per second, you need to take into consideration that you are playing a 2024 AAA game in the palm of your hand. Frame rates will vary anywhere from 30 FPS (in closed areas) to dips into 20-24 FPS with all settings set to low when things on screen get real crazy (usually when you're surrounded by enemies in a large open space with explosions and effects going off in the background). But if you're looking for the best possible way to play this game on your PC handheld, the great news is that there is still a way to achieve 60 FPS gameplay, as you can stream the game in its entirety from the cloud with Game Pass Ultimate. Personally, I prefer running the game natively even if it is at 24-30 FPS, as I mainly grew up playing ports of console equivalent games on handhelds like the PS Vita and Nintendo DS. But with Xbox Ultimate, you have the choice to play any way and on any device that suits your fancy.

I will have more posts to follow into the new year but until then happy gaming and keep on keeping on with the never ending backlog that is our ever growing gaming library.