Game list: what changes between R36 models

The short answer, and it surprises people: the game list is the same on the R36S, the R36H and the R36 Ultra. The console does not decide the contents, the memory card does. What changes between models is reading comfort and how you add to it.

People write to us regularly asking for "the R36H game list" or "the R36 Ultra one", as though three different catalogues existed. There is only one. Here is why, and more importantly what genuinely changes depending on the model you choose.

Why the list does not change between models

Three reasons, all technical.

The same processor. RK3326 across the family. It sets the ceiling on what can run, and it is identical from the R36S to the R36 Ultra.

The same system. All three run an environment from the ArkOS family, with the same emulators and therefore the same supported formats.

The same prepared card. The games are not burned into the console, they sit on a removable microSD card. At equal capacity, the same contents ship with the R36S and with the R36H.

In other words: choosing the R36H over the R36S will not get you a single extra game. And if a title does not run on one, it will not run better on the other.

What is on the card

Roughly 15,000 titles on the 64 GB card and 20,000 and up on the 128 GB, spread across some thirty platforms: the 8 bit era, the 16 bit era, 1990s handhelds, arcade, the first PlayStation, and a selection of Nintendo 64 and PSP titles.

One point of honesty few sellers offer: those figures include duplicates and a great deal of filler. Lists of this kind get passed from batch to batch and nobody cleans them up. You will not get 15,000 good games, you will get 15,000 files of which a few hundred are ones you actually come back to. That is true of ours as of everyone else's, and it is better read here than discovered while digging through menus.

The platform by platform breakdown, with rough counts for each system, is in our full game list guide. It applies to all three models.

What genuinely changes between models

The catalogue is identical. The experience is not.

Readability in text-heavy games. This is the most concrete difference. Role-playing games and adventure titles from the 1990s used tiny fonts, designed for a television set. On the R36S 3.5 inch screen, some dialogue has you squinting. On the R36 Ultra 4.5 inch, the same image occupies two thirds more area. If your library leans toward role-playing games, this is the point that should decide, not the number of titles. We measured that gain in square inches in our R36 Ultra versus R36S comparison.

Comfort over long sessions. The R36H has the same panel as the R36S in a horizontal shell, hands apart, wrists straight. On fighting and racing games, which work the thumbs hard, the difference shows after an hour: that is the subject of our R36H versus R36S comparison.

How you add games. Only the R36 Ultra has Wi-Fi. On the other two, adding a title means taking out the microSD card and plugging it into a computer. It is not difficult, but you feel it when you add a few games every week.

64 GB or 128 GB: the real question

This is the only choice that genuinely changes the number of games, and it applies to all three models.

	64 GB card	128 GB card
Preloaded titles	around 15,000	20,000 and up
What the capacity buys	all the 8 and 16 bit era, arcade, PS1	more PS1, N64 and PSP
Space left over	little	enough to add
Extra cost	-	modest

The honest reasoning: it is not the extra 5,000 titles that justify the difference, it is the heavy games. A 16 bit game weighs a few hundred kilobytes, a PlayStation game several hundred megabytes. Capacity mostly changes how much PlayStation, Nintendo 64 and PSP content comes on board.

So: if you are here for the 8 and 16 bit eras, 64 GB is plenty. If you plan to add PlayStation games, take the 128 GB, or budget for a second card.

What does not run, on any model

Better said before you buy than in a review afterwards.

No PlayStation 2 and no GameCube. The RK3326 is not capable of it, on any of the three models. Lists that promise otherwise are lying.

Nintendo 64 and PSP depend on the title. Some games run perfectly, others slow down, and there is no simple rule. We prefer to put it that way rather than advertise total compatibility that nobody can deliver at this level of power.

Games stay in their original language. The console menus offer several languages. The games themselves are the ones from back then: most often English, sometimes Japanese. Nobody retranslated them. It is the most common disappointment among buyers who did not know, and the good news is that it can be fixed: see what language are the games in.

Adding your own games

The procedure is the same on all three consoles: you take out the microSD card, plug it into a computer, and drop your files into the folder for the platform concerned. On the R36 Ultra, Wi-Fi lets you skip that.

One point we will not dodge: games whose originals you do not own are your responsibility, not ours.

Frequently asked questions

Does the R36H have more games than the R36S?

No. Same processor, same system, same prepared card at equal capacity. The catalogue is identical, only the grip changes.

Does the R36 Ultra have a different list?

No again. It displays the same games on a larger screen, and its Wi-Fi makes adding your own files easier.

How many games exactly?

Around 15,000 on the 64 GB card, over 20,000 on the 128 GB, duplicates included. The number of genuinely interesting titles runs to hundreds, not thousands.

Can the supplied card be replaced?

Yes, the microSD card is removable on all three models. Plenty of owners keep the original untouched and prepare a second one to their own taste.

And the R36 Max game list?

We sell it too: the R36 Max is another model in the family, with a 4-inch square screen and a different base. There is no verified list of its games yet, and we will not publish a list we have not checked ourselves.

In short

One list for the whole family, because the card carries it and not the console. The model decides comfort: screen size for text-heavy games, shell shape for long sessions, Wi-Fi for adding titles without opening anything. The card capacity decides how many heavy games come along.

The three pages: R36S, R36H and R36 Ultra. And the platform by platform breakdown if you want to check that a console from your childhood is in there.