After more than two decades of challenging difficult games, Shinya Arino’s GameCenter CX is preparing to ask a question that may make longtime viewers feel their age: do the Nintendo Wii and PlayStation 3 now belong in the retro era?
The Japanese television program, also known internationally as Retro Game Master, has followed Arino since 2003 as he attempts to complete punishing games. Its challenges have frequently focused on Famicom classics, including Ghosts ‘n Goblins, Ninja Gaiden and Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels, alongside less familiar favourites such as Human Entertainment’s Septentrion.
That mixture of persistence, fatigue and increasingly tense gameplay has carried the series through almost 400 episodes. The programme has already travelled from the Sega Master System era to the PlayStation 2, but its definition of “retro” continues to move forward.
On 23 August, GameCenter CX will hold a livestream debate about whether its retro-game remit should expand to include Wii and PlayStation 3 software. The announcement is available as up for ‘retro’ consideration later this month.
The discussion feels significant because both consoles arrived in 2006. In 2026, that makes them 20 years old—placing games such as Super Mario Galaxy and Fallout: New Vegas much further from the present than many players may be comfortable admitting.
If the proposal succeeds, Wii and PlayStation 3 games would be the youngest hardware ever tackled by the show, and the first systems covered that launched after GameCenter CX itself began.
The series has become a Japanese gaming institution beyond its main television challenges. It has inspired two Nintendo DS games, while Arino has appeared in other gaming projects, including an unlockable costume in Super Mario Maker. The programme has also made room for gentler adventures, such as Arino’s search for Japan’s northernmost arcade.
That broader range could make the new generation of challenges especially entertaining. Watching Arino take on Wii Sports or work through Portal would bring the show’s familiar combination of humour and perseverance to a different kind of hardware.
For Australian arcade fans, the discussion is another reminder that “retro” is not a fixed technical category. As consoles age, their games enter the same historical conversation as older arcade systems and home platforms. Our arcade news and editorial coverage follows that changing culture, while the Arcade Machine Buying Guide offers practical advice for choosing a cabinet around your own era of favourites.
There is also a preservation angle. Physical media is becoming harder to maintain, and the end of disc production creates fresh questions about how players will access older software. Whether Wii and PlayStation 3 qualify as retro may be debatable, but their place in gaming history is becoming impossible to ignore.
For those wanting to bring classic gaming into a home setup, arcade machines and compact bartop arcades offer different ways to celebrate earlier generations without waiting another 20 years for the next debate.
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