Polycade Sente Arcade Review - Worth The Price?

Cooltoy·video·19m 30s·analyzed·Jan 22, 2026

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.027

TL;DR

Polycade Cinti review: versatile premium multicade with excellent modularity but steep accessories pricing.

Summary

A detailed review of the Polycade Cinti, a wall-mounted multi-game arcade cabinet featuring modern minimalist aesthetics, modular control panel swapping, and compatibility with custom ROMs and Steam games. The reviewer acknowledges the machine's premium engineering and versatility while expressing personal aesthetic reservations about its Apple-like design versus traditional arcade cabinets.

Key Claims

The Polycade Cinti comes pre-loaded with 150 games, the majority of which are Atari 2600 titles (over 80 games).
high confidence · Cooltoy reviewer, direct observation during review
The machine features an AMD Ryzen 5800U mini PC capable of playing modern games up to Street Fighter 5 and Mortal Kombat 11 performance levels.
high confidence · Cooltoy reviewer, technical specifications verified during review
The standalone metal stand for wall mounting costs $649, which the reviewer considers overpriced.
high confidence · Cooltoy reviewer, official product pricing
The Retro Glow Marquee accessory costs $299 and consists of a metal case with an LED strip but no dynamic display.
high confidence · Cooltoy reviewer, hands-on examination of product pricing
The 24-inch 1080p display effectively displays retro 4:3 aspect ratio games at approximately 17 inches viewable area when not stretched.
high confidence · Cooltoy reviewer, technical analysis and measurement
The machine's control panels can be swapped via two thumb screws and USB connections without tools.
high confidence · Cooltoy reviewer, demonstrated during review
Polycade advertises a steering wheel configuration on their website but does not currently offer it as a purchasable accessory.
high confidence · Cooltoy reviewer, website observation
The LED lighting system app is 'very touchy and finicky' to use despite providing color and effect customization.
high confidence · Cooltoy reviewer, direct testing of LED app functionality

Notable Quotes

“when I close my eyes and think of an arcade cabinet, this is not what I visualize.”
Cooltoy reviewer@ 0:45 — Establishes reviewer's aesthetic skepticism about the modern minimalist design versus traditional arcade machines
“It looks like Apple computers designed an arcade. You know, it's almost too modern for my personal taste.”
Cooltoy reviewer@ 15:52 — Summarizes the reviewer's core design criticism—high-end, sterile minimalism rather than retro arcade charm
“It is not a cheap entry level. That being said, it does feel premium and it does feel almost worth the price.”
Cooltoy reviewer@ 18:37 — Acknowledges the Cinti's premium positioning and justifies the cost through quality and features
“This thing truly allows you to do everything. If you're a newbie...they've got their built-in game store. You can buy games... If you're a more advanced, intermediate user with all those game files, you can bring them in there.”
Cooltoy reviewer@ 16:21 — Highlights the machine's accessibility to both casual and tech-savvy users through multiple usage paradigms
“If you don't want to swap them, throw some cup holders in there, get a brew in each hand, and you'll be good to go.”
Cooltoy reviewer@ 10:06 — Illustrates the extensive customization and modularity options available

Entities

PolycadecompanyCintiproductCooltoyperson/content_creatorSindencompanyAMD Ryzen 5800UproductStreet Fighter 5gameMortal Kombat 11gameGolden TeegameRobotrongameTrongame

Signals

?
product_strategy: Polycade Cinti positioned as premium product with à la carte accessory ecosystem; stand costs $649, marquee $299, control panels sold separately. Strategy creates revenue through upgrades but increases total cost of ownership.
high · Reviewer explicitly notes: 'It's a premium product. They're not trying to disguise it any way, shape, or form. It is not a cheap entry level.' and documents escalating costs for stand, marquee, and control panels.
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design_philosophy: Polycade Cinti represents intentional design shift toward sleek, modern Apple-inspired minimalism rather than traditional arcade cabinet aesthetics. Trade-off prioritizes home living space integration over nostalgic arcade appeal.
high · Reviewer states: 'It looks like Apple computers designed an arcade' and notes it 'blends in in a normal household a lot better than a traditional arcade would.' Acknowledges minority position disliking the aesthetic.
?
technology_signal: Cinti supports ROM sideloading, Steam library integration, custom USB controllers, Bluetooth controllers, and proprietary modular control panels. Represents broad software ecosystem flexibility for arcade emulation.
high · Reviewer documents: ROM sideloading via USB, Steam account connection, support for custom gamepad controllers, Xbox controllers, fight sticks, and proprietary accessories (trackball, spinners, flight sticks, dual joysticks).
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product_concern: 24-inch 1080p display creates suboptimal viewing experience for 4:3 aspect ratio retro games, effectively reducing visible display area to ~17 inches unless stretched to 16:9.
high · Reviewer directly measures: '24 inches is fine once you're playing a modern game that's 16x9 aspect ratio, but once you get these old school retro video games, specifically that are 4:3 aspect ratio, your 24-inch monitor basically gets cut down to 17 inches of viewable display area.'

Transcript

youtube_auto_sub · $0.000

0:01

In today's video, we're going to be taking a look at the Polycade Cinti. It's advertised as the ultimate multi-kid that mixes retro and modern stylings. Let's go ahead and take it for a spin, shall we?

0:24

So, a couple housekeeping things to get out of the way. First and foremost, yes, Polyk did send this over for review. uh they didn't get to review this video before I published it. They didn't ask me to say anything particular about this. They just sent over the product and said, "Give us your honest opinions." First and foremost, I'm going to tell you right out of the gate, I've been very vocal that I don't like the aesthetics of it. I know I'm probably in the minority of that, but to me, when I close my eyes and think of an arcade cabinet, this is not what I, [music] you know, I visualize. That being said, I will concede that this does make more sense in a normal modern living area. Um it takes up less space. It's less obnoxious and obtrusive. It's not the giant size refrigerator that the arcade cabinets that I grew up knowing and loving are. So, I mean, it's definitely a trade-off as far as appearances. This thing is designed to be mounted on a wall. I'm not going to do that. Number one, because I'm getting ready to list my house uh in the spring, and I don't want to put a bunch of holes in the wall that I'll ultimately have to fill and fix later on. So, [music] that being said, uh conveniently, I do have a a small little side table that perfectly fits and holds uh this Polyade Centi. It's the exact width and the height and everything is exactly um where this arcade cabinet is supposed to be lined up with on the wall. So, that's all going to work out great. As far as installation, how easy it is, it comes with a metal bracket. You simply just find the studs in your wall, you screw in four bolts, anchor it on, put it on, hang it on there, and it's good to go. If you don't want to do that, they also offer a stand. The stand is $649 and I think that's kind of crazy. But that stand, I'm sure, is made out of metal and, you know, will stand the test of time. But go ahead and just use this uh $40 side table that I got at the at home store like 10 years ago and uh it'll work out great for me. So, at its core, the Cinti is a multicade for all its purposes. Plays multiple game genres. You know, platforming, sidescrolling, action, adventure, puzzle, you name it. Inside of it is a mini PC that is provided by Polycade. Comes preloaded with games and it also has their free software that you can buy more games and add to it. And if you don't want to buy games, say you're a little more techsavvy than usual, uh you can actually sideloadad and add your own ROMs completely at your own discretion. If you've got, you know, files somewhere stored on a hard drive or a USB thumb drive or somewhere like that, you can connect it via USB to the system, upload it on there, it'll recognize it, uploads it into the software, so you can use their native user interface and then you could [singing] find these games. Piece of cake. It even adds the artwork and makes it look nice and pretty. [music] It is very easy to use. Like I said, it's got everybody in mind in terms of use case. You got the people that are building their own multicades that know how to do all this. They know how to set up MAMEim and all that kind of stuff. That's great. There's people that have never figured any of that kind of stuff out and to them it's just, you know, way over their head. Then [music] it's great because like I said, it comes preloaded with games and if you need more, you go to their little store, find some games you're interested in. You can pick them. They got varying degrees of prices anywhere from like $2.99 to $14.99 on average. You can also connect this to your Steam account. So, if you got a bunch of games you've already purchased on Steam, silo load them, connect them to there, you can play it on this Polycade, and uh you're good to go.

3:38

Assembly. Well, it's a piece of cake cuz it comes pretty much preassembled. Everything is pre-installed. All you really have to do is connect the mini PC that is included. Uh it's very simple to do that. You're going to connect the HDMI into the back. There's four USB connections as well as a power connection. Once you get that, you're going to slide it onto the little bracket in the back. connect a power um button connection uh towards the base there. You're gonna fish out the power cord that has a little grommet hole already made for it and everything. And then you're good to go. Front side of the machine, very streamlined. Just got your two speakers, your Polycade logo, your webcam up there on top that you can use if you choose. Uh most of you probably are never going to use it, but got our little thumb lock here. Opens up the front panel. Then you have access to the power connections if you need it. Uh your secondary USB ports. I've just got the keyboard and the mouse plugged in. I've actually got the keyboard plugged in to a port up there on the board so I can have a free spot here to plug in and connect my own ROM um USB devices. Got your volume wheel here. Uh this is for your monitor brightness up and down which is very cool, [music] very handy there. Uh but that's all you need. Drawer pulls out, goes back in. Turn your thumb lock. Good to go. Got two sections right here in case you want to have it actual coin operation set up for coin drop and a business. But that is it. As you can [music] see, it is a very sleek design. All right, quick tour of the backside of the machine. First and foremost, you got your 24-in monitor. As you can see, we have the illuminated LED all the way around. It's got this plastic diffusion around so it's nice and, you know, spaced out. You don't get any hot spots. You don't see the single LEDs even when I'm zoomed up here, which is nice. [music] We got a secondary LED connector in case you want to do the LED marquee that goes up on top. Um, got the mounting bracket here that I'm not using, but you know, this is what you're going to be wall mounting this metal bracket. As you can see, the machine just kind of hooks onto the bracket once you get it installed. But again, I'm not [music] using it because I don't want to at the moment. Got a little polycade LED right there. Speakers. Since it's open, we do have proper ventilation there. So, as you can see, the [music] PC vent faces upwards. And since this is open on the back side, it's going to get plenty of ventilation. So, you don't have to worry about cooking uh your little mini PC. Since this is a metal box, you would think it would get hot, but so far so good. No rattling from the speakers and any of the gameplay I noticed, which is something I was concerned about considering everything is metal. Uh, [music] but you know, build quality. This thing is obviously a tank. It is made out of pure metal, so [music] feels nice and sturdy. Nice and clean design there. Got the power plug just kind of funneled out there on the back. Looks great. You don't have to really do anything else. I mean, it is ready to go out of the box once you power it on. Like I said, you've got built-in games. A lot of the built-in games aren't the best. Uh, the majority of them are Atari, like 2600 games. I think there's like over 80. It comes pre-installed with 150 games, but like I said, uh the vast majority of those are those old school Atari 2600 games. There's going to be a couple of of uh you know, first-party titles from the old age of arcade games, mainly from Atari. Nothing really too crazy when it comes to you know, major WoW titles out of the box. Like I said, you can go to their store and buy more or you can add more games on your own, which is what probably most consumers are going to do. As far as what we have here, we've got the 24 inch IPS display. It is 1080p 60 frames per second. So, nothing wow, but it's enough to play these old school games by far. Joysticks and buttons, top-of-the-line Sanwa controls there. So, happy with that. And uh like I said, the mini PC inside of this, it's got enough bang for your buck. It's got an AMD 7 uh 5800U PC in there. It's going to be able to play pretty much any retro game you can think of as far as emulation. Uh, it's also going to be able to play most modern games all the way up to, I think, Street Fighter 5, Mortal Kombat 11, somewhere around there. It's kind of where it tops off. Your controls for out of the box on this Centi is you got a six action button, two-player layout. We also have two additional action buttons down here. So, if you're playing like a modern fighting game that needs eight buttons, you got all eight buttons there. Don't worry. You got three buttons up here, which is basically your back, your coin, and your start. Everything works great. Easy to navigate, very straightforward. Both joysticks can control and select different things. But where this kind of really excels is the modularity. So say you bought this and this is just not going to cut it. You want to play some other games that have unique control layouts. Well, you can do that. They've got something for a flight stick. So we got, you know, nice little flight stick here. Action buttons on the front as well as the top. pushpull spinners so you can play games like discs of Tron. Uh the original Tron, maybe some after burner, you name it. You got additional action buttons here in the middle. Everything is metal constructed. Single USB connection on the back. Very straightforward. Say you want to do some double joystick games. So you can play something like Rootron with this control layout. However, if you want to really do it the old school way it was supposed to be with the closer joysticks, you got something like this you can drop in there. So, two joysticks, double action buttons, and again, we've got [music] our three up top. Again, metal construction, nice carrying handle. All you got to do is plug in one USB connection. It's great. Also, track ball. You want to play some golden tea, some centipede, you can do it. Very smooth track ball. Three action buttons up front. Uh, one thing I will say is when you install this kind of track ball game pad here, it is a little bit close to the front of the machine. And so if you're one of those golden tea players that really likes to go after it and shoot it heavy down the fairway, uh you're probably going to break your fingers. Just fair warning. Uh this, you know, while you can play games like Golden Tea, uh the design and the layout and just uh how close it is to the monitor bracket itself. Not exactly the most ideal situation for something like Golden Tea. Mix and match. You got a traditional one like we got here. Same button layout. You got six up front, two on the top, but you can mix and match them. Drop them in. That way you don't have to continuously swap them. But, you know, you get the idea. And there's other options out there. Cup holders, so you can throw maybe one of these in the middle. If you don't want to swap them, throw some cup holders in there, get a brew in each hand, and you'll be good to go. Polycade is also partnered with sendin light gun technology, so you can buy a light gun through them, or if you already have one, you purchased on your own, uh, you're ready to go essentially, you know, connect whatever game you want to play. And they even offer nice little accessories. Magnetized holsters you can put anywhere on the cabinet if you wish. Just throw those on there. Piece of cake. Throw in your light gun. You're ready to roll. When it comes to switching out the control panels, very simple to do. All you're going to do is open up your front panel. There's two thumb screws here on each side that hold it lock down in place. I've already had went and removed them, but you simply slide those out and then [music] you can pull your control deck out. One cool thing about the built-in one is, as you can see, we've got some additional buttons here on the side. Those are pinball buttons. So, if you want to say play some uh virtual pinball action, pinball [music] effects through Steam or something like that, you can absolutely do that. A little more natural playing pinball versus hitting buttons here on the front. But, I like you got those built-in buttons. But, you want to swap things out, very simple. Like I said, you got two USB connections on the back and you're good to go.

11:26

If you do find yourself going all in on the Polycade and buying numerous control panel options and then you're like, "Wait a minute, what am I supposed to do? Am I just supposed to store these in a closet somewhere?" Uh, Polycade does have a couple of little options for you. Basically, a wall hanging mount solution. Mount this on the wall. It's got holes there. They're sunken down. hooks there. Each control panel option has those nice metal handles there on the back, but very simple, straightforward. Hook them on the wall next to your Polycade, you're good to go. And if the number of dropin control panel options aren't enough for you, uh they've got options there with a little collaboration where they got a little Bluetooth wireless 8bit D polycade SNES style uh mini game pad here. As you [music] can see, got it connected via Bluetooth. Works just fine. And if you want to do that, you can also, if you got a USB controller handy, this is just a generic Xbox One style uh USB controller. Plug it in as well. And as you can see, it works as well. So, you can use pretty much whatever controllers you can, you know, dream of. It doesn't have to be the Polycade ones, but they have great options that, you know, just drop in there. or if you got some laying around at home, maybe it be a fight [music] stick or a game pad you want to use, it makes a lot of these older games, uh, just a little more enjoyable to play. Some of these old Nintendo games, Sega games, SNES games, they don't translate the best to arcade style controls, but it's nice that you got multiple options and you can do essentially whatever your hearts desire. One of the cooler features on this machine that I like the most is actually this LED bracket that goes around the backside. It's got nice diffused lighting. gives that nice retro glow, that nice ambiance to it. Uh there's a phone app you can download. It lets you actually control the LED colors and everything. I'll give you a firsthand warning. The app is not the greatest. It's very touchy, very finicky. But let's see if we can go through and just show a couple different color changes. Right now, we're on white. Go to yellow, blue, red, green, blue. And then you can also change different settings. You can have this pulse and strobe and fade. do all sorts of crazy things. Pretty cool. Just fair warning, the app isn't the most intuitive. If you're in the minority with me and you think this thing looks a little maybe too sterile, um there are options out there that you can get magnetic overlays that really kind of gussy it up and make it look a little more um dressed up and less hospitalized than a just standard white metal box. Uh inside the box of the Cinti, it also comes with these magnetic little stripes. Uh you can put them anywhere on the machine as well as couple options for um control panel layout overlays. So lay that on top. That way if you're struggling to remember what buttons do what, it's got exit, select, start, your AB, X, Y, LB, RB, left trigger, right trigger, all that is easy to navigate and understand because it just right there. But if you're a clean freak and you want that, you know, sleek design, you don't want anything, you know, muddying it up, you don't want all that hideous artwork, you can just go clean without it. And on the topic of add-ons and accessories, uh, one of the reasons why I don't think this is the most aesthetically pleasing thing, uh, it doesn't look like an arcade machine. One of the reasons is it's missing its marquee. Now, Polycade does have an option out there, it's called the Retro Glow Marquee. It is essentially a metal box add-on that goes on top here. Connects another LED strip in there and you get a marquee. Now, it's not like a a display or anything. It doesn't change with the game. It's got a graphic in there that you can swap out, but it's $299, which is a bit steep if you ask me for essentially a metal case and an LED strip. Maybe I'm just your stereotypical American, but I do kind of wish the monitor was bigger. 24 in is fine once you're playing a modern game that's 16x9 aspect ratio, but once you get these old school retro video games specifically that are, you know, 43 aspect ratio, your 24-in monitor basically gets cut down to 17 in of viewable display area. Now, granted, you can go into the settings and you can stretch this to 16x9 if that's what you wanted to do. But if you're a purist, you want to keep the game the way it was meant and intended, keep that aspect ratio, well, you're going to be basically dealing with a 17-in screen at the end of the day. Polycade came out with a pretty stellar product with the Cinte. It's got a lot of great things going for it. It's incredibly engineered and designed. While aesthetically it doesn't personally please me, um, a lot of people out there I think are going to like it. Just to me, it looks like Apple computers designed an arcade. You know, it's almost too modern for my personal taste. But like I said, it does blend in in a normal household a lot better than a traditional arcade would. Uh, a lot of the other features that I like about this is that you can actually bring in your existing games. If you have a load of game files or, you know, Steam game library, you can bring that into this system, which is great. Uh, a lot of other options out there on the market. It's kind of a an if and or but type of thing where you can do one but not the other. This thing truly allows you to do everything. If you're a newbie, a novice person that doesn't know how to do any of that, bring your own game setup emulators or anything like that, they've got their built-in game store. You can buy games, firstparty titles, third party, independent, you name it, they're out there. You can just buy them, download them onto your system and play them that way. Uh again, if you're a more advanced intermediate user, have all those game files, you can bring them in there. And when it comes to controls, this thing can do it all. Whether you're doing USB gamepads, you know, Bluetooth game pads, all the different, you know, drop in controllers, they have track ball, spinner, flight sticks, dual joysticks, single joysticks, no joysticks. They even got that option out there for a modern fighting uh game pad that has no joystick levers and uses all buttons. Uh, one interesting thing is they advertise uh on their website, they show pictures of a steering wheel configuration. Uh, but there's no accessory out there, at least not listed on their website, that you can purchase currently that allows you to add a steering wheel configuration. Now, granted that it is a mini PC. You could essentially get anything that is um compatible with a PC and just plug it in that way. Um, but it's not necessarily going to mount as well as designed as something that is built purposely for the Polycade unit. So, I mean, this thing can truly play anything and everything you throw at it. Uh, the mini PC that comes with this is great. If you don't want to spend the extra money, you can get the cabinet without a mini PC and, you know, connect your own device, whether it be a console or your own mini PC, something of that nature. You can do that. Absolutely. It's an alloc cart setup, which is great. Um, that also is somewhat of a negative as well because while it's great that you don't have to buy a bunch of stuff you don't necessarily need, if you want a lot more than the just standard cabinet delivers, well, it's going to cost you. Like I said, it's an add-on. If you want a stand, it's an add-on. If you want the marquee, it's another add-on if you want a marquee that's an LCD. Each one of the control panels is obviously going to be an add-on. So, the price really starts to tick up and up and up depending on how many options you want to add in. That's a huge investment, and that's probably one of the biggest, you know, takeaways from this product. It's a premium product. They're not, you know, trying to disguise it any way, shape, or form. It is not a cheap entry level. That being said, it does feel premium and it does feel almost worth the price. The only takeaways I have from it, again, I think the screen should be a little bit bigger and design-wise, just not my personal cup of tea. But guys, let me know your thoughts and opinions down in the comments below. What do you think of the Cinti and the Polycade setup, configuration, just style, aesthetics? Is it something you're interested? Let me know your thoughts and opinions down in the comments below. If you enjoyed the content, make sure you hit that like button. Share this video with your friends if you found the information helpful. And as always, thanks for watching, guys. Really means a lot. [music]