I've discovered on my own (same issue btw) that Retroarch launches just fine. There's no delay in the launch, it just takes a bit to display on whatever TV we're using. To test that, you can press [Hotkey + B] 2 or so seconds after clicking the game in EmulationStation. When the screen does display, it will display the Retroarch menu. This proves that Retroarch runs at a normal time, and that input is accepted. It's either an issue with EmuSta or your monitor