Part of the appeal of retro gaming lies in its simplicity. Instead of downloading whatever strikes your fancy out of the ether, you play whatever’s on the physical cartridge you just inserted. Evercade is another entrant in the brand-new/old school gaming landscape and they’ve managed to take that simplicity and package it up to maximum effect. With its big 4.3 inch screen (and overall beefy design) the Evercade has the look of a handheld from the early 2000s, but the games it plays go back a little further than that.
As of release, 120 different 8-bit and 16-bit games are available (with more on the way), all of them packaged into collections on ten different cartridges. Separated by publisher (Atari, Namco, Interplay, and others) each cartridge has between 6 and 20 games and contains classics of side scrolling, top down, puzzle, and early fighter games. Highlights like Pac Man, Asteroids, Centipede, Dig Dug, Double Dragon, and Burger Time, are mixed in with titles you’ve probably never heard of.
But that doesn’t mean the titles are filler. Each title was curated specifically for playability in addition to nostalgic appeal. Unlike some retro gaming systems that scrape the 80s and 90s for anything ever published, Evercade keeps things simple by just including good titles. That means any cartridge you buy will grant hours of fun — in a tangible, insertable format.
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