Do you miss the days of the arcade hall or wish you were around when they happened? We don't all have the room in our lives (our flats) for an arcade machine, or the willingness to pay the electricity bill they bring. You might not even have room for a quarter arcade either, but still have a yearning to play some arcade classics from your youth, or that you may have read about here on Retro Dodo.
That's where the Super Pocket comes in, a nostalgic-looking handheld that brings the games of the past into the palms of your hands.
Blaze, the owners of the Evercade & HyperMegaTech! brands have sent us their new Data-East & Neo-Geo themed Super Pocket handhelds to review, and I've been putting them through their paces to give you all the full lowdown on these affordable, super-pocket-sized handhelds!
The Super Pocket Data East & Neo-Geo editions are great handhelds that champion all things arcade gaming. They each come pre-loaded with a selection of games and boast a great screen, though the placement of some of the buttons is questionable. At less than £50/$70/€60 and with the ability to play other Evercade games as well, it's a great gift idea for anyone who wants to dive into the world of retro gaming or rediscover old classics.
- Price: £49/$69/€59
- What's In The Box: Data East or Neo-Geo themed handheld, charging cable, Instruction booklet
- Available from: Amazon (Data East), Amazon (Neo-Geo), HyperMegaTech!
Games List
Before I get too heavy into the review, let's take a look at the games available on each handheld, just so you know which version you might want to hone in on.
Data East - 18 Games
- B-Wings
- Bad Dudes vs Dragon Ninja
- Breakthru
- Burgertime
- Burnin' Rubber
- Chain Reaction
- Crude Buster
- Gate of Doom (Dark Seal)
- Joe & Mac Returns
- Joe & Mac: Caveman Ninja
- Karate Champ
- Lock 'N' Chase
- Peter Pepper's Ice Cream Factory
- Spinmaster
- Super Burgertime
- Edward Randy
- Tumblepop
- Wizard Fire (Dark Seal II)
Neo-Geo - 14 Games
- Alpha Mission II
- Blazing Star
- Fatal Fury Special
- King of the Monsters 2: The Next Thing
- Last Resort
- Metal Slug X
- Mutation Nation
- Over Top
- Samurai Shodown II
- Sengoku 3
- Shock Troopers 2nd Squad
- Soccer Brawl
- The Last Blade
- Top Hunter Roddy & Cathy
How Easy Is The Super Pocket To Use?
As a handheld, the Super Pocket is incredibly easy to use. It's not something that comes with a heap of bells and whistles on it or requires hours of setting up like the AYANEO Pocket Micro. It's a simple 'turn on and play' handheld that does what it says on the tin (or box in this case) and comes with officially licensed games as standard, meaning you don't need to upload any ROMs to it to get playing.
In terms of navigating the device, it's very simple. Select adds credit, while Start starts the game. The middle button is your main menu for navigating to the various settings and for picking between the pre-loaded games or Evercade cartridges. Again, I'll get onto that further down this article. There are two indicators for charging and power, as well as four back buttons, which I will also come to shortly.
Screen
I'm going to start off with the best part of this handheld, and that's the screen. Blaze have gone for a 2.8” IPS Screen with a 320×240 resolution on each of the Super Pocket handhelds, and it provides a rich, high-quality image for all of the included games that looks great no matter which angle I look at it.
The bezel around the edge is pretty chunky, but it's in keeping with the rest of the handheld, so I'm not too bothered about that. You can add scan lines to your games for that old-school arcade feeling too, in either strong or subtle settings, or just leave it looking crisp and clear.
Display Size
Display-wise, certain games like Burger Time come up in their original format to start with and are admittedly pretty hard to see. There are three settings for you to choose from in these situations - Original Ratio, Pixel Perfect, and Fullscreen. I've showcased Original Ratio and Fullscreen in the picture above to show you the difference, and while the gameplay on the left might be authentic, it's much easier to see and play on the right.
Buttons & Ports
Both the Data East and Neo-Geo handhelds are identical in their button placement and general shape and design - all that differs is the colour schemes and the games themselves.
Let's start with the D-Pad. Rather than being flat, it's slightly curved so that your thumb can rock onto each of the directional points. It's got a nice amount of travel when pressing it down, and when you push the pad to one side, you can't see into the internals of the machine. So far, so good.
The A,B,X,Y Buttons are big enough for my massive thumbs and feel nice. They're nothing to write home about, like the ModRetro Chromatic buttons, but they're exactly what I would expect from a device at this price point.
The shoulder buttons, however, aren't something I'm too happy about. If it were up to me, I would have probably omitted them entirely, despite the fact that they've been a feature on every Super Pocket so far. Don't get me wrong, they feel very substantial and are ergonomically designed so that your finger has something to push against when pressing, but I find that I need to adjust my grip on the handheld to get better purchase whenever I press them. They're just in a funny position to me, and I understand that this device can play other Evercade carts and needs these buttons, but I would have personally preferred the handheld without them in this instance.
Still, I've got to hand it to Blaze - they've created a handheld that makes me feel like a kid again with their Data East collection. While the Neo-Geo black is smooth and stylish, this blue and orange handheld feels a lot like a toy, which essentially channels that feeling of being back in the arcade, having fun with the games that this collection promotes.
The volume slider has a little wobble to it, but it does the job. I would have preferred this to be on the side of the handheld, like the traditional DMG design, and it feels a little bit 'slapped on' for my liking.
The best part about this handheld compared to the arcade, however, is the ports on it. The Super Pockets are all chargeable by USB-C and have headphone ports on the bottom so you don't annoy passengers on trains and planes. The on/0ff button has a nice click to it (the orange slider at the bottom of the handheld), and there's no chance of you accidentally turning your game off halfway through a session. Plus, pressing select adds 'credit' to your game, so you don't need to worry about running out of coins.
Cheap Plastic... But I Like It
I know this is going to sound like another negative, but the handheld itself feels like it's made from cheap plastic. The thing is, for once, I'm not incredibly angry about it, because holding the Super Pocket feels like I'm holding one of the Tiger Electronics handhelds from my youth. I'm very aware that that's a happy coincidence and not something that Blaze consciously thought about, but that's the feeling it evokes when I'm holding it nonetheless.
The Super Pocket feels fun to hold - it's a wide handheld and ergonomically pleasing to hold (bar the back buttons, which I've already mentioned). It's also got a nice weight to it for a plastic handheld. It's substantial without being super heavy, though I wouldn't feel confident about dropping it on a hard surface and it coming out unscathed. Handhelds like the GKD Pixel 2 would end up leaving tiles in tatters, but I've got a feeling I would be picking up parts from the Super Pocket from every corner of the kitchen.
Gameplay
Let's get down to the nitty gritty and talk about gameplay, shall we?
To say that this is a £49 handheld that falls into the perfect toy/gift category, the gameplay is superb. Everything runs super smoothly, and there have been no instances of lagging or dropped frames on any of the games that I've played.
Let's take classics like Metal Slug X and Fatal Fury Special, for example; they look fantastic on such a small screen and play perfectly. I've been putting them through their paces in preparation for this review and don't have any complaints when it comes to reliving games through the Super Pocket, especially Neo-Geo titles, as they can prove to be quite expensive to buy second-hand.
You get about 4-5 hours of gameplay from each charge, which is great, as the selection of games lends itself more to pick-up-and-play than long stints like a Zelda adventure might. I also love the UX on this thing too - all of the games have dedicated artwork as you move through the menu, unlike the boring lists on the ANBERNIC handhelds, and navigating it is just a pleasurable experience.
One thing that you wouldn't normally expect from an arcade game back in the day is a save and load state option. Ok, I know some of you will say that this is cheating and the idea of an arcade game is that you're supposed to keep going until you run out of cash or die (in the game, that is). But considering that this is a £49 handheld that would make a great gift for gaming enthusiasts of all ages and abilities, I think it's a nice touch. I mean, you also wouldn't want to keep pushing 50p coins into this thing either to keep playing, would you?
The control options can take a couple of seconds to get used to in some games as they are often displayed in terms of a joystick and the buttons you would find on an arcade, and rightly so. These are faithful ports of arcade games, after all, and this little touch stays true to the original medium, which is something I'm happy about. There's a lot going on in terms of game preservation in such an affordable handheld, and I for one am happy that the Super Pocket range is keeping arcade classics alive, as well as allowing us to play other Evercade titles on the go.
The Ever-Expanding Evercade Library
You might have noticed that some of the pictures above have a blank cartridge the same colour as the Super Pocket installed, while others show a white, labelled cartridge. That's because all of the 500 games in the Evercade library can be played on any Evercade, HyperMegaTech!, or Super Pocket product.
This means that, as well as the 18 games on the Data East handheld or the 14 on the Neo-Geo edition, you can add as many games into the mix as you want by inserting cartridges, each of which costs a reasonable £19.99/$24.99/€24.99.
Blaze were also kind enough to send me the Data East Evercade game pack with the epic Windjammers on it, as well as KArnov, Atomic Runner Chelnov, Vapor Trail: Hyper Offence Formation, and Rohga: Armor Force! To select the Evercade option, you simply navigate to 'Evercade' by pressing the menu button and selecting your cartridge.
Final Thoughts
- Affordable handhelds with pre-built games
- Perfect as a gift for a retro enthusiast
- High-quality screen
- Games run perfectly, with the ability to add more via Evercade cartridges
- Plastic has a cheap feel to it (albeit like a Tiger Electronics handheld)
- Shoulder buttons could be in a better position
Would I recommend the Data East & Neo-Geo handhelds as something you should buy? for £49, yeah - absolutely. For 18 or 14 games respectively, and the chance to play other collections from Evercade through them, they're a great way of playing licensed games that you don't have to go hunting for ROMs for. Were they pushing £100, I would probably say that it wasn't worth the cost due to the plasticky feel of the casing, but as it is, they're priced brilliantly and would make great presents for retro enthusiasts.
The Super Pockets are dedicated gaming handhelds, just like the Tiger Electronics and Game & Watch handhelds of the world, and it's nice to see collections like this coming pre-loaded on handhelds in 2025, in a market where mass produced emulators are dropping faster than I have cups of tea (which is a lot, in case you were wondering). I'll definitely be taking my Neo-Geo collection with me on the train to play some Metal Slug X, and it looks so stylish that I think it might turn a few heads in the process too!
