Evercade Neo Geo Arcade 1 Review: My Favourite Collection Yet

When it comes to value for money, Evercade knocks it out of the park every single time. Take the Neo Geo Arcade 1 collection that I've been testing out recently; six classic games for less than £30 that you can play on a plethora of consoles, all from an iconic console that many of you might have only ever read about here on Retro Dodo and not actually had the chance to buy and collect yourself.

If you don't know about Evercade cartridges yet, then listen up. This collection works on every Evercade console, whether it's the handheld EXP-Rbar-top, the home console VS-R, or the miniature bar top arcade Alpha unit. They even work in the HyperMegaTech! Super Pocket handhelds, another one of Blaze Entertainment's machines, which is what I'll be using for the purposes of this review.

So, let's get cracking and see if this new collection is worth spending your hard-earned cash on (spoiler alert - it 100% is).

• Games: Magician Lord, Sengoku, Metal Slug, Iconclad, Shock Troopers, The King of Fighters
• Price: RRP £24.99/$29.99
• Available From: Amazon, eBay
• Handheld Used In Review: Neo Geo Super Pocket

What's In The Box

As with every Evercade cartridge, you get a full color manual and the cartridge itself, along with other bits and bobs like codes for free wallpapers or sometimes posters that you can put up in your games room. I've said it many times before, and I'll definitely say it again - having a manual is so important to retro gamers like myself, and it's so nice not needing to get my phone out to work out how to play games and just sit in the moment without any other distractions.

Just being able to open up a manual and see movesets, controls, and get a gauge of what's happening in the game is incredible. It takes me back to the times when I was on my way home from making my latest purchase and would read the manual in the back of the taxi, or the times when I would hone my skills after screen time was over, reading the movesets and memorising them for when I could next destroy my friends in a multiplayer battle.

The Games

The Neo Geo Arcade 1 Collection comes with 6 games - Magician Lord, Sengoku, Metal Slug, Iconclad, Shock Troopers, and my personal favourite, The King of Fighters - six titles, all Neo Geo royalty, on one cartridge. When paired with the Neo Geo Super Pocket, that instantly gives you 20 Neo Geo games on one handheld, and you can find out more about that in my dedicated review of the handheld.

But back to the cartridge. I've always loved Magician Lord, so I started off playing this one and realised that an hour had gone past by the time I had finished. The graphics are superb, and all of the gameplay that I've loved from playing this game at Retro Dodo Towers transfers brilliantly onto a portable device like the Super Pocket.

The same can be said of The King Of Fighters too, and while it's been a long time since this game came out in the year 2000, I still remember the moves as though it were yesterday. Admittedly, the movesets take up most of the instruction booklet in the collection's manual, leaving the other games with a double spread each. But hey, there are a lot of characters to consider!

Obviously, if you're inserting this cartridge into the EXP-R or the VS-R, then the visuals will be bigger, but that doesn't mean you'll lose picture quality. These cartridges look fantastic on any system, meaning you can play TKOF on the train or at home with friends and still have the same quality of experience.

I'm a huge Sengoku fan, and while the Super Pocket has Sengoku III pre-installed, it's nice to play the 1991 on a device that can slip into my pocket wherever I am. The same goes for Iron Clad and Shock Troopers, two games that I've spent countless hours playing on various emulators over the years.

It's worth noting that Neo Geo AES consoles cost hundreds of pounds, whereas a Super Pocket costs £60 from Amazon. And while it might not be the original hardware, you're going to spend a lot less money doing it this way than scouring eBay! You're also keeping physical media alive, something that emulators simply can't do.

I've had a couple of retro handhelds that have suddenly decided to just wipe their operating systems over the years, meaning I've lost everything, but actually holding a cartridge with Shock Troopers and Sengoku on it that I can move between consoles is much more preferable and feeds the inner '90s kid in my soul with a lot of nostalgic happiness.

Of course, we can't have an 'Arcade 1' collection without having the first Metal Slug game from 1996 in it, can we? The king of 'run n gun' titles, the crowning jewel of the Neo Geo, Metal Slug is an amazing game that still amazes me with its level of depth and detail to this day. The opening level above has so much texture to it, and the tension you get while playing this game still makes me sit on the edge of my seat today.

Metal Slug X comes as part of the Neo Geo Super Pocket pre-installed collection, but as this cartridge can be moved between consoles and the first game is one of my favourites, I've found myself playing this original offering as part of the new collection a lot more. The gameplay is just super smooth with none of the glitching or jerking that you get with some emulators, and again, having it to play on the EXP-R or the Super Pocket makes journeys a heck of a lot more interesting.

Final Thoughts

Honestly, I think the title said it all. This is my favourite collection yet. There isn't too much choice, the games that Evercade have chosen are brilliant, and they all play really well. All of that for £24.99 too - it's a bargain you can't really say no to!

Evercade's Neo Geo Arcade 2 collection is dropping next month with Garou: Mark Of The Wolves, Art Of Fighting 2, Metal Slug 2, Crossed Swords, Ninja Commando and Sengoku 2 joining the party. Pre-orders are open now for US Customers, so head over to Amazon to secure yours!