Hyper Mega Tech, Evercade's sister company owned by Blaze Entertainment, just launched yet another hyper-focused retro handheld, one that we didn't see coming in all honesty, and it's already available to pre-order from Amazon with a September 28th release.
This little 2.8" LCD display handheld comes pre-loaded with 34 officially licensed Activision classic games to explore, alongside the ability to use other Evercade cartridges with it. The full list features:
- Barnstorming
- Beamrider
- Boxing
- Checkers
- Chopper Command
- Cosmic Commuter
- Demon Attack
- Dolphin
- Dragonfire
- Enduro
- Grand Prix
- H.E.R.O.
- Kabobber
- Kaboom!
- Keystone Kapers
- Laser Blast
- MegaMania
- Moonsweeper
- Oink!
- Pitfall!
- Pitfall II: Lost Caverns
- Plaque Attack
- Pressure Cooker
- Private Eye
- River Raid
- River Raid II
- Robot Tank
- Seaquest
- Skiing
- Sky Jinks
- Spider Fighter
- Stampede
- Starmaster
- Thwocker
That's a lot of games, especially when you compare it to their previous Super Pocket release with Rare, which featured just 15 games. It had a new version of Banjo Kazooie, though, and it was £49/$59, so a little cheaper compared to this slightly larger £59/$69 price tag. But it was completely worth it and was one of the main reasons we gave it a 10/10 in our written review!
This device has been released at a pivotal time in gaming history, too, seeing as Sony is now stopping the production of physical games. It's companies like Evercade that are bringing new life to physical games, in the format of completely new cartridges that work with an array of their hardware, all of which offer the customer 100% ownership without the need of being online.
These little Super Pocket handhelds are the perfect pick-up and play devices for fully licensed games with great portability and a 320 x 240 display that creates a unique way to play some of these very old games. The quality of the devices isn't perfect, especially when compared to similarly priced retro handhelds from China, but they do the job and support physical gaming media!
