Two months with Evercade

As the Vita tails off into history, Evercade has become my go to portable piece of fun. That's the main reason I got it a couple of months back. As a bit of a retro giggle and something interesting to collect in a world going more digital and expensive with every generation, and as retro collecting becomes unaffordable.

So, you won't hear me complain about button mapping, the odd crash or glitch, or sticky carts. Happily, I got a good, dead-pixel-free and dust-free unit, where carts slide in and out with nothing more than a little nudge. For reference, the firmware upgrades are regular and help fix the software issues.

Also, Evercade is cheap, I'm not expecting the height of luxury here, although I have been pleasantly surprised. And I'm happy going along with Blaze and their monthly release schedule for 2020, and whatever retro collections, new console support or arcade releases come in 2021 and perhaps beyond. There's a frisson of excitement without the impending dread of wallet-breaking prices.

The Evercade experience

I got the Premium Pack on launch, and the packaging, unit and collection of three carts was a superb introduction to the Evercade. Perhaps the quality of the packaging is why those few unhappy customers felt so upset with their tight cart slots, dusty screens or dead pixels, and felt so put out.

The Evercade itself felt right, highly comfortable from the word go, and there's still that giddy feeling of wonder when I pick it up and wonder what game I'm going to play next - out of all those cool titles. Naturally, picking up the rest of the carts was a no-brainer and I managed that before everything sold out.

Pick a cart, any cart

The first few days, I was racing from cart to cart, focusing on games that meant something to me or that I really wanted to try out. Even those late '70s games, built under insane hardware restraints are fun and challenging, while the classics remain timeless for very good reasons.

More recently, I stick a cart in and play each game in those short breaks where time allows, using the save mode to maintain progress or keep track of new high scores. And I'm more than happy exploring the new titles.

Each game does have something to offer, even though there are a few where it is easy to be impressed by the visuals, but wonder at some of the gameplay decisions, but overall, there's so much fun to be had.

What I find best about Evercade is, there's no need to flock to review sites. No waiting for a dumb embargo to expire or an exclusive preview that's forced to be all hyper-mega-smoozy. There's no rushing to YouTube for a play-through - although some people are doing them - which is cool.

Perhaps this is what it feels like to collect stamps, pingy shooty stamps? With a great community of other collectors, all here for this fun ride. Anyway, two months in and I'm loving my Evercade, and looking forward to more.