The 14-game Super Pocket handheld features one of my all-time favourite games.
After months of teasing, Evercade finally revealed its Neo Geo lineup of consoles and game carts in its showcase, and it features a retro game rarity that is reason enough to buy the new Super Pocket or cart.
The new HyperMegaTech! Neo Geo Super Pocket features 14 built-in games, and the theme appears to be to shun some of the more familiar series – Fatal Fury, Art of Fighting, King of Fighters – in favour of including under the radar classics such as Metal Slug X, Top Hunter: Roddy & Cathy, and the superb The Last Blade.
But it's the inclusion of Blazing Star that has really caught my eye. This is a sequel to the brilliant Pulstar, a game I owned on my Neo Geo in the '90s and played it daily, and both share a heritage with the iconic R-Type as nearly the entire team worked on the 1987 arcade hit.
It's refreshing to see Evercade's choice of games for its two new handhelds stray beyond the usual SNK games, with other titles, including shooters Last Resort and Alpha Mission II as well as isometric racer Over Top. If you do need a hit of classic SNK fighting, the experimental Fatal Fury Special is a good inclusion.
Evercade has two handheld skews to pre-order today, my preference is actually the base mode, the HyperMegaTech! NEOGEO Super Pocket, which comes in black and gold of the old home console, while the HyperMegaTech! Limited Edition NEOGEO Super Pocket comes in red with white detailing of the MVS. Both can be pre-ordered from today at the Evercade website, with a release planned for 26th June. Or order from Amazon for $59.99 / £49.99.
Alongside the two new Neo Geo handhelds, Evercade is also releasing a Neo Geo cart on 1 May featuring Metal Slug, King of Fighters 2000, Shock Troopers, Ironclad, Sengoku and Magician Lord. Priced $24.99 / £19.99, you can order this cart from Evercade.
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(Image credit: Evercade)
There's more retro gaming
Alongside the headline Neo Geo reveals, Evercade also announced a new HyperMegaTech! Super Pocket Data East Edition that comes with 18 classic games pre-installed from this publisher, and includes Crude Buster and the Dark Seal duo alongside the familiar Bad Dudes vs Dragon Ninja and Joe & Mac pair of games.
As with the Neo Geo Super Pocket handheld, the real star of Evercade's other reveals came hidden away on the new Windjammers, Karnov & Friends cart, as the name suggests this features the fantastic Karnov. The Russian strong man was teased in a number of Data East games, including as a boss in Bad Dudes vs Dragon Ninja, but his own game was a surreal platform-shooter – centipede women and ostrich-riding skeleton warriors – in the style of Ghosts 'n' Goblins and I have fond memories of losing countless times and never finishing this 1988 arcade release.
Ian Dean is Editor, Digital Arts & 3D at Creative Bloq, and the former editor of many leading magazines. These titles included ImagineFX, 3D World and video game titles Play and Official PlayStation Magazine. Ian launched Xbox magazine X360 and edited PlayStation World. For Creative Bloq, Ian combines his experiences to bring the latest news on digital art, VFX and video games and tech, and in his spare time he doodles in Procreate, ArtRage, and Rebelle while finding time to play Xbox and PS5.
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