BrutalGamer Bringing you Brutally Honest feedback from today's entertainment industry.
Portable arcade gaming just got a little easier to carry around, with Evercade-maker Blaze Entertainment’s Super Pocket series.
Like a full-size cab, only way smaller (and flatter)
If you’re a fan of retro gaming, then you’re already well aware of Blaze Entertainment. The company made a splash a few years back with its innovative Evercade ecosystem. The series of home consoles and handhelds brought fully-licensed classic titles back to fans, for play at home or on the go. And it includes a cartridge series that’s packed with retro-console, arcade, and even PC games that’ll play on all of the above (with some exclusions). Now after the launch of its second Evercade portable though, Blaze has opened up its HyperMegaTech label.
The first offering from that new brand is the Super Pocket, a new line of handhelds that’ll have mainly arcade games built-into them, though with serious room for expansion. That’s to say that, even though there’ll be a bunch of games built-in, you’ll still be able to use seemingly any of Evercade’s existing cartridge library. So effectively, the Super Pocket is an extension of the Evercade series, but one that offers choices in preloaded games and a smaller Game Boy-like form factor.
While the console has a diminutive footprint (78mm x 125mm x 25mm), it won’t equal less options. Blaze says that the little consoles will have the d-pad and 4 face buttons, and also 4 back buttons, meant for titles that require more controls. As for the screen, that’s a 320×280 IPS, and the unit also has a stereo jack and USB-C charging port.
Kicking things off will be the Capcom and Taito units:
- The Super Pocket Capcom Edition comes with 12 amazing games from the legendary publisher including 11 arcade games including Street Fighter II’: Hyper Fighting, Final Fight, 1942, and the home console version of the original Mega Man. All these games are pre-loaded on to your Super Pocket, and presented in a Capcom-inspired colour scheme.
- The Super Pocket TAITO Edition comes with 17 incredible games built-in from the iconic game developer, including seminal arcade classics Space Invaders, Elevator Action, Bubble Bobble, The NewZealand Story, Rastan, and the home console game Space Invaders ‘91 and comes in a TAITO-inspired colour scheme.
Expanding the option set
While Blaze is big on authenticity, there are some modern options that’ll come into play with the Super Pocket. Take the user interface for example, which will primarily offer streamlined selectability for games, but also give players “screen ratio and pixel perfect options”. And then there’s “Easy Mode”.
Blaze says that Easy Mode is aimed at lowering the difficulty of classic arcade titles, helping both those who may need it and younger players. From the sound of it, it should work to eliminate difficulty spikes, as well as aid in getting past the hardest parts of the included golden and silver age quarter-munchers. Additionally, there is a save and load function built-in. That’s always nice to see with classic games that might not have had the option to begin with.
As for when you can expect to take one of these bad boys home, that’ll be this fall. The Super Pockets arrive in October, with pre-orders starting ini just a few days, on July 14th. Amazon and Funstock will be offering the Super Pocket globally, with Best Buy and Video Games Plus serving it up in the US and Canada, and Game and Argos stocking it in the UK. If you’re in the rest of Europe though, don’t worry. More retailers are expected for your territories.
Finally, there are crystal translucent special editions of the launch units that’ll be hitting too, but exclusively via Funstock.
