How I got to play the Evercade Nexus early and what I think of it – Reader’s Feature

The Evercade Nexus is out at the end of October (RedRobN)

After being invited to a secret fan event, a reader goes hands-on with the Evercade Nexus, Alpha, and Super Pocket, while enjoying the pleasures of free drinks and pizzas.

Thanks to never unsubscribing from Evercade’s mailing list (I owned their first handheld and their home console, the VS-R) I was invited to their recent community event to mark the upcoming launch of their latest device, the Nexus. The party was free, ticketed to keep the numbers under control, slightly catered, and full of opportunities to try out the Nexus – as well as Blaze Entertainment’s other hardware spin-offs, including Alpha, their bar top arcade, and Super Pocket, their shrunk down handheld.

The general running order was join the queue of middle-aged men who all looked like me (I doubt my kids could’ve picked me out), get in, use one of two tokens to get a free drink, grab a gigantic slice of pizza, try out all the devices, listen to Blaze’s CEO Andrew Byatt thank us for our support and reveal they’ve got three more Neo Geo cartridges on the way. Then watch a Doom deathmatch tournament on a gigantic wall display, use my second token, play more games and then mooch towards the exit, trying to look nonchalant about the goodie bags they were giving to people as they left.

I spoke to precisely no one who works for Blaze and none of my fellow retro/physical media enthusiasts due to social inadequacies but the atmosphere in this Southwark railway arch was quite heartwarming, as we all busied ourselves playing old games on new hardware. The only thing that rubbed me the wrong way were the backpack wearers who obliviously blocked pathways through the crowd carrying what, judging by the size of their bags, must’ve been all their worldly goods.

The Nexus is a decent upgrade from the very plasticky, toy-like original and the thumbsticks felt good in hand. I played Karnov and Windjammers and enjoyed myself, as the device sort of disappeared behind the gameplay experience. This must have meant it was comfortable to hold, as my hands were aching when I arrived, having played my Miyoo Mini+ on the train down.

Speaking of tiny handhelds that aren’t meant for me, I tried a few iterations of the Super Pocket and had zero fun trying to pull off Hadoukens with the inaccessible shoulder buttons. On the flipside I had a great time playing New Zealand Story on the Alpha, which impressed me with its design and sturdy build.

It seems like it was quite the event (RedRobN)

The event offered the chance to try out two upcoming cartridges: the Banjo-Kazooie Double Pack and The Doom Collection. I didn’t give Banjo a go, as I didn’t have an N64 as a kid, but I did play Doom and immediately entered a flow state, not least because it is playable with a mouse and keyboard on the VS-R, which I didn’t know the console could do. I also didn’t know it could play games in Tate mode (as can the Nexus) and that was fun to try.

Will I be jumping back into the Evercade eco system? No, because these games can be played on a hundred different devices nowadays, plus the numbering they put on their cases made me want to buy them all and who has the space? Maybe that’s what were in those backpacks?

I did have a good time though and reflecting on it now, this sort of customer friendly, community building, extended sales pitch seems miles away from the ‘wring gamers dry’ attitude of Sony and Xbox lately. So best wishes to Blaze and Evercade. I would thank them for the goodie bag, but I’m scared to risk my ageing wrists playing BurgerTime on the minute Super Micro handheld it contained.

By reader RedRobN

The contents of a swag bag (The Evercade Nexus is out at the end of October (RedRobN)

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