Blaze Entertainment’s next pair of budget-friendly handhelds in its Super Pocket line arrive on October 22. The Super Pocket Atari and Technos Editions cost $60 each and recently became available to preorder at Amazon. The Atari Edition is preloaded with 50 classic games, while the Technos Edition has 15 games. But what’s really cool about the Super Pocket line is it’s a spin-off of Blaze’s Evercade brand, and each Super Pocket has a cartridge slot with support for the 50-plus retro game compilations in the consistently expanding Evercade cartridge series.
Essentially budget-friendly Evercades, these compact handhelds feature 2.8-inch IPS displays, work with existing Evercade cartridges, and boast a clean user interface that lets you quickly dive into your favorite games. Support for Evercade cartridges is a big part of the Super Pocket’s appeal, as it gives you access to a library of over 500 games across 50 cartridges, including remastered versions of classic Duke Nukem games, the first three Tomb Raider games, arcade and home computer classics, and modern retro games like the lovely 2023 Game Boy Advance platformer Goodboy Galaxy.
Each Super Pocket has. four face buttons, a D-pad, and four back buttons that act as the triggers and shoulder buttons. They are actually pocketable at less than 5 inches tall and under an inch thick. They’ll join the Super Pocket Capcom and Super Pocket Taito, which arrived in 2023 and earned high marks in our review.
Blaze has been busy this year with Evercade hardware and cartridges. In August, Blaze released the Evercade VS-R, a refresh of its original Evercade home console with a lower price ($100). On November 29, Blaze will launch the Evercade EXP-R, which replaces the EXP as Evercade’s flagship gaming handheld. Both the EXP-R and VS-R come bundled with the recently released Tomb Raider Collection, a cartridge containing the first three Lara Croft games. The Tomb Raider Collection was the first Evercade cart featuring original PlayStation games, but it quickly had company with the arrival of Legacy of Kain Collection in September.
The most exciting product from Blaze Entertainment in 2024 is the Evercade Alpha, a countertop arcade machine releasing November 28. Two different Capcom-themed models will be available at launch: Street Fighter and Mega Man. If you preorder the Evercade Alpha, you’ll get an early-bird discount of $20, dropping the price from $250 to $230. The price will rise to $250 at launch.
