In this episode, we unbox and test out the Hyper Mega Tech! Super Pocket handheld gaming system, compatible with the Evercade library of cartridges.
When it comes to keeping games from the past alive and helping promote homebrew developers, Blaze Entertainment has done a magnificent job since they're joining the scene. The quality of products that they offer, the value they offer with their compilation cartridges, and the fact that they offer physical games is outstanding. While you may not recognize Blaze Entertainment, you may recognize Evercade, which is the gaming platform that they provide. In addition to Evercade, however, they recently launched a new brand, Hyper Mega Tech!, and their first device builds upon their company legacy.
The Super Pocket reminds me of the Game Boy Pocket, with a few tweaks. It features four face buttons, a menu button up front, L1, L2, R1, and R2 triggers. On the back, there is a cartridge slot and practically the same position as on the Game Boy. The front of the unit is adorned with a beautiful IPS display.
With the Evercade handheld and Evercade EXP, you might be wondering why would someone be interested in this? Well, first and foremost it's only $60, less than half of the cost of regular Evercades. Secondly, some may simply prefer this form factor. Finally, HyperMegaTech! has made the two variants of the Super Pocket special by including different built-in games. The two versions available at the time of this posting are the Capcom edition and the Tiato edition. Each version has several different classics from each publisher pre-installed on them.
One of the first real surprises to me on this system was the fact that those games were in fact built in and not installed on the onboard cartridge. I wonder if that's a licensing agreement thing where Capcom and Taito wanted to make sure that those games were only playable on these handhelds. Regardless, the cartridge that's installed in the back of either system is literally just a shell to cover and protect the pins on the back of the system.
Hyper Mega Tech! definitely removed features from the Super Pocket to bring the overall cost down, and for some that'll be a good thing and for others, it'll be a bad thing. It does not feature any network connectivity, so when Evercade offers their free game of the month and downloadable firmware updates, the superpocket cannot do either. The display is considerably smaller than on the Evercade handhelds, and you lose the option to play in Tate mode.
Upon firing up the built-in Capcom games, I had to try out Street Fighter just to see what the performance was like. I will say I was fairly disappointed in the performance of the D-Pad, rolling it to perform Ryu's moves was extremely difficult. The precision was not where it needed to be, and that was disappointing. I don't know if this is the design issue as I do not have Street Fighter for my Evercade VS, so this may simply be something inherent to their D-Pad design.
After this, I switched over to some of the other games built into the system. Mega Man, Final Fight, and others play decently. There are display options to go from original, pixel-perfect, or full screen. You can also enable or disable scanlines.
Evercade cartridges were next, and the first up was the Data East arcade collection. One thing of note is that while the display looks large when you take into account the size of the displayed screen and aspect ratio natively to certain games you actually lose some real estate. For example, it was really hard for me to see what I was doing on Burger Time. Bad Dudes, however, was just fine because it took up more screen space natively and the sprites are overall larger.
Why it RoX:
- Only $60
- Capcom and Taito editions available
- Compatible with Evercade cartridges
- Beautiful display
- USB-C for charging
What could be improved:
- D-Pad is not great for Street Fighter
- Included games built into the system not on the cartridge
- Small display
- Great battery life
- Good-sounding speaker
- Lacks any internet connectivity
Should you buy one?
If you've been kicking around whether or not to get invested in the Evercade ecosystem the Super Pocket is a great way to do so at a fairly low price. It offers the ability to expand the library beyond the built-in titles to include over 400 games. Add into that the Evercade ecosystem the cartridges are generally $20 to $30 and their multi-carts. The older I get the harder it is for me to see on smaller displays, and I do wish that this display was slightly larger. I also thought the D-Pad hurt performance on Street Fighter, but for platformers, it was just fine. I've bought a lot worse things for $60, and I can see myself playing this a whole lot more moving forward.
#HyperMegaTech #SuperPocket #Evercade