When the Evercade VS games console got announced we said that it had "crashed the PS5 party", before stating that we loved how it gave gamers a great way to legally play and collect loads of classic video games, while also showing the limitations of systems such as the Nintendo Classic Mini, Sony PlayStation Classic and Nintendo SNES Classic Mini, among others.
But, with the PS5 party crashed, we wanted to know just how the Evercade VS was going to lure gamers away from the PlayStation 5 (and other systems), so we got in touch with the maker of Evercade, Blaze Entertainment, for some official comment. And the console maker's spokesperson Sean Cleaver was all too happy to rise to the challenge.
Naturally, we asked only the most important questions, too. Questions such as...
If the Evercade VS, PS5, Xbox Series X and Nintendo Switch OLED were characters from video games who would they be? And if those characters had a big royal rumble, who would win and why?
"Well we’d definitely be the underdog in the rumble given the sheer size of the others.
"The PS5 would be MewTwo from the Pokémon games - hard to catch. Xbox Series X would be Sonic, getting faster and better as time goes on. Switch OLED would have to be Mario - a constant reinvention whilst maintaining tradition. The Evercade VS would be Billy Lee from Double Dragon, a plucky little street fighter that has a trick or two up his sleeve and has gone the distance for decades.
"I’d back the Evercade VS to win of course, a nice roundhouse kick - crowd goes wild."
To someone who owns a PS5 or Xbox Series X, what does the Evercade VS deliver that a next-gen console does not?
"Collectable, physical games and nostalgic fun. The conversation around what you own when it comes to digital stores and services has highlighted how important physical still is. And the Evercade VS allows you to have a small, retro machine wherever you have your TV that takes physical cartridges with curated collections. It doesn’t overwhelm you with choice but scratches the collectors and the nostalgist’s itch.
"With that comes the fun. A simple premise of picking up and playing something instinctive, easy to play and difficult to master, as well as memories to share with friends in the room. It is the multiplayer device that people really want and doesn’t require you to be online, or all have £300+ machines to play a game on."
If you had to choose only 5 games from the Evercade library of titles, which 5 would those be?
"There’s two answers for this, I could say the collections for Codemasters, Namco Museum 2, Gaelco Arcade (that’s coming in November), Technos and Data East. But that’d be 52 games. So:
"Burger Time: I’ve got really obsessed with this game because it’s so fun and the console version is very challenging.
"World Rally: One of the best arcade racing games that many might not have heard of.
"Cannon Fodder: A classic title and one I grew up playing a lot!
"Galaga: Of all the space games on Evercade, it’s a favourite and a great shooter to boot.
"Xenocrisis: An incredible independent game (what we’d now call a twin stick shooter - even if the Evercade has no analogue sticks) made for old systems and perfectly showcases what new and old can achieve together."
A lot of modern retro consoles have been released over the past decade, often rebooting classic systems, but most have been disappointing or a failure. Why is Evercade different?
"The classic systems have certainly paved a way for us, but they do offer a closed experience when it comes to the games they choose. They carry the nostalgia of the console but not so much what everyone played. Evercade’s big selling point is the cartridge. It goes one step further by having that proprietary media, it has a smaller and curated selection of games so you aren’t overwhelmed by the choice and gives you the option to expand your collection with more games - without the effort and legal issues of modifying those modern retro consoles, or the hassle of maintaining the original hardware."
So, there you have it, the Evercade VS has lined up a big win for when it releases later this year and T3, for one, can't wait. We've got more exclusive comment from Evercade incoming, too, so to find out even more about this exciting new system be sure to check back in to T3.com soon.
To pre-order your own Evercade VS and browse the vast library of games available head on over to Evercade's official website. Or to learn more about the Evercade VS then watch its official launch trailer below:
