Hands-on with Blaze’s latest retro hardware.
Blaze’s Evercade handheld was one of 2020’s more pleasant surprises; a new piece of hardware that offered an alternative for retro enthusiasts and offered a wide range of physical cartridges packed with classic titles (many of which were originally found on Nintendo consoles) – all for a very reasonable price. Now, its creator is taking the concept in a new direction with the Evercade VS, a system that retains compatibility with (almost) all of the existing Evercade cartridges but is more focused on offering the best possible experience on your TV – and, as the name suggests, the prospect of good, old-fashioned competitive play.
The Evercade VS retains much of the same design language as its handheld counterpart, using white and red as the two main colours. It takes a leaf out of Nintendo’s book, too; the cartridge bay (which actually has two slots – more on that shortly) is hidden behind a NES-style flap at the front of the machine. Below this, there are four USB ports for controllers, while the power button is found on the right-hand side of the machine. On the back, there’s the HDMI port and Micro USB port (both of which are upside-down, confusingly), as well as a reset button, used in the event of the system crashing (something that mercifully didn’t happen during our review period). There’s no HDMI cable included in the box, with Blaze claiming that it helps keep down the cost of the unit (most households have at least one spare HDMI cable lying around, so it’s no biggie). There’s also no power supply unit, but most modern TV sets offer the 5V USB port required to power the Evercade VS.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
