Blaze Entertainment has always positioned the Evercade as a sort of ecosystem, home to lots of hardware variations that could all play the same cartridges. And it’s continued to revise and update the handheld and TV-based options! But… perhaps there are more sorts of things? It feels like it was this line of thinking that led to the Evercade Alpha.
The Evercade Alpha is a tabletop arcade machine, designed to evoke its larger brethren and tailored primarily for solo play. It’s honestly a bit larger than we expected, occupying a space about halfway between the Arcade1up machines of the world and micro-cabinets like the Taito Egret II Mini. It’s just over 16 inches tall with a 12-by-10 base, and the screen clocks in at an eight-inch diagonal. The result is functional but not quite so evocative, a comfortable experience for one with multiplayer treated as the ancillary experience it should be for a screen this small.
As long-time fans of the Neo Geo MVS, an arcade cabinet with two cartridge slots does give us a bit of enjoyment just as a concept! The power button is decorated to look like a coin return, which is a nice touch. There are other nice accents, like a light-up swappable marquee and a headphone jack. A note about the headphone jack, though: if you think you’re using it to play quietly but you’re still using the arcade controls, you might still be disturbing those nearby! Those things are clacky, as they probably should be.
Speaking of those controls, Sanwa buttons are available on the deluxe model, but the standard model we’re reviewing has a totally serviceable set. Can we tell the difference? Yeah, occasionally. But any arcade game worth its salt designed around the controls wearing out, so these seem fine enough to us! Also: no one should be trying to use an Alpha at Evo.
The Alpha is available in two models, both centered around built-in Capcom games. The version we’ve reviewed is the Mega Man Edition, which showcases that franchise’s two arcade releases. Mega Man: The Power Battle and Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters turn the console action platformer into a boss rush, with selectable paths through them built around bosses from particular games. You can fight as Mega Man, Proto Man and Bass, and if you plug in a controller, you can play co-op too. (The sequel also adds Duo. Are there Duo fans out there?)
Also included are Final Fight, Carrier Air Wing, Knights of the Round and Strider. This selection of games offers a variety of genres, which is nice! It makes it feel more like a classic arcade experience, wandering around and playing the different games you find. The other model, Street Fighter Edition, includes Street Fighter II’ Champion Edition, Super Street Fighter II Turbo, Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo, and the three Street Fighter Alpha games. That’s obviously great for fans of Street Fighter, though it leans pretty heavily on Puzzle Fighter (or your Evercade library) to provide some variety.
The Evercade compatibility means the Alpha can play a whole host of other games too, and this might be especially appealing for the company’s purple-box line of arcade titles. With the horizontal display and button configuration, it feels most at home with ‘90s releases! Our top recommendations: In the Hunt from the Irem 1 cart and Snow Bros. 2 from Toaplan 4. It’s also a good display for 16-bit games with more of an arcade sensibility, like the Renovation and Sunsoft carts. In general, that era of saturated pixel art just works best. (Stay tuned for more in-depth coverage of the latest Evercade cartridges soon!)
Still, you can play any Evercade cartridges on this thing! And to do so in multiplayer, you just plug in a controller. Blaze sells its own, largely designed for the Evercade VS, but scrappy community members have found that many other controllers will work, too. There’s even support for two three-player arcade games by using both controller ports: Knights of the Round and the Technos Arcade 1 cartridge inclusion The Combatribes. We can confirm that they work! We cannot, however, confirm that three people standing around an 8-inch screen are going to have the best time.
Before checking it out for ourselves, we’ll admit: we thought the Evercade Alpha would be more like the category of arcade-looking desk toys than a legitimate way to play games. After spending time with it, though, we think it’s just barely big enough to enjoy as a solo experience, and the Evercade library access patches up the biggest weakness of home arcades that leads to them quickly collecting dust. (But yes, it’s also for looking cool.)
The Evercade Alpha releases November 28, 2024 for $249.99, and a pre-order discount is available until that date.
Published: Nov 27, 2024 03:00 pm