As the Evercade advances onwards, now in its fifth year, it’s increasingly at risk of hosting collections we’ve already seen on other platforms. This winter’s assortment of new carts is a perfect example of this, with The Llamasoft Collection featuring a near identical selection of games as 2024’s multiformat Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story, while Rare Collection 1 contains a chunk of 2015’s Rare Replay – with just one fresh addition, and none of the extras.
Just so you know what we’re in for, this collection focuses mostly on Rare’s early days, back when they were known as Ultimate, and is heavily centred on the humble ZX Spectrum and NES.
That single new addition over Rare Replay is Conker’s Pocket Tales for Game Boy Color, a top-down adventure that plays like Zelda: Link’s Awakening, only peculiarly unintuitive. It isn’t too shabby visually, albeit bogged by the GBC’s limited colour palette, and it’s also historically interesting as it stars Conker before the N64’s Bad Fur Day turned them fowl-mouthed. Here, an innocent Conker is simply out to collect missing birthday presents – spread far across a woodland realm – and overthrow a rather lame villain known as Evil Acorn. It’s a reasonably long game – reviews from back in the day suggest a good 6+ hours – so if you can navigate its confusing gated-off world, there is a bit to get into.
Rare’s NES games fair better, being more accessible and showcasing the solid grasp the studio had on the 8-bit console, achieving things other developers couldn’t. Cobra Triangle and RC Pro-Am are two remarkably different isometric racers, with the former featuring speed boats and being objective based, while the latter involves radio-controlled cars and power-ups. Both remain fun and are easy to control with the Evercade’s d-pad.
Then there’s Battletoads, this cart’s headliner. Rare made this scrolling brawler incredibly tough, not just so it would take NES owners a long time to master but also so it would perform well at rental outlets such as Blockbuster – as there’s no way a typical gamer could finish it in just an evening or two. Save states make it fairer today, but what we wouldn’t give for a rewind tool – especially for the notorious turbo tunnel stage. Again, it remains quite a fun experience, bolstered by neat presentation and catchy music.
NES Battletoads’ presence is overshadowed somewhat, however, as this collection also contains the rare (no pun intended) unreleased Battletoads arcade game. This is by far the best game in the franchise, by quite some margin. Being a ’90s arcade game, the visuals are closer to 16-bit quality, featuring impressive sprite scaling when giving enemies the boot, and as it wasn’t released on a Nintendo platform it’s full of crude humour and a smattering of blood. As it’s possible to add more credits, this is the only game present that can be played through in one interrupted session. If you’ve never experienced it before, you’re in for a treat.
This leaves us with a handful of ZX Spectrum games (the first on Evercade, oddly enough) that were created by the incredibly talented Stamper Brothers. They may not look like much now (although it is worth noting that the bright colours really ‘pop’ on the Evercade’s sharp screen) but all of these pushed the hardware to create games previously thought impossible. Jetpack and Lunar Jetman offer arcade-like thrills (think along the lines of Defender) and could have easily made the jump to ‘80s arcades with their responsive controls. Atic Attack is easy to play too, being a down top adventure in which the hero’s weapon amusingly bounces around the brightly coloured environs. Sabre Wulf isn’t far removed, sporting a jungle theme and 256 screens to clear, but is quite punishing as some enemies can shove Sabreman across the entire screen. At least the jungle itself is still eye-catching, formed of searing colours.
Knight Lore and Gunfright are two isometric games; a fantasy puzzle adventure and a wild west shooter respectively. Both are slow and clunky, mostly getting by on nostalgia alone. Gunfright is the more instantly gratifying, with some fun touches. Your mileage on these two is going to vary.
The same goes for 1984’s Underwurlde, a very early platformer that predates even Super Mario Bros. I’d chalk this one up to being experimental – rather than leaping around the gothic locations with skill and grace, our hero Sabreman haphazardly bounces all over, making them difficult to control. It’s highly likely you’ll need to rely on save states to make good progress.
That’s our lot for Evercade Rare Collection 1. While it’s always easy to complain about too few games included and obvious omissions when reviewing Evercade cartridges, this collection did ideally need another NES game or two to offset the creaky nature of the ZX Spectrum. Snake Rattle ‘n Roll, Digger T Rock, Pin Bot, Slalom – any one of these would have provided this cartridge with another experience that could be played through without interruptions. Rare and the Evercade should be a match made in heaven, but this collection has too few classics to illustrate why the developer is so revered. As a starting point for future collections, it lays down the appropriate groundwork, but it’s neither definitive nor essential.
Evercade Rare Collection 1 is out now.