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Blaze Entertainment’s support of the Evercade platform continues, even through international commerce challenges. In the latest batch: two Taito Arcade compilations and new colorways for the home and portable hardware to play them. So what do the Evercade Taito arcade collections offer, and what’s up with the new hardware? Let’s dig in.
We understand that the Evercade platform’s primary, collection-based marketing focuses on a “buy ‘em all” approach, but we’d love to see cartridges like these sort themselves more into themed batches. When one cartridge is released first with priority games and then a second much later, this scheme makes more sense! But these are simultaneous. From a playing perspective, we’d much rather have ones that offer a specific mood.
Evercade’s Taito Arcade 1
There are a ton of ways and places to play Space Invaders, but it’s undeniably a big get for Evercade to have at least a few of the seminal titles of history. It, along with Colony 7 and a handful of options on the other cart, make for good Tate Mode options on the handheld. It’s such a simple game, but we still got absorbed and lost track of time playing it in 2025. Side-scrolling beat-’em-up Growl adds a much-appreciated four-player option for VS owners. It’s got some quirks and a nonlinear path that makes it worth checking out.
We’ve seen some of these Taito titles appear on the Super Pocket handheld (and they’re also on that new Alpha variant), but it’s the debut of the company’s releases on cartridge and we’re always appreciative of further delving into Japanese classics.
Also included in Evercade Taito Arcade 1: Bubble Bobble, The Legend of Kage, Don Doko Don, Chack’n Pop, Pirate Pete and Raimais.
Evercade’s Taito Arcade 2
While the earlier games are more well-known, we’re bigger fans of Taito’s later output. Liquid Kids (1990), Volfied (1989) and The NewZealand Story (1988) all have enough graphical definition to fit in some personality, and iterate on previous games to offer deeper gameplay mechanics that you’d want to spend time learning and exploring.
The standout in this collection is probably Kiki KaiKai. The game that spawned the Pocky & Rocky series, it got so much right the first time and is still a good time to play today. We’ll also note Operation Wolf, a light gun release, that still works fine enough with D-pad controls.
Also included in Evercade Taito Arcade 2: Rastan, Elevator Action, Alpine Ski and The Electric Yo-Yo.
Looking at the New Evercade EXP-R and VS-R Hardware
Along with these two new Evercade Taito carts, Blaze sent us the new “Classic Retro” editions of the EXP-R and VS-R. This is our first encounter with the -R versions of these devices, and they’re largely similar. The EXP-R drops the HDMI out (which is honestly fine, it’s for edge case use anyway), and also doesn’t include any built-in games. Both have some really minor adjustments to the design, too, but there’s nothing there to really sway a decision.
These versions also aren’t bundled with a cartridge like the previous “Neon Retro” editions, choosing instead to keep costs as low as possible and packaging as small as possible in our home country of Self-Inflicted Economic Conditions. As people who need to store things, it’s nice that they’re smaller boxes! And the packaging does feel and look good after all the iterations over the years, a far cry from the first attempt.
As for the new look: they’re nice! The vaguely NES-like aesthetic works for most of the games you can play, and it’s not too far from the Evercade’s signature red-and-white brand anyway. A note, though: the cartridges are still the white color of the original Evercade handheld, which makes pairing them with the light gray of the EXP-R noticeable. The original EXP doesn’t quite match either, but it’s close enough to ignore. We get how Blaze got here, though.
These two new Evercade Taito cartridges are available now. The new Classic Retro Evercade EXP-R and VS-R are also available, both for $119.99. For more information and impressions about the system and its games, check out our Evercade archive.
