Blaze announces the new Evercade VS home console

UK-based Blaze Entertainment is to launch a successor to its Evercade handheld, dubbed the Evercade VS, later this year.

Whereas the original Evercade was a portable device, the Evercade VS is a home console with controller ports for four players.

The Evercade’s main selling point was that it used officially licensed cartridges from a variety of developers and publishers including Namco, Interplay, Jaleco, Codemasters, Data East, Atari, Technos and Piko.

The Evercade VS will play the same cartridges, with the exception of the two Namco ones, because those were only licensed for handheld use.

The console will have two cartridge slots, meaning players can put two in at the same time and have a larger menu of games to choose from at any one time without having to swap carts.

Since the Evercade’s save and load state feature stores the data on the cartridges themselves, players will be able to play a game on the handheld then remove the cartridge and continue their progress on the Evercade VS console.

“This is a hugely exciting time for the Evercade, with new carts, new hardware and improved software becoming available,” said Andrew Byatt, managing director of Blaze.

“When we began this project we believed that a physical-only console would work in an increasingly digital world and the reaction has been amazing. Today we move this to the next level.”

The Evercade VS will launch in November 2021, and pre-orders will open on May 28. The console’s price will start from $99.99 / £89.99 / €99.99, with bundle packs containing cartridges coming too (though these have yet to be confirmed).