The year 2025 is really turning into something great for Evercade, especially due to last week’s announcements from Showcase Volume 4! It premiered on Blaze Entertainment’s YouTube channel and can be seen here. Basically, it’s the Neo Geo and Taito show!
I’ve got a lot of info to share with you today, and the respective sections are linked below:
- Evercade Alpha Taito Bartop Arcade
- Neo Geo Arcade 2 & 3 Cartridges
- Roguecraft DX Cartridge
- Evercade VS-R Solo and EXP-R Solo
- Taito Arcade 1 & 2 Cartridges
- Final Bonus Info
Evercade Alpha Taito Bartop Arcade
The first product featured on the showcase was the Evercade Alpha Taito Bartop Arcade. It is available for preorder as of May 30, 2025 with a preorder price of $229.99, or suggested retail price of $259.99 once it releases. It is now being shown on Blaze’s Evercade Alpha page on their website alongside the two Capcom models, and is linked here. It is scheduled for release in November 2025.
The games included on the Taito Evercade Alpha are,
- Bubble Bobble
- Cadash
- Elevator Action
- The Fairyland Story
- Growl
- The Legend of Kage
- The NewZealand Story
- Puzzle Bobble
- Rastan
- Space Invaders
For the games listed above, all of them are also on the Taito Edition of the Super Pocket that was released a couple of years ago by HyperMegaTech (which is a sister company of Blaze Entertainment). I’d say that Blaze has done of good job of mixing genres and graphical quality among the various titles found above.
For example, Bubble Bobble, Elevator Action, and Space Invaders are all popular early arcade games. While The Fairyland Story and The NewZealand Story are well-regarded platformers. And having the arcade version of Cadash is a great touch, too!
Unfortunately, there are two sad things about it. One being the (presumed) lack of HDMI out. The second is that it is way too expective for what I am focused on here at Cheap Retro Gaming. It is aimed at a different market than this website, so I have no plans on getting this device. Yet, I still hope other people are excited about it!
Neo Geo Arcade 2 & 3 Cartridges
For our purposes here, the show really gets going with the announcements of the Neo Geo Arcade 2 and 3 carts. They will both be available for preorder on August 29th, 2025, and scheduled for release in October 2025. They, along will all the other carts mentioned today, are expected to have retail prices of $29.99 each. They’ll be 6 games on each cart.
Neo Geo Arcade 2 (link to Evercade site) will have,
- Art of Fighting 2
- Crossed Swords
- Garou: Mark of the Wolves
- Metal Slug 2
- Ninja Commando
- Sengoku 2
Neo Geo Arcade 3 (link to Evercade site) includes,
- The King of Fighters ‘97
- Ghost Pilots
- Metal Slug 3
- Samurai Shodown II
- Super Sidekicks
- Twinkle Star Sprites
I have to hand it to Blaze Entertainment; both of these carts are quite well balanced. Both include a Metal Slug game, 2 fighters, 2 popular titles, and something else, which is a pretty cool spectrum of titles.
Thankfully, Arcade 2 has Art of Fighting 2 instead of the first game. The sequel has a more robust character roster in 1-player mode than the original. Plus, Garou: Mark of the Wolves is just excellent all around and I am thrilled that my concern from Showcase Volume 3 didn’t come true. I was previously worried that Garou wouldn’t be able to shine on the big screen on Evercade hardware (link to my thoughts on Showcase 3). I’m glad that this isn’t the case! Finally, Crossed Swords, Sengoku 2, and Metal Slug 2 are all welcome additions. The only game I am not excited about is Ninja Commando, but that’s OK.
In regard to Arcade 3, it also includes a Metal Slug game, the third in the series. The fighters are KOF ’97 and the very popular Samurai Shodown II. The latter being a great choice, while people seem to be wondering why King of Fighters ’97 is on this cart and not ’98. The King of Fighters ’97 is still a popular title in the series, being the last main game in the Orochi Saga storyline for KOF. Plus, its roster of characters is nothing to scoff at! For shmups, there’s the old-school Ghost Pilots, and the unique Twinkle Star Sprites. For this cartridge, the outlier is Super Sidekicks which was picked over a Baseball Stars Professional title or Top Player’s Golf for some reason.
As a reminder, Neo Geo Arcade 1 (Evercade site link) will have,
- The King of Fighters 2000
- Ironclad
- Magician Lord
- Metal Slug
- Sengoku
- Shock Troopers
Of the three carts revealed thus far, I think the 2nd one is the best overall, but the 3rd and 1st are still exciting to see as well. If we combine the 3 carts mentioned so far with the Neo Geo Super Pocket announced previously, we find that one game is available on both the Super Pocket and a cartridge. It is bolded below,
- Alpha Mission II
- Blazing Star
- Fatal Fury Special
- King of the Monsters 2 The Next Thing
- Last Resort
- Metal Slug X
- Mutation Nation
- Over Top
- Samurai Shodown II
- Sengoku 3
- Shock Troopers 2nd Squad
- Soccer Brawl
- The Last Blade
- Top Hunter Roddy & Cathy
I’m still wondering what other carts may come from Blaze Entertainment’s partnership with SNK in the future. If I remember correctly, Blaze has said that SNK carts are set to be coming onto Evercade into early 2026. I do hope that Sengoku 3 and Shock Trooper 2nd Squad will appear on a hypothetical Neo Geo Arcade 4 cart. Also, there has been no word on whether there will be an SNK Evercade Alpha or if any SNK carts will be for console releases or from the Neo Geo Pocket system. I would gladly welcome red carts from SNK, as well as more arcade games!
Roguecraft DX Cartridge
At this point, Blaze’s presentation took a turn to reveal their next single-game cart, Roguecraft DX! It is a roguelike action RPG that builds on Badgepunch Games’ earlier hidden Evercade title, Rogue 64 (itch.io link). The latter of which is built into Evercade systems and can be unlocked by typing in a special code in one of the menus. The great Evercade.info website has lots of data on how to play these various hidden games.
Turning back to Roguecraft DX, though, it was originally developed for the Amiga line of computers. Preorders will begin on May 30th, 2025, and it should release in August 2025 alongside Neo Geo Arcade 1. The Evercade version of the game will be an enhanced version with more room variations, music tracks, potions, and monsters. Moreover, it will have new features such as built-in achievements and a high-score table.
Overall, it sounds like a great addition to the Evercade lineup, especially if you like games with roguelike mechanics. I know I was impressed with Rogue64 when I played it last, and I look forward to reviewing it in the future.
Evercade VS-R Solo and EXP-R Solo
Another small bit of news pertains to the Evercade VS-R Solo and EXP-R Solo systems. These are packages of the Evercade console or portable with no pre-packaged game included, but they do have a different color scheme. They have been prepared so that retailers can make their own cartridge bundles with them. Preorders for the Solo’s begin on June 30th, 2025, with releases scheduled for September 2025. The packages will retail for $119.99.
Taito Arcade 1 & 2 Cartridges
We now come to some of the biggest news of the presentation; Taito is finally releasing some of their games in cartridge form on Evercade! There will be 2 arcade carts, both with 9 games each, and available for preorder on July 30th, 2025.
Taito Arcade 1 (link to Evercade site) will have,
- Bubble Bobble (also on Taito Alpha and Super Pocket)
- Chack’n Pop (also on Taito Super Pocket)
- Colony 7
- Don Doko Don (also on Taito Super Pocket)
- Growl (also on Taito Alpha and Super Pocket)
- The Legend of Kage (also on Taito Alpha and Super Pocket)
- Pirate Pete
- Raimais
- Space Invaders (also on Taito Alpha and Super Pocket)
Meanwhile, Taito Arcade 2 (link to Evercade site) has,
- Alpine Ski
- Operation Wolf (also on Taito Super Pocket)
- The Electric Yo-yo
- Elevator Action (also on Taito Alpha and Super Pocket)
- Kiki Kaikai (also on Taito Super Pocket)
- Liquid Kids (also on Taito Super Pocket)
- The NewZealand Story (also on Taito Alpha and Super Pocket)
- Rastan (also on Taito Alpha and Super Pocket)
- Volfied (also on Taito Super Pocket)
Just so you know, I am aware that the info in the ()’s above makes the lists a little more difficult to read (my apologies for that). However, I wanted everyone to know where there is overlap between the different games across all the various pieces of hardware in the Evercade family of systems.
Between the two carts, there are about half a dozen games that are only available on cartridge:
- Alpine Ski
- Colony 7
- The Electric Yo-yo
- Pirate Pete
- Raimais
I don’t have much to say about the games above. I have played Alpine Ski, but none of the others. Some look kind of neat to me, such as Colony 7. On the other hand, these are the titles that are only available on the Taito Alpha or the Super Pocket,
- Cadash
- The Fairyland Story
- Football Champ
- Puzzle Bobble
- Space Invaders ‘91
For these, they hurt a lot more than the previous list. Many of these are really popular titles! The only one I wouldn’t care to play is Football Champ. All of the above have their fans, and are sad omissions from the cart lineups.
Final Bonus Info
Rounding out the presentation, Blaze mentioned a few other things.
First, the original Evercade boot video is back. It will be available to choose as your boot video for your device with the most recent update that came out recently.
If you sign up for the newsletter at Evercade.co.uk, you get a free wallpaper. Additionally, a code for a new secret game will also be sent to you. This is for The Sword of Stone which is an overhead adventure game originally released on the Game Gear. It looks really good!
There’s also a second new hidden game as well. It is Showdown, which is a 2-player-only cowboy shooting game originally on the C64. The secret code to unlock it is pewpew .
If you want to know more details on how to unlock these games, please see this great video from NicoPlaysIndies!
The end of the video also shares that 15 cartridges are coming in 2025, and 3 more will be announced later in the year. I am going to just guess here for fun, and think that it may happen on Tuesday, July 29th, 2025.
So, what did you think about all that? Were you excited about any of the reveals? Let us know in the comments below! Thanks for reading!
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