Review Evercade Nexus - a Commendable Upgrade, but Bundling Banjo-Kazooie Is the True Masterstroke

While the Evercade family has seen several hardware revisions and evolutions over the years – including a bartop arcade unit, a home console, and even a scaled-down Super Pocket sibling – the Evercade Nexus feels like the most significant step forward the brand has taken since its inception six years ago.

And it's easy to see why: the introduction of dual analogue sticks opens up a whole world of possibilities, not just within the existing Evercade catalogue (many games already support such an interface thanks to the fact that you can plug in third-party pads on the Evercade VS) but also in the future. There's a wealth of 'Dual Shock'-enabled PS1 games which could potentially be licensed for the platform, for example.

Possibly the best advertisement for those sticks comes with the console: Rare's Banjo-Kazooie Double Pack, which features the first game and its 2000 sequel, Banjo-Tooie. While I found Banjo-Kazooie surprisingly playable on the Rare Super Pocket's digital pad, it feels even better on the Nexus; the controls are superb, with the right-hand stick controlling the camera.

Evercade Nexus Review: Design & Display

The 5.89-inch IPS panel is the biggest change when comparing the Nexus to the existing EXP handheld. The resolution bump is less dramatic than you might expect: it's 840x512 pixels, while the EXP has an 800x480 screen. That means the effective DPI is actually lower on the Nexus than on the EXP, which has a 4.3-inch screen.

Despite this, the increased size really does make it feel like a different experience – and this is helped by the fact that it has a maximum brightness of 500+ nits, which gives it a real punch. It's not an OLED panel, and that may disappoint some people, but it still looks impressive.

Blaze has moved things around a little when compared to the Evercade EXP; the 'A' and 'B' buttons, which sat next to the D-pad and were intended for use solely in TATE mode, have been totally removed to accommodate the left-hand analogue stick; when using TATE orientation, the screen now spins 270 degrees instead of 90, and you use the right-hand analogue stick and four face buttons.

There's no TATE mode attachment this time around, but the larger form factor of the Nexus means it's possible to play without one relatively comfortably. I put several of Toaplan's finest vertically scrolling shmups through their paces and came away impressed with how the revised TATE setup performs; I'm really glad Blaze kept it on the Nexus.

The right-hand analogue stick has also shifted the Home, Start, and Select buttons, which are now arrayed with the TATE button (previously located on the bottom edge of the EXP) below the screen. The volume controls have also been moved from the bottom edge to the top of the Nexus, where they share space with the Power button. The bottom edge of the device has the USB-C port and 3.5mm headphone socket. The stereo speakers are no longer downward-firing; they're now on the front of the system, pointing directly at the player.

As is the case with so many pieces of consumer electronics these days, the Nexus doesn't ship with a power brick, so you'll need to source your own. It needs a 5V - 2A power supply, which is fairly common. Just make sure you have the right voltage, as I found it refused to charge with my Steam Deck charger.

Unlike the Mk1 Evercade EXP, the Nexus doesn't have a TV-out option. This would have been welcome, but the omission is understandable, given the existence of the Alpha and VS variants. Blaze quotes battery life at "over" five hours, a figure I largely agree with after spending over a week with the device.

Evercade Nexus Review: Controls

In terms of overall size, the Nexus feels a little like Nintendo's Switch Lite – it's certainly not as big as a device like the Switch 2, which is what I suspected when I saw the first trailer for the Nexus. The boosted proportions bring a lot of benefits; it's comfortable to use and naturally allows for the aforementioned larger screen.

It also lets Blaze use analogue sticks, which games like Banjo and DOOM support by default. However, you'll need to dig into the settings to enable analogue support for some of the other titles in the Evercade library (like Glover), and even then, it is noted that the functionality is still in beta for those games.

However, I did find that the dimensions of the Nexus created some issues for me. I found it tricky to use the analogue stick and feather the shoulder buttons (which are all digital and very loud, by the way) at the same time, something that is occasionally required when playing both Banjo-Kazooie titles. If the left-hand analogue stick were where the D-pad is, this wouldn't be an issue, but I can see why Blaze set it up this way, given the Evercade library's focus on digital-input gaming.

So, is this a deal-breaker? I don't think so personally, despite having to contort my fingers to use those shoulder triggers effectively, and if you're lucky enough to have larger mitts than me, you may not find it a problem.

The D-pad on the Nexus has changed a little compared to previous consoles. It's larger, for one, but retains the 'rolling' design which makes it ideal for fighting games. My only complaint is that the pad sits rather high on its plastic stalk, and while this helps with movement and travel, the pad on my review unit felt like it didn't return to neutral as quickly as it should, especially when I pressed hard on the right-hand side. This had zero impact on responsiveness, I should stress – I never noticed any missed or unintended inputs, for example – but I feel it's worth mentioning all the same.

While I think Blaze has found the sweet spot in terms of size (occasional finger-stretching aside), it's worth acknowledging that expanding its form factor reduces the latest Evercade handheld's portability. I rarely leave the house with my Switch 2, and my Steam Deck doesn't come on the road with me, either.

In my opinion, these devices don't lend themselves to use outside the home. However, the original Evercade and its EXP sibling were small enough to chuck in your rucksack without feeling like a burden, so you could argue that something has been lost in the shift to larger hardware. Whether the bigger screen and improved interface balance that out will be down to personal taste, I suspect.

Evercade Nexus Review: Software

Since launching in 2020, the Evercade range has grown its library to over 70 cartridges, and if you add up all the games included, you're looking at more than 700 titles – so you can hardly say there's a lack of variety in the Evercade software ecosystem. I tried a large selection of existing Evercade carts on the Nexus and didn't run into any serious performance or compatibility issues; the only problem I noted was that, after removing a cart and plugging in Piko Collection 4, Glover refused to load. However, rebooting the entire device fixed it.

The focus with Evercade has always been retro games, and we've seen collections from the likes of SNK, Atari, Taito, Data East, Codemasters, The Bitmap Brothers, Rare, Gremlin and more. All of these carts come with full-colour instruction manuals, and the best part is that once you buy them, the games are yours forever – a key selling point in an era when modern gaming has become increasingly digital and long-term ownership is a serious issue.

The Nexus ships with the aforementioned Banjo-Kazooie Double Pack, which contains the duo's two N64 adventures, retooled as native Evercade titles. This means you get several benefits, including higher resolution, improved performance, adapted controls, extra features, and more. Banjo-Kazooie was included as a built-in game on the Rare Super Pocket, but this pack brings Banjo-Tooie to Evercade for the first time. Both run brilliantly and serve as an ideal showcase of Blaze's platform as a whole.

In terms of UI, the Nexus has a slightly different menu than the EXP and VS, plus some features tied directly to the new hardware. The most obvious is the 'customisation' option, which lets you change the menu background and have that colour reflected in the console's LED-illuminated Nexus logo below the display. You can even turn the LED off entirely, or lower its brightness when playing a game so it isn't a distraction.

'Wireless audio' (that's Bluetooth to you and me) is also supported. Despite a warning in the settings menu that this might cause audio delay, my Sony WH-1000XM5 headphones worked perfectly with the Nexus, and I didn't notice any latency.

Standard Evercade features like screen filters are present and correct, and I found that the larger display really helped the scanline option stand out; on the smaller screen of the EXP I usually disabled scanlines because they caused some weird image effects, but here they look a lot more agreeable aesthetically.

One of the other big selling points of the Nexus – and a feature I sadly was unable to test during my review period due to the fact that I've only got a single system – is EverSync. It allows you to connect two Nexus for local multiplayer, even if you're not connected to the internet.

This means you don't both need to own a cart to enjoy some local competition. If this works as described, it's a fantastic addition to the Nexus; if I can test it in the future, I'll update this review with my impressions.

Evercade Nexus Review: Conclusion

The Nexus may improve on the EXP in controls and display size, but when it comes to raw processing power, Blaze has kept things relatively stable to ensure compatibility between this new device and the Evercades already on the market.

This desire to avoid splintering the audience is commendable, and, as I alluded to earlier, plenty of PS1, N64, and '90s home computer titles still exist that will run perfectly well on this spec and haven't yet been licensed by Blaze for Evercade release.

Plus, there's the inescapable fact that the brand's reputation has equally been built on '80s and '90s arcade, computer and console emulation, so, with that in mind, you could rightly argue that a power boost (certainly in the current climate) makes little sense.

Even so, despite the modest price bump (the RRP of the EXP is £129, while the Nexus is £169.99 – and the latter comes with the Banjo cart), there may be some who feel disappointed that the power hasn't been increased here – if only to future-proof the system should Blaze decide to emulate more recent hardware.

Those people are going to have to wait a good few years, it would seem, before the Evercade platform is given an injection of processing grunt, but for the time being the Nexus is arguably the best entry point for anyone remotely interested in checking out the wide selection of physical carts available via Blaze's retro-focused hardware initiative.

Thanks to Blaze for the supplying the sample used in this review. The Evercade Nexus launches on October 30th and will cost £169.99 / $199.99 / €199.99.

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