As more and more games forgo physical releases and certain past titles aren’t playable at all on modern platforms, new ways to preserve classic games and make them easier to access are more important than ever. Despite Nintendo and PlayStation slowly realizing that and adding older games to their libraries through subscription services, there are some games that will never be on PS Plus or NSO. That’s just one of the reasons why HyperMegaTech’s new Super Pocket consoles are so great, and also why they’re so important.
The Super Pocket is a new handheld console that comes pre-loaded with a library of retro games. There are two options available: the yellow and blue Capcom edition, or the green and grey Taito edition. Two studios with histories that stretch back decades, and the Super Pocket pulls titles from their libraries that you likely haven’t played for years, or perhaps never had the chance to play at all.
The Taito edition is the one that has occupied me the most, and with simpler games more suited to smaller screens, playing its games handheld just feels more natural than some of the Capcom titles. If Mega Man and Street Fighter are the games calling to you from the past though then naturally, the Capcom edition is the better fit.
On top of providing a way to play retro games, most of which you won’t find anywhere else, versions of said games on the Super Pocket are also the original arcade releases. There’s even a dedicated button to ‘insert coin’. Other than entertainment, the goal of these games in arcades was to make you spend money, so they’re pretty challenging and also rather short when you’ve got an unlimited number of lives to depend on. On top of not losing a quarter every time you want to continue, the Super Pocket also has an easy mode which will either lower the difficulty or increase your health. You can save and load whenever you like too, a luxury we could only dream of when filling arcade machines with our pocket money 30 years ago.
If you can finish any of the Super Pocket’s games with just one credit, you’re a better gamer than me
Although video games were definitely more difficult back in the day, the Super Pocket has been a welcome reminder of just how simple they were at the same time. Most of the games across both consoles have just two commands, and most of the time those commands are jump and shoot. A far cry from the controllers of today, and long before gamers didn’t know what the hell to do when directed to press L3. Don’t lie, I know it wasn’t just me.
There are a few games on the Super Pocket that require more than moving, jumping, and shooting. Street Fighter 2, the Capcom game that has comfortably taken up most of my time, has all sorts of button combinations at your disposal if you know the game well enough. There’s also Football Champ which has four commands instead of just two. Still far fewer than you need to play EA Sports FC, but it does have one thing the long-running football sim does not: punching. Only four buttons at the developer’s disposal, and punching was deemed important enough to the beautiful game that it made the cut.
There are actually more than four buttons on the Super Pocket. Both consoles also have shoulder buttons on the back. While the handhelds are surprisingly comfortable to use – when I first took them out of the box I thought using them for an extended period would make my hands cramp up, but that didn’t happen – using the back buttons was a little tricky. On the bright side, very few of the built-in games make use of them.
The Taito and Capcom consoles have 40 games built-in and ready to play between them, and even if you get bored of everything they have to offer, both are compatible with Evercade cartridges. There are already more than 50 cartridges available, most of which include multiple games. There’s a Worms Collection cartridge I’ve got my eye on that I plan on picking up, although I’m slightly worried about how much time I’ll spend with it. I spent a lot of my childhood glued to the original, and I’m pretty excited at the prospect of diving back in after not having played it for 25 years.
I’m far from done with the 40 included games, though. I’ve tried them all and while I fell off some pretty quickly, there are a handful I’ll be going back to regularly over the coming weeks. Ghouls ‘n Ghosts was a game I had completely forgotten about until seeing it on the Super Pocket, Liquid Kids is a 2D platformer I had never heard of before and I now don’t understand why it doesn’t get more attention, and above all else, I need to go back to Football Champ and do some more punching.
Before you take your Super Pocket out and about, I’d make sure it’s fully charged whenever you can. It comes with a USB-C cable, but with only four hours of battery life, it might not last on longer journeys, especially if it’s not fully charged.
It might seem obvious from the name, but the Super Pocket really does fit in your pocket. It’s been a while since that was realistically an option. Sure, the Nintendo Switch and the Steam Deck are consoles designed to be taken with you wherever you go, but you can’t slip them in your pocket and forget they’re there. The Super Pocket is the first console I’ve owned since the DS, maybe even the Game Boy Color where carrying it in your pocket is a realistic option.
Super Pocket
HyperMegaTech’s Super Pocket is a handheld console loaded with arcade versions of retro games. There are two versions available, one for Capcom titles and another for Taito games. They are also compatible with Evercade cartridges, making a growing library of more than 500 games available.
- Pre-loaded with either 12 or 18 classic arcade games
- Expand your library via compatible Evercade cartridges
- Small and compact, comfortably fits in your pocket
- Capcom and Taito editions can be bought together as a bundle
- Only four hours of battery life
- Awkwardly placed back buttons
Capcom and Taito Super Pockets, along with an additional Evercade cartridge, were provided to TheGamer.
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