Super Pocket Data East and SNK Editions Are Quality Additions

The two latest HyperMegaTech! Super Pocket releases take about as different an aesthetic sensibility as possible! One’s all black with subtle gold accents and seeks to imitate the premium feel of its inspiration in a budget package. The other is exceedingly bright and feels like it’s ready for a day at the beach. That said, the game libraries of the two appeal to the same audience of ‘90s arcade die-hards.

Super Pocket: NeoGeo Edition

You’d likely expect to find a lot of fighting games on the SNK version, and you’d be… half right? Three of the 14 games fit that description, which may feel a bit low for the company, but they’re fairly well-chosen: Fatal Fury Special, Samurai Shodown II and The Last Blade. These seem chosen to be as representative and enjoyable as possible while keeping licensing costs down? There’s no King of Fighters, but there’s some stuff to enjoy. (Especially on the Super Pocket, which has no way to support multiplayer.)

As an MVS fan without a heck of a lot of fighting skills, it’s nice to see the rest of the platform’s library get representation. The platform’s next-best genres are scrolling shooters and beat-’em-ups, so they’re here too. Alpha Mission II, Last Resort and Blazing Star are here for shmupsters. Punchy players can enjoy Mutation Nation, Sengoku 3, and a game with one of the best subtitles in history, King of the Monsters 2: The Next Thing. Living in the middle are the run-and-gun games: Metal Slug X, Shock Troopers: 2nd Squad and Top Hunter: Roddy & Cathy.

Rounding out the collection are isometric racer Over Top and future sport title Soccer Brawl. The latter isn’t exactly one of the MVS’ strongest sports entries, but we suppose it’s included because it drew inspiration from Europe’s extremely janky but inexplicably popular cyber-athletics trend.

It’s a decent selection of games, and the slick black look works well both on its own and as a neutral-looking model if you’re just looking as an Evercade player. (It remains unfortunate where some of this money goes given SNK’s current ownership. I guess that’s just us, though! We like human rights and living journalists, we’re quirky like that.)

Super Pocket: Data East Edition

This Super Pocket model’s marketing shots and box art don’t quite match. Instead of the muted pumpkin orange and periwinkle those images depict, the unit itself features more of a sunshine yellow and bright sky blue. Frankly, the actual color makes a lot more sense! It’s fun and a good fit for summer.

The Data East Edition’s included library does include a few ‘80s highlights from the company, but smartly focuses mostly on its ‘90s era. After all, BurgerTime, Karate Champ, Lock ‘n’ Chase, Breakthru, Burnin’ Rubber, B-Wings and Peter Pepper’s Ice Cream Factory are fine enough? But the later releases are designed with longer play sessions in mind, which fits the Super Pocket best.

Data East was also a practitioner of the beat-’em-up arts, with Bad Dudes vs. Dragon Ninja, Spinmaster and Crude Buster making this collection. It also did a lot of work in the arcade platforming space! The two Joe & Mac games may be known by a larger audience, and they’re joined by Super BurgerTime, Edward Randy and Tumblepop.

The two Dark Seal games are a fun addition. They’re essentially isometric Gauntlet, with a bit more about the fighting and depth to make it feel like the connective tissue between that game and the later Dungeons & Dragons arcade titles. It also feels like the developers enjoyed the bit of world-building they got to do in the margins? Regardless, they’re still a lot of fun to play.

Our favorite game of the bunch is Chain Reaction, perhaps more popularly known as Magical Drop. It’s an all-time puzzle classic, and exactly the sort of thing you’d want in your pocket. We’d love an Evercade cartridge that focuses on the genre, making any Super Pocket into something that could fill that need! For now, this isn’t too bad.

The two latest additions to the HyperMegaTech! Super Pocket line are out now. They join the previous models, featuring Capcom, Taito, Technos and Atari. For more on the handhelds’ cartridge ecosystem, check out our Evercade archive.