When the Evercade was first revealed, I assumed that we’d be getting a small number of carefully curated cartridges, full of familiar games and hidden gems of yesteryear, from well known developers and publishers.

What I didn’t expect at all was a platform that would also cater for a good variety of ‘new retro’ titles; that is, games produced recently, albeit on classic hardware.

And what a collection we have here, with this superb compilation of games from – mostly – one or two person development teams.

So, what’s included on this collection of 14 games?

Top down puzzle game Alien Cat 2 has a great deal of charm, character and polish; it’s one of the strongest games on the cartridge.

Angina: Warriors of Virtue is an ambitious GBA action RPG in the Zelda or Secret of Mana mould; this is a great little game!

Chain Break – developed for the original Game Boy – is a surprisingly addictive, endless runner-style game that’s definitely worth checking out.

Debtor is a decent – if unremarkable – puzzle platformer; Doodle World is another platform game with a neat, hand drawn artistic style, but it’s not among the best games on the cartridge.

An odd choice of genre considering the original Game Boy’s lo-fi aesthetics, Deadeus impressively creates a somewhat oppressive, creepy ambience for its horror-based RPG action.

Flea! is a genuine delight – a hardcore puzzle platformer in which the main character can’t stop jumping. It’s absolutely fantastic and very addictive indeed.

Foxyland is an excellent platform game that really evokes the challenging, slightly obtuse platformers of the past and Kubo 3, being co-developed by a seven year old, is also a strange, fun little platform game.

Run and gun platformer Ploid was created especially for the Evercade, demonstrated by the in-game images of the original handheld console. It’s also a superb experience.

John Roo’s Game Boy game Quest Arrest is a title I was already familiar with; a cop sim that plays a little like a sweary Pokemon. It’s really good!

Super Homebrew War brings together some obscure indie characters for an 8-bit take on Smash Bros; it’s fun – and definitely has a home on the Evercade VS, given its four player simultaneous gameplay.

Cutesy arcade adventure Twin Dragons is yet another platformer, but it’s polished, fun and definitely worth checking out.

Lastly, there’s Uchusen: Ultimate Ploid Battle – a side scrolling shoot ’em up. It’s not bad, but there are countless examples of better shmups on the Evercade.

Overall though, this is a great showcase for small scale projects and it’s great to see these devs getting a chance to shine on new hardware.

There are a few very slight misfires, but certainly nothing stood out as being disastrous.

Despite a bit of repetition in terms of how many platformers are included, Indie Heroes Collection 1 is actually one of the strongest Evercade cartridges overall.

It’s well worth picking up; it’s also good to know that Evercade have gone back to the well to uncover more hidden indie gems, as Indie Heroes 2 has recently been released.

You can purchase the Indie Heroes Collection 1 cartridge from Amazon here.