When the 22nd Evercade cartridge was announced, I was absolutely beside myself with excitement.

Though games by The Bitmap Brothers have, in recent years, felt like they were much more style over substance in several cases, I still have fond memories of lots of their titles.

So I couldn’t wait to get hold of The Bitmap Brothers Collection 1 on the Evercade.

Yet, sadly, it feels like a massive missed opportunity; not only that, but there’s at least one game on here that’s aged terribly, despite being synonymous with its developers.

Shall we deal with that particular elephant in the room first? Why not.

So the game I’m referring to is Xenon 2: Megablast, which got an outing on a wide array of 8-bit and 16-bit platforms back in the late 80s and early 90s; even arriving on the humble Game Boy.

It’s famed for its Assault On Precinct 13-inspired theme, Megablast, by none other than Bomb The Bass, an electronic music project headed up by Tim Simenon – a big deal at the time of the game’s release.

It’s a phenomenal track, though the Mega Drive/Genesis port – which is the one featured in this collection – doesn’t do it justice at all.

So why is Xenon 2: Megablast such a disappointment? Well, I was familiar with the Atari ST and Amiga versions back in the day – and I don’t remember them being so painfully slow. I do recall seeing and playing the game on the Master System, which was incredibly sluggish – but I put that down to being an overly ambitious attempt at porting a game that definitely wasn’t designed for an aging, 8-bit console.

Yet the Mega Drive version clearly struggles too, it’s ponderous and quite dull, in fact. Not only that, but – and this is likely with the benefit of hindsight – it seems that the level design is just atrocious too; where else in a shoot ’em up will you find yourself heading into a dead end and having to reverse awkwardly out of it?

It’s really poor and quite a shock to view Xenon 2 through a modern lens.

Ah, but there’s actually a second elephant in the room – so let’s waste no time in addressing this too.

You see, The Bitmap Brothers Collection 1 has just five games on the cartridge. Which wouldn’t be a problem if each title was plucked from across the reasonably diverse dev team’s catalogue.

Yet, for some reason, there are three games from the Speedball series here.

That’s right – of the five games included, three of them are Speedball.

Now, don’t get me wrong – I’m a fan of the Speedball games despite my general disinterest and, in some cases, flat out hatred of sports.

There was always something appealing about the blood-and-chrome, Rollerball-inspired future sport of the Speedball games – especially as it was more than just end to end, heavy metal ball chucking.

Including three games in the series here is ridiculously excessive though – as much fun as the first Speedball is, it can’t help but feel lacking next to the brilliance of Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe.

The sequel absolutely blows the first game out of the water in every way, with another example of a killer soundtrack (yet again, the Mega Drive version here doesn’t do it justice though), gorgeous pixel art visuals and layers of between-match depth.

Speedball 2100 brought the series to the 32-bit era with the PlayStation game that’s included here, but it can’t help but feel like more of the same – and its 3D visuals lack the charm, finesse and timeless quality that Speedball 2 has in spades.

Which leaves us with The Chaos Engine – also known as Soldiers of Fortune – a rock hard, Steampunk-flavoured top down run and gunner.

Though seriously challenging, it’s a superb game and, just like the Speedball games, if you play on the Evercade VS you can play with another player simultaneously.

The visuals look a bit bland at times, but it’s a game that has a great pace and off-kilter enemy design, with an AI companion who’s actually useful.

That latter point is particularly impressive for an early 90s game. Though The Chaos Engine doesn’t feel quite as timeless from a visual standpoint as other Bitmap Brothers titles of the era, the gameplay still shines.

So there we are – a weird choice of games and a couple of disappointments. Your particular nostalgia for the Speedball saga may make this cartridge better value for you than it was for me, but in my opinion the only true must-haves here are Speedball 2 and The Chaos Engine.

Sadly, Xenon 2 proved to be an eye-opening warning not to trust those sweet, enticing pangs of nostalgia.

You can purchase the Bitmap Brothers Collection 1 cartridge from Amazon here.

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