My history with Gremlin goes way back; I distinctly recall playing a game by Gremlin – then Gremlin Graphics – on the Commodore Plus/4.

Though I remember enjoying it, it’s perhaps telling that I don’t actually recall what that game was – only the Gremlin Graphics branding stuck in my mind.

They were a pretty dependable developer during the 16-bit and 32-bit eras too, churning out plenty of well received, fondly remembered yet perhaps underrated titles for a number of years.

Though perhaps best remembered for their attempt at a Sonic-beating mascot platformer – Zool – there’s plenty of other titles in their library that are worth checking out.

So, Zool then. It’s a game that’s often derided these days, but it’s actually a pretty decent experience.

However, its ridiculous speed – much like Sonic’s – works against it, despite how impressively fast it moves.

Zool has nicely open level design and nicely colourful visuals, but it’s a shame that we get the more muted palette and less satisfying audio of the Mega Drive version here. Personally, I’m a big fan of the SNES version – but the Mega Drive version, though I feel it’s inferior, just about does the job.

It’s not all about Zool though; there’s five more games here and, though that may seem stingy compared to many other collections of titles on the Evercade, the inclusion of two 32-bit titles goes some way to explaining that.

Early 3D sports game Actua Soccer – which launched Gremlin’s Actua sports range of titles – is here, for example.

As long term readers may know, I’m not a fan of sports at all, but I’ve been known to enjoy football games on occasion.

I was a huge fan of Actua Soccer back in the day; I played it an awful lot, despite some repetitive commentary (which was still incredibly impressive in the 90s) and sometimes dodgy camera angles.

I was worried that it’d age really badly, but I was surprised to find that I still really enjoyed revisiting Actua Soccer.

The other 32-bit game here is Hardcore 4×4, an admirable but pretty janky attempt to recreate the bumpy thrills and spills of off-road racing.

It suffers from not having analogue controls and the physics are incredibly unforgiving (best illustrated by the fact that even the computer players struggle to maintain control of their vehicles), but with a wealth of options and it’s unique setting, it’s actually a better game than it may appear to be at first.

It’ll grow on you, but you’ll have to persevere with it for a bit before it does.

Original Game Boy puzzler Brain Bender is here – which sees you deflecting a laser beam through increasingly complex courses.

It’s a neat idea, but the controls are too slow to give the player a fair shot at completing its levels – the time limits are crazily tight, even in the earliest stages on the easiest difficulty levels.

Lastly, we have two strategy titles – and both are excellent.

Yes, let me remind you that I cannot stand football, but for some reason I’m happy to play football games.

Premier Manager 97 is no exception; it’s a surprisingly deep and involving management sim which sees you trying to take your team to the top of their league, with loads of options to train, buy and sell players (and other staff) as well as improve your home ground.

Lastly, there’s Utopia: The Creation of a Nation – it’s a city builder/management sim in the vein of Sim City, albeit with some nice touches of its own.

Though both of these strategy games have aged well, be warned: true to the games of their era, they both drop you straight in at the deep end with no tutorial, so you’ll definitely need to spend some time figuring out how the hell you actually do anything in both games.

It is definitely worth persevering, however – both games are excellent.

So it’s another great cartridge for the Evercade overall – and, with only six games here, there’s plenty more Gremlin games left over for more collections.

I, for one, would love to see Actua Golf make an appearance, but for now I’ll make do with the games featured on Gremlin Collection 1.

You can purchase the Gremlin Collection 1 cartridge from Amazon here.