Sunsoft were a big deal back in the glory days of the 8-bit and 16-bit eras, with countless games released that endeared them to a generation or two of gamers.

Unfortunately, most of their best and most fondly remembered titles were licensed – the superb Batman games for the NES, Game Boy and Mega Drive, for example – which means that it’ll take a miracle to see them make a comeback via retro cartridges on the Evercade.

So, without licensed titles – what does feature on the Sunsoft Collection 1?

The pick of the bunch here are the two Blaster Master titles; Blaster Master for the NES and Blaster Master Boy – which was originally released on, yes, the Game Boy.

Both are excellent, with the NES title mixing run and gun style action (albeit in a vehicle, mostly) with overhead view, on-foot, exploration style sections and the Game Boy just featuring the overhead view.

Though the Game Boy title doesn’t feel like a full sequel to the NES game – it was originally a spin-off of Bomberman in Japan, which makes an awful lot of sense when you play it – it’s still an excellent experience.

Journey to Silius is another run and gun style platformer, this time with a more mature – or at least less cartoony – feel than Blaster Master, with a difficulty level to match. Seriously, we put up with a lot of awful level design in the name of ‘challenge’ back in the 80s and 90s, didn’t we?

Mr. Gimmick is a Kirby-esque, cutesy platformer with charming visuals – but the difficulty is, once more, dialled up to 11. Unless it’s just me and my aging reflexes getting in the way, this issue does seem to pop up more often than not when it comes to the games featured on Evercade cartridges!

Arabian is a NES port of a 1983 Sunsoft arcade game; a single screen platform action title, it’s also got an almost educational feel as you’re tasked with collecting pots to finish each level – but get bonus points if you can spell a word by collecting them in the right order. This is a deep cut that I’m very glad was included – it’s a great arcade style title that I’d never even heard of before.

Lastly, we’ve got the first Aero The Acro-Bat game. Released at a time when everyone and their hedgehog were trying to get in on the anthropomorphic animal mascot-based platforming action, aside from Blaster Master it’s likely to be the most familiar game here.

Yet it’s not particularly good. The level design is atrocious and the mechanics are oddly convoluted and unintuitive; there’s no pick up and play immediacy that you’ll see in the likes of Mario or Sonic with this flying mammal.

It’s got a lovely visual style, however – but the gameplay really does let it down. It’s nowhere near as fun as it looks.

So is Sunsoft Collection 1 worth a buy?

It’s entirely dependent on your nostalgia for the games it contains, which of course can often be the case when it comes to deciding upon whether or not to purchase an Evercade cartridge.

It does feel pretty stingy in terms of the number of games it includes; think back to the first Evercade cartridges and just how many games they included; Piko Interactive Collection 1, for example, contains 20 8-bit and 16-bit games with a massive amount of variety. Not to mention that – though it’s fair to say it’s not all killer, no filler – there’s easily six games on that collection that are better than the titles found on Sunsoft Collection 1.

Renovation Collection 1 contains 12 games and outclasses Sunsoft Collection 1 in every way.

That’s not to say that Sunsoft Collection 1 isn’t without its own charm, but it does feel as if the curation and value aspect of the Evercade is slipping a bit of late – and unfortunately, this cartridge is a ‘good’ example of this.

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

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