Though this year’s exciting Evercade release schedule has now come to an end – with plenty of great new cartridges and even new consoles launched throughout 2023 – there’s naturally more to come for the excellent retro console.

In fact, the first release dates for cartridges in 2024 have now been announced, with both THEC64 Collection 3 and Indie Heroes Collection 3 both set to launch on that rarest of dates, the 29th of February.

There’s been a bit of an unfortunate trend recently, with Evercade cartridges featuring less games than fans have come to expect; at the beginning of the console’s launch – and even relatively recently, with a few notable exceptions – cartridge collections often featured a significant number of games.

If you look at the first five cartridges released for the system, they contained a frankly incredible 67 games in total. Though the games released more recently are undeniably more complex in terms of both gameplay and tech specs, it still stings to realise that the last five cartridges combined contained just 11 titles overall.

If you instead look at the last 10 cartridges, the difference is still stark; that’s a total of 32 games!

So the fact that the two collections due to launch in February 2024 contain 13 games each is surely something that’ll be music to the ears of Evercade owners.

First up, we have THEC64 Collection 3; as you’d expect, this is the third collection featuring games created for the classic Commodore 64, coming to the Evercade as part of the ‘blue box’ home computer range of cartridges.

There’s plenty of games on this collection that I’m unfamiliar with, so it’ll be great to discover some ‘new’ old titles – but I’m also looking forward to revisiting the timeless Boulder Dash and Heavy Metal Paradroid.

The full list of titles on THEC64 Collection 3 is as follows:

• Anarchy
• Break Dance
• Boulder Dash
• Cyberdyne Warrior
• Cybernoid II: The Revenge
• Deliverance: Stormlord II
• Exolon
• Heavy Metal Paradroid
• Jumpman Junior
• Netherworld
• Street Sports Soccer
• Summer Games II
• Super Cycle

It’s a nicely eclectic collection; with so many games, there’s space for a good deal of representation for games in different genres, which is something else that’s felt somewhat lacking in the Evercade’s library recently.

That’s an aspect of Indie Heroes Collection 3 that’s also noticeable – a good selection of games in different genres, this time bringing together a third compilation of ‘new retro’ titles; that is, modern games designed and released on retro hardware.

If you’ve kept up with the Evercade’s brilliant Game of the Month feature – which allows you to download and play a new, free game every month on your Evercade VS or Evercade EXP – then you’ll have played most, if not all of the games here.

Which means you’ll already know just how good this collection is already!

There’s an awful lot to like here, with the outstanding Donut Dodo being my own personal highlight – it is, of course, accompanied by plenty more games that are well worth your time.

The full list of games on Indie Heroes Collection 3 is as follows:

• Alien Cat 2: Enhanced Edition
• Big2Small
• Bone Marrow
• Bubble Seahorse Adventures
• Chew Chew Mimic
• Chibi Monster Br4wl
• Donut Dodo
• Doodle World: Redrawn
• The Little Tales of Alexandria
• Magic and Legend: Time Knights
• Orebody: Binder’s Tale
• Skate Cat
• Thunder Paw

It’s a varied collection that’ll have something for everyone – and it’s a great way to try out titles that have a retro flavour, but with more modern game design sensibilities. These indie game collections for the Evercade truly do feel like the best of both worlds.

As for the rest of 2024, well – that remains to be seen. However, in a year that saw the surprise launch of two Evercade-adjacent (and compatible) handhelds (the Capcom Super Pocket and Taito Super Pocket), as well as a reskinned and very cool Evercade VS (the Evercade VS Atomic Edition), there’s no doubt going to be plenty more to look forward to next year for fans of the Evercade!