With Rare being one of the most successful and critically lauded software houses ever, it’s no surprise that an Evercade cartridge featuring a compilation of their games has been so highly anticipated since its announcement. Now it’s arrived, was the excitement warranted? Let’s find out!

Rare Collection 1 features the usual eclectic mix of titles and genres; in this case, spanning a few different formats (mostly the Spectrum and NES), with games from the 80s and 90s represented. Many are from a time when Rare were known as Ultimate Play the Game, and may look primitive, but still play really well.

That’s something Rare Collection 1 has in common with the Activision Collection 1 cartridge, though of course with the advantage of having games from more recent, far more technically advanced platforms too.

The Spectrum games here are: Jetpac, Atic Atac, Lunar Jetman, Sabre Wulf, Underwurlde, Knight Lore and Gunfright. You’ll find colourful, arcade style action in Jetpac and Lunar Jetman, top down action in Atic Atac, Sabre Wulf and Underwurlde, and isometric adventure in Knight Lore and Gunfright.

They’re all enjoyable games; though the visual style of a few of them haven’t aged all that gracefully, they all play well, and many retain a certain visual charm despite their somewhat primitive nature.

Moving on to the included NES titles, there’s isometric racers RC Pro-Am and Cobra Triangle, along with the notorious beat ’em up, Battletoads. RC Pro-Am’s remote control car racing is instant fun, even if it’s quite the challenge against the computer controlled cars. Cobra Triangle’s boat racing is a fairly unusual and unique experience with racing and mini games; the fast, smooth CPU boats can be frustrating though.

Battletoads is notorious for its punishing difficulty, though that’s negated at least a little by the Evercade’s save states, if you feel inclined to use them. Spoiler: I definitely use them as much as possible! I have a huge soft spot for Battletoads, and though it’s tough, it’s still a really fun and surprisingly varied game.

Game Boy Color title Conker’s Pocket Tales is a far cry from the N64 title, Conker’s Bad Fur Day. The latter’s protracted development saw it switching to be a lewd, coarse, adults only title late in development, leaving the top down, cutesy Pocket Tales feeling like a bit of an outlier retrospectively. Still, as a standalone experience this title is fine; it’s nothing special, and oddly its visual style hasn’t aged as well as even the older games on this cartridge, but it’s definitely an interesting curio at the very least.

Finally, there’s Battletoads Arcade. Though it carries on its predecessors punishing difficulty level, it perhaps feels even more unfair in many ways due to its origin as an arcade game (which never saw full release, at least until the Rare Replay collection launched on Xbox One in 2015!). That said, it’s a gorgeous game with some genuinely impressive, massive sprites, smooth action and addictive gameplay despite its difficulty overall.

This really does feel like another essential Evercade release; the Rare library is highly regarded for good reason, and this collection (hopefully not the last) is a great, varied snapshot of the developer’s output over the years.

You can buy Rare Collection 1 from Amazon.

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