Evercade Nexus retro handheld goes on sale with Banjo pack

Blaze Entertainment has put its new Evercade Nexus retro handheld on sale in the United States and Europe. The console went on sale on October 30, 2026, at $199.99, according to a Blaze Entertainment press release republished by Inven Global. Retailers listed for the launch include Amazon, Funstock, Best Buy and GameStop, alongside other Evercade stockists.

Every box includes Rare's Banjo-Kazooie Double Pack cartridge, which holds the classic games Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie. A USB-C to USB-A charging cable is also in the box, while a mains adapter is not included. In Britain the console is priced at £169.99, and the European price is one hundred and ninety-nine euros and ninety-nine cents, according to the official Evercade page.

Evercade has sold games on physical cartridges since the platform launched in 2020. Blaze says the library has grown past 80 cartridges and 700 games, with publishers including Activision, Taito and Rare. Series represented in the catalogue include Tomb Raider, Duke Nukem, Legacy of Kain and Doom. The Nexus plays every existing Evercade cartridge, so buyers with an older Evercade collection can use those games on the new machine without buying them again.

Blaze Entertainment is based in Letchworth in the United Kingdom. Its current hardware range also includes the Evercade Alpha, the EXP-R and the VS-R. The Nexus sits at the top of that handheld range in price and screen size, and its launch arrives ahead of the holiday shopping season, when retro hardware often finds buyers looking for gifts as well as for their own collections.

A larger screen and a pair of sticks

The Nexus has a 5.89-inch 840×512 IPS screen with peak brightness above 500 nits, the largest screen Evercade has fitted to a device. The larger body makes room for a pair of analogue sticks, which Blaze says give players the full feel of 64-bit and 32-bit games. Those sticks matter for the later part of the Evercade catalogue, where three-dimensional games need camera control and movement that a single directional pad cannot supply on its own.

Inside the console are a quad-core 1.5GHz processor and 4GB of storage. WiFi 6 is used for system updates. Blaze rates the 5000mAh battery at more than five hours of play. The unit weighs 410g and comes in black, with a light-up RGB logo that players can customise. Returning features include TATE Mode for vertical-screen arcade games, display ratio and scanline options, an in-console library that tracks which cartridges a player owns, and monthly Indie Heroes bonus games delivered through updates.

Screen size and brightness are practical changes rather than cosmetic ones. A brighter panel helps in daylight and in rooms with strong overhead lighting, and the wider display gives pixel art and early three-dimensional graphics more room than the smaller screens on earlier Evercade handhelds. The weight reflects the bigger screen and battery, and buyers who carry the console in a bag will notice the difference from lighter pocket-sized devices in the same market.

A shared cartridge across a pair of consoles

The headline new feature is EverSync. It links a pair of Nexus consoles directly, without WiFi or an internet connection, so people can play the same game at the same time on separate screens. Only a single cartridge is needed for a shared session, so the second player does not have to own the game. A second Nexus console is still required, which means the feature is aimed at households and friends who already own the hardware or plan to buy a matching unit.

Andrew Byatt, chief executive of Blaze Entertainment, said the launch marked a huge moment for the company and an exciting new chapter for Evercade, in a statement carried by Inven Global. He pointed to physical ownership and the discovery of older games as central to the brand, reported by Inven Global. The statement frames the Nexus as a continuation of the cartridge approach Evercade has used since the platform launched, rather than a move toward downloads or subscriptions.

Shared play with a single cartridge also sets the Nexus apart from most modern handhelds, where each player usually needs a separate copy of a game or a separate download. EverSync works without a network connection, which suits travel, events and homes where WiFi is unreliable. Blaze has not published a list of every game that supports the feature, so buyers should check individual titles before planning a shared session around a particular cartridge.

Editions, extras and the launch-day update

A limited Nexus edition, exclusive to Funstock and capped at 2,000 units, is listed as sold out on the official Evercade page. A hard shell EVA carry case with room for six cartridges and a screen protector kit will be sold separately. Blaze has also published a launch-day patch, version 5.0.5, which it recommends installing before first use.

The patch adds FLEARUN! as Game of the Month and puts the James Pond Collection and The Last Ninja and IK Collection into the console library. It also updates the Banjo-Kazooie Double Pack and The Doom Collection to version 1.1. Players who buy the console at launch should connect to WiFi once for the update, then can play cartridges offline afterwards.

For buyers weighing the purchase, the decision turns on the cartridge library rather than the hardware alone. The Nexus makes sense for players who already own Evercade cartridges, for collectors who want physical editions, and for newcomers drawn in by the bundled Banjo-Kazooie games. Players who prefer downloads, streaming or a general-purpose handheld with a broader app store will find less here, because Evercade is built around licensed cartridges and nothing else.

Sources for this story include the Blaze Entertainment press release republished by Inven Global and the official Evercade page at Evercade. The launch-day patch details are listed in the update notes linked from the official page.