Evercade’s latest duo of cartridges ends up feeling like a conversation between gaming’s past and present. Activision Collection 2 dives headfirst into the formative years of console gaming with a lineup of Atari 2600-era classics that helped define early home entertainment, while Mega Cat Studios Collection 3 showcases modern indie developers deliberately embracing those same limitations and aesthetics to build something new. Together they make for an intriguing package, not just because of their contrasts in age and design philosophy, but because they reveal how much retro gaming can merge both preservation and reinvention.
Activision Collection 2 is unapologetically rooted in the early ‘80s, and that immediately makes it one of the more niche Evercade releases to date. The collection gathers fifteen Activision titles that range from genuine classics to historical curiosities you won’t have seen before, and modern enjoyment depends heavily on how much patience players have for arcade-era simplicity and repetition. Some games remain surprisingly compelling despite their age. Seaquest still delivers a wonderfully tense balance between combat, oxygen management and diver rescues, creating the kind of high-score loop that’s easy to lose time in, while H.E.R.O. continues to impress with its combination of exploration, platforming and resource management mechanics that felt far ahead of their era. Even today, both games demonstrate how strong design fundamentals can outlive technological limitations.
Pitfall II: Lost Caverns remains another major highlight, largely because it pushed Atari hardware so aggressively at the time. The larger world, smoother traversal and atmospheric soundtrack give it a sense of adventure that many contemporaries lacked, although the punishing respawn system and occasional trial-and-error progression can become frustrating by modern standards. Elsewhere, games like Cosmic Commuter and Robot Tank stand out because their mechanics still feel distinctive. Cosmic Commuter turns basic shuttle landings into a surprisingly tense balancing act involving inertia and fuel management, while Robot Tank injects atmosphere into its primitive first-person combat through weather effects and changing visibility conditions. There’s a recurring sense throughout the cartridge that Activision’s developers were constantly experimenting with ideas that hardware arguably wasn’t ready for yet.
The weaker side of the collection is impossible to ignore, however. Several games feel more historically interesting than genuinely entertaining today. Checkers suffers badly from the Atari 2600’s technical limitations, Dragster and Stampede both feel overly repetitive after only a few rounds, and River Raid II complicates the elegance of the original with awkward altitude mechanics and more cumbersome controls. A few titles at least survive on charm alone. Oink! and Plaque Attack are so strange in concept and presentation that they remain memorable even when the gameplay itself becomes simplistic. That uneven quality ultimately defines Activision Collection 2 as a whole. It’s less about delivering wall-to-wall classics and more about preserving an important moment in gaming history, where creativity often mattered more than refinement.
Mega Cat Studios Collection 3 approaches retro gaming from a very different perspective. Rather than archiving old software, it presents a collection of modern indie projects built specifically around retro aesthetics and hardware sensibilities. That means the games often look like lost NES, Game Boy or Mega Drive releases, but they benefit from decades of design knowledge and experimentation. The result is a much more varied cartridge that swings between inspired creativity and deliberately old-school frustration depending on the game in question.
The strongest titles on the cartridge are the ones that fully embrace retro presentation while still feeling mechanically fresh. Kudzu immediately stands out thanks to its charming Zelda-inspired structure, gardening-themed weaponry and satisfying exploration loop, delivering one of the most cohesive adventures on the cart. Gumball in Trick-or-Treat Land takes a different approach, leaning into old-school RPG conventions with limited guidance, quirky Halloween atmosphere and tactical turn-based combat that rewards careful planning over grinding. The Meating also leaves a strong impression thanks to its bizarre premise involving a murdered minotaur seeking revenge as a floating ghost head. Beneath the absurdity sits a surprisingly thoughtful platform-puzzler with inventive mechanics and steadily expanding abilities. Super Fanger becomes another pleasant surprise once its systems click, transforming a seemingly simple chase game into something tense and strategic through clever enemy AI and distinct playable characters.
Puzzle fans arguably get the best value out of Mega Cat Studios Collection 3. Gravibots and Plyuk both revolve around deceptively clever mechanics that gradually evolve across increasingly intricate stages, while still remaining approachable in short bursts. GunTneR also deserves mention for its wonderfully chaotic sideways-scrolling shooter design that feels equal parts homage and fever dream, filling the screen with frantic enemy patterns and surreal visual noise. Rocket Panda adds a more accessible platforming experience with colourful visuals and playful level themes, even if its floatier movement are less satisfying than the cartridge’s stronger entries.
Not every experiment lands successfully, and the collection occasionally mistakes difficulty for depth. Machine Cave is easily the best example here, with physics-heavy movement and awkward controls turning what should have been a clever navigation challenge into a frustrating slog. Flap Happy also pushes precision-based gameplay to extremes that can feel punishing rather than rewarding, while several games suffer from deliberately obscure design choices that may alienate players used to more modern conveniences. Yet that roughness also becomes part of the cartridge’s identity. Mega Cat Studios Collection 3 feels like a genuine indie showcase in the truest sense, embracing unusual ideas and niche concepts even when they risk failure.
Taken together, these cartridges complement each other remarkably well. Activision Collection 2 serves as a reminder of how inventive early console developers had to be with limited hardware, while Mega Cat Studios Collection 3 demonstrates how modern indies continue to reinterpret and evolve those same retro foundations decades later. One collection is a playable time capsule filled with both classics and relics of a harsher arcade age, while the other feels like a laboratory of contemporary retro experimentation. Neither cartridge will appeal universally, especially for players without affection for old-school design sensibilities, but both reinforce why Evercade continues to carve out a unique space for itself among retro platforms. Whether through preservation or reinterpretation, these collections prove there’s still plenty of life left in gaming’s past.