Banjo is the best feature
The most persuasive thing about the Evercade Nexus is the cartridge that comes in its box. Blaze Entertainment’s new cartridge handheld launched on 30 October at $199.99 / £169.99 / €199.99, bundled with Rare’s Banjo-Kazooie Double Pack, and the first wave of reviews mostly agrees that the pack-in is the strongest argument for buying it.
This is a roundup of published reviews. GearChamber has not tested the Nexus. Our consensus score is 83: we converted the four scored reviews below to a 100-point scale (80, 90, 80 and 80) and took the mean, which is 82.5, rounded up. Blaze’s own press release confirms that the Banjo-Kazooie Double Pack arrived on 30 October and is included in every Nexus retail package.
| Outlet | Score | Main complaint |
|---|---|---|
| Tom’s Guide (Rory Mellon, 16 Oct) | 4/5 | No suspend, slow boot, no built-in grips |
| GamesRadar+ (Phil Hayton, 20 Oct) | 4.5/5 | No sleep mode, no HDMI output, stick placement |
| Pocket Tactics (Connor Christie) | 8/10 | Some UI annoyances, no case or charging brick |
| Time Extension (Damien McFerran, 9 Oct) | 8/10 | Triggers sit far from the sticks, no power boost |
A bigger screen, finally two sticks
The headline upgrade is the display. Time Extension gives the panel as 5.89 inches and 840×512 pixels, a small resolution bump over the 800×480 screen on the older EXP, with a maximum brightness of 500+ nits. Pocket Tactics agrees on the size and calls the screen “plenty bright”, with a peak brightness over 500 nits. Both note it is an IPS panel rather than an OLED, and neither minds. GamesRadar+ lists 5.98 inches in its pros, but its own spec box and review text say 5.89, so we’d treat that as a typo.
The sticks are the other half. Tom’s Guide says the Nexus is the first Evercade handheld with two analogue sticks and has the largest display of any Evercade device, and Pocket Tactics says the sticks make Banjo easier to control in tricky platforming sections. Tom’s Guide calls them smaller than a DualSense’s but sturdy, with a chunky click, while GamesRadar+ marks them down for not being Hall Effect.
Same guts, familiar gaps
Here the praise thins out. GamesRadar+ says using the same base hardware as the 2020 original is a plus for backwards compatibility, and adds that some “lingering operating system quirks” may push players towards emulation-based alternatives. The biggest of those is the missing suspend feature, which Tom’s Guide calls its “single biggest frustration”. The same review clocked a 39-second boot against nine seconds for a Switch 2, and 16 seconds to start Banjo-Kazooie.
Video out is the next gap. Time Extension says that unlike the original EXP the Nexus has no TV-out option, and GamesRadar+ lists no HDMI output among its cons. The box is sparse too: Time Extension says there is no power brick and that its Steam Deck charger would not charge the Nexus, while Pocket Tactics says only a USB-A to USB-C cable is included, with no case either.
Battery claims line up neatly. Time Extension says Blaze quotes “over” five hours and largely agrees after more than a week; Pocket Tactics checked the five-hours-plus claim over two full charges; Tom’s Guide and GamesRadar+ each got about four hours playing Banjo. That beats the Switch 2 and Steam Deck OLED figures Tom’s Guide measured, though those machines run far heavier games. For a very different class of handheld at a very different price, see our ROG Xbox Ally X20 review roundup.
Ergonomics split the room
Three of the four reviews have something to say about reach. Time Extension found it tricky to use an analogue stick while feathering the shoulder buttons, which it describes as all digital and very loud. GamesRadar+ dislikes the bottom placement of the sticks and the distance that adds to the bumpers and triggers, yet decided the layout suits the era of games the Nexus covers. Pocket Tactics found holding a trigger for a Banjo move uncomfortable after a while and says it would prefer the left stick above the D-pad.
Tom’s Guide has a different complaint: the back is flat black plastic with no built-in grips, which it says can be uncomfortable over multi-hour sessions. GamesRadar+, by contrast, says it has yet to feel any specific strain. That is the sort of disagreement a spec sheet can’t settle, and we’d want to hold one before spending $200.
A pack-in that earns its place
All four reviews single out the Banjo-Kazooie Double Pack. Per Blaze’s press release it is a native Evercade release developed with Rare, and sold on its own it has a suggested retail price of £24.99 / $29.99 / €29.99, so a good slice of the Nexus price is covered by what is in the box. GamesRadar+ goes further, calling it a custom widescreen, 60fps port and saying Banjo-Kazooie on a Retroid Pocket 5 is stuck at half that frame rate without intervention.
We think that is the real story. Cartridges you own, with no digital licence that can be revoked, is the pitch Tom’s Guide leans on, and it lands while we are writing about the ESA’s piracy hit list, which leads with Anbernic, and about GOG’s Preservation Program. Time Extension reaches a similar place, calling the Nexus “arguably the best entry point” for the wide selection of physical carts.
- Buy if you already like cartridges, want a bright screen and two sticks, and are happy to treat Banjo-Kazooie as a launch title in the box.
- Buy if you want a retro handheld that gets you playing quickly: Tom’s Guide’s setup was a Wi-Fi connection and a small firmware update, with no online account.
- Skip if a suspend-and-resume button is non-negotiable; Tom’s Guide, GamesRadar+ and Pocket Tactics all say the Nexus has none.
- Skip if you need TV out, or expect a charger in the box: Time Extension and GamesRadar+ report no video output, and Time Extension and Pocket Tactics report no power adapter.
Our take
We’d call the Nexus an easy yes for anyone already shopping in Evercade’s cartridge library and a hard sell for anyone who wants a modern handheld’s conveniences. The 83 holds up because the screen, the sticks and the pack-in are real, and so are the missing suspend, the slow boot and the sparse box. GamesRadar+ says a patched-in sleep feature would make it a standout, but none of the reviews promises one is coming. If suspend matters to you, wait; if it doesn’t, we’d buy it for Banjo alone.
