Review Indie Heroes Collection 3 (Evercade) - Donut Dodo Is The Highlight

Blaze's Indie Heroes range of Evercade carts features titles that have previously been made available as part of the Game of the Month campaign, which sees a new title downloaded to the console each month, entirely free of change.

The catch is that when the new title arrives, the only one is removed from your console. However, Blaze then bundles all of the games up and releases them on a physical cart; we've already had two of these packs, and this third entry pulls together 13 indie-made releases in one convenient package.

Without the hook of nostalgia, these games are totally reliant on their quality – although, it should be noted that they're designed to imitate the look and feel of vintage games, despite the fact that they've all been developed quite recently.

Highlights include action platformer Thunder Paw, puzzle and RPG hybrid Bone Marrow and Bubble Seahorse Adventures, which does a good job of channelling the same visual vibe as Super Mario World on the SNES.

However, the highlight of the entire pack is Pixel Games' Donut Dodo, a colourful homage to single-screen platformers like Data East's iconic Burger Time.

You need to collect all of the doughnuts on each stage whilst avoiding enemies (including the titular dodo), with your only skill being your jumping ability. With its bright visuals and infectious music, Donut Dodo is brilliantly addictive and incredibly challenging, and is almost worth buying this cart for on its own.

The downside here is that the load times for Donut Dodo are quite long, and it's possible to purchase it on Steam and the Switch eShop for a low price already. Of course, the fact that it comes with 12 other indie games on this Evercade cart means you're getting better value for money here – even if the lack of recognizable games means that the usual pang of nostalgia isn't present.