Christin Deville writes:
''SNK Arcade Classics: Vol. 1 includes 16 classic arcade games from the NEO GEO arcade cabinet. The menus even serve as an ode to the red and white striped cabinet, along with a loading screen that corresponds to the unique multi-colored arcade controls. The games included here are Art of Fighting, Baseball Stars 2, Burning Fight, Fatal Fury, King of the Monsters, Last Resort, Magician Lord, Metal Slug, Neo Turf Masters, Samurai Shodown, Sengoku, Shock Troopers, Super Sidekicks 3, The King of Fighters '94, Top Hunter, and World Heroes.
There are some surprises here in the graphics department, for example Baseball Stars 2 features large animated characters and constant movement on the screen. Playing this game is almost as fun as watching it. The trend continues in Neo Turf Masters, a golf game, though it's a bit more toned down during the actual game. Shock Troopers is a game that shows attention to the satisfying details, much like Metal Slug, though it's not as well known. The satisfying stuff of course means people running around when lit on fire, the intricate animation for things like pulling out knives, and individual victory poses for each character. SNK had a knack for putting in visual elements that you'd savor as you play.
The music and sound may show their age a bit more than the graphics. Nothing was particularly bad, but much of the background music was quite repetitive. For games that were usually played among the din of noise in the arcades, this wasn't such a drawback. Magician Lord is one game that stands out with its repetitive background track, but chances are you'll be a bit too absorbed in the game to notice. Shock Troopers again impressed me with an original rock-styled soundtrack that mixed a bit of urban sound to it and even used voice in some tracks. I can't say anything really stands out in the general sound department: explosions, kicks, and yells all sound like they come from a videogame. But generally, things have held up well for their age. ''
Carl Williams writes, "It is a rule of gaming, when one game is a hit, there must be a sequel to capitalize and cannabalize sales. SNK was no different in this regard as their unstopped rampage through fighting games on the Neo Geo system attested- as the system went on, fewer and fewer original games were released as sequel fever took over. King of the Monsters was popular enough to spawn one sequel, King of the Monsters 2: The Next Thing. King of the Monsters 2 was not perfect, neither was the original. What it set out to do though, it did well."
It is a decent game, the first one is better than this sequel- not trying to take away from the fun that can be had with this one.
It is definitely worth the $5 or so to grab a copy on SNES off of Ebay.
I remember playing Neo Geo at a local arcade, they had 5 to 8 machines set up with various games, many had 3 to 4 games each. It was tough to get a machine once the fighting game craze hit because they would load at least on of the popular fighting games on each of these machines.
Carl Williams writes, "The Neo Geo was known for great arcade games that catered to many gamer tastes, at least early on. There were racing, fighting, action and adventure games available on this SNK arcade behemoth, that is before fighting games really took off. One such action game, Top Hunter, borrowed a little from the Fatal Fury fighting games and some from the Mario series from Nintendo and created a unique experience that, sadly, was only one game and not a series."
The article was written and posted on the correct date, it just took longer to get approved here on N4G. That is why I put the date in the title so people know when it is supposed to have happened.
to bad NEO-GEO type games not coming to ps4 or ps3 , we're stuck another 7 years with open world FPS games such sadistic sadness ashame !!!
Carl Williams writes, "The Neo Geo had a bright future early on before SNK hit fighting game gold with certain games. Titles such as Nam 1975, Baseball Stars and Neo Turf Masters led gamers to believe the Neo Geo was going to be everything to all gamers. Everyone knows that didn’t pan out and fighting games ruled the roost for most of the platforms life. That didn’t stop titles such as Magician Lord from getting made (though it stopped a sequel that was in the works)."
Neo Geo, for it's time was the only way to get the arcade experience in the home. If SNk didn't "alien" itself with it's large price for the system and games. I think SNK would have been the system to define gaming.
Another issue I had with SNK NeoGeo, they didn't have the support of the big franchises. The Mega Mans , Castlevainias, Final Fights, or Street Fighters (Yes they had SNKVS Streetfighter)
I agree. The price of the system was the deciding factor for many gamers at the time. Even today, many of the games go for nearly $100 on Ebay, used but complete.
By the time SNK was able to work out SNK vs Street Fighter their time in the spotlight had passed and honestly, Street Fighter was not such a phenomenon in gaming either. Had they swung that deal around 1994 to 1996 then it would have been a game changing move.
I also agree with you that it didn't help that they weren't able to swing a Mega Man or Castlevania on the system. Weird since it was, in both incarnations of the cartridge unit, an arcade machine- the price reminded us of that repeatedly. That would have made it fine for Nintendo licensees to get their games on it since arcades and computers fell outside of Nintendo's still quite tight licensing.
Lots of missed opportunities with this platform.
I watched an entire documentary on SNK with interviews from founders and creators and I still have no idea who they were trying to sell this thing to at that price.
It was aimed at the arcade owners who wanted to get out of the rising costs of new games. Those owners could buy the MVS Neo Geo and then just swap out cartridge PCB's and some machine marquees and have a new game at a much lower cost.
The home unit though, man that was just out there due to the price. It was horribly over priced and it is indeed a mystery who their market was at $200+ per game.
Yes it was, and it was either arrogance, or they just wanted to appeal to a small market of arcade lovers, which at the time still existed, but weren't as popular due to the decline of arcade machines. There were still some gems like Ninja Turtles, Final Fight, Fighting Street,and a few WWF arcade games that kept it alive. SNK even missed out on Mortal Kombat
