A bit of nostalgia, a trip back to being 11 and yearning for the ever elusive, extremely expensive NEO GEO. I think the system was $650, well above the price point of the Sega Genesis and Turbo Graffix 16. It was a time of ‘Beat’m ups’, Final Fight and Streets of Rage were the mainstays, Konami was cashing in on the success of the Ninja Turtles and its X-Men Dual Screen Arcade game. Really in retrospect, the tragedy of the entire era was the fragile economic nature of the delivery system. Ram Carts were insanely expensive, and the NEO GEO used 200 MB (LOLOLOL, HUUUGE!!) game files. thus games were $200 + . Now in their defense, these were legitimate arcade games.

Actually, the NEO GEO joins the Atari Jaguar as the other system I didn’t have. I bought all the rest of them… 3DO, Virtual Boy, Genesis + Sega CD, SNES, NES, Turbo Graffix 16 + the CD-ROM add on, PS 1 + 2 +3, Xbox + 360, Dreamcast, N64 and Wii. I actually fiddled around with the idea of buying a NEO CD, as they got the Media costs down to $50-60, but the nightmare of a 1x CD-ROM drive and nightmare-ish load times scared me off.

And now that I’m jaded and brainwashed by the Mario 64 3D Revolution, NEO GEO just seems… Tacked on as far as history is concerned. Let’s be honest, all they really did was ride Capcom’s balls for like 10 years (I thought that even Samuri Shodown was a rip off of Weaponlord by Namco, but SS was first). I would then denote that Samuri Shodown was SNK’s flash of brilliance, the first game that truely broke it away from being a bunch of Final Fight and Street Fighter II rip offs.

And now that brings us to the SNK collection for PSP. An alphabetically organized trip down memory lane. Now, I’m not going to lie to you, most of these games are absolutely insufferable. They simply don’t hold up well. Really the biggest flaw in this collection is that it uses the first run on many of the SNK franchises; these were turds. SF2 rip offs, crappy wrestling rip offs and R-Type rip offs. There are two gorgeous gems in this collection along with another worth having.

I’m gonna burn (LOL, pun) through a lot of these, I’m not going to lie, I couldn’t stand more than 10 minutes of most of these.

“THE NEXT GLORY” Soccer - it sucks. Same button for pass and shoot. HUH? yeah. That’s what I said. So the clock goes fast and you have to be in the box to shoot. IE, you can’t set up a goal. Like in FIFA. Or NHL. You could do this in ‘91 on your Genesis. Unless you like the gay side of the 16 bit era:

“YOU LIKE MAKE OUT NOW? NOM NOM NOM NOM!!!”

Remember how fun R-Type, Thunderforce and Blazin’ Lazers were, packed with interesting power ups and fluid game play? This LAST RESORT game has none of these things. Whereas the R-Type ship looked like a flacid penis, the Last Resort ship looks like a wiener in a vice grip.

What would happen if the guy from bionic commando raped sonic and tails? TOP HUNTER would squeeze out 9 shameful, felonious months later. You tap a button to jump from plain to plain. You have a stretchy arm you punch with. It’s as gay as it sounds.

HADOYKEN….errrr… WHATEVER WE SAY AT SNK

I lump ART OF FIGHTING (zomg, zoom capabilities!) and FATAL FURY into one crappy turd of a Street Fighter Rip off. Really the only thing worse than Art of Fighting was the SNES port of the game. Talk about rushed to market! AOF you can pick from one of 2 characters. FF, pick from 3. The game play is insufferably clunky compared to SF2 and really, SNK should have swept this shit into the trash can and put the sequels in, especially Fatal Fury 2. I remember that game being decent.

BASEBALL STARS 2 - the irony is that none of them are stars; And it feels like every game is in the metrodome, and I hate Minnesota. This game is kind of amusing though.

BURNING FIGHT : like Final Fight. Only the characters are cliche and the gameplay sucks ass.

KING OF THE MONSTERS - this game gets credit for it being from 1991. I would have enjoyed this game back then.

MAGICAN LORD was a NEO GEO launch title. I enjoyed Keith Courage Wayyyyyyyy more.

WORLD WARRIOR - This is a game. A game about a “WORLD WARRIOR”. I assume he has to fight for something.

SHOCK TROOPERS is like commando… by capcom. only like 6 years later. meh.

NEO TURF MASTERS is a crappy golf game. The meter system sucks. It feels completely anti-intuitive. Barf.

SENGOKU - bad, but not as bad as burning fight. not… NEARLY as bad.

$30 is too much for this set. Were it $20, I would say BUY BUY BUY, and why is that? For these treats:

Samuri Shodown Holds up. Granted, 2 is a better game, but man… I had this on 3DO, at the time, the best version you could get without buying a NEO GEO. It plays smooth and tight, its a well balanced game (granted a few worthless characters) and the money characters play like butter. I loved this game and I still do.

METAL SLUG - Y’know I’d never played this game before getting this compilation? This is just enjoyable as hell, probly a shameless gunstar hereos rip off, but still just FUN.

KING OF FIGHTERS ‘94 … This game really gave SNK street cred as it was the first time that the might capcom actually stole one of THEIR ideas. Mashing up characters. Capcom fought these games popularity with X-Men vs. Street Fighter, Marvel vs. Capcom and Punky Brewster vs. The Three Fingered Candy Shop Owner. The best part is that Mai has a perfect ass. I mean, really… It’s perfect.

“OH HAI. TE GUSTA?”

So, at $30 I’m not sure this is worth the money. The special add-on’s are stupid and make no sense; why should i have to unlock move lists? these games are like 15 years old. As a developer, I would spot my customers this information. At $20, I say hell yeah, Samuri Shodown and Metal Slug alone are worth it. Good stuff! I haven’t tried them online, so I can’t vouche for it either way, I’ll work on that and update later.

So the verdict is Buy it if you want it, Definately worth a Burn if you have access to that.

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I live in the Detroit area and I'm working toward certification as a wine expert, called a Master Sommelier. So far I'm in the Guild. Aside from working six days a week, I spend way too much time playing video games and putzing around on the internet. I'm also a Michigan State Graduate (BS Human resources, BA Sociology) and a hardcore sports fan.
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