When we think of SNK, what games come to mind? Metal Slug perhaps? How about King of Fighters? Or maybe Samurai Shodown? I’m sure everyone has heard the name Neo Geo. Or at least seen the red iconic red arcade cabinets that has these games. I ask these questions because it so happens to be SNK’s 40th anniversary this year. And you know what that means: time to release an anniversary collection. Now before you think, “of another collection of Neo Geo games, that’s cool”, know that this isn’t that type of collection. NIS America and SNK decided to celebrate the occasion by going deep into SNK’ vault and bringing out some of the company’s earliest arcade and NES games. And with help of developers over at Digital Eclipse and the Eclipse Engine, this was made possible. Is the SNK 40th Anniversary Collection just a relic of the past that should have been left behind? Or is a memorable look at the company’s past that older and younger generations of gamers will appreciate? Leave your quarters at home, its free-play hour with the SNK 40th Anniversary Collection for the Nintendo Switch. But first a quick PSA:
Prior to the publication of this review and to the game’s release next week, I was contacted by NISA and was given a heads up about a “Day One” patch. Here are the details that NISA have told me that will appear in the patch:
- New optional “Single Stick” mode for all twin-stick games (Ikari Warriors, Victory Road, T.N.K. III, Guerrilla War). Players can now use one stick to control both movement and aiming simultaneously.
- With ”Single Stick” mode enabled, two players can now play multiplayer games together using single Joy-Cons.
- Added optional “Auto Fire” mode for all twin stick games – bullets can now fire automatically in the direction that second stick is pointed (previously players would have to hold a fire button).
- Fixed an issue that was causing some games to display at an incorrect aspect ratio.
- Improved audio accuracy of console games, eliminating the frequent “pops” heard previously.
- Fixed an issue that was causing the Rewind feature to occasionally stop working.
Before NISA made the Day One patch known, I haven’t ran into any problems. However that’s just me, I’m sure other reviewers might say other wise. In any case, this is just to let everyone known that there will be a Day One patch. And now back to the review
Insert Coin
Curated collection of early SNK arcade games- From the look of things, most gamers around my age group and a few of the younger generation know SNK as the developers of the Neo Geo arcade cabinets with three or four games in them. We also know them as the developers of said games in the cabinets, like KOF, Samurai Shodown, Metal Slug and many more. However, SNK is known for quite more than that as they have been making games since the late 70’s/early 80’s. And that’s what this collection is all about. The SNK 40th Anniversary Collection consists of the company’s earliest arcade games games. They are as follows:
- Alpha Mission
- Athena
- Crystalis
- Ikari Warriors
- Victory Road: Ikari Warriors II
- Ikari Warriors III
- Guerrilla War
- P.O.W
- Prehistoric Isle
- Psycho Solider
- Street Smart
- T.N.K III
- Vanguard
Each of these games are in their original format and have tons of options to toggle (more than that in a bit).What’s really cool is that for the first time (that I know of) all of the Ikari Warrior games are in one collection, as well as as both Athena games. In fact the last time that any of these games received a re-release was when they were a part of the Playstation Minis brand. The only game of the bunch that doesn’t have an arcade port is Crystalis, which only had a console release. I’m not sure as to why the game was added into a collection that celebrates SNK’s arcade history, but either way its a solid title. Now speaking of console releases:
NES versions included with some games- The arcade games aren’t the only games that were packed in the SNK 40th Anniversary collection. A couple of the arcade’s NES counterparts are also in the collection. These ports are as follows:
- Alpha Mission
- Athena
- Ikari Warriors
- Victory Road
- Ikari Warriors III
- Guerilla War
- P.O.W
- T.N.K III aka Iron Tank
All of the NES games play just like they did back when they were originally released. The games do have a bit of minor issues, however as stated before a Day One patch will be available with the appropriate fixes. I didn’t run into any of these issues when playing the games, but that’s just me. Better safe than sorry.
Modern day options and features- As I mentioned, each game in the SNK 40th Anniversary Collection has plenty of options to choose from. These options ranges from changing the difficulty level and starting lives to changing the look of the screen and its aspect ratio. The collection overall has some modern day quality of life features that gamers can use. One of those features is the ability to create save states. This is super helpful since back during the arcade era there was no such thing as save states and you either had to beat the game in one go or have a whole bunch of quarters ready. The other modern feature added to the collection is the rewind feature. The rewind feature allows players to be able to rewind the game in real time. and allow them to continue of from that previous point. This is very useful when say for example you’re playing Victory Road and haven’t gotten hit so far. Then from out of nowhere you get shot. You can use the rewind feature to go back a few second and replay that section again, avoiding the shot. There’s also the Single Stick feature that applies to T.N.K III, the Ikari Warriors series and Guerrilla War. This feature allows players to play these games with a single Joy-Con, thus allowing two player co-op with the other Joy-Con. It too will be apart of the Day One patch.
History lesson with museum mode- The highlight to the SNK 40th Anniversary Collection is the Museum Mode. Its safe to say that the majority of gamer only know SNK through the Neo Geo and the several games that were made for it. What most might not know is that they are much older than that, and that’s what the Museum section of the game highlights. There are three sections to the Museum: SNK Complete Works 1978-1990, Bonus Features, and Game Soundtracks. The SNK Complete Works is a timeline that details key games that they have developed between 1978 and 1990, also known as the pre-Neo Geo era. Each game entry has a short slide show that shows off original promotional fliers and images from the game. Though the majority of these images are in Japanese, there’s occasionally a side prompt that gives some information about the slide. The second section of the Museum is the Bonus Features section. In here are advertisements for other SNK games SNK cabinets, Western ads, behind the scenes concept art from Crystalis, a look at the lost game Tangram Q, Video Game Land newsletters, and arcade guidebooks. All of this is stuff that Japanese arcade operators back in the early days of the arcade would get from companies like SNK when they are thinking about getting a new game or have ordered one. This is all really interesting stuff to see because gamers usually don’t get to see things like this unless they happen to be collectors. Which happens to be extremely expensive.
Free DLC down the line- While DLC can be a dirty word in the gaming community, there are time when its actually not that bad and even enhances or adds to a game. Especially if its free DLC. As advertised in several YouTube trailers/videos, the SNK 40th Anniversary Collection will be receiving free DLC post launch. These 11 games are as follows:
- Munch Mobile
- Chopper
- Fantasy
- Time Soldiers
- Sasuke vs Commander
- Bermuda Triangle
- Beast Busters
- Paddle Mania
- SAR: Search and Rescue
- Ozma Wars
- World Wars
Several of these games (at least to my knowledge) have never seen a re-release of any form. Those games are Beast Buster, SAR: Search and Rescue, Time Soldiers, Fantasy and Munch Mobile. These are games that haven’t been seen or played in about forty plus years, and now gamers of all ages will be able to experience them for the first time. To me that’s pretty exciting. Hopefully these eleven games are mot the last ones, as I’m sure that SNK has plenty of pre-Neo Game games that they can add in.
Game Over
No online features- This is more of a tiny nitpick that anything, but there are no online features in the SNK 40th Anniversary Collection. It would have been nice to see something like an online leader-board for the arcade versions of some of the games. Battling to see who can make it to the top of the Hi Score list was fun to do at the arcades and by having it in the collection would emulate that feeling. Online co-op also would have been nice to have, or some type of wireless LAN connection between Switches. It’s small things like this that would have made the collection a bit more complete. But like I said, these are all just minor nitpicks.
Playing the SNK 40th Anniversary Collection felt like going back in time. I remember playing Ikari Warriors in the arcades growing up and playing it again brought back a lot of memories. In fact, being able to play all of these games that I only have a passing memory of was really fun. Adding in the NES versions of the arcade games showed how SNK had to think outside the box to bring the arcade experience to the NES. As I said with the arcade games, its great being able to play some of these NES classic that I’ve never played before and might not have had the chance to play due to some of the ridiculous prices to get a physical copy second hand. The Museum mode was the highlight of the collection for me as I love learning about gaming’s past and how things were done back then. And finally, thanks to DLC the collection is getting an additional eleven games starting on December 11th. I do wish that the game had some modern day online features, such as online co-op, wireless LAN play, online leader boards and more. Again that’s me nitpicking and wishful thinking.
The SNK 40th Anniversary Collection is a must own for fans of arcade games, retro/classic games and especially fans of SNK. If you want to have a blast from the past, this is the collection for you.
