Fighters Month: Neo Geo Battle Coliseum

Game: Neo Geo Battle Coliseum
Console: Sony Playstation 2
Developer: SNK Playmore
Release Date: 17th December 2007

For those of you unfamiliar with the Neo Geo as a home console, it was made by SNK and released in 1990. Sporting a number of excellent arcade conversions and more power than most, if not all systems at the time, the system was let down by its high price tag and weaker advertising presence when compared to Sega and Nintendo. Nonetheless there are plenty of fans of SNK's game series as they have received ports to many systems, and Neo Geo games are now highly collectible items.

Neo Geo Battle Coliseum brings together fighters from many of SNK's best known franchises including Fatal Fury, The King of Fighters, Samurai Showdown, Metal Slug and World Heroes. With 40 characters to choose from (once all are unlocked), it can be a daunting choice for those unfamiliar with SNK franchises. Most characters have interesting play styles however, and even new players will find a favourite quickly.

Except for boss battles, each battle takes place with two fighters on each side. In Arcade mode, a fight is won when one fighter from either team is defeated. In Tag Battle mode, a fight is won when both characters from either team are defeated. Other than this, the two modes play almost identically. Time counts down as players continue to face opponents; after every 3 opponents players are given a choice of bonus; more health, a power upgrade or more time. When time runs out players are whisked away to face a boss. Which boss is faced depends on how players have performed in the preceding battles, and if certain conditions aren't met, a default boss will be faced.

While this system seems to work generally, it can be difficult to face any other boss than the default. Some of the conditions are fairly difficult to meet, and can stop players from fighting battles the way they'd like to. Another issue is that the default boss is incredibly spammy and difficult to defeat, even on the lowest difficulty level. When players lose a battle, they're given a choice of services once they continue, to make the next battle easier. These include 1/4 opponent health in the next fight, maxing out of the special move gauge and more time.

Even having chosen 1/4 health for the default boss battle, it was still difficult to get a hit in at all, thanks to relentless spamming of ranged attacks, and his regenerating health. It has been said that it's a staple of SNK fighting games, to have incredibly powerful bosses, but the real problem with this inclusion is the effect it has on the game's difficulty; watering down the boss battle by choosing a low overall difficulty setting makes the rest of the battles far too easy. I could deal with the regular battles on difficulty level 4, but the final boss battle only at level 2, thus forcing me to play through the game at level 2.

The controls are tight and responsive and definitely contribute towards the enjoyability of the game. The general movesets of all characters as well as special moves and combos are easy to understand, and switching between characters poses little to no problem in terms of getting used to fighting techniques. The range of characters is good, and fairly well balanced; there are very few characters who are seemingly useless and only a small number who are overpowered (bosses, I'm looking at you!)

Graphically the game is presented excellently with great animation, detailed backgrounds and sprites, vibrant attack effects and an easy to understand layout. Even for a late PS2 game, the visuals are impressive and aren't truly done justice by the images in this review. Musically the game is also excellent, with high-octane tunes to match the action, with voice acting and sound effects of very high quality giving the game a highly polished feel.

Overall Neo Geo Battle Coliseum is a fighting game with varying levels of appeal depending on whether or not players have played other SNK titles, their opinion on the rather different rules of arcade/tag battle mode to most fighting games, and the overall difficulty issues with boss battles and fighting the boss you'd like to. For me the novelty of arcade/tag battle mode wasn't much of an issue, but the difficulty gap between regular and boss battles took some enjoyment out of the game.

Rating: 76/100
Grade: B