SNK's arcade output is often somewhat forgotten about, with Taito, Namco and Capcom to name a few publishing many giant games of the arcade era. SNK's Arcade Collection on the Wii looks to remedy this by presenting 16 games for the Neo Geo AES. In addition to the games, there are unlockables such as Art, Music and Videos for players to discover more about the games featured on the collection. Although it's name would imply that a second volume was also in the works, the sequel turned out to be Vol. 0, featuring games which predated the Neo Geo AES, and was released only in Japan. I'll be playing the games in alphabetical order, with a summary of what I think of each game individually before rounding up my notes on the collection as a whole.
Art of Fighting
Game: Art of Fighting
Console: Arcade
Developer: SNK
Release Date: 24th September 1992
Art of Fighting is a fairly derivative fighting game which brings little to the table, considering the time of its release. With Street Fighter II in arcades a year prior, even its bonus stages don't feel quite as fresh as they might. The story is your standard fighting game fare, and gets pretty boring at times; you're trying to get information out of various people and apparently none of them feel that non-violence is even an option.
Punches and kicks are the main attacks, with a throw option and some difficult to execute special moves. Most of the time I was trying to execute special moves, nothing would happen but every now and then in regular combat a special move would occur without any effort being put into a button combination. The fighting action felt passable, but not much better or worse than many of the other fighting games of the time.
Graphically the game is very similar to the style of Street Fighter II, with cartoon like sprites and attacks. The characters are huge on screen and give off a sense of being zoomed right into the action. The game's music is tense but not overly memorable, and with the rate of striking and voice clips in the game, it's often buried under other sound effects.
Overall Art of Fighting is a pretty mediocre fighting game which isn't helped by its high difficulty level and linear progression through the fights. Since 6 of the 8 characters are locked at the start of the game, there's also little variety in available fighters. I'm sure SNK fighting game fans will look past the glaring issues with the game, but I just can't.
Rating: 43/100
Grade: E
Baseball Stars 2
Game: Baseball Stars 2
Console: Arcade
Developer: SNK
Release Date: 28th April 1992
Baseball Stars 2 is a sports game featuring one of my least favourite sports to play inside of a videogame. This isn't to say that all baseball games are inherantly flawed, but the slow pace of the 9 inning match coupled with a generally low scoring rate doesn't seem to make for the best video game experience. Unfortunately this is the case with the game also, as though its possible to score home runs, they're few and far between (I managed 2 in 18 innings), and pitching/fielding is literally willing the other team to get out as fast as possible in most cases.
There's an interesting element to the game if players choose to stick with it, with management options, training players up, limited power-up bonuses and a league to win. It'd take a long time to play the full number of matches to win the game overall, though by that time overall mastery of hitting home runs might have been achieved. It's a difficult balance though because hitting constant home runs is boring, but not being able to hit any is frustrating.
Graphically the game looks great, in the classic SNK cartoon style which makes it all the more exasperating that the gameplay could be far better. The animations are smooth and the style is fitting for the arcade experience. The music featured in the game is repetitive but enjoyable enough. There's some commentary of sorts, but it's nothing astounding.
Overall Baseball Stars 2 could have been better in many aspects, but making a video game about baseball is fairly tough. With slightly easier home run hitting, a faster pace of play and exaggerated scores and actions, perhaps it could have been the arcade baseball experience which I feel would suit the game best.
Rating: 45/100
Grade: D
Burning Fight
Game: Burning Fight
Console: Arcade
Developer: SNK
Release Date: 20th May 1991
There are many similarities between Burning Fight and the Streets of Rage series as a whole, as well as many other beat 'em ups of the time. While its difficult to say who had which ideas first, it's fairly clear which game did them better. Burning Fight has 5 stages, each of which has a boss and some of which have mid bosses. At the end of the game there's a boss rush before the final boss, so it's perfectly reasonable to expect to fight the bosses two or three times within a single run of the game.
The enemies too are fairly generic with a few different types of look and attack, but none who require much strategy to mow down. In fact hammering the punch button seems to be the only real mode of defence in the game; players are often ganged up on, and forced to fight three or more enemies at a time, making it almost impossible not to take damage of some sort. The lanes are somewhat iffy and the overall feel is that of frustration and lack of control.
Graphically there's some great destructible scenery and some nice bonus levels where the gameplay is changed up somewhat. The characters look pretty good and the animation is smooth. Musically the game has some interesting parts but overall it's one of the weaker aspects. The levels feel like long slogs of enemies and the difficulty levels leaves players blasting through their credits; despite their infinite nature, it's still a pain to reset every 2 minutes. The game knows how difficult it is, since there's an achievement for beating it in under 30 lives!
Overall Burning Fight seems to play like a poor man's version of Streets of Rage 2; the sprites are big, there's guys on motorbikes, a lift scene, three characters to choose from and a range of moves to pull off, but only punches and sometimes kicks are effective, hitting and beating opponents is clunky and sometimes it's impossible to get a hit in with many of them fighting either side, and the story is literally lifted from the original Streets Of Rage. Not so good.
Rating: 51/100
Grade: D
Fatal Fury
Game: Fatal Fury: King of Fighters
Console: Arcade
Developer: SNK
Release Date: 1991
The games so far on this SNK collection have been fairly difficult; Art of Fighting was a difficult arcade fighting game, as is Fatal Fury: King of Fighters. The action feels better than Art of Fighting by a long way; there's clearly executable special moves, and the movement flows nicely, but in terms of difficulty it's perhaps even worse. After the third fight, things become almost unwinnable with the opponent spamming his special attacks, predicting any incoming blows and generally winning.
After a great deal of trying to beat the fight I gave up, as I assume many on an arcade machine would do. It's fine to have difficult arcade games, or even video games in general, but where people have a choice to give up and move on, 9 out of 10 times, they will instead of trying to perfect their skills against a game which is trying to hide its lack of actual content and grab as many quarters as possible. I'm sure a large amount of practice would yield its rewards, as it doesn't seem like a bad game in many other respects, but there's just no incentive for me to spend a disproportionate amount of time on a single game.
Graphically the game looks great, very much like it was influenced by Street Fighter II. There's some fun locations and special attacks features, and as with all SNK games on the collection the animations are smooth and enjoyable. Musically the game stood out as a little better than the previous few games, but nothing remarkable in the grand scheme of things.
Overall Fatal Fury's fatal flaw is its difficulty, preventing players from getting much further than the start, though the game looked fairly short anyway. I'm aware that many arcade fighting games are pretty difficult, but this game feels unfairly so, and very much more frustrating. Hopefully the SNES version that I own will be better!
Rating: 56/100
Grade: D
King of the Monsters
Game: King of the Monsters
Console: Arcade
Developer: SNK
Release Date: 1st July 1991
King of the Monsters is a fighting game based on the kaiju film genre, of which Godzilla is perhaps the best known example. Players take control of gigantic beasts and settle their differences in several cities across Japan. There are 6 monsters and 12 rounds in total, meaning that players fight each monster twice, including a palette swapped version of themselves. The choice and variety of monsters featured in the game is good and seems to have taken inspiration from many films of the kaiju genre.
The gameplay is good and features many different fighting moves, executed with combinations of the punch/kick/jump/run buttons. The aim of each fight is to drain the opponent's health meter and pin them for a 3 count. Players can collect power orbs to power themselves up, but there appears to be very little effect when doing so. As the rounds progress players do less and less damage with their attacks while enemies gain ever more health, leaving the final rounds as an undeniable slog compared to the first few. It's not so much difficult as repetitive, though continues will be needed to complete the game.
Graphically the game is reminiscent of the Rampage series which had a similar idea though the goal was solely destruction rather than combat. In terms of graphical quality, King of the Monsters is one of the less impressive SNK games, but it was also released earlier than many of the other games on this collection. The music is noticeably action orientated and works well to set the mood for the game.
Overall while there's little replayability, and fighting each monster twice to beat arcade mode isn't ideal, pitting huge monsters against one another in a city setting is always going to create epic battles. The controls are responsive enough for the most part, and it's only later fights which can frustrate players by stacking the deck in the AI's favour.
Rating: 70/100
Grade: C
Last Resort
Game: Last Resort
Console: Arcade
Developer: SNK
Release Date: 1992
Last Resort is a shoot 'em up with various powerups and bosses, without any real originality or storyline. While it looks very nice, the colour chosen for the player's ship and the upgrade spheres that fly around it make it almost impossible to keep track of against the backgrounds and with other enemies moving around, making the game itself far harder than it needs to be.
Players can choose from the ship's regular shots, as well as those of any power-ups they've collected and a charged shot from the upgrade sphere once it's been collected. The charged shot seems particularly hard to aim, as the upgrade sphere moves in the opposite direction that of the direction input on the controller for the main ship, and as such most of the time its best to use the regular shot with any upgrades that have been gained.
Graphically the game has a vivid colour scheme and memorable bosses and backgrounds. It's a shame that the player ship and all allied vessels aren't more clearly marked though as the lack of contrast makes playing the game far harder than in needs to be. Added to this, there are many explosions and small objects flying around which are of no consequence to the game, further confusing the visuals. The music is rock based and fits well with the game, providing a tense feel to the battle.
Overall Last Resort isn't a bad game, but rather one which could have been far more enjoyable with a clearer sight of the player ship, as most of the other aspects are good. If you've got the patience to endure a few silly deaths from losing track of your own position then this is a game worth trying.
Rating: 62/100
Grade: C
Magician Lord
Game: Magician Lord
Console: Arcade
Developer: SNK
Release Date: 1990
Magician Lord is a strange game both in terms of its genre; SNK usually stick to fighters, Beat 'em Ups and sports games, and its content; there are many instances of religious imagery and words. Players take control of a character who can shoot powerful magic from a staff, and transform into different beings with the aid of power-ups. Each level must be explored and the boss room found, before a fight with a mini boss, and then the level boss themselves.
There's some good variation between levels and the scenery and enemies presented are interesting and fairly unique. The controls are simple, allowing players to shoot, jump and move around only. While most bosses require a little strategy to beat, many of the other enemies can simply be defeated with a shot from the staff, or other attack if powered up.
Graphically the game is bright and easy to understand; sometimes enemies are placed in frustrating locations, and some ceiling attacks occur without much warning, but there's not a lot to complain about overall. The music has a fantasy adventure feel and definitely goes well alongside the gameplay, completing the audiovisual experience.
Overall Magician Lord is a fun platform style game, and is only really spoiled by its lack of real variety in bosses and level design. Past a certain point, the game becomes a little monotonous, and it's not likely to hold players attention for the hour or so needed to make a full run through the game. Other than this though, there's a lot to enjoy and for an arcade game of 1990 it's definitely above many of its contemporaries.
Rating: 73/100
Grade: C
Metal Slug
Game: Metal Slug
Console: Arcade
Developer: SNK
Release Date: 18th April 1996
Metal Slug is a running and shooting style combat game where the aim is to take out your enemies an survive through six stages whilst freeing hostages, downing planes and destroying tanks. At points in the game you're provided with your own tank (and a boat at one point), which can be useful, and there's plenty of power-ups such as a shotgun, flamethrower and heavy machine gun with which to neutralise enemies with.
In terms of difficulty there's a lot happening onscreen and it can be difficult to keep track of all threats. SNK were also renowned for their difficult arcade games; it took me 32 continues to beat the game, which at 5 lives per continue is around 160 deaths. I could probably have done a little better, but this should illustrate just what a bullet hell players will face, even on normal difficulty level.
Graphically the game looks great, with cartoon style animation and character sprites. It's incredibly smooth and all characters and objects have interesting motions when they are killed. Stylistically this is one of the best games of its kind, as the style doesn't impact at all on the feel of control and destruction that players get from the game. There's some exciting and action orientated music behind the game, though it's mostly obscured by the sound of gunshots.
Overall Metal Slug is a great example of its genre and offers a lot of fun to players who don't mind either learning its ins and outs, or keeping one finger on the continue button. It's perhaps a little difficult to be truly replayable but there's definitely an enjoyment factor. The variety in level design is good, though a few more enemy types might have helped the game to feel like there was more content.
Rating: 85/100
Grade: B
So that's half the games on the collection; you may have noticed the theme of graphically beautiful, but fairly difficult games coming from SNK. With 8 more games in the next part of this review, that's sure to continue, but hopefully the level of playability will remain high as it was with Metal Slug and King of the Monsters.
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