Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

10 to 20 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Almost, but not quite"

I like SNK games, so this compilation of some of their Neo Geo titles is a pretty good effort to introduce their old Neo Geo catalog. While games like King of the Monsters, World Heroes, King of Fighters and Samurai Shodown are huge enticers, other games aren't really that fun.

The games are emulated to near-perfection--the only thing missing are those screens where they introduce the player to the arcade button controls. Not a big deal, really, but it might have been nice for the purists. Also, you can earn achievements by fulfilling certain conditions within the games; in this case, medals categorized by gold, silver and bronze rankings. They're not just your trophies--they can unlock things like sound tests, artwork and move lists for the fighting games. I'm not entirely sure why it's even necessary to go through trouble unlocking move lists for characters in fighting games when one can just simply go to the internet and look them up, but I suppose just earning the medal is fair enough.

King of Fighters, Metal Slug, Samurai Shodown--SNK included some of their biggest hits. Unfortunately, they also included a few of their misfires. Burning Fight is a shameless Final Fight rip-off with terrible hit detection. Magician Lord is a decent action game with punishing difficulty. The other games are decent, but not as popular as SNK's big smash hits.

It also might have added to the package if SNK included games they developed before the Neo Geo: like Ikari Warriors and Alpha Mission. Perhaps they might consider those for their next volume.

Overall, SNK purists might like the roundabout selection of classics included in this package. After all, this is only Volume 1!