Back again for our regular Sunday roundup of quick-fire reviews and impressions of everything under the spotlight at Retro Arcadia this week, old and new and a bit of both. I’ve actually been on holiday in Cornwall since last weekend, once again reinforcing our plans to retire there one day, although this time it was just a nice break from living in a Grade II-listed building site, as we also plan what will hopefully be one more house move beforehand! It did give me a chance to spend some more time with my NEOGEO Super Pocket handheld though, and specifically, the brand new NEOGEO Arcade 1 collection for Evercade, which, like all Evercade carts, it’s also compatible with. That literally arrived as I was putting the finishing touches to last week’s feature before we left, and that’s (almost…) all I been playing since, so let me jump right into my first impressions of everything on there…

This is the first of three NEOGEO cartridges on the way for Evercade this year, and the six games here very nicely complement the fourteen NEOGEO classics already included on this version of Super Pocket. I’ll run through each in turn in a sec, but let’s have a quick look at the overall package first, starting with one of the best bits… An actual box to open with an actual manual inside, filled with game histories, trivia, instructions and a few tips on top. And loads of King of Fighters moves! Once you fire it up, you’re also getting typically slick, sortable on-screen game-select menus, quick saves and loads, game info screens and brief instructions, although no DIP-switch settings like we’ve seen for recent arcade releases. All plays fine whether on the handheld EXP or Super Pocket, or on the big VS console attached to a big TV, and that sounds like a good time to get into the games! 

I’ll go alphabetical, and that makes Ironclad the first of the six titles we’re going to be playing, which is unfortunate because of everything here, it was the one I was least excited about playing again. Which reminds me, I do own everything included on this all over the place already, whether standalone, on Minis, or on compilations going back several decades, but I can’t resist some more SNK whenever the opportunity arises! Right, Ironclad, an undoubtedly spectacular horizontally scrolling shoot ‘em up from 1996, which for a long time was a bit of a Holy Grail for collectors, mainly due to it never appearing outside Japan. It’s kind of a steampunk R-Type but with the branching paths of Darius once you clear a level, and the exhilaration of neither as far as I’m concerned! It’s alright though, with some decent bosses, some stunning (but also some generic) environments, and some fun weapons. Awesome music too! Just a bit dull – I’d rather be playing Cave’s Progear for this vibe and a ton more excitement besides! 

I was really pleased to get The King of Fighters 2000 (from that very year) included in this collection because although I do own it elsewhere, it got lost in the mix with the rest of the series for me, and this is the perfect excuse to get more familiar! That said, I think if I had to make a choice at this stage, I’d lean towards the more vibrant presentation of its predecessor, KoF ‘98 – this is far more gritty, with a heavy-set art style, but no denying it looks great and moves great, and the various environments you fight it can be very atmospheric and dynamic – there’s a fantastic Chinese shopping street stage I especially love that’s full of neon, all reflected in puddles on the cobbles that still pull off the game’s trademark moodiness! The size of the (sometimes familiar) roster is ridiculous too, and perfectly suited to the 3-on-3 team battle format, which also introduces a new Active Striker mechanic, where you can call in a fourth striker to make a save, extend a combo or disrupt and enemy’s, and who you choose for that can have a huge impact on your overall strategy – especially when you’ve got a full power gauge! Otherwise, the regular four-button SNK controls provide both accessibility and depth, and it’s all incredibly fluid, and what a soundtrack, and I might be talking myself around towards this one after all! 

If nothing else, you’ll never find a better example of in-game synth-rock than in Magician Lord! Just persevere with the initial difficulty curve and mean-spirited checkpointing, and you’ll find a whole lot more besides too! This a 1990 side-scrolling walk ‘n spell platformer with a fantasy twist, with you pursuing some god of destruction or the other across eight stages filled with monsters and all sorts of clambering about. It’s a little bit Ghouls ‘n Ghosts (and is certainly as punishing), albeit without as much personality, but let it sink its teeth into you and it’s hard to put down, which has been the case for me since long before this compilation arrived! By the way, unusually, I actually recorded a video of this one in action a while back, and I’ve included that above rather than a screenshot, so you can have a listen to that music for yourself if you like. 

I guess Metal Slug is the headline act here, but I can wholeheartedly confirm that, as always, it’s still a beautiful thing! Okay, it may lack the variety and depth of some of its successors, such as Metal Slug X included on the Super Pocket itself, but if you want a masterclass in straight-up, no holds barred, adrenaline-fuelled, side-scrolling run ‘n gun action that’s heavy on the relentless chaos, then look no further! And 1996 or not, I still find the amount of carnage and just the sheer amount of  stuff in general going on absolutely staggering, and there’s so much character and humour and incredible attention to detail in the insanely dense pixel art, supported by such iconic sound design… It’s worth the price of entry alone! I have previously also done a deep-dive on this one, which you can have a look at right here.

It took me a while to click with Sengoku 3’s controls on this Super Pocket’s d-pad, but it soon became one of the in-built game selection’s highlights, as well as the side-scrolling beat ‘em up masterpiece I already knew it to be! Its 1991 predecessor and first in the trilogy, Sengoku, isn’t quite that; in fact, it’s a bit crap… But only a bit! A supernatural warlord from Japan’s Sengoku period turns up with his undead Samurai army in what seems to be a kind of post-apocalyptic modern-day setting, where a couple of martial arts protagonists with a few supernatural tricks of there own are trying to save the day! However, the bonkers settings you flit between as a result, and the fantastic spooky chanting for a soundtrack, and even one of the visually striking scenes you’ll ever see in an attract mode, where this huge old pagoda, together with the ground upon which it once stood, magically appear from out of nowhere in the suddenly-hellish sky above this otherwise gorgeously-lit nighttime cityscape, cannot make up for the shallow and decidedly stodgy combat mechanics. Which ain’t great for a brawler! Still, as alluded to earlier, there’s still some fun to be found here all the same – just don’t expect Final Fight or Turtles in Time, and definitely don’t expect Sengoku 3, and you might just find it!

One game to go, and it’s a top-down run ‘n gunner from 1997 by the name of Shock Troopers, and this one is very good! It’s a spiritual successor to SNK’s Ikari Warriors from eleven years earlier, and although the genre might have become a bit old-hat in the interim, you won’t find a more polished example of it, and that includes its own successor, which also appears on the Super Pocket, but as wildly fun as that can be, it also has way too much going on for its own good, and even more so the platform it was built for! Anyway, no performance issues here – just endless eight-way cartoon violence, ridiculous weapons and explosions everywhere, as you try to rescue a scientist and his granddaughter, who were kidnapped to gain control of the drug he invented, Alpha-301. Not sure what it does but it can’t be any good, so you need to choose either one of eight characters in “Lonly Wolf” mode, or three you can switch between in Team Battle, then head out and save the world! You’ve also got a choice of Jungle, Mountain and Valley routes that add even more variety, as well as ramp-up the challenge as you go. It’s singularly familiar territory as far as gameplay goes though, but it’s brilliantly familiar – fast-paced and effortlessly smooth! Great-looking game too, which might not scream 1997 in a screenshot, but there’s so much going on, and there’s so many visual effects and neat tricks happening, and the heavy metal soundtrack, punctuated by the endless sounds of endless violence, is just the perfect accompaniment.

Hell of a way to finish here, and probably a good place to finish too, given how many words I just realised I wrote about that one! Sorry! Anyway, that’s our six titles on a cartridge priced at £19.95, some of which are naturally better than others, and several of which are at the absolute top of their game, and as such, for those alone, I reckon it’s worth the price of entry! Before we go our separate ways until next time though, I have to mention Hollow Knight: Silksong, which, after all this time, just had to finally come out the week I’m nowhere near anything I can play it on! But play it I did all the same, if only for a few fleeting minutes on Xbox Game Pass after I got home last night, and it seems to be everything I’ve waited for so long for – the pinpoint controls, the elegant combat, the magical soundtrack, and that beautifully rich and melancholic setting I loved (and sometimes hated!) so much in the original game. Seems a bit faster-paced though, and possibly a bit tougher a bit quicker… I beat a couple of mini-bosses and got through the first few areas but not really sure about main bosses or metroidvania bits and pieces or much else yet though, so I will promise to return to that here next Sunday. In the meantime, in case you missed it last Wednesday, we headed back exactly 40 years for the very latest in video gaming with Retro Rewind: September 1985 in Computer & Video Games, straight from the pages of the original magazine, so do check that out! Otherwise, I’ll hopefully see you here next time! 

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