Back again for my 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. Anyone want to hear how hot it’s been first? Don’t worry, but I really haven’t been up to much as a result. I have officially now been in my current job for twenty-five years though! And I say “officially” because I actually started in May 2001, but for the past fifteen years or so, our HR department has decided it was a month later instead. Either way, it’s not something I’ve ever really given much thought to, except it still surprises me how many people in my company (which is a Japanese semiconductor manufacturer) have been around for even longer than me! Always been the case too, and always something to be said for Japanese culture, although I’d never have predicted they’d put up with me for this long! Right, games, and two new Evercade cartridges dropped this week, so I’m going to give you a review of the first of them…

I wouldn’t argue if you said any of three of the NEOGEO Arcade compilations from the past year or so on Evercade was the best cartridge available on there, and the same goes for the dedicated Super Pocket handheld with a whole bunch of other titles on top! We were still missing one game for me though… And here it finally is on the new NEOGEO Arcade 4 collection! Not only that, but what are probably my second and third favourite NEOGEO games are here too, so I take it back – I’m already arguing this is the best before we’ve even looked at it! We will go through each of the eight games included in a minute, but first let’s look at the overall package. As usual, an actual cartridge in an actual box with an actual manual inside, filled with game histories, trivia, instructions and a few tips (and fighting moves!) to boot. 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. Should mention support for two players where applicable too, providing you’re on an Evercade VS attached to your TV or one of the Alpha cabs, rather than one of their handhelds. And some games will also offer some extra modes or difficulty settings if you switch from arcade (MVS) to console (AES). And you might welcome the latter for some of these…

Okay, games, and the first thing to mention is that as well as two more of them on here than the six on each of the previous collections, there’s a bit more variety about this one too, with a more balanced mix of fighters, shooters, sports and oddities that only SNK could have thrown together for this marvellous machine! However, I should also mention that two of them, Blazing star and Fatal Fury Special, are both on the NEOGEO Super Pocket handheld as well. Right, let’s have a brief look at everything included, and we’ll go alphanumerical because first up is 3 Count Bout from 1993, an in-your-face and joyfully ridiculous wrestling game that actually plays like a more accessible SNK fighter rather than WWF No Mercy… Well, once grappling with a d-pad clicks, although that applies to most of the stuff here. Huge, sweaty sprites, bonkers special moves and typically raucous early-nineties sound effects more than make up for any lack of depth, and if you can go at it two-player even better. What a start, and it doesn’t stop there because next is both my favourite game on the system and my favourite baseball game ever (see my top ten here for more) – it’s 1992’s Baseball Stars 2! This is early nineties arcade sports at its finest, all about big hits, big animations and even bigger reactions from the crowd, with those wonderfully exaggerated batting poses and explosive home‑run cutaways that fill the screen with colour and energy every time. The wacky sound effects and triumphant musical cues keep everything bouncing along in-between, and it’s impossible not to get swept up in its momentum. 

Completing my top three NEOGEO games ever – as well as the video game equivalent of Prince’s 1999 album for the strength of its opening – is Blazing Star from the year before then, still one of the most spectacular horizontal shooters ever created! This oozes SNK, with dazzling pre‑rendered backgrounds, absurdly detailed ships, and a constant barrage of explosions and particle effects. The slightly off-kilter sound design pushes the pace even harder, and the scoring is deep but accessible and totally one more go! And then there was 1993’s Fatal Fury Special, undoubtedly a polished and masterfully put together one-on-one fighter that’s full of energy if not so much full of spectacle, but as great as it mostly sounds on paper, it’s just too unforgiving and doesn’t give enough back quick enough for me to have ever wanted to invest the time to do anything about it. I’m sure loads of people love it though, so your own mileage may vary. King of the Monsters from 1991 is more my thing – a completely bonkers kaiju wrestling brawler where you stomp around cities as giant monsters, bouncing off the power lines and suplexing each other through skyscrapers. The oversized b-movie sprites and their slapstick destruction of these vibrant, living environments are great. Yeah, it’s a bit clunky and totally chaotic, but that’s the fun – all fur coat and no knickers, and gloriously so!

Metal Slug 4 is by no means the genre-defining run and gun series’ peak, but I challenge anyone not to have the time of their lives with this entry from 2002! All the usual Metal Slug hallmarks are there regardless, with gorgeous pixel art, frantic animation and that unmistakable mix of explosions, screams and brass‑heavy music. It doesn’t quite have the groundbreaking flair and outrageous invention of its predecessors or X, but the new weapons and combos add a hint of freshness, and even a “lesser” Metal Slug is still better than most games, run and gun or otherwise! Now here’s a nice curveball! Robo Army is an almost deliberately stiff 1991 NEOGEO beat ’em up where you punch, kick and transform your way through waves of robotic enemies in a grimy, industrial future. The heavy, metallic clanks and sparks give it real impact, and the straight-to-VHS sci-fi presentation and occasional power‑ups keep it going. Not exactly essential, but definitely enjoyable! I’m no expert but for me The King of Fighters 2002 is a series highlight, stripping things back to pure three‑on‑three fighting and focussing entirely on tight mechanics and fast pacing. The huge roster is beautifully animated, the stages are full of subtle movement, and the soundtrack drives the action with real urgency. Fantastic sense of momentum, and it’s slick, deep and endlessly replayable – a real big-hitter of an inclusion and a perfect closer to what’s a real big-hitter of a compilation. And although I don’t think any future ones are likely to be a better fit for me personally, I reckon there’s at least two or three more absolute classic-filled NEOGEO compilations still to come on Evercade!  

Just a couple of quick updates to wrap-up with… Not sure my stubbornness exactly paid off, but I finally beat stupid, clunky, janky Silent Hill: Homecoming (more here) as well… Actually, the last ninety minutes or so were pretty good, like they suddenly remembered what makes the series tick. Relatively speaking! And as alluded to at the start, I’ve also got the new Activision Collection 3 for Evercade on the go, which includes another thirteen ancient Atari 2600 titles like Chopper Command, Keystone Kapers and Kaboom! Perhaps not the best of the three compilations in the series but I’m having a great time with it all the same, and I’ll have a full review in a similar style to the one you’ve just read right here next Sunday! In the meantime, have a good week ahead, and I’ll see you then!

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