Honestly, I feel like they go hand in hand. SNK had amazing/fun games like Ikari 1/2, Guerilla War, POW, etc. Good shit before the Neo.
But that Neo, man. Up until 1999 (which seemed like a LONG time from 1991 at the time) the Neo was 100% out of reach for me. So it was sort of a holy grail.
Love the old games, but if I had to choose one -Neo.