Essential five?

[ericb]

I'm just getting into the AES scene, and I currently have AOF2 and SS1, and that's it. I'm looking to pick up some more carts with my forthcoming christmas money, so any help would be appreciated.

I'm looking for what you guys think would be the best five carts for under $100 each. I'm not specificially a fan of any genre in particular, so yeah, anything goes. I'm eyeing FF Special and FF3 right now... any other suggestions?

 

[Cassius]

SS2

 

[Kiel]

SS2
Leauge Bowling
Baseball Stars 2
Magician Lord
KOF 98 (for just a little more than $100)

 

[ericb]

SS2
Leauge Bowling
Baseball Stars 2
Magician Lord
KOF 98 (for just a little more than $100)

Wow, League Bowling? Really? I would have never thought... I haven't played it, but it's really worth it, hey?

Yeah, SS2 is a real must, and KOF98 is also good stuff... I'm a little on the broke side right now, though, so I think I won't be able to pick up KOF until the new year some time.

 

[Dallas_Five]

i think this has been done before, but it's worth repeating. A lot of people look upon owning an AES as an expensive collector's hobby (and it easily can be), but there are plenty of awesome games for under $50, and if you bump it up to $100, well then...

1. SAMURAI FUCKING SPIRITS 2. Always on the top of the heap for "budget" neo games and with good reason. If i had to pay $200 for it i would.

2. Magician Lord. A lot to keep you occupied: attack pattern memorization, high difficulty, cool transformations. Plus the awesome voice samples, LOL.

3. Fatal Fury Special. Wow! What a tough.

4. Sengoku Densho 2. Might be more difficult to find for under $100 but it's the best beat-em-up on the system IMO.

5. King of Monsters. Grappling fun, much better 2P (like most neo games).

All JPN of course. If you don't dig fighters as much, you could always replace FFS with Dunk Dreams, League Bowling, Nam 1975, or even Ghost Pilots.

 

[Kiel]

4. Sengoku Densho 2. Might be more difficult to find for under $100 but it's the best beat-em-up on the system IMO.

Sengoku 2 is the shit. I still gotta get it.

More than $100 though.

 

[SouthtownKid]

FFS is, for me, the #1 must have Neo game of all time.

After that, I guess I'd try to find a Real Bout 2 (JP). I'm not really familiar with AES prices, but you probably won't find it for $100. You might be able to find RBFF for around that, though...another great game.

King of Fighters '94 is a great old style game...been having a lot of fun with it lately, and it's cheap.

KOF '96 is another great one that I think you can get for under a hundred.

But I think if I had $500, instead of buying 5 moderately cheap AES games, I'd put the money towards a MVS set up, and enjoy all cheap games from then on. Games like Kizuna: $500 on AES or $40 MVS...your choice. Last Blade: $120 AES or $45 MVS... Mark of the Wolves: $300 or $45... etc., etc. You could even use the controlers you have now.

I recently bought Savage Reign on MVS. It's okay, but I'm not really crazy about it yet. But for $40, no big loss. If I'd paid $100+...well, I probably wouldn't have risked that much on a game I didn't know, so I never would have had the chance to try it.

Anyhow, sorry for the off-topic MVS setup commercial.

 

[Ackula]

Art of Fighting 1 + 2 both under $100 and pretty damn fun for an old school fighter. As some others have said..definatly Samurai Spirits 2. Magician Lord, Fatal Fury Special, KOF 96, 95, 94..all cheapies under $100.

I'd suggest springing about $20 more for Real Bout Special ..usually goes around $120 - $130...awesome game imo..one of the best.

 

[Electroman]

Top 5 starter games that can be had for < $100 ea:
Cyber-lip (a poor man's Metal Slug; its still fun, esp with 2P. Good music too)
Last Resort (best shooter for the money. You gotta have one in your collection)
Magician Lord (classic action/adv game, another must have)
Nam 1975 (SNK's roots as a military gaming software house)
SS 2 (simply a must have)

 

[Neo Bomber Man]

Nam 1975
Cheap, easily available, loads of fun, good difficulty/challenge, great experience, and simply a totally awesome game. Under $40 new.

Magician Lord
Now this is just the reason graphics mattered. Compare it to say Super Mario 2, the next best thing at the time... Anyhow, great visuals, awesome music & atmosphere, evil challenge, lots of pattern memorization required as was stated, shape-changing which certainly adds new dimensions to trying to beat the game, and overall presentation that will make you a fan for life. Under $40 new, perhaps still, not entirely sure.

Samurai Shodown II
Personally I don't like it that much. In spite of that I recommend it -most people love it and as a fighter it has a hell of a lot to offer, particularly for a 1994 game. $45 new, cheaper used. Otherwise I would say go with either Sengoku 1 or 2. I somewhat prefer 2 though both are great.

Fatal Fury 3/Real Bout Fatal Fury
FF3: SNK SNK SNK. The game reeks of SNK to the very core. It's got personality. The learning curve is unsuspectingly high so you might actually spend quite a while with it. Once you learn how to play it properly you will enjoy it even more. It's also got the bonuses of hidden bosses you can only reach if you play skillfully enough and it introduced hidden SDM's. $60 and under, generally.
RBFF: It's FF3 to the next level however it's tournament fighting and hasn't got all the personalization of FF3. In any case it's also got great storyline, more fighters, an enhanced fighting system over FF3, ring-outs and more great stuff. $80 tops I would say. My only comment is that I suggest you get the FF or any series in chronological order so you don't spoil all the storylines for yourself, if you don't already know them.

The King of Fighters '94
Pretty cheap, VERY fun, and another game with a lot of SNK feel to it. Again I suggest you start with the beginning of the series. This game has a lot more to it than most people realize. You can pretty much always get it for under $50. Of course I also recommend any of the series up to '98, '97 especially.

 

[ericb]

Thanks everyone, those suggestions are great. Most of the titles mentioned were ones that I had in the back of my mind, but this just confirmed my beliefs. I have experience with some of the games from my arcade past, and of course from ports. I'm a big FF fan, so I'm thinking that I'll complete that series before any other... they're a hell of a lot of fun, and although I haven't had the pleasure of playing FFS yet, I've heard great things about it, so I'm looking forward to playing it.

On that note, story-wise, is FFS a side-story, or does it fit in between FF2 and FF3?

 

[Dallas_Five]

On that note, story-wise, is FFS a side-story, or does it fit in between FF2 and FF3?

i don't think it really has a story at all...

 

[ericb]

i don't think it really has a story at all...

That's what I was expecting, thanks.

 

[were8kosh]

keep an eye out. as you might have notice theres been a HUGE amount of new old stock thats been flooding the market. i seen them like 2 months ago selling brand new still sealed for 39.99 now since so much came out i been seeing the prices drop to 29.99 and lower. like ghost pilots(ero an dogtag) ,baseball stars,super sidekicks2,nam1975,and like 10-15 other games. most the games were never really that high of price to start with but its always cool to get mint sealed games

 

[Neo Bomber Man]

i don't think it really has a story at all...

Who needs story with a super secret final battle!

 

[kernow]

SS1
SS2
SS3
RBFF
KOF98

that'd keep you going a long time, if you liked fighters

 

[TrueTrials]

I got these 5 games with my AES when I bought it:

Fatal Fury 2
Art of Fighting 2
Fatal Fury Special
Samurai Showdown
Samurai Showdown 2

I was happy with those for starter titles!

Since then (2 days ago) I've bought Ghost Pilots (I'd say its a must have) King of Fighters '97 (Love this too ) and Alpha Mission 2 (looks pretty sweet also).

 

[Ralfakick]

I like Aerofighters 2 for about $100. It's mindless fun for a while

 

[WGolly]

all can be found for well under $100 and will provide you with many hours of fun...

1.kof '95 or '98
2.baseball stars 2
3.samsho 2
4.nam 1975
5.real bout

 

[moonwhistle]

My recommendations would be:


Viewpoint
Samurai Showdown 1 / 2
Super Sidekicks 1
Real Bout
KOF 94

 

[ericb]

Thanks everyone, those suggestions are huge. I'm thinking these are going to be a couple of expensive months for me. Thanks again.

 

[galfordo]

Samurai Shodown II - Simply one of the greatest fighters of all time, still wonderful even after ten years. Worth its weight in gold, and an absolute steal for the measily $40 or so that it fetches.

Samurai Shodown III - Although I wasn't big on this one initially, it grew on me in a big way. Brutal yet terrific AI, wonderful atmosphere, and a really deep fighting engine make this many people's favorite of the entire series. Although the US AES version can be pretty pricey, the JPN version can be had for around 70 bucks.

Basball Stars 2 - Mindless SNK fun at it's best. Pop it in, beat the computer 43-0, and still enjoy the hell out of every single inning. Great fun with friends also.

League Bowling - Another great sports title from SNK. This one weighs in at only 26 megs, but it loaded with personality and basically never gets old.

King of Fighters '94 - A classic fighter that is probably overlooked for the more recent KOF's, sadly. Anyway, it's easy to see how the KOF series took off, with an initial offering like this one. VERY solid gameplay, some really great background music, and some great backgrounds make this one a must-have IMO.

 

[ttooddddyy]

dump the home system and get some afordable mvs games.
Start with MS1

 

[ericb]

I got a question about League Bowling...

I managed to track down an arcade in my city here that has it running (well, I discovered it by mistake to be truthful), and it was good fun, but a quick search on eBay and JGN showed little results... I believe JGN has a carton-box copy, but that's not important to me. My question is, is the game generally pretty easy to find for the AES? I really would like to pick it up - regardless of region, really - but I'm just wondering if maybe it's just a strange time where there aren't too many for sale copies floating around...

 

[omnedon]

dump the home system and get some afordable mvs games.

Or keep the home system, and get a Phantom-1. I play MS1,MSX, Last Blade, and Garou MOTW regularly on my AES. Not a single one of those games cost me more than $80.

Even if you eneded up being one of those wth scaling issues with your AES and Phantom, that only effects scaling games, Like the SS series (many cheap on AES anyway - then so what?), Last Blade, Waku Waku 7. The Big money AES games like Garou and Metal Slug are very likely to work very well on any AES.

My top 5 so far (there are many more I want to try):

SS1
SS2
SSVS unfixed (I know it's more than $100 but it rawcks!!!)
Magician Lord
Nam 75