Neo Geo games you just don't rate

[Yamazaki]

Did they ever do an official OST release for MSX? I know there was one for 2.

it should be a part of the Metal Slug OSTcomplete CD box that came out almost 20 years ago.

 

[yagamikun]

I suppose it's sometimes easy to lose sight of the fact that the Neo Geo is an arcade platform, and essentially the AES console was a glorified supergun.

But interestingly, I bet if we looked back at the PlayStation's library, there's probably only a fraction of games that we'd individually consider still worthwhile.

I think the Dreamcast is particularly bad offender... I think I have less than 10 games for it, makes me wonder why I even bother. The rest of the library is either done better elsewhere (PS2, Neo Geo etc.) or isn't worth it.

If you take collecting (owning for the sake of owning) out of the equation and went on games you truly loved playing, irrespective of what others think, I bet we'd all end up with some fairly anorexic libraries.

This is exactly what I did to my library last year - all individual console sets are less than 25 games aside from my Neo (45) and NES/Famicom (80). Just the games that I know I want to keep around for a good while longer. Some of these sets have become pretty anorexic compared to what they were, but worth keeping around...for now at least.

 

[Stefan]

The Genesis and SNES both use a unified cartridge bus design, where all engine code, graphics and sound have to go through the CPU at some point. Yes both have some sort of DMA function for graphics and/or sound, but always the option for software rendering or manipulation of graphics is always there. It is also possible to add more hardware onto the cartridge bus, like the Genesis SVP chip or the SNES SuperFX chip. For the Neo Geo, even if one had a connection between the PROG and CHA cartridge boards plus a processor or SOC to do graphics rendering, it's still hard to say for sure if the Neo Geo could do a Starfox or Doom type game. Plus, the Genesis and SNES have way more flexible video modes available to them, the Neo Geo is quite limited.

 

[NeoSeeD]

It's not quite on topic, but one of my pet peeves is with the Metal Slug series. The P.O.W. characters are all the same blonde sprite across the entire series. Would it have hurt the various teams to at least have different colored hair for the P.O.W.'s depending on what power up they would give you? For example, red hair P.O.W. = flame shot, blue hair = laser, Silver = enemy chaser, etc. It shouldn't have really needed much ROM space to differentiate the P.O.W's by palette swapping their hair and clothing colors.

Maybe a ROM hacker will see this and try implementing this one day.

 

[Fygee]

I guess they could have, but the fact that they're all identical is part of the charm.

Plus it makes it more of a surprise when they drop the item. You don't know if you're going to end up with a Frog and a small amount of points or a Super Shotgun. It incentivizes you to try and get all the POWs, instead of just going after ones you know will have a spiffy item and ignoring the rest unless you're going for a high score.

 

[Tarma]

It's not quite on topic, but one of my pet peeves is with the Metal Slug series. The P.O.W. characters are all the same blonde sprite across the entire series. Would it have hurt the various teams to at least have different colored hair for the P.O.W.'s depending on what power up they would give you? For example, red hair P.O.W. = flame shot, blue hair = laser, Silver = enemy chaser, etc. It shouldn't have really needed much ROM space to differentiate the P.O.W's by palette swapping their hair and clothing colors.

Maybe a ROM hacker will see this and try implementing this one day.

In the grand scheme of things, while I understand your criticism, the mechanics of it makes no difference to the gameplay.

First, the precedent for having all the POWs the same sprite was set by Gunforce II where they're all the same sprite (a cheerleader?).

Second, the POWs are a scoring mechanic - they don't drive the game a long, only your score. You can complete all the Metal Slug games having saved none of the POWs. Albeit this strategy will come at a huge tactical cost!

Third, there are changes in the POWs/hostages/people to be rescued for points from MS2 onward, particularly evident in 3 & 4... probably 5 as well, but who cares about that game, it was never finished.

I think it would have been a really cool feature to have had Hyakutaro Ichimonji wear a red headband as a nod to Ryu from SFII. But other than that... meh.

 

[city41]

The P.O.W. characters are all the same blonde sprite across the entire series

Yeah, but the soldiers are all identical too. Really they're just "game pieces".

But yeah, the pow sticks out more in this regard.

 

[NeoSeeD]

I think it would have been a really cool feature to have had Hyakutaro Ichimonji wear a red headband as a nod to Ryu from SFII.

This is something that I've actually thought about myself. It would have been a fantastic touch. Other than that, you're right that the palette swaps wouldn't make a huge difference in gameplay but it would have been a nice touch IMO. After all, as the series went on, more of the same sprites were copy/pasted/reused.

Yeah, but the soldiers are all identical too. Really they're just "game pieces".

But yeah, the pow sticks out more in this regard.

The soldiers don't bother me since they're meant to be generic fodder like the foot soldiers in TMNT. They also have tons of different animations and costumes so it's not quite as repetitive. Differentiating the P.O.W.'s would just have been a nice touch, especially since they bothered to name them.

 

[2Heed]

Nah, it's super easy to cheese.

Performing a special move while jumping cancels the jump, bringing you to ground level to immediately do the special.

I've never seen anything like it.

Plus, it also had the 2v1 system when a second player joined in. For its time, that was a standout feature.

FF1 is just one of those titles you had to experience in an arcade for its time. Seeing Tung Fu Rue transform mid-fight, the background transitions (specifically the thunder and rain in his stage), and friggin' Raiden, who utterly dwarfed your character (more so than any of his subsequent appearances), was a sight to behold back in the day.

 

[vaillian]

MS3 - enough was talked about this elsewhere here

The Kof series from a value proposition as a collector - Too many reused sprites. Realistically you would be better off just getting one KOF game, there so many other individual fighting games you can spent your money on. Also it consumed all the resources of SNK at the time, all of the sudden Art Fighting was dead and the lack of new IPs after the series became a big hit.

Neo Turf Masters - I dont know its just the ultimate normie game on the Neo Geo, just very overrated for a sports game. Too difficult for a sports game as well, or maybe the game is just too depended on having no input lag. I had no problem to beat all the football games or Stakes winners 1 and Streep Hoop on the Neo Geo whatsoever.

 

[FTL]

I suppose it's sometimes easy to lose sight of the fact that the Neo Geo is an arcade platform, and essentially the AES console was a glorified supergun.

truer words were never spoken

 

[BeefJerky]

Neo Turf Masters - I dont know its just the ultimate normie game on the Neo Geo, just very overrated for a sports game. Too difficult for a sports game as well, or maybe the game is just too depended on having no input lag. I had no problem to beat all the football games or Stakes winners 1 and Streep Hoop on the Neo Geo whatsoever.

 

[Fygee]

MS3 - enough was talked about this elsewhere here

The Kof series from a value proposition as a collector - Too many reused sprites. Realistically you would be better off just getting one KOF game, there so many other individual fighting games you can spent your money on. Also it consumed all the resources of SNK at the time, all of the sudden Art Fighting was dead and the lack of new IPs after the series became a big hit.

Neo Turf Masters - I dont know its just the ultimate normie game on the Neo Geo, just very overrated for a sports game. Too difficult for a sports game as well, or maybe the game is just too depended on having no input lag. I had no problem to beat all the football games or Stakes winners 1 and Streep Hoop on the Neo Geo whatsoever.

The hottest of takes. Don't be surprised if you get dragged for any or all of those.

 

[douglas]

MS3 - enough was talked about this elsewhere here

The Kof series from a value proposition as a collector - Too many reused sprites. Realistically you would be better off just getting one KOF game, there so many other individual fighting games you can spent your money on. Also it consumed all the resources of SNK at the time, all of the sudden Art Fighting was dead and the lack of new IPs after the series became a big hit.

Neo Turf Masters - I dont know its just the ultimate normie game on the Neo Geo, just very overrated for a sports game. Too difficult for a sports game as well, or maybe the game is just too depended on having no input lag. I had no problem to beat all the football games or Stakes winners 1 and Streep Hoop on the Neo Geo whatsoever.

bro hates all the good games

 

[city41]

MS3 - enough was talked about this elsewhere here

The Kof series from a value proposition as a collector - Too many reused sprites. Realistically you would be better off just getting one KOF game, there so many other individual fighting games you can spent your money on. Also it consumed all the resources of SNK at the time, all of the sudden Art Fighting was dead and the lack of new IPs after the series became a big hit.

Neo Turf Masters - I dont know its just the ultimate normie game on the Neo Geo, just very overrated for a sports game. Too difficult for a sports game as well, or maybe the game is just too depended on having no input lag. I had no problem to beat all the football games or Stakes winners 1 and Streep Hoop on the Neo Geo whatsoever.

I agree with all of these takes. It's totally true that once SNK saw KOF was a cash cow they went straight for the teets. At least KOF in general is still anywhere from pretty good to great.

I've always felt NTM is an amazing game technically and visually, but never really dug the gameplay.

 

[Takumaji]

The Kof series from a value proposition as a collector - Too many reused sprites. Realistically you would be better off just getting one KOF game, there so many other individual fighting games you can spent your money on. Also it consumed all the resources of SNK at the time, all of the sudden Art Fighting was dead and the lack of new IPs after the series became a big hit.

I was about to type out a two-page essay about why I think your assessment is utterly wrong but lost interest halfway through. So just this: No two KoFs play the same. That, the depth of their respective engines and the popularity of the tournament aspect should tell you that you're way off the mark here.

 

[yagamikun]

The Kof series from a value proposition as a collector - Too many reused sprites. Realistically you would be better off just getting one KOF game, there so many other individual fighting games you can spent your money on. Also it consumed all the resources of SNK at the time, all of the sudden Art Fighting was dead and the lack of new IPs after the series became a big hit.

You're blaming KOF's success for the lack of new fighting game IP??? That's a bit short sighted, man.

By 1996 the entire market was heavily oversaturated with 2D fighting games and the 3D movement had taken both arcades and the home by storm. 2D fighters just weren't selling like they used to years prior. KOF was popular, it was a sure-fire money maker. From a business perspective, it just made logical sense to release a new one each year as they were still selling well.

In the three years between 1997 - 2000 we saw SNK launch Last Blade 1 and 2, develop, launch, and market the Hyper 64 hardware and over 7 games (which never did turn a profit), MOTW, Real Bout 2, three Metal Slug games, multiple shmups, Shock-fucking-Troopers 1 AND 2, and marketed and launched an entire handheld console line of hardware and games worldwide...

Developing new hardware costs lots of money. Teaching 2D programmers and artists to now make shit in 3D cost lots of money. Developing, launching, and marketing a handheld console to compete with Nintendo of all companies costs lots of money...

 

[Neo Alec]

My roommate in college who wasn't much of a gamer said that the KOF yearly installments aren't different enough, just like each year's release of Madden. This was right before KOF 2K1 was out. I corrected him, but didn't bother trying to convince him any further. He didn't know anything about it.