What was THEEE first Neo game you ever played, MVS/AES

[NeoSneth]

magician lord
king of monsters
or SS

not sure which, but they were all pretty close.

 

[Jarofmayo]

Very first was Bust a Move, then Mutation Nation, then one of the Samurai Showdown games.

 

[GutsDozer]

SamSho, Puzzle Bobble, KOF 94

 

[SignOfGoob]

It’s just part of aging lol
As SNK continues to pull in new fans people our age will continue to become a minority in the hobby. This is actually a good thing since it means that SNK’s back-catalog is still appealing to newcomers the same way it drew us in 30+ years ago.

I’d hate to see the appeal of the Neo Geo remain niche and our hobby ends up with a primarily aging fanbase like model trains and Elvis collectibles.

The ACA rereleases did wonders for SNK’s bottom line a few short years ago and the addition of Terry Bogard to the Smash Bros. roster probably did more to introduce SNK to a new generation than all the PS2 collections combined. It’s all a good thing imho.

I have to say I’m kind of surprised at how well 80s/90s games have aged in the eyes of normal people. I didn’t think this would happen. My six year old loves Bonk and Yoshi’s Island and Super Sidekicks 3 as much as anyone ever did back in the day.

Also, there was sort of a “lost generation” when 2D almost died for 15-20 years. Anyone 25 today remembers the PS as an OG system but…most PS games look effing terrible and it’s actually the lower tech stuff that has prevailed. I’m sure FIFA 98 was more visually impressive at the time than Neo Geo Cup ‘98 but now that its 2021 I think most people would vastly prefer the Geo game.

In that way, some of these kids must feel like they lived through a gaming dark age, where all the best stuff was being sold at garage sales and the stores were only filled with SOCOM and Army Men and Halo and other stuff that’s green and terrible and the crappy Sony system they ran on broke constantly. If I grew up on Twisted Metal and then discovered Outrun when it was 30 years old…it would be blue sky city. Gamer acid, third eye opening shit.

 

[NeoSneth]

I have to say I’m kind of surprised at how well 80s/90s games have aged in the eyes of normal people. I didn’t think this would happen. My six year old loves Bonk and Yoshi’s Island and Super Sidekicks 3 as much as anyone ever did back in the day.

Also, there was sort of a “lost generation” when 2D almost died for 15-20 years. Anyone 25 today remembers the PS as an OG system but…most PS games look effing terrible and it’s actually the lower tech stuff that has prevailed. I’m sure FIFA 98 was more visually impressive at the time than Neo Geo Cup ‘98 but now that its 2021 I think most people would vastly prefer the Geo game.

In that way, some of these kids must feel like they lived through a gaming dark age, where all the best stuff was being sold at garage sales and the stores were only filled with SOCOM and Army Men and Halo and other stuff that’s green and terrible and the crappy Sony system they ran on broke constantly. If I grew up on Twisted Metal and then discovered Outrun when it was 30 years old…it would be blue sky city. Gamer acid, third eye opening shit.

I think it's because gameplay was still important in the old games. Modern 3d games are visually impressive, but the gameplay hasn't changed all that much. 2d games are still relevant and enjoyable. People are also inundated with awful mobile games with very loose controls compared to the old stuff.

 

[Burning Fight!!]

I first played Neo Gayo on a PS1 port of KOF, which will probably trigger a person who hates the only console you could play Raiden II on.

The arcade we had in town had mostly CPS based hardware. CAPCOM cab rental was good I suppose.

 

[sirlynxalot]

My first neo game I played was King of Fighters 94 at a hotel during a family road trip when I was in elementary school. The cabinet it was in had a marquee for King of Fighters 95 so at the time I thought it was KOF95, but down the line I determined I had played KOF 94 as I remembered what the stages looked like from that first play and compared my memories to the different games. I didn't know what a neo geo system was at that time, so I didn't know that I had played an MVS and that an MVS could provide multiple different games, I just knew that I played "King of Fighters" which was a dope name.

On that early play, I thought it was related to Street Fighter II and figured Ken Kaphwan was Ryu. I was amazed with the quantity of characters that were on the choose select menu and I chose the Korea team just because Chang and Choi had weapons.

 

[TMOSteel]

MVS Magician Lord, led to getting my first Gold system in '91, with Magician Lord as the pack in game.

 

[evil wasabi]

I think it's because gameplay was still important in the old games. Modern 3d games are visually impressive, but the gameplay hasn't changed all that much. 2d games are still relevant and enjoyable. People are also inundated with awful mobile games with very loose controls compared to the old stuff.

Remember the motto of Tetris when it came out for the NES?
"Easy to learn. Impossible to master"

That easy to learn factor in gaming really helps a lot in making games fun and accessible. Games that require 10 buttons and haptics can be impossible, and are mostly sold through their own IP clout rather than the intrinsic good design of the game itself.

 

[Burning Fight!!]

Remember the motto of Tetris when it came out for the NES?
"Easy to learn. Impossible to master"

That easy to learn factor in gaming really helps a lot in making games fun and accessible. Games that require 10 buttons and haptics can be impossible, and are mostly sold through their own IP clout rather than the intrinsic good design of the game itself.

That's why a lot of modern games with budgets out of the ass take the moviegame approach, and modern game design school is all about being as easy and frustration free as possible without revealing to the player that yes, he's being coddled.

2D arcade games are tough as nails, so no wonder noobs tend to think about them as if they were just an unfair way to lose coins, but actually it's all engineered to remove new players quick while teasing that yes, getting gud is possible. It's the complete opposite of today, make it as hard and frustrating as possible WITHOUT killing the player's will to proceed a bit more on the next quarter. And non-arcade games usually followed that school of game design, especially in US versions of games where they had to counteract rental clears. Easy to learn, hard (but not impossible) to master sounds about right and I wish more games today followed this principle.

*Of course I'm commenting about the good arcade games, not the ones that had softdip settings for "time until player gets scammed out of a quarter" or had overall too much of a greedy level design.

 

[evil wasabi]

Let’s be real - how hard is dr Mario really? Or Tetris?

now, how hard would they be if the system was rational - no frame rate skipping ludicrous speed; no ai basing its moves on your inputs; no handicaps.

I don’t know, 2D was never perfect.

I think now, with better AI and graphical ability, a 16 bit game could be challenging without cheating.

 

[SignOfGoob]

I think it's because gameplay was still important in the old games. Modern 3d games are visually impressive, but the gameplay hasn't changed all that much. 2d games are still relevant and enjoyable. People are also inundated with awful mobile games with very loose controls compared to the old stuff.

I think you may be overrating the past, like an oldies station that only plays what's still a hit 50 years later. There were some TERRIBLE games back in the day based on graphics that were then impressive, even in the 70s. Not everything was Night Driver or Ms Pac Man or Donkey Kong Junior...most of it wasn't. Every era has crap. FMV was decades ago (Dragon's Lair)...then it happened again (Sega CD)...and then did it again with polygons (QTEs) people love buying games that look better than they play, always have, they love licensed crap too. ET for 2600, Home Alone for SNES, Fantastic Four for Playstation. They love fads that look objectively terrible the second the hype passes, like Donkey Kong Country or Tekken 1. Do you like Super Street Fighter IIX? Well it came out the same year as Bloodstorm and tons of terrible terrible Jaguar games.

 

[HornheaDD]

I think you may be overrating the past, like an oldies station that only plays what's still a hit 50 years later. There were some TERRIBLE games back in the day based on graphics that were then impressive, even in the 70s. Not everything was Night Driver or Ms Pac Man or Donkey Kong Junior...most of it wasn't. Every era has crap. FMV was decades ago (Dragon's Lair)...then it happened again (Sega CD)...and then did it again with polygons (QTEs) people love buying games that look better than they play, always have, they love licensed crap too. ET for 2600, Home Alone for SNES, Fantastic Four for Playstation. They love fads that look objectively terrible the second the hype passes, like Donkey Kong Country or Tekken 1. Do you like Super Street Fighter IIX? Well it came out the same year as Bloodstorm and tons of terrible terrible Jaguar games.

HOLD UP.

Bloodstorm was awesome.

It was shit. But it was awesome lol

 

[NeoSneth]

I think you may be overrating the past, like an oldies station that only plays what's still a hit 50 years later. There were some TERRIBLE games back in the day based on graphics that were then impressive, even in the 70s. Not everything was Night Driver or Ms Pac Man or Donkey Kong Junior...most of it wasn't. Every era has crap. FMV was decades ago (Dragon's Lair)...then it happened again (Sega CD)...and then did it again with polygons (QTEs) people love buying games that look better than they play, always have, they love licensed crap too. ET for 2600, Home Alone for SNES, Fantastic Four for Playstation. They love fads that look objectively terrible the second the hype passes, like Donkey Kong Country or Tekken 1. Do you like Super Street Fighter IIX? Well it came out the same year as Bloodstorm and tons of terrible terrible Jaguar games.

right. because all those shitty games are the ones on NES classic and compilation packs.
no one equates 2D gameplay with FMV games.

 

[traveno]

MS1 at the local pizza shop. I was almost too short to even use the cab.

 

[wyo]

I can't remember this shit. Most of these stories are probably made up. At least, I hope they are because such memories should have faded by now and been replaced by ones that matter, like having a kid, getting married, banging chicks on different continents, narrowly avoiding death or jail, or moving out of your parents' house (not necessarily in that order).

 

[SignOfGoob]

right. because all those shitty games are the ones on NES classic and compilation packs.
no one equates 2D gameplay with FMV games.

That’s exactly my point. I was mentioning how surprised I was that my kid, and many other kids today really, like old stuff. Saying that game producers in the past were totally focused on good gameplay wouldn’t be the truth at all…but if you only played a NES classic you’d be getting a rose tinted view of the past. Games overall are probably better now gameplay-wise than ever except for the AAA+ stuff. There are enough cookie cutter indie games on the Switch store to last a lifetime and basically any of them are better than Karnov or JJ & Jeff. Stuff like Ikari on NES just doesn’t exist now (Virtual Console releases of this “classic” title aside). If you made a bad NES game you could hide it in a box and protects it with a “no returns” policy but now if you tried to make something as bad as that (which today Nintendo wouldn’t publish) it starts getting one star reviews from every single person who tries and it sells super bad.

Dragons Lair and even worse FMV games (Night Trap, Mad Dog) have also been ported and re-released pretty non-stop since release so their popularity seems eternal as well.

 

[LoneSage]

but now if you tried to make something as bad as that (which today Nintendo wouldn’t publish) it starts getting one star reviews from every single person who tries and it sells super bad.

I've been out of modern gaming for 10+ years but Wii shovelware was a thing. I wonder if shovelware still exists.

 

[SignOfGoob]

I think the phone market has that mostly tied up these days, pay to play, $0.99 games, etc with Android being slightly worse than iOS due to the "free" games sometimes being loaded with malware. I don't think too many devs are wasting PS5 sized budgets on stuff that is garbage on purpose. I don't know because I'm so checked out I can't even describe what a PS5 looks like. Presumably Steam is shovelware ready.

 

[Fritz]

First I played in the arcade was World Heroes. First I played on the AES was Metal Slug 4.

 

[GohanX]

I clearly remember playing the original Fatal Fury on a cab in a bowling alley. It couldn't have been long after release, since I remember liking it more than Street Fighter 2 due to the simpler controls. I also remember Michael Max beating my monkey ass.

 

[Syn]

Only one arcade had a Neo cabinet and I played one of the Slugs.

 

[NexusX]

To the best of my memory it was Fatal Fury 2.

 

[gameofyou]

I think the first AES game I owned & played was either Magician Lord or Samurai Shodown 2.

 

[SouthtownKid]

First MVS game I ever played was either Magician Lord or League Bowling.

First AES game was probably Super Spy.