Then you have people like me, who either lost all their quarters in Mortal Kombat II or NBA Jam whenever they would stumble in an arcade, or simply didn’t know anyone with a Neo Geo. I’ve tried my hand at some King of Fighters in my time, and Metal Slug is an essential part of the gaming curriculum, but the other fourteen titles included in this collection are new to me. Current standards, such as length of playtime and visual prowess, are irrelevant to this collection. Ultimately, everything comes down to one basic question; is this fun for more than five minutes? With a wide variety of genres represented, surely there are a handful of diamonds in the rough…
Too Dimensional
The genre with the greatest number of delegates appears to be SNK’s calling card; 2D fighters. King of the Fighters ’94 is an aforementioned classic. The three man team system set a precedent for such games as Marvel vs Capcom 2 and Xmen vs Street Fighter, and the art design and detailed sprites (hellooo Mai) were noticeable more impressive than Capcom’s contemporary offerings. Sure, it was surpassed every year in subsequent versions, but KoF’s system is remarkably well refined for its first outing.
Of course, it owes much of its quality to SNK’s previous stabs at 2D fighters. Fatal Fury, Art of Fighting, and Samurai Shodown are also a part of this collection and their transition to 2008 doesn’t seem to go over quite as well. I realize Terry Bogard is an iconic delegate of 2D fighters, but, having never spent time with Fatal Fury back in the day, his game of choice did absolutely nothing for me. Sure, I mean, I can throw out quarter circles at AI all day, but, beyond some inherent mechanics, I don’t see the modern day appeal. I realize that’s grounds for crucifixion amongst the hardcore fanbase, but I’m fairly confident they’re not the majority (and they don’t know where I live).
Another fighter, and a serious break from the insomnia curing 2D monotony of this collection, is King of Monsters. Sort of a precursor to Incognito’s 2003, War of the Monsters, KoM plays like a combination of Street Fighter and Rampage. After selecting a clearly-ripped-off-but-still-hilarious member of the Godzilla School of Skyscraper Destroyers, you’re pitted against another mega life form and charged with the task of beating the crap out of them all over a city. The Y axis receives a roll here, so you’ll often find yourself getting kick all over the city as you knock buildings down and pummel your opponent. It’s fairly mindless, but it’s a nice change of pace.
Roads of Aggression
The Beat ‘Em Up genre also has decent representation with Burning Fight and Sengoku. Neither evolve beyond the standard formula of “kill these guys, find a weapon, kill more guys until they die from it, kill boss” design, but at least Sengoku has a moderately entertaining atmosphere to go along with it. An odd thing started to happen during Burning Fight; I had a space/time error and thought I was in my parent’s basement blasting through Streets of Rage 2. I wouldn’t exactly say that SNK saw the success of other established franchise and tried to ride their coat tails, but Burning Fight (another other titles in this collection) do kind of have a “me too” feel. They’re not necessarily poor titles, but they’re a been there, done that game when most everyone else already went there and did that with a different game over a decade ago.
A generous helping of sports titles is also provided, with Baseball Stars 2, Super Side Kicks 3, and Neo Turf Masters representing baseball, soccer, and golf respectively. At their core, they conventional, rule abiding sports games without too much in the way of extraneous flair. Controlling the defense in Baseball Stars is a little nerve wracking and the seemingly arbitrary swing meter in Turf Masters is less than perfect, but any of these titles would do well for a short but of fun on the go. Just don’t go in expecting a sim on par with any of EA’s current offerings.
Slugging Metal, Hunting Tops
Probably the cream of SNK’s crop, 2D adventure games are here in full force with Metal Slug, Top Hunter: Roddy and Cathy, and Magician Lord. Combining the best parts of early Contra games with the titular Metal Slug mecha influence, Metal Slug is an established hallmark of gaming. It’s fast paced and hard as hell, but its panic inducing onslaught of bullets and bad guys is still just as intense as it was ten years ago. Another title or two from the series would have been nice, but I suppose SNK Playmore would prefer you to go all out and get the full Metal Slug Anthology for the complete experience.
Top Hunter was the most surprisingly satisfying title of the entire collection. It takes Metal Slug’s run and gun template and adds a few twists to the formula. First of all, you’re granted the option to jump in and out of the foreground and, while seemingly simplistic, really adds to the depth and long term enjoyment of the levels. Another cool option is some Ristar-like super extending arms, allowing your character to grab things or punch a guy all the way on the other side of the screen. Mix these two mechanics into traditional Metal Slug action and you wind up with a significantly different and, most importantly, fun game. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for Magician Lord, which is about as primitive as side scrolling adventure games can get.
Rounding out the collection is a semi-related pair of shooters. Shock Trooper is an on-foot, blast everything to hell top down run and gun. It’s fun, and it has some unique player switch mechanics and semi interesting level design, but the repetitive enemies and generic art design don’t exactly lead to long term play sessions. Last Resort, a by-the-book Lifeforce clone, is a competent horizontal shooter. Charging up some of the powerups is a nice touch and watching bodies fly out of downed ships is entertaining, but it’s all incredibly derivative. Not that there’s anything wrong with that; it’s really hard to screw up a horizontal shooter, and Last Resort can certainly stand on its own two feet.
As with Metal Slug Collection, every game in SNK Arcade Classics is a direct port from its original code. All games have received a pixel perfect emulation on the PSP, but they also inherited all of the original slowdown that plagued art-heavy sprite based games of the 90’s. I’m pretty sure the PSP has slightly more horsepower than arcade boards from yesteryear, and it’s really a shame that some of these titles weren’t tweaked to take advantage of the additional power. It may be easy to overlook such obstacles on your own, but in the two player modes, which is triumphantly offered for most games via ad-hoc, the slowdown devolves into an absolute sin. Most, if not all, of these games are significantly more fun with a friend along, but the slowdown sort of cancels out the additional glee. As a result most everything feels gimped and not quite up to its potential glory.
Gamers Score
One nice bonus is the newly added “Goals” for each and every game. Every title has five to ten goals, not unlike the 360’s Achievements, for your completionist pleasure. Most of the goals are involve beating a game on a specific difficulty level or killing off a certain boss in a set amount of time, but there are few unique tasks (such as not using knives or handguns in Metal Slug) thrown into the mix as well. Completing a goal usually opens up artwork, videos, or move lists for another game in the collection. Most, if not all of these, are probably readily available on the internet, but hey, it’s nice to have some bonus unlockables thrown in the collection.
