Nearly posted this in the Xbox One thread but looks like these games have been released on PS4 and Switch as well, so I’d like to open it up to the games in general. Looks like a bunch of these games are being released, and as best I can tell all are priced at $7.99. I wouldn’t pay too much attention but several of them are scrolling shooters (shmups, if you must) and I’m highly interested in those. But there’s a bunch of brawlers too, some sports, and Metal Slug as well. But I can’t find too much info online, so I’m just curious if anyone’s tried them out, can tell us how they hold up, if they seem like worthwhile purchases, what have you! I’d love to hear more.
I can’t speak for those emulated versions, but NeoGeo games made (and still make, in my opinion) for fun multiplayer experiences. I especially like the earlier titles, with their cheap, early 90s arcadey looks, before the medium went for anime madness. I’d argue for Art of Fighting to be one of the most accessible and best RTS around (and it’s asymmetric, on top of it!) - but as any good RTS, you need a good rival to enjoy it most.
As single player experiences, as is often the case with coin-op games, I find their interest mostly limited though.
Disclaimer: I haven’t ever played a NeoGeo shoot’em up, excepting for some horrible Zaxxon wannabe with a terrible soundtrack.
The PS4/XB1/Switch releases are apparently excellent. Hamster’s done a great job with selecting games for their Arcade Archives releases in general, and unlike DotEmu’s garbage releases (which are sadly all you can buy on PC), they’re about as arcade-accurate as you’re going to get without buying an MVS and cartridges.
There are some good NeoGeo games on Steam- the KOF games that hit Steam are all good ports, and the best versions of those games.
The most accurate is of course Fightcade, but that’s a can of worms because it involves stuff that isn’t 100% legal.
And I’ve never heard of Art of Fighting referred to as an RTS. I want a Haohshoken turret now.
I shouldn’t even post in this thread after Viewpoint was called a Zaxxon wannabe with a terrible soundtrack…
I own a Neo Geo AES home console and a friend has an MVS with an extensive collection, so my opinion is always colored by having played many of the original games on original hardware. That said, these are better quality emulation than many of the past releases so they’re worth your time, especially if you have never played the games at all.
I went looking for this but I think you’re talking about fighting games, right?
Sure, why not. Lots of brawling in fighting games right?
Fighting games and “brawlers” are two different genres. In brawlers, or more often… beat 'em ups… you’re fighting multiple computer enemies at a time in a game that scrolls left, right, up, down, or sometimes isometrically. Usually you can do this cooperatively. Staples would be Streets of Rage, Final Fight, or on Neo Geo, games like Sengoku, Robo Army, and Mutation Nation.
Fighting games are a one on one fighter with either computer or human opponents. 2D ones usually keep both fighters on a single plane (although the Neo has Fatal Fury which can go up to three different “lines” you can switch between) while 3D ones allow for movement in all directions but still with a default focus on two fighters facing one another.
I don’t know anything about any of those games, just going off descriptions I’ve seen on other websites. I’m mainly interested in the scrolling shooters myself.
Regardless, using “brawler” to casually refer to fighting games is like using “shmup” to casually refer to first-person shooters.
And @Alstein, none of the good Steam KoF releases are actually Neo Geo games! Remember, the UM games were remakes on much newer hardware.
Hey, anyone wants to jump in here and critique the fighting games or start a dissertation on brawlers, I say go nuts. It’s a big tent kind of thread. I personally could give a shit about fighting games or brawlers, so my point of view is angled toward the shooters. I’m not hearing any opinions on them though, so I’m thinking I may need to throw eight bucks at one or more of them and just find out for myself.
Blazing Star is the best shmup on the Neo George, IMHO. Fast paced, very Thunder Force IVsh. Pulsar, the prequel (but a very different game, an r-type clone) is good too.
And then you have Twinkle Star Sprites, which is novel enough to warrant a look.
Looks like Blazing Star had been released for Switch but not yet XB1 or PS4, as best I can tell. I can find Last Resort and Alpha Mission II on the Xbox marketplace so far - kind of want to check those out.
Last Resort is excellent and has an R-Type pedigree. It’s one of the best Neo Geo shooters.
Blazing Star is very good, but it does feel a little bit like someone aping R-Type’s design and it uses a rendered pixel graphics look that (for me) isn’t as pretty as the hand drawn stuff.
For shooters on the Neo, I’m also a fan of Ghost Pilots, Alpha Mission II, Pulstar (also rendered, but a better game than Blazing Star), Andro Dunos, and of course, VIEWPOINT, which is an incredible looking, playing and sounding isometric shooter that IMO is one of a kind. Love it.
The two Aero Fighters games are also solid. Shooting is not as prolific on the Geo as fighting, but it was one of the reasons I wanted a home console.
Aero Fighters 3 is very sad now.
I bought KOF 98’ just to have another game on the Switch, and I know that the game is remembered as one of the classics.
It is pretty cool so far, the buttons don’t work super well for a fighting game, but for a fun 8 dollar distraction, it is pretty cool.
2 and 3 are the only two on the Geo so I wasn’t putting that down at all!
It’s been 27 years since the Neo Geo first appeared as of a week ago and with these Arcade Archives releases and the anniversary I went and dusted off my Neo tonight. Started with A and played Alpha Mission II and Art of Fighting. Both feel so awesome with those old Neo Geo joysticks. I fell in love all over again. The Neo Geo jingle when you turn on a cartridge game just can’t be beat. I get revved up every damn time.
Alpha Mission II is a pretty deep shooter with a lot of great action. It really doesn’t feel dated either thanks to the power up design and the way each level presents interesting enemy types and patterns. It’s aged well.
Art of Fighting has too though, specifically as a single player fighting game with a bit of story and some super cool street thug and background design. Don’t forget about the spirit bar which makes every special move matter and taunting into a very important mechanic for success! And man, the music is still legendary and the sound design alongside visible visual pounding that the characters take makes AOF feel like a true one on one brawl.
I just love the Neo Geo. Everything about it feels so top level. Sure, it cost a fortune at the time, but it felt like you got what you paid for most of the time.
I’ve played the Steam/Windows re-releases and theyre pretty great. I play them regularly on MAME and FightCade and all of the ways of playing it are pretty interchangeable to me. The Steam/Windows versions are a little easier to pick up and get running than the alternatives though. Also legal.
I’ll be playing Neo Turf Masters and Dunk Dream til the day I die.
PS - If any of you Neo Geo fans want to nerd out, here’s a neat “review” of the Neo Geo library covering a lot of the quirkier titles as well as the classics.
That’s Pulstar, the game to which Blazing Star is a sequel to. Blazing Star is not-quite-a-bullet-hell (
It’s more a very fast paced score based shooter that feels very similar to Thunder Force IV), and I find it has little in common with R-type’s pacing or mechanics, while Pulstar is pretty much a clone.
And I’ll say it again. Twinkle Star Sprites is the most innovative shmup in the system, although being a versus shmup, it really benefits of having somebody to play against.