Bigger, Badder, Better - The POWER of the Neo Geo

[Music] thank you the origins of the Neo Geo can be traced all the way back to 1987 when SNK and Alpha denshi began using the Motorola 68000 in its arcade releases for the next few years they released the likes of time soldiers an overhead running gun similar to akari Warriors some of you may recognize this one since it was ported to the Sega Master System there was also Sky soldiers a vertically scrolling Shoot Em Up where you must travel through time to destroy an evil supercomputer gang wars a double dragon knuckle that looked and played halfway decent those original 68 000 designs were upgraded during this time with more processing power resulting in releases like akari Warriors 3 which had larger Sprites and more of them on the screen but in 1989 SNK had hired Takashi nishiyama to help develop a new arcade platform to raise the company's reputation among the elite in the industry that collaboration gave weight in 1990s Neo Geo snk's new 16-bit Powerhouse it came in two flavors the arcade only mvs or multi-video system and the Home console AES which stood for advanced Entertainment System both formats used interchangeable cartridges for their games though they were not directly compatible with one another and boy did they make some noise upon their release gaming magazines had advertisements that went directly after the competition proclaiming the Neo Geo the best thing ever games were advertised as true one-to-one arcade experiences and for the most part they really were the arcade Neo Geo often came with multiple game choices you could play while the home Neo Geo console was far more powerful than the offerings from Sega Nintendo and NEC the caveat was that in order to experience all that power and arcade goodness you had to Shell out an extreme amount of monies for the hardware and software the hardware was as much as 605 fifty dollars with games ranging from a hundred to two hundred and fifty dollars depending on the title this meant that Neo Geo was well out of my league and it would be many years before I had one of my own luckily the arcade MBS cabinet showed up in my area quite regular allowing me to play many of its titles and in this episode we are going to talk about some of the big releases during the life of the Neo Geo this Hardware was supported for roughly 14 years and we have a lot of software to go over so let's get started thank you when the Neo launched in 1990 it had a number of really interesting games baseball star's professional was a solid game that was easy to play it was a continuation of snk's baseball star series that had been available on the Nintendo entertainment system while the graphics won't win any awards the digitized speech was cool in the two-player versus mode was a blast if you wanted something to knock your socks off visually it was magician Lord you wanted to play this was a side-scrolling action title where you could transform into different Warriors while battling your way through a great looking fantasy world it was tough but looked great and was one of the very first games I played for the Neo Geo another release was NAMM 1975 a third person shooter where you controlled an on-screen Soldier battling across Vietnam to rescue an army scientist it had some great animations it featured two-player Co-op and it had a nice Dodge mechanic that deepened the gameplay quite a bit it's really tough but it's still great fun the super spy was a weird one it mixed an FPS with a first person beat em up resulting in a rather unique experience closest thing I can liken it too is dynamite Duke though this looked a whole lot better the massive character sprites in the Close Quarters combat definitely gave it a feel all its own especially in the Neo Geo Library cyber lip was SNK shot at the Run and Gun genre this one resembles Contra a bit and features two-player Co-op this one sticks out in my mind because the first time I saw that boss encounter I was absolutely blown away this may look simple today but back then an enemy that filled the screen was a really big deal league bowling was in damn near every neo-geo cabinet I saw back in the day it wasn't a great game but it was easy to play and your credit tended to last a while it was the kind of game you started when your mom was gonna take forever in the grocery store we in the Neo Geo's first year with Blue's Journey a super colorful platformer that has gameplay that sort of reminds you of a few of the Super Mario titles you get to pick enemies up and use them as Weapons it's got great background layering hints of sprite scaling and has gameplay you didn't see a lot of on the Neo it has two-player Co-op and is grossly underappreciated on this platform [Music] thank you [Music] We Begin 1991 with ghost Pilots of vertically scrolling Shoot Em Up that reminds you of capcom's 1940 series my friends and I really enjoyed the two-player mode and even though the gameplay and power-ups are unspectacular it still has a lot of appeal thanks to the nice presentation sengoku was a two-player beat em up that tends to be quite divisive among Neo Geo fans but I personally really enjoyed it an evil warlord has returned from the dead to wreak havoc on the modern world and it's up to ninja Dave and cowboy Kev to stop him you get lots of neat Transformations and power-ups to get the job done and the feudal area Japanese art design really makes it stand apart from other beat-em-ups on the platform king of the monsters is essentially a wrestling game with godzilla-sized monsters doing battle in cities across Japan it's not particularly deep but it's great fun with two players being a big fan of Kaiju movies I was instantly grabbed by the subject matter and it's easily one of my most play early games on the Neo with beat em ups continuing to be popular in the arcade SNK created burning fight a decent two-player take on the genre Duke and Billy are out to clean up Osaka and along the way you'll find weapons and items to help you out it's not nearly as good as something like final fight but you can certainly do a lot worse Crossed Swords is an action RPG played in the first person you didn't see games like this in the arcade very often and it was the kind of thing that really appealed to me no BS random battles are waiting your turn for attacks when the enemy hit the screen you could go to town the gameplay has a great block and counter system where you need to learn your enemies moves and react accordingly shockingly it has two-player Co-op and absolute standout feature that elevates this one well above the rank and file it's another underappreciated gem super baseball 2020 was a futuristic take on the sport with great graphics and sound this has all kinds of cool things going for it there's robot players obstacles in the Playfield and a monetary system for buying upgrades for your players this was kind of a turning point for the Neo Geo for me when its games really started looking better from this point we really started to see some major strides made and how its games looked against the competition Robo Army was a side-scrolling beat-em-up featuring two cyborgs named Rocky and Maxima these guys can beat down enemies with the typical attacks you expect and they can use things in the environment to inflict damage they can even transform into vehicles for a super powerful attack it's pretty tame compared to the big name Classics in the genre but it still looks great and has a nice two-player option we wrap up 1991 with fatal Fury King of the Fighters This was snk's big competitor for Street Fighter 2. it was designed by the guy that actually did the First Street Fighter for Capcom though it's no copycat it has two different fighting planes that you can transition to so you can avoid attacks or launch counters of your own the button in her faces a tad simpler and the AI is far more aggressive this game would begin an entirely New Era for SNK where they focused heavily on fighting games it was also the first game many of their bigger name characters first showed up in most of these guys and gals went on to appear in other titles a start of something really big for the platform wow [Music] I was excited to see football frenzy in 1992. I was a big sports fan and American Football was easily my favorite the large Sprites and killer animation was absolutely beautiful but man did that slow gameplay leave a lot to be desired it's still fun once you learn how to play it but it's certainly no Tecmo Bowl soccer brawl was another Neo Geo Sports entry that wasn't the best but still managed to be a good time think of it as kind of a futuristic partner to Super baseball 2020. it's five on five with slightly different rules and power shots that are really hard to stop it looks nice and though Die Hard soccer fans May scoff at the lack of accuracy I find it quite playable we also got the beat em up mutation nation in 1992. you'll be playing as Ricky and Johnny as they battle their way across a virus ravaged neighborhood there's robots to fight mad scientists to kill and of course two-player Co-op to make it all worth your while I really enjoyed this one but it needed some more special moves to make it a classic there are Elemental spheres you can pick up for extra attacks but I found the core gameplay needed more variety still fun and it looked great at the time last resort was an extremely challenging Shoot Em Up with killer visuals and a great soundtrack I often fired this one up just to see the graphics in the very first stage didn't matter how far I got afterwards it does have some slowdown but they are type influence on the gameplay still made it a shooter to be reckoned with man did I love Baseball Stars too when I first found it this gets a massive visual upgrade across the board better animation bigger players more energy in the presentation it was so awesome to see SNK keep the sports game coming at this level of quality it's still every bit as playable today ninja Commando was an overhead Run and Gun Style game that looked kind of like the classic series mercs got mixed with the theme of Shinobi our ninja must battle their way through time and stop an evildoer from changing in the future great visuals and a top-notch two-player mode made it a blast we also got king of the monsters 2 that year a continuation of our Kaiju wrestling Series this time we get some side-scrolling action in before the monster battles along with the same great two-player options this one looks a bit better and feels a bit more fleshed out but there's only three selectable monsters to choose this time which does kinda stink it's still good fun if you enjoyed the first one 1992 was the very first time we saw World Heroes a one-on-one fighter I was never very good at this one though I played it quite a bit the story has various Fighters throughout history being pitted against one another to determine the greatest warrior ever most of these characters have been inspired by real people to some extent and it has some pretty impressive special moves for each one it was really popular among many of my friends we also got the first art of fighting around that time another one-on-one fighter this one stood out because it was far more story heavy than what came before it Rio and Robert set forth to find the former sister and are the only playable fighters in the single player mode as you battle around town you get more information additional enemies open up until you get to the final bad guy you can play as many of the other fighters in the versus mode and I always love the visuals of this one the Sprites were absolutely massive and the detail was really impressive for a game of that time like fatal Fury it spawned many characters you would see in later SNK releases Viewpoint was quite the departure in terms of Neo software this was an isometric shoot em up with some pretty spectacular animation this would have been an unforgettable classic for me but it's just too difficult for my taste I already have issues judging isometric perspectives and once the screen fills of enemies in their bullets I take an ass whooping on an epic scale it's pretty and it sounds good but I rarely could make it past the third stage or so Essen Kate was putting in the overtime that year because we also got fatal Fury 2. I like this much more than the first one SNK added light and heavy attacks across all four buttons and the character lineup included some very special favorites the animation was better The background's more detailed and there were additional moves added to bring the plane switching some much needed Improvement SNK still wasn't hitting Capcom levels yet but the improvements were undeniable 1992 comes to a close with Super Side Kicks back in those days I had all kinds of issues enjoying Sim style soccer contests but arcade games like this were targeted at kids like me easy to pick up and play alone or with a friend it looked just incredible you weren't bogged down with complicated controls and tons of buttons hell the game almost played itself it would go on to see numerous sequels and become one of the most recognizable Sports titles in the Neo Library kickoff [Applause] foreign 1993 starts we got a sequel to sing Goku another two-player hack and slash beat em up it's pretty similar to the first but now looks better with a pretty huge bump in animation quality if you enjoyed the first it should continue that Trend and as always it's much better with a friend three count bout was one of the more interesting concepts for a fighting game on the Neo Geo it mixes wrestling moves and a Beat em up style environment similar to capcom's Saturday night slam Masters there are two match types traditional wrestling rings and hardcore matches that take place in a garage there are different belts to go after and of course multiplayer the gameplay can be clunky and the AI is nasty hard and not at all beginner friendly World Heroes 2 also came out in 1993 and appeared with faster gameplay more Fighters new moves and a brand new contest to see who the best fighter in the world was this one plays better to me than the first though I didn't find the visuals all that much in improved there's a big jump in detail but I found fatal Fury 2 far more impressive to the eye even so I think fans of the first will find this entry quite enjoyable the world of the Neo Geo would be changed forever with the release of Samurai Showdown a weapons-based fighter set in the 18th century this blew my mind at its release I really loved everything about the presentation the zooming on the beautiful environments worked so well to convey the scale of everything around you every frame in its great looking animation was impressive backgrounds Fighters the referee it all comes across as some of the finest of the time period this was snk's first fighting game that I personally felt met Capcom Street Fighter 2 head on and beat it in many aspects I consider it a showstopper for its day a game so well made that it single-handedly thrusts the Neo Geo into the Limelight as a platform to be taken seriously it's one of my absolute favorites essay and K recognize just how well its fatal Fury 2 game was because they released fatal Fury special just nine months later with a number of improvements and upgrades you get a speed increase additional combos thanks to some pretty prolific timing changes and we get even more characters some of which returned from the very first game there's even a special dream match in there if you're good enough at that point it was the best entry in the series and a great addition to the Neo's Library 1993 had some big steps for snk's machine and we ended on a Data East joint called Spin Master this was an action game where the heroes Johnny and Tom are out to stop you guessed it a mad scientist who has stolen your map and your girlfriend that map leads to a treasure and you gotta get to it first armed with yo-yos you and your buddy set out in what has to be one of the strangest games on the platform it's part beat em up part Shoot Em Up and it's not bad at all detailed Sprites and bosses that have animation as good as some movies await you this one is overlooked by many there's a good amount of choice in the weaponry and the influence of Joe and Matt cannot be denied give it a look it might just surprise you ah [Music] God [Music] by 1994 32-bit machines were on the market and 3D polygons began their assault to replace traditional two-dimensional Graphics you'd think the Neo Geo would quickly succumb to this but SNK in its third parties up the med counts to begin making their games look even better we begin the year with art of fighting 2 which gave us a pretty big upgrade over the first and sound visuals and a number of gameplay and content improvements like more Fighters air throws and recoveries as well as smoother gameplay Neo Geo titles at this point really began pulling away from the stuff you saw on the Genesis and Super Nintendo and art of fighting 2 was a massive step up and what we saw in Sprite size and animation Windjammers was a game that many of you likely never saw in the arcade nor particularly would have paid much attention to even if you had it doesn't have that immediate wow factor of other games you'll see on the platform but it's a solid and well-built contest all the same it's essential actually a frisbee game done in the mold of classic games like pong your job is to defend your goal from your opponent the players you choose have different stats to consider and there are techniques like bouncing the disc golf walls and using the player's special moves which are unique to each one there's a surprising amount of depth here and it went on to be quite the cult classic among fans of the platform we also got a continuation of the fighters history franchise called karnov's Revenge this was a decent if somewhat middling fighter with strong art and animation I enjoyed the easy combo system here but I only saw it a few times back in the day it didn't get nearly the same distribution as some of the other Neo Geo Fighters out there so it's worth a look if you've never seen it in action World Heroes 2 jet was a faster expanded version of the previous title in the series more Fighters more moves and a new Dash mechanic made this one a much better overall experience think of it as sort of what Capcom used to do with spiders around the same time top Hunter was an absolutely gorgeous side-scrolling beat-em-up about two bounty hunters out to stop an evil scourge of space pirates these guys have hijacked multiple planets and it's your job to stop them this one has two-player Co-op skateboards Mecca special moves and interactive environments that are loaded with things to do the base Weaponry allows you to grab enemies and toss them around making it feel a bit like the earlier release Blues journey is it's got some vicious slowdown at times but it's still great particularly in multiplayer fight fever was another fighting game that was kind of just okay it's clearly modeled after some of snk's earlier games in the genre there's not much special about the graphics or the gameplay it's a curiosity at best on a platform loaded with much better games of this type video system moved this vertically scrolling shooter series over to the Neo Geo with aerofighters too I enjoyed these games though by 1994 the genre was overcrowded and needing some Innovation fortunately there are not a ton of vertical Shooters on the Neo itself so this one was fun especially with a friend it looks and sounds decent but after the likes of Last Resort I was hoping for more I didn't play aggressors of dark combat until much later after its release but it's a weird game all the same this is sort of a mix of a beat em up in a traditional one-on-one fighter you can move around the arena up down back back and forth like Double Dragon that means you jump with a button there's also just two attacks a punch and a kick though you do get special moves and weapons to pick up the animation is nice and some of the backgrounds are excellent it's not a bad game at all but it was 1994's the King of Fighters 94 that started a series that would become synonymous with the Neo Geo brand this had fighters from a number of snk's franchises like fatal Fury are the fighting and akari warriors this was a three on three team-based fighter they took elements from other SNK games at the time think of it as sort of an evolution of the Fatal Fury Series in that way you could choose the order of the characters and the power gauge allowed for more powerful attacks and super moves it was a beauty too with some of the best visuals and animation that Neo had ever produced it began a long line of releases that still sees updates even today this Zed blade was a weird one it's a horizontal shooter that looks like something that belonged on the Super Nintendo the ships in the backgrounds are very plain and uninspired and aside from the amount of stuff on the screen just doesn't look much like a Neo title it plays well enough and does have two-player Co-op but it's short and just not all that exciting the system could have done a lot better SNK out did themselves of Samurai Showdown 2. the follow-up to their excellent weapons-based fighter take everything you loved about the original and amplify it here there's more Fighters more techniques like supers in a Parry system and it's animated even better if you can believe it there's so much more to learn that it really did beat the original in just about every way frankly it's one of the finest games SNK ever produced with NBA Jam tearing up the arcades across the United States Data East produced Street slam to get in on some of that action and it's really good monster their Sprites great animation I mean if this had an NBA license it would have been just as well remembered the three on three action is superb and the moves you can pull off look great it was the only basketball game on the Neo Geo but it's a damn good one our final game for 1994 was puzzle Bobble a simple Affair where you must pop same colored bubbles to defeat the stage you can aim and launch your bubble anywhere you like but should you fill the screen up it's game over this has been released on just about everything so you should know it quite well there's not much special about the Neo Edition either so if you've played it already there's no reason to run it down here [Music] thank you [Music] 1995 saw both the Saturn and PlayStation released in most of the western world yet the Neo Geo kept on trucking Panic bomber was one of the few games that was actually ported to the Neo Geo from other Hardware it's a Bomberman falling block Puzzler where you take bombs and send them over to your opponent's side of the screen it's fun but lacks that great Neo flare you expected to see in games this expensive this one was better played where it was much cheaper and you expected the Plain Jane visuals Galaxy fight on the other hand was a sun-solve release with some crazy unique visuals I really love the Deep backgrounds and great sky and water effects the fighters were animated extremely well and the fast gameplay was really fun they used areas that had no boundaries so the action never stalled in the corner hit and run tactics were useful thanks to this and it had an easy combo system it's a good one for sci-fi fans the Neo Geo also got double dragon a one-on-one fighter based on the live-action film released the previous year this is not to be confused with double dragon 5 released on home consoles this is a much better fighter with a competent combo system super moves ground attacks and dashes to keep the gameplay fast unfortunately by 1995 fighting games were really starting to pick up their Pace in terms of unique features and Double Dragon Here feels like something from years earlier not terrible but severely lacking in anything original fatal Fury 3 was snk's big change to the series in the hopes that it would really add some new appeal this one uses the sway system where you can actually move into the foreground or background to avoid attacks this means there are actually three planes instead of just two seen in the earlier parts of the series it works and does add some oomph to the gameplay a you also get some new faces in this one as well as air blocking and some new overpowered super attacks this one was fun but the Fatal Fury series was growing a bit long in the tooth and SNK was gonna need something special to get it back in fighting shape Savage Reign was a weapons-based fighter that took on many elements from previous SNK Fighters think of this as a mix of Samurai showdown's weapons and fatal Fury's multiple planes it's a decent fighting game that just doesn't hold your attention for long while it does have some traits of some great Fighters it executes nothing quite as well World Heroes perfect was also released in 1995. at first I thought this was just another update but it is indeed an entirely new entry as time was wearing on many of us in case Fighters started to feel very similar despite changes to the mechanics but as well designed as it is it just didn't do much for me when there were better options out there far east of Eaton Kabuki clashes a weapons-based fighter with an anime art style and some very impressive animation it's no Samurai Showdown 2 but I still enjoyed it for what it was it uses random power-up drops to keep things interesting it's based on the Japanese RPG series of the same name King of Fighters 95 was an update to the series that now allows you to choose your own team makeup that really helped its appeal and I love the backgrounds here it was such a great looking game I owned a dedicated cabinet for it for years as much as I enjoyed it those looking for something radically improved over the previous Edition will not find it in this one whole star was the Shoot Em Up for the Neo Geo I had been waiting for since last resort this Beauty has pre-rendered elements that look almost three-dimensional most of which you see and the weapons you get were directly inspired by other greats like r-type and gradius it also has one of the most impressive opening animations of any title on the platform form almost CD quality and look and feel I still pull this one out regularly to play it the visuals hold up extremely well and I even enjoyed the music aerofighters 3 was another vertically scrolling Shoot Em Up in the Sonic Wing series of titles this one was a favorite of mine and my good friend James at the time it had multiple paths you could choose in a monster 16 stages to battle across the two-player Co-op was stellar and never got old towards the end of the year we got another Samurai Showdown now up to part three subtitled Blades of blood this one introduces the Slash and bust versions for each character or changes in their play Styles and moves there are also little tweaks like cancels Dodges and air blocking there was also a pretty large overhaul to the visuals which are now darker and more serious in tone lots of folks consider this one one of the weaker entries in the series but I really enjoyed it myself the final game I want to cover released in 1995 was real about fatal Fury this was such a big improvement over the others in the series and my favorite up until that point you still get many of the same great Fighters and the ability to dodge attacks but now you get even better visuals a simplified attack in her face and a slew of new special moves I really love the pace and feel of how it played and actually picked up an original MBS card when I built my console eyes Neo Geo it was one hell of a way to end the year oh [Music] We Begin 1996 with something I wasn't expecting super dodgeball was a technos developed Sports title that had you throwing a ball at another team trying to wear down their defenses the Sprites are large the animation is fantastic and it's fairly easy to play the two-player mode is where it really shines Neo Turf Masters was another 1996 release and it's my favorite game on the system I want to be clear I am not some huge Golf Nut that loves the sport hell at the time I had never played anything more than Putt-Putt but this game has a playability and fun factor that is simply second to none this gameplay is so simple yet incredibly deep and versatile and the options it gives you you can approach a shot 10 different ways and with the option to play multiple courses and players with different statistics it means you you have plenty to do when hours of gameplay to enjoy it's the best golf game I've ever played art of fighting got a third entry that year subtitled the path of the warrior this one sees a big change in visuals and animation loads of new Fighters and a new set of overpowered super moves called Ultra Cool attacks it's good fun but man is it terribly balanced compared to the better SNK Fighters 1996 also gave us a Neo Geo entry in the drift out series called Neo drift out new technology it's a top-down rally racing game that despite coming out just as 3D polygon games were tearing up the charts still managed to find an audience with its excellent gameplay it takes a bit to get used to but it's crazy fun once you do I came to view this one as kind of a 2d d-make of cigar rally in the following years the Neo as a platform saw a huge Resurgence in 1996 thanks to Metal Slug a run and Gun platformer that puts you in mind of konami's contra this was done by nasca the same company that did Neo Turf Masters and like that game the quality here cannot be denied multiple weapons vehicles and two-player Co-op made it an instant classic the animation detailed Sprites and impressive backdrops all made it a graphical showpiece even in the face of massive competition from the 32-bit home consoles at the time the Neo Geo was getting old at this point but metal slugs showed that it still had plenty left in the tank overtop was another top-down racer that I didn't care much for it didn't look or play as well as Neo drift out though I wouldn't call it terrible by any means ninja Masters is another entry and a massive stable of Neo Geo fighting games not much special about this one but it does have a decent presentation solid animation and a wicket special and combo system I didn't play this one until years later but I definitely recommend you check it out Ragnar guard was a huge misfire for me in terms of presentation and there wasn't much special about the gameplay either the animation is fantastic but man is this game ugly terrible looking Sprites and unimpressive backdrops really ham or any desire I have to Play It Again 1996 also saw another King of Fighters release this time with a new Dodge roll and some improved Sprites for the fighters this series was really starting to come into its own and snk's improvements were really making it a franchise to keep an eye on remember the earlier Savage rain fighting game well in 1996 we saw a follow-up to that called kazuna encounter a tag team weapons based fighter that is actually not not too bad most of savage range Fighters are back as are a few new ones if you like the first one give it a try Samurai Showdown 4 was released in 1996 as well and again the series sees some pretty big changes you can't AIR block anymore you can't charge your power gauge manually and there are a few new Fighters it also saw some changes in the visuals which are now much brighter and appear more colorful I love this game as well and picked it up for my Saturn as soon as it was ported over sun salts waku waku 7 was a parody fighting game full of touches that really stood out the visuals are bright and cheerful the fighters are all drawn almost to the point of being cute and boy is that animation impressive but don't let that fool you into thinking that it's a kids game because this can be a vicious fighter well worth learning you can hit opponents while they're down you can dodge attacks and the supers are nasty enough to knock you clear across the screen visually arresting with gameplay that holds up well waku waku 7 is a gem not to be missed twinkle star Sprites is one of the most unique games on the Neo It's a combination Shoot Em Up and puzzle game focusing on versus gameplay as you destroy enemies on your side you send weapon fire enemies and even bosses over to your opponent's side of the screen it's a wild one in multiplayer and takes quite a bit of strategy to become good at Breakers was a fun fighter that takes a ton of cues from the Capcom developed games in the genre it doesn't really stand on its own in any special way but if the Neo Geo fighting game Library overwhelms you with its difficulty this is an easy one to find some enjoyment in I highly recommend it especially if snk's nuances bother you it looks nice and plays very much like a street fighter just as 1995 it ended with a new fatal Fury so it was that 1996 ended with real belt fatal Fury special a direct follow-up to the last title you get four new Fighters two planes to fight on and even more Fighters that are hidden just like the last time this one is so good and a nice update that really felt like its own game don't go thinking this is just a slight tweak it has revamped visuals that are even better new stages and a new more accessible combo system that really opens up the gameplay it was a milestone addition to the series and the best one yet [Music] thank you [Music] [Music] we start off 1997 with the excellent new Obama man like the others in this series you guide Bomberman through single screen maze-like stages that are filled with enemies while looking for power-ups to take them all out you can do this alone or with another player in Co-op and there is even a competitive battle mode after you beat it the visuals don't go far beyond what we saw in the Super Nintendo in Genesis but it's still a great time well worth a look for fans of Bomberman the arcade Classic Mr do got an update called Neo Mr do in 1997. here we are doing basically the same thing as before you are digging out tunnels while collecting cherries and other items enemies are chasing you constantly and you can drop items on top of them to get rid of some the single screen action is simple and very easy to get into the kind of experience that may look childish especially with the main character being a clown but it's actually pretty fun and challenging the King of Fighters 97 was a big addition to the series now with the ability to play it like the first three games depending on your preference with possibly the best cast of fighter so far it was yet another entry not to be missed shock troopers was a huge surprise and a throwback to games like akari Warriors this top-down Run and Gun allows you to go in as a team or try it alone a team has three different characters with different special attacks while Lone Wolf starts out with a higher life bar the action here is absolutely top-notch with great visuals that punctuate the superb gameplay enemies are aggressive and never stop it has that high stakes arcade feel that has you fighting for every inch of the screen you take a step in and its top shelf animation keeps you shooting just to see how the next enemy or machine meets its fate one of the best on the Neo Geo we in 1997 with the Last Blade a weapons-based fighter that very much looks like a spin-off of Samurai Showdown wow is this thing a beauty the Neo Geo yet again proved it had a ton of hidden power to keep you impressed year after year the gameplay was great too and featured a deflection move that allowed allows you to essentially stun your opponent by timing a button press as they attack leaving them wide open to your special and super moves is it better than Samurai Showdown maybe but it's certainly worth playing either way 1997 was also an important milestone in the life of the Neo Geo because at the end of that year SNK ceased all Hardware manufacturing of the device software would continue but as a growing and viable platform for the future the Neo Geo was done [Music] [Music] 1998 began with a bang giving us blazing star the follow-up to pole star lots of similarities here and once again one heck of a shoot em up this is one of the rare instances where I think pre-rendered two-dimensional visuals look fantastic on a 16-bit platform massive bosses great backgrounds and loads of enemies make it a treat on the eyes the only blemish on this masterpiece is the constant bonus voice that rings out each time you collect one of the icons it really does get annoying outside of that it's a Neo Geo must Stone Metal Slug 2 finally made its debut that year after a big lead up to one of the Neo Geo's best new franchises and for the most part it was incredible new characters to play as new enemies to face and a whole lot of things in the environment to destroy it's visually on its own level the trade-off for all that goodness is some rather brutal slowdown that creeps into the gameplay fairly often it's still a blast but you certainly feel it nearly every step of the way the Fatal Fury franchise just kept on getting better and better in 1998 brought us the best one yet real about fatal Fury 2 the newcomers this one was an amalgamation of ideas from the past few titles in the series it brings back most of the fighters the art style and geese is now playable it relies on one main fighting plane and one Dodge plane that grants you a temporary reprieve from your opponent's Advance tightening up the gameplay considerably you get a few new fighters to mix things up and the packages damn near perfect breaker's Revenge was a tweaking of the original game with an added new fighter and some rebalancing of the gameplay it's not far enough from the source to be considered a sequel but I definitely argue it's a better experience the King of Fighters 98 showed up and improved on 97 and pretty much every area more Fighters better balance and gameplay that just felt right it's quite possibly the best in the entire lineup and should really satisfy fans of the earlier releases shock troopers 2 was the follow-up to the surprise hit the previous year unfortunately this one opted for a pre-rendered look changed around the art style and removed the team mode entirely you do get vehicles this time but the overall product just feels less satisfying the gameplay is still fun and there is plenty of action to enjoy so it's still very much worth a play I Feel This needed a remix to be the best it could be but alas this would be the last time we'd see this series The Last Blade 2 takes everything we knew about the first and makes it bigger faster and better balanced the Fantastic visuals and animation the story and the cast of Fighters all made this a treat top to bottom base your strategies on either speed or power and take down your foes the best part that even though it looked like it could be a Samurai Showdown spin-off it still very much felt like its own thing battle flip shot was like someone mixed pong with a one-on-one Fighter the Playfield is set up sort of like a tennis match where you must smack the ball back and forth while protecting your goal it was single screen easy to play and the animation was quite good it might even be considered a hidden gem for its addictive multiplayer [Music] thank you 1999 would Marcus severe cut back in the number of releases for the Neo Geo the platform was coming up on its 10th anniversary but she still had some Life Lifting her for sure gun Ryu starts off 1999 with some Strider style action a side-scrolling ninja title that has you out to rescue your friend from a rival Clan the monster size levels and copious amount of enemies really keep things going and the combat is fast and never gets old there's even two distinct characters to choose with different play Styles it really does look like something Capcom would have produced and I wish the Neo Geo had more of them Metal Slug X showed up in 1999 to fix just not the Slowdown of part two but offers up almost an entirely new game in the process lots of changes to the music art animations and even difficulty made this far more than a simple tweak there were time a day changes you could get fat by eating too much and there were a handful of new weapons I may even consider it the best in the series given the sheer amount of fun it had a big big upgrade to an already good game Captain tomaday is just about the weirdest Shoot Em Up Beat em up you've ever played this is about a Flying Tomato beating down enemies with his fist yep don't have much more to say than that it's one heck of a weird experience if a tad bit exhausting the the King of Fighters 99 came out and made numerous changes to the formula they shook up pretty much everything there is now a fourth partner that is a striker kind of like the assist Partners in Capcom vs Fighters This also had a greater focus on your power gauge which now has two options that strengthens your offense or your defense each with their own rules that focus on how much damage you can put out versus how much damage you can take it's just as beautiful as ever and continues the great tradition of having a massive roster of Fighters prehistoric aisle 2 is a sequel to a game that came out 10 years earlier it's a horizontal Shoot Em Up that you guessed it as you're battling Dinosaurs the visuals are decent the gameplay is fun and while it won't knock Pulsar or blazing star from their perch it's still a good time you know how I've been saying the Fatal Fury games kept getting better and better while in 1999 we got Mark of the Wolves the best looking and playing fatal Fury would ever get it knocks the action into the single plane introduces special areas of the life bar that make you more effective and a new blocking system that allows you get a small boost of life if you time it correctly lots of new faces here but nearly every one of them is tied to past characters in the series SNK had a strong run with fatal Fury and ended it on a high note Striker's 1945 plus was sort of a remix of the previous Strikers games made specifically for the Neo Geo it has a few tweaks to the visuals to accommodate the Neo Geo standard CRT and the gameplay sees new enemy patterns and enemy fire you can see a whole lot better this is largely the same experience however level structure and bosses are the same as are most of the assets that make them up the fun of this has always been its variety of planes with each one having their own bomb attacks and play Styles if you enjoyed part 2 this one is quite a bit improved [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] follow-up to battle flip shot it has a few rule changes but still has the same structure of knocking out your opponent's goal to win the match if you enjoyed battle flip shot here's another one you need to look into Nightmare in the dark is a single screen platformer where your job is to clean up a graveyard from zombies and other nasties that are making a mess of the place fire is your weapon of choice and you can create and throw Fireballs that wipe everything out on the screen the visuals are fairly simple but the animation is fantastic another Lake gym they shouldn't be overlooked Metal Slug 3 showed up in 2000 and continued to find tradition of run and Gun action for that series you get lots of impeccable animations that is strewn across the aliens zombies monsters and soldiers you have to contend with while it was starting to become formulaic it was still a showpiece in every way the King of Fighters 2000 is a mild update to 99 expand on the striker system and again providing a massive roster of Fighters as always it looked great and had a depth that was hard to exhaust [Music] 2001 saw scant few releases on the Neo Geo but it started with Sun Goku 3 one of my favorites on the platform this was a beat-em-up that continued the story and concluded it as the final chapter check out those visuals and you have multiple Heroes to choose from including a few hidden ones I do recommend you play this on the easiest setting as each enemy tends to be quite a bit of a damaged sponge it just looks and sounds so good I don't mind beating up on them for a while good stuff if you appreciate the genre Zoo Papa Was a single screen action game that plays like nightmare in the dark that we went over a few minutes ago attack enemies create bigger attacks and wipe out as many as you can it's short but easy to play and is fun with two players the King of Fighters 2001 doubles down on the striker system by allowing you to really design a team around it you can have one main fighter and three Strikers or any combination thereof this does affect your power gauge and can make for nearly Limitless gameplay variety since you have that massive roster to choose from foreign [Music] shoot it in 2002 we got the fourth Metal Slug which introduces a new terrorist organization to battle but retains that same great animation in detail there's a couple of new members to your team a new time-based scoring system and of course it has that addictive Co-op multiplayer getting a bit predictable but still no less fun Rage of dragons was a 2002 release that was another tag team fighter option for Neo geofans it's not nearly as deep as the king of fighter games but that may actually be a good thing if you want something a little more accessible the visuals are nice and the roster is still quite varied this was originally meant to be a direct sequel to the Neo Geo's Double Dragon Fighter released in 1995 but the developers couldn't secure the license instead it's a spiritual follow-up and a sequel in all but name and official IP the King of Fighters 2002 revamps the series back to its 1998 Roots losing the striker system entirely and focusing on various power gauge options and tweaks the roster is of course still massive and the visual Stella knockout some say the visuals were aging poorly but I always thought these games looked incredible foreign [Music] [Music] 2003 started with a sequel in the power Instinct line of Fighters called Metro melee unlike groove on fights tag team matches this was a simple one-on-one fighter that is more closely related to part two in the series I hated this game because of the near constant roles and counters given the AI an unfair and often brutal learning curve for newbies you are looking for more Groupon fights characters and gameplay this was a massive let down but fans of the more classic power Instinct series should find a lot to enjoy here 2003 also brought about one of the most divisive games on the Neo Geo SNK versus Capcom SVC chaos it was a crossover between SNK and Capcom that featured some of their most popular fighters going Head to Head the gameplay was essentially the King of Fighters without the tag team element a massive change if you were coming from the Capcom versus SNK line of titles the dark apocalyptic story was strange with Bleak imagery and a number of alien environments some people love this and really appreciated the changing look and feel I don't know I came away with a distinct sense that this could have been so much better SNK bets will find something here worth playing but beware the newcomers the AI can be absolutely nasty 2003 also saw fifth Samurai Showdown which quickly became my least favorite in the series by far I didn't love any of the new Fighters the visual seem a step back and the story was actually a prequel to The Others I wasn't alone because many review sites ripped into it as well calling it mediocre at best a true disappointment considering the slowing market for the platform Metal Slug 5 was the last game in the series for neogeo Hardware by now these had become pretty standard great animation run and Gun action huge bosses you know the drill here and this one was pretty much the same as the others I could always play them though no matter how much they resembled one another the last King of Fighters game came out in 2003 as well introducing quick change tags during the match and a leader system that gives a team captain an extra special attack for increased damage and strategy the Neo Geo was 13 years old at this point and this series never had a truly bad entry in my eyes that's saying something about the consistency of a fighting game this size [Music] oh my God victory [Music] okay oh you win the final Neo Geo game to see release came in 2004 Samurai Showdown 5 special an update to the ill-conceived 5th entry the previous year SNK and Yuki went a long way to correcting that here however this update sees the addition of some of the bosses from past Samurai Showdown games tweaks the visuals and sound and further balances to the fighters that made this a lot more accessible the arcade original was also quite violent with a number of slice and dice fatalities and blood while it still had some issues this was a much better experience they should be seen as the true Samurai Showdown 5. SNK also prepared another update called Samurai Showdown 5 perfect but that didn't see an official release until 2020. as you may have guessed I did not cover every single Neo Geo release here but I wanted to give you an overview of just what the platform offered and why it was so incredible in its day just knowing there was a home system of an actual arcade machine was exciting as hell and you always hope to find that one friend that owned it another amazing thing I'd like to point out there were very few games I'd label as truly bad on the Neo Geo a testament to snk's dedication to their product all in all there were over 150 games officially released for the Neo Geo in its lifespan and though I wouldn't play them all at their original releases I have become quite familiar with the machine over the years fortunately today you do not need to contend with the crazy great market prices to play these titles most of them are readily available in compilations and on digital storefronts all over the Internet and they tend to be quite inexpensive in its day however this thing was a a unicorn to most kids including me you read about the Neo Geo you saw ads for the Neo Geo and its arcade games were fairly easy to find but when it came to that Home console it just didn't exist for most of us hell I never saw the thing in retail during its lifetime and I didn't know anyone that actually owned it until the Neo Geo CD was released well into its run that kind of made the platform magical something you could play at the arcade but could never afford at home and even when its games hit the PlayStation and Saturn they were often heavily cut back or lacking in some way which just made the thing all that more desirable it was the arcaded home like we had always wanted the way it was always promised and it delivered in a very big way it was bigger better better and there was simply nothing else like it I'm sigalord X thank you guys for watching and I will catch you next time [Music] foreign [Music] foreign foreign [Music]

Channel: Sega Lord X

Views: 225,626

Keywords: snk, neo geo, the king of fighters, segalordx, sega lord x, sega saturn, sega genesis, sega dreamcast, mega drive, megadrive, game gear, 32x, mega cd, genesis, saturn, master system, sega, sega cd, gameplay, review, movies, retro games, retro gaming, video games, ps4, xbox, wii, nintendo, gamecube, n64, ps1, ps2, ps3, psp, vita, switch, atari, samurai shodown

Id: wlIz_kUv4A0

Length: 58min 39sec (3519 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 01 2023