The post “METAL SLUG 30TH ANNIVERSARY SALE!” has started! appeared first on Old School Gamer Magazine.

For those PC gamers who like to keep their experiences as close to the original handheld as possible, you can choose from several different background borders featuring various NEO GEO Pocket models. You can also utilize a zoom feature to scale the game to a more full-screen experience. The scanline filter from other games released in this series marks its return, but I still find myself turning it off to experience the visuals more cleanly.

SNK VS CAPCOM comes loaded with features. It has 26 characters from King of Fighters and Samurai Shodown on the SNK side, with Capcom characters from Street Fighter and Darkstalkers. The game also features several modes to play, including single, tag, and 3 VS 3 matches.

SNK VS CAPCOM: THE MATCH OF THE MILLENNIUM is without a doubt my favorite fighter in the NEOGEO POCKET COLOR SELECTION of games. SNK already knew how to shink their terrific fighting game characters to a portable format, but here they’ve expanded that great care to the Capcom universe. Matches play very well with many of the signature moves the characters are known for intact. Throw in some fun storyline cutscenes, mini-games, great background stages and combine it with an accurate port to the PC, and you have a great pocket-style fighter to play.

SNK VS CAPCOM: THE MATCH OF THE MILLENNIUM is available on Steam now. Steam link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1575670/SNK_VS_CAPCOM_THE_MATCH_OF_THE_MILLENNIUM/

The post SNK VS. Capcom: The Match of the Millennium Review (Steam/PC) appeared first on Old School Gamer Magazine.

It just takes a glance at the MVSX’s cabinet design to realize that UNICO made sure that the proper respect was being paid to the original MVS cabinet. The control panel is an accurate recreation, even with the additional two buttons added for each player. The 17-inch monitor is sharp and even has filters to make it look more like a CRT monitor. The unit on the convention floor was attached to its matching NEO GEO red riser base. Thanks to the increased height the base adds to the cabinet, it puts the control panel and screen to one of the most comfortable viewing angles I’ve seen compared to other home arcade cabinet manufacturers out there.

An arcade cabinet is only as good as it plays, and although I was only able to check out one title, the MVSX met my initial expectations. Firing up Garou: Mark of the Wolves, I quickly performed combos and special moves as both Terry Bogard and Rock Howard, my go-to fighters for the game. As a fan of the fighting game genre, I’m a stickler for a functional joystick, and the MVSX proved it could handle the quick inputs I was throwing at it. Frame rates, sound, and music “felt” accurate to the original MVS hardware as well.

With many other great fighting titles and other classics like the Metal Slug Series included in the arcade cabinet, the MVSX seems poised to be an enjoyable NEO GEO arcade experience that gamers can access inexpensively. Retailing at $499.99 is a steal, especially when you consider a copy of Garou: Mark of the Wolves can cost over 400 dollars without the arcade hardware included. Hopefully, we will get the opportunity to check out more games on the MVSX soon.

More info on the MVSX can be found here: https://shop.snkmvsx.com/

The post NEO GEO MVSX Impressions appeared first on Old School Gamer Magazine.

Like other games released in the NEOGEO POCKET COLOR SELECTION on the Nintendo Switch, gamers can choose from several different background borders featuring various NEO GEO Pocket models. You can also utilize a zoom feature to scale the game to a more full-screen experience. The scanline filter from other games released in this series marks its return, but I still find myself turning it off to experience the visuals more cleanly.

SNK VS CAPCOM comes loaded with features. It has 26 characters from King of Fighters and Samurai Shodown on the SNK side, with Capcom characters from Street Fighter and Darkstalkers. The game also features several modes to play, including single, tag, and 3 VS 3 matches.

SNK VS CAPCOM: THE MATCH OF THE MILLENNIUM is without a doubt my favorite fighter in the NEOGEO POCKET COLOR SELECTION of games. SNK already knew how to shink their terrific fighting game characters to a portable format, but here they’ve expanded that great care to the Capcom universe. Matches play very well with many of the signature moves the characters are known for intact. Throw in some fun storyline cutscenes, mini-games, great background stages and combine it with an accurate port to the Switch, and you have a great title to play for $7.99.

SNK VS CAPCOM: THE MATCH OF THE MILLENNIUM is available on the Nintendo eShop today, February 17th, 2021.

Title: SNK VS. CAPCOM: THE MATCH OF THE MILLENNIUM

Genre: Versus Fighting Game

Platform: Nintendo Switch (Download)

Release: February 17th, 2021 (PST)

Price: $7.99 / €7.99

Players: 1 to 2 players

ESRB: Teen

Store: Nintendo eShop

Official Site: https://www.snk-corp.co.jp/us/games/ngpcs

The post SNK VS. CAPCOM: THE MATCH OF THE MILLENNIUM Review appeared first on Old School Gamer Magazine.

As of this writing the world is in the middle of a pandemic that is forcing many people to stay home. Meaning that to stay safe we can’t go to our friends houses and play games on the couch anymore. The obvious way to get around that obstacle would be playing games online, which has been one of the many ways I’ve been able to get through this pandemic.  Granted the games I’m playing online with my friends are all modern games, but still being able to play games with my friends at all has been the biggest silver lining in this pandemic.  Even when there wasn’t a pandemic going on, I’ve still been playing certain games online and those have been some of the best experiences I’ve ever had.

Back in 2008 Mario Kart Wii took over my house and my best friend Adam finally scored a copy for himself sometime after I got one.  Whenever he could come over we would play the game for hours on end, trying to beat each other as well as playing through multiple cups.   Now we couldn’t go to each others houses all the time to play but I do remember coordinating at school that when we got our homework done (or when I was home after play/choir rehearsal) we would call each other up and play some Mario Kart Wii online. Even back then Nintendo wasn’t the best with online, they didn’t have a regular chat option (they still don’t which bugs me and thousands of gamers) so what Adam and I did was call each other on our phones, put each other on speaker, and “voice chat” that way. We would spend our school nights playing Mario Kart trying to best each other and against other people in the game. Things heated up even more when our mutual friend Mariann told us she had a copy of the game and wanted to play with us so the duo became a trio.  We would have three-way calls or sometimes Adam would be over at my house and we would all play Mario Kart Wii together.  Adam and I would be drifting with our Wii wheels while Mariann played with her Gamecube controller.  Constantly trolling each other with our course selections and yelling whenever Rainbow Road was picked. Constant rounds of us playing the game with some light trash talk thrown in were some of the best days of gaming I’ve had in my life.  Did the three of us ever get together and play in person?  Of course we did, but when that wasn’t an option, such as when it was a school night, playing Mario Kart Wii online was the next best thing.  

Now with this being a retro gaming publication and most games with online functions are almost all modern games, playing old school games with your friends while being in lockdown can be difficult. I would love for my friends to come over and play a few rounds of Street Fighter II on my SNES Mini but we can’t safely do that yet. Thankfully there are still ways I can play retro games or retro style games with my friends via online play. Scott Pilgrim VS. The World: The Game being a prime example. It may not truly be a retro game (the title originally came out in 2010 and was re-released this year) but it is retro inspired by classic beat em ups and I can play it with my friends via online co-op.  Thankfully when some developers release their classic arcade games to the digital stores they add features like online multiplayer/co-op.   Metal Slug 3 is just one of these examples where you can get the game digitally (for cheap too) and play online co-op with a friend.  Granted this is the only Metal Slug game to offer online co-op for some reason but at least the option is there.  I found out about this because my friend and co-host on my podcast Sparkz, wanted to play Metal Slug with us so he did some digging and found out that Metal Slug 3 had a online co-op function.  I bought it and played it with Sparkz and it ran as smooth as butter.  I was able to chat with him and we were able to play the game just like we would’ve if we were back in the arcades.  You may have to jump through some hoops to play the classics with friends online, but with a little research and determination you can play these awesome retro or retro inspired games online no problem.

Do I miss playing games on my couch with my friends?  Of course I do, but with playing games online I can still keep close with my friends and family that live thousands of miles away.  Granted we all have horror stories of playing modern games online with the chat open, but now most games and consoles have a private party chat feature so you don’t have to deal with trolls anymore, and there is the glory that is the Mute button. Once this pandemic is over and I can have my friends over again I’ll surely be throwing some sort of retro game party and playing games couch co-op style.  Playing on the couch will always be my preferred way to play multiplayer games, retro and modern, but I want to be able to safely see my friends again.  So until that happens I’ll gladly put on my headset, text my friends and let them know I’m online ready to play.

The post The Golden Days Of Multiplayer Haven’t Ended. appeared first on Old School Gamer Magazine.

If I had to pick my favorite sports game it probably would be Backyard Baseball 2001 for the PC.  It’s not the most famous sports game out there but here’s why I loved it.  The game wasn’t just kids playing baseball in their backyards (there was that) but if memory serves this was the first entry where MLB got involved and put one player from every team into the game.  You cold make a dream roster of famous MLB players as well as the Backyard kids who’ve been a part of the series since it’s inception.  Also instead of just creating a made up team you could don the uniforms of your favorite MLB team, which is exactly what I did.  My roster was crazy, being a born and raised Dodger fan I not only had Shawn Green on my team, but also put Mike Piazza in my lineup since I remembered when he was a Dodger before he got traded to the Mets.  For added fun I also had Randy Johnson as my pitcher and even went the extra mile and put famous San Fransico Giants hitter Barry Bonds in a Dodgers uniform.  Now besides picking players from other teams to play for yours, what made Backyard Baseball really fun for me was how the game rewarded the player for how they played.  Get a double play?  Next time you go up to bat you were given a aluminum bat that was an instant home run.  You also got pitches like the Crazy Ball, Elevator Pitch, and my personal favorite, the Fireball that were nigh impossible for batters to hit.  It was definitely a great game for kids.  I currently have the game for the Game Boy Advance and while its still a fun little baseball game, its not the same as the PC version.  Mostly because I miss clever and witty commentators and the one liners from the kids.

Besides Backyard Baseball another sports game that I have fond memories of is NBA Street.  It was a 3V3 basketball game with outrageous moves and alley-oops that would set the rim on fire.  They had the player’s likeness but it was more of a caricature of the players than a spitting image of them.  I rented the game from Blockbuster and that weekend my brother and I had a blast playing it.  Constantly trying to make 3 pointers and come up with the craziest combos for alley-oops and slam dunks.  Anything to set the rims on fire and to break the glass of the backboard.  That’s one of the major reasons I’m missing these types of sports games, its the little things they add in like a rim catching on fire that make it just a little bit more fun.  Even pseudo sports games can be fun.  I was introduced to a game called Windjammers a few years ago and I loved it.  I only got to play it for a short while but I was hooked and get excited whenever I see a SNK Neo-Geo cabinet with the game in it.  Thankfully you can play Windjammers on the PS4 and its supported with online play last I checked.

Now of course I understand that some gamers want their sports games to be hyper realistic and thats OK.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with that, its that for me those games get stale pretty quick.  I’ve played those types of sports games before.  Once I was invested in playing NHL 2K4 and wanted to finish an entire season all the way to the Stanley Cup Final.  I stopped playing after 15 games and went on to other games.  It’s not that the game wasn’t fun, it was, it just got stale for me.  If I dug deeper I probably would’ve found codes or modes to change it up, like NBA Jam’s ‘Big Head’ mode or hitting a slap shot so hard it busts through the net.  Stuff like that to keep my interest and wanting to invite my friends over to play some multiplayer.  Like I said earlier, I get there are contracts and deals in place so we may never see a NFL Blitz or a Backyard Baseball ever again, but it would be nice to see something a little different come out.  A game that does harken back to the multiplayer arcade cabinet madness of the sports games of old.  That would be nice.

The post Missing Older Sports Games. appeared first on Old School Gamer Magazine.

As the popularity of the versus fighting grew in the early to mid 90s, it didn’t take long for developers and publishers to see the appeal in coupling the genre with licensed properties to capitalize on two trends simultaneously.  A wave of licensed fighters shared shelf space with the Street Fighters and Mortal Kombats, some more successfully than others.  Let’s take a look at a few such examples.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Tournament Fighters

In 1989 Konami took arcades by storm when it released the belt-scrolling beat em up Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (called Turtles II The Arcade Game for the NES home port) and subsequently followed this trend up with Turtles III: The Manhattan Project on NES but most notably in the highly successful Turtles in Time on the SNES and The Hyperstone Heist on the Genesis.

Proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that the reptilian quartet worked amazingly well in the Double Dragon style play dynamic, when the time for a new Turtles title for the home consoles happened to coincide with the Street Fighter II / Mortal Kombat craze of the early 90s, Konami knew what had to be done.

Released September of 1993 for the SNES and Genesis (with an NES port to follow in February 1994), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Tournament Fighters was a one-on-one fighting games with Konami’s touch of quality (if that doesn’t mean much to you, think similar to Capcom in terms of control responsiveness, system-optimized art, animation and sound).

To compensate for the fact that there are, in essence, only four primary Turtle characters, Konami dug through the franchise’s rich comic book history to devise a playable roster of memorable and uniquely powered combatants (ten strong on the SNES and eight on the Genesis). The highly simplified NES incarnation includes only six in 2-player mode/ four in story mode. It also has the distinction of being the final game Konami would release for the 8-bit Nintendo hardware. Codes were also available to unlock the boss characters for playability in the SNES version.

Interestingly, Tournament Fighter was not a single game ported to three systems but rather three completely unique games developed simultaneously in-house by different teams. How this ended up in execution is very much as one may have surmised: The SNES version being the most complete, best controlling and best looking, the NES version representing the most simplified, scaled back incarnation and the Sega Genesis title falling firmly between the two.

While graphical and controller input changes between hardware platforms are to be expected, Konami went as far as to offer up slightly different stories for each of the Tournament Fighter incarnations to justify differences in the rosters.

Like one would expect, the TMNT Tournament Fighters trio represented a bright, cartoony and not overly violent take on the popular one-on-one fighting game trend. Absent here were any form of finishing move, making the series most similar in terms of inspiration to Capcom’s Street Fighter II with slightly less fluid control and depth. Still, in terms of licensed properties, Konami, especially the SNES version, did both the franchise and genre justice.

Justice League Task Force

Imagine combining one of the most consistently popular subjects (iconic comic book characters) with one of the hottest trends in pop-culture (one-on-one fighting games). It was a formula that simply could not miss. At least, that’s what Sunsoft and Acclaim were telling themselves when creating June of 1995’s Justice League Task Force for Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis.

Acclaim would publish this one, Sunsoft develop it and the actual trench work came from Blizzard Entertainment for the SNES and Condor for the Genesis. The games are similar on both platforms though there are some graphical and interface differences as expected.

The game is standard one-on-one tournament fighting fair, boasting playable incarnations of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Arrow, The Flash, and Aquaman. However, unlike TMNT Tournament Fighters, there is no real good vs.evil matchup potential here as all of the battling takes place between heroes.

While the notion of matching up some heavy hitters like Batman versus Superman (years before Zack Snyder would destroy the concept) in some Street Fighter II style competition was worth the price of admission alone, the actual experience is nowhere near as fluid and memorable as the titles that inspired it.

For better or worse, the premise of Task Force is that the six heroes mentioned above have to square off against one another and battle for supremacy. It would have been a comic book nerd’s dream if the good guy roster were cut in half to reserve the rest for Legion of Doom members. How great would it be to square off Superman with a Kano-like Lex Luther or play as Mr. Freeze with a move set like MK’s Sub Zero? If done correctly, this one could have had serious arcade appeal as well.

It should be noted that after taking out your fellow Leagers, there are a few boss characters to battle (AKA bad guys) – the ultimate baddie here being Darkseid. It would have been a great touch if Sunsoft would have insisted upon an unlock code to make the bosses playable characters in the grand tradition of Street Fighter II Champion Edition. It has some novel appeal
As it stands, however, Justice League Task Force never rises above mediocrity on either 16-bit but about the greatest thing that can be said for Justice League Task Force is that it proved comic book superheroes and one-on-one fighting games blend surprisingly well. It would be a concept revisited, more successfully, many times since.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Fighting Edition

The logic here, not unlike that of most of the licensed titles in question, makes perfect sense. Take a property that is piping hot and blend it with a video game genre that is also all the rage. More often than not, the results felt a little cash-grabby but, as amazingly, MMPR: The Fighting Edition is a decent one-on-one despite (or some might say because of) the license.

The game was released for the SNES, developed by Natsume and published by Bandai in 1995. Now interestingly a Sega Genesis one-on-one fighting game was published by Sega that was known simply as Mighty Morphin Power Rangers in November of 1994. Further confusing things is that the name Mighty Morphin Power Rangers was used to describe five different games across a variety of platforms. This becomes especially confusing because there was also a SNES game from Bandai called simply Mighty Morphin Power Rangers but it wasn’t the one-on-one like it was on Sega Genesis but rather a side-scrolling beat ’em up. That, of course, is why the game we are discussing here would be known as Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Fighting Edition.

Confused yet? Don’t be. The bottom line is that The Fighting Edition is essentially giant robot one-on-one clobbering. The Sega version alternates between fighting as the Rangers themselves and the Zords.

The Super Nintendo game uses four attack buttons while the Genesis just two while the Genesis version boasts a roster of 12 playable characters and the SNES 8 (9 with an unlockable). Neither game features finishing moves of any kind. Combination attacks exist in both – with the Super Nintendo cart making use of a special attack meter during bouts to unleash more potent offensive moves.

Strangely the Genesis game uses single-round matches while the SNES sticks with the more common 2 out of 3 wins advances formula.

Both games did an excellent job with the audio – capturing the theme song and the vibe of the show with their 16-bit chiptunes.

Surprisingly both games control fairly well and offer decent challenges. The SNES version gets the edge, though, in terms of depth, with deeper move sets and charge meters that allow for “Super Moves”.

Double Dragon (The Movie The Game)

This title represents the video game equivalent of life coming full circle. The original developers of Street Fighter claimed to have been largely influenced by the popularity of the belt-scrolling beat em up Double Dragon when working on Street Fighter II. SFII would then go on to influence the arcade (and home console industry) so much that Double Dragon would evolve to mimic it instead!

Even more coincidentally both Street Fighter and Double Dragon would have the strange distinction of being a video game that was turned into a live action film that then had a video game released based on the movie.

Called Simply Double Dragon (terrible marketing move considering individuals who search this title are going to find the original 1987 game instead) and produced by Technōs,  this one was released for the Neo-Geo arcade (MVS) and home console (AES) in 1995.  It was later ported over to the Neo Geo CD and even got a PlayStation conversion that, sadly, never saw a North American release.

The title boasts a roster of ten selectable characters as well as two boss characters (for a total of twelve playable fighters). In single-player mode, the player competes against all ten of the regular characters (including a clone of their own) before facing against Duke and Shuko in the game’s final two matches. The first opponent of the tournament is also chosen by the player.

To access the playable boss characters (Duke and Shuko), a code has to be inputted.

One of the unique aspects of Double Dragon when compared to the contemporary fighters of the time is the control scheme; which lacks specific punch and kick buttons. Instead, there are four attack buttons of varying strength and speed, which can indeed perform punches or kicks but only depending upon the character’s onscreen position. The player’s character and his or her opponent have a super move meter called the “charge meter”, overlaid upon the health gauge. The less health the character has, the quicker the charge meter fills.

The characters and settings are inspired of course by the 1994 Double Dragon live action movie directed by James Yukich with digitized segments of the film featuring prominently in the game’s intro.  Some of the levels even manage to integrate movie clips and actor stills into the backgrounds.

These days Double Dragon (The Movie The Game) serves as a reminder to a time when the one-on-one truly ruled the world and aside from some appeal to Double Dragon franchise (and Neo Geo library) completionists, has largely fallen into obscurity.

VR Troopers

Created by Syrox Developments and published by Sega, the second Saban teenage fighting team property got a one-on-one fighting game on Sega Genesis and Game Gear in November of 1995.

In this one players choose from any one of the three VR Troopers to face off against the evil leader Grimlord’s mutants and cyborgs and eventually Grimlord himself.

It offered typical one-on-one match-ups interlaced with cut scenes furthering a story mode that played out like one of the episodes of the show.

While combo moves were present, the game was largely chided for being overly simplistic and generic. With minuscule sprites, a shallow fighting mechanic and a soundtrack that was tinny and grating, VR Troopers would likely have been an average, to below average fighter a few years earlier. For the very tail-end of 1995, when the 32-bit generation was in full swing and Street Fighter Alpha tearing it up in the arcades, this 16-bit relic was immediately lost in the shuffle upon release.

A release for the Super Nintendo was also planned but ultimately got cancelled.

Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story

Universal Pictures released a 1993 film called Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, which served as a semi-fictionalized account of the life and times of the legendary Hong Kong/American actor. As was virtually mandated when releasing a video game at the time, the material was used to inspire a one-on-one tournament cart of the same name.

Developed and published by Virgin Interactive – with distribution from console port Mortal Kombat beneficiaries Acclaim, Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story arrived to Sega platforms in early 1994. It would be ported to the SNES and Jaguar shortly thereafter. A 3DO version was also in development but ultimately shelved – likely due to waning interest in the console.

While there is a story told in the game incarnation via cutscenes, some of which were taken directly from the film, the truth of the matter is they serve merely to setup the forthcoming bout with very little attention paid to logic or coherence.

In action the game follows typical one-on-one best 2 out of 3 falls format, uses digitized character models and straightforward button inputted (rather than combination) special attacks. Unique here were the concept of a chi meter which could be charged up by landing attacks successfully, which made for more powerful special moves. Additionally unique was the concept of fighting to earn a continue. If a player burned through his or her three continues during the tournament, beating The Phantom (the personification of Bruce’s fear who takes the form of an armored Japanese Samurai) in a match allows them to continue (though he was made nearly invincible). The Phantom Samurai appears again as the game’s final boss.

Unique at the time, the game was designed to support up to three players simultaneously, playing through the game cooperatively, or against each other in a battle mode on the 16-bit consoles (using the requisite multitap adapters of course).

Each character was given an unprecedented 100 frames of sprite animation. Even still, though, the game failed to win over critics and gamers alike, chided for being overly simplistic, having only a single playable character, stiff controls and lackluster graphics.

Interestingly, initial development of the game was to use the source material to inspire belt scroller beat ’em up project similar to Streets of Rage 2 before instead opting in developing a fighting title that was more in the lines of Capcom’s Street Fighter II: The World Warrior (surely due in no small part to the enthusiasm for the genre at the time).

Ranma 1/2 : Hard Battle

Just how big was the fighting game scene in the early 1990s? Properties that were relatively unknown in the United States even got official releases. Ranma 1/2 : Hard Battle arrived to North America in November of 1993 based on a Japanese manga/ anime of the same name that had virtually no presence here in the States at the time.

Ranma ½ tells of the truly peculiar tale of teenage boy martial artist Ranma Saotome who, as a result of a fall into an enchanted hot spring during a training journey, is cursed to become a girl whenever splashed with cold water, while hot water changes him back into a boy. His father Genma happened to fall into the spring of a drowned panda and became equally afflicted – only he takes on the form of a panda bear when splashed with cold water. How these guys shower is really anybody’s guess.

The setup is, of course, one of comedy so adapting it to a versus fighting game may not sound as natural as say a 2D platformer but somehow the gameplay works.  Developed by Atelier Double and released by DTMC, the game offers three modes of play: standard one-player tournament mode, a two-player competitive mode, and a two-player five-character team challenge mode. It boasts a nice roster of 12 characters (assuming you can overlook characters with names like Happy, ShamPoo and Pantyhose).

The bigger gimmick at play harkens back to the source material by offering characters in their natural as well as cursed forms: a male and female Ranma, a giant panda Genma, a human and bull form Pantyhose etc.).

The play control is unique in that rather than the usual series of directional movements capped off with an attack button, most special moves here are of the charge variety (holding the left, right, or down arrow in conjunction with an attack button for a few seconds and then releasing the attack button). The longer the button is held the stronger the attack.

In action the gameplay is slower and more user-friendly than the leaders of the pack at the time but its cheery nature, clean visuals and cast of characters that was nothing if not unique, Ranma ½: Hard Battle managed to carve out a place all its own in the flooded fighting game segment.

The post RETROSPECTIVE: The Licensed Fighters appeared first on Old School Gamer Magazine.

It is almost impossible to overstate Street Fighter II’s influence over the gaming world, arcades in particular, in the early 1990s. In just about every arcade the world over, gamers flocked around the cabinet – some to try their hand, others to simply watch the local experts make light work of all challengers.

A good part of the appeal and lasting success of the game, in my opinion anyway, was twofold. The first was that it made the act of gaming in the arcade a legitimate competitive event in a way that had been only hinted toward prior. Becoming good at the game equated to legitimate bragging rights. In a strange way a successful bout in the game became akin to an alleyway brawl or winning a backroads drag race on a Friday night. Neighborhoods, schools, blocks or even in-game characters could all be represented competitively without any real risk of violence.

Secondly, the learning curve was steep enough to where presentation, in addition to simply winning or losing, was a factor. The addition of elusive combinations to unleash powerful and visually stunning special moves (don’t forget this was before the internet) made being good a very exclusive club. Mortal Kombat, it could be argued, took this concept to the next level with Fatalities. Unlike some of the SFII cabinets, which actually had basic moves integrated into the artwork, MK took an even more secretive and complicated path to special movedom. These were games that thrived on rumor, magazine scrutiny, and the careful study of those able to make it happen in dimly lit arcades.

Time and again we witness Street Fighter II’s influence over the field but how did Capcom manage to do everything right? Surprisingly enough, they weren’t alone but it is a story seldom told now. Never told then. It begins with the original Street Fighter, which was released in 1987 and centers on the name Takashi Nishiyama. Many of what have since become one-on-one fighting game standards are in fact miscredited as Street Fighter II innovations but let us start at the beginning.

So omnipresent and viral was Street Fighter II’s arcade presence upon release by middle 1991 that many gamers began to question whether or not the game was a sequel at all. In fact, rumors began to circulate that the stylized “II” in the logo was chosen for effect and that there has never been a Street Fighter I.

There was indeed an original. Street Fighter, designed by Takashi Nishiyama and Hiroshi Matsumoto, appeared in arcades in 1987. In it, the player takes on the role of martial artist Ryu, who competes in a global fighting tournament spanning five countries and 10 opponents.

A second player has the ability to join in the action as American martial arts rival, Ken. At his disposal, the player had three punch and kick attacks (each varying in speed and strength) with either character and three special attacks: Hadouken (fireball), Shoryuken (flaming uppercut), and Tatsumaki Senpu Kyaku (spinning aerial kick). Each of these powerful attacks was performed by executing joystick and button combinations. A second player entering the game did not allow both characters to advance through story mode together but instead interrupted the first player’s progress to a one-on-one match that would determine who got to continue playing.

The game arrived to arcades in two cabinet options – a standard stick and 6-buttons on each side (one for each player) and a touch sensitive version with rubber coated sensors that required players to literally hit in determining the strength of their attack.

Though nowhere near as popular as the sequel that would follow 4-years later, Street Fighter did receive many home console and computer ports (sometimes renamed to Fighting Street) and ultimately established many of the conventions that would eventually become standard in one-on-one fighting games; 6-button control schemes, combination special moves, best two out of three match format etc.

This would probably be the end of the story but a strange split occurred shortly after the first Street Fighter’s release that makes tracing SFII’s success a bit less cut and dry than expected. It begins with Takashi Nishiyama and Hiroshi Matsumoto leaving Capcom after having developed the original game and landing at SNK. There they continued developing and refining the concepts of the game they had created at Capcom.

Capcom, meanwhile, had intentions of continuing on in the Street Fighter franchise on their own but not in the way we’ve since come to expect. In fact their next entry into the fold was going to do away with the one-on-one fighting aspect altogether and instead become a belt-scrolling beat ‘em up in the tradition of Double Dragon.

They completed this game in 1989 and, running on CP system board hardware and decked out in its fancy new cabinet for presentation at arcade trade shows that same year, the name of the game was Street Fighter ‘89.

However, arcade managers were quick to note that this new “Street Fighter” had very little in common with the original and Capcom was quick to rename the title so as to keep the two franchises distinct. The new name it was given was Final Fight and development of a genuine Street Fighter sequel would again be shelved.

In the meantime Takashi Nishiyama and Hiroshi Matsumoto, now at SNK, were working on a bigger, better Street Fighter to capitalize on increasingly powerful arcade hardware. They wished to retain as many of the traits that made their original title appealing (combo move special attacks, a global scale with fighters from all over the world, two out of three falls matches and so on) but had to leave all of the licensed elements of the original they created with Capcom.

Rather than two playable characters, their new game would have three and they would fight against eight computer-controlled opponents. When a second player joins in, this time, they would have the option of either playing cooperatively with player 1 against the CPU or competitively against each other. This game would be known as Fatal Fury and contrary to common misconception, it was developed simultaneously as Street Fighter II and released within months of Capcom’s official sequel to arcades in 1991.

The plot of Fatal Fury centers on a martial arts tournament known as the “King of Fighters”, held in the fictional American city of South Town and sponsored by known crime boss Geese Howard. Ten years prior to the event, Geese murdered a rival martial artist named Jeff Bogard. Now, Jeff’s adopted sons, Terry and Andy, along with their friend Joe Higashi, enter the tournament in the hopes of battling their way up to and getting revenge on Geese.

When comparing Street Fighter II: The World Warrior with Fatal Fury: King of the Fighters, it’s remarkable how similar the two finished products ended up being despite the fact that they shared no common development teams, or, for that matter, even knew about the other’s development.

One of the major differences between the two stems from Fatal Fury’s two-lane battle model. Unlike SFII, whereby battles are fought entirely on a single 2D plane, Fatal Fury features both a background and a foreground row. Players have the ability to “jump” between rows at any time except when battling against the computer, in which case the CPU essentially determines when it’s time to move into one lane or the other by moving its character there first.

The second difference stems from Fatal Fury’s attempt at simplifying the control scheme compared to that of the original Street Fighter. Rather than 6-attack buttons (high, medium and low punch and high, medium and low kick), Fatal Fury uses only three attack buttons: punch, kick and throw.

Still, there were combination moves aplenty. There were even characters with uncanny similarities – one need only look at Balrog and Michael Max to conclude that while they didn’t realize it, the two companies were thinking along the same lines when developing what each deemed the successor to the original Street Fighter.

Running on SNK’s Neo Geo MVS hardware, Fatal Fury shared arcade space in 1991 in countless locations with, and was largely overshadowed by, Street Fighter II. It did, however, still earn attention. So much so that within a year, SNK would release an entire sequel game by 1992 along with another fighting game developed by the other gentleman who had worked on the original Street Fighter (and is credited with coming up with the famous Hadouken); Hiroshi Matsumoto. His title would be called Art of Fighting.

Art of Fighting also ran on the Neo Geo MVS arcade hardware and could often be found inside cabinets containing both it as well as Fatal Fury. Art of Fighting took many of Fatal Fury’s attractions and added with them a unique scaling function during the onscreen action to help distinguish it from the quickly-flooding genre.

Interestingly, the game is set in the same fictional universe as serves as a prequel to the Fatal Fury series. Players here have two basic attacks (punch and kick) as well as a utility button that switches between punches, kicks, and throws. A fourth button is used for taunting. Taunting was used to charge a meter that allowed for more powerful special attacks.

The game follows a pair of students from the Kyokugen Karate Dojo, Ryo Sakazaki and Robert Garcia, in 1978. Ryo is the son of the Kyokugen (translated to “Extreme”) Karate discipline’s creator, Takuma Sakazaki, and Robert is the wayward son of a billionaire family from Italy. The game is technically documenting the rise of Fatal Fury’s Geese Howard from corrupt police commissioner to crime boss of Southtown.

While all of this was going on, ADK & SNK were developing another one-on-one title, World Heroes; whereby a time traveling Doc Brown (no DeLorean, though) organizes a tournament for various fighters throughout all of history to square off against one another. As such many of the fighters on the roster are based on actual historical figures. The game was released in July of 1992 – right alongside Fatal Fury 2 and Art of Fighting; again often sharing an arcade cabinet with its brethren.

The early to mid 1990s will be forever remembered for birthing the one-on-one 2D fighting game and while a majority of the credit goes to Capcom for Street Fighter II: The World Warrior and Midway for Mortal Kombat, the truth of the matter is SNK built an entire empire of fighters (to date over 60 of them and counting) thanks to two individuals who never stopped tweaking their Street Fighter vision.

Nishiyama and Matsumoto would eventually bring their two SNK fighting franchises together in 1994 with a new series called King Of Fighters. This mashup, which allowed for team dynamics, would go on to become SNK’s flagship fighting franchise. In fact it took a chapter out of many traditional sports games books by coming out with annual updates adding new fighters to the roster and game mechanics to keep things fresh.

Then five years later a new type of mashup would manifest, one that saw the two longtime rival companies set aside their collective differences on a collaboration that was nothing shy of a fighting game aficionado’s dream: SNK Vs. Capcom (and Capcom Vs SNK; the first company in the title denoting the company behind the game’s development). The series pitted rosters from both company franchises in a battle royale’ for ultimate bragging rights.

Sadly SNK would file bankruptcy in 2000 while Nishiyama and Matsumoto would found an independent development studio they called Dimps. The ultimate coming full circle moment would then occur for the two men who had started it all when Capcom hired Dimps to do development work on Street Fighter IV and V.

As for SNK – new life has been breathed into the brand on account of the global resurgence of retro mini classic edition console interest. After producing the successful Neo Geo Mini in July of 2018 to commemorate the company’s 40th year anniversary, they followed it up with the Arcade Stick Pro in November 2019 and have announced plans for a third modular mini Neo Geo console at the time of this article’s writing.

The post RETROSPECTIVE: A Fight of the Heavyweights appeared first on Old School Gamer Magazine.

Compounding on this, they recently announced on their various Twitter streams the Neo Geo Arcade Stick Pro. Not a lot is known about the stick so far – in fact, almost nothing has been released yet (although we’ve been promised new information shortly) other than SNK describing it as a “Pro-Gear Spec Advanced Entertainment System” and that it’s “FOR ALL NEOGEO FANS”. They also point out that the design is based on the Neo Geo CD controller. An uncanny resemblance. But, on that note; let’s get speculative! All aboard the express speculation train! Hoot, hoot!

We can probably assume that this has been made to compete with Capcom’s new Capcom-logo-shaped arcade stick to some degree, but there are a few hopeful indicators that it might not just be a plug and play stick keeping it in line with Capcoms offering – although a few sources are stating that it will be compatible with the Neo Geo Mini. A few others also mention a USB-C power supply and 720p output by HDMI, and you can sorta at least see (what are probably) two USB-C ports along with a headphone jack on the bottom of the stick.

There are also plenty of other buttons scattered around, both on the right-hand side and in-between the stick and action buttons, indicating some sort of UI. The fact that it has eight-buttons is an eyebrow-raiser too since early Neo Geo games only required four at most.

So, here’s hoping that it comes preloaded with all sorts of goodies, including some sort of ARM-based processor to power it all (as is the usual case with modern devices like this). But, let’s end this speculation. Go on, get off my train. There are no details yet like the price, release date and what or if games will be preloaded. Let’s hope it is the case, however, as we eagerly await more information from SNK towers.

The post SNK Announces the Neo Geo Arcade Stick Pro appeared first on Old School Gamer Magazine.

The Neo Geo family has certainly been quite interesting to explore. It was not a line of systems that I was terribly familiar with, so researching the original AES and then the CD variant has been as much a learning experience for me as it hopefully has been for you.

After the CD was discontinued (very silently, I might add) in 1997, SNK was relatively quiet in the console gaming space for a year or so. However, in late October 1998, they released the Neo Geo Pocket. Only released for Asian markets, this monochrome screened console is considered to be a bit of a failure. Only nine games were ever released for it, and since they are all backwards compatible with the console’s successor, the Neo Geo Pocket Color, I have decided to not give the system its own article. Additionally, all Pocket Color games were playable on the monochrome model too, although there could be issues with playing some games on such a colour-challenged screen.

So, with the original being discontinued in 1999, the Pocket Color was swiftly released but with a worldwide launch. And what a launch it was; 14 games were available on day one of sales, which was a record for the time. The Pocket Color obviously included a colour screen (although it wasn’t illuminated), 40-hours of battery life and a “clicky stick” joystick that was perfect for the barrage of fighting and arcade games that SNK would release for it.

It struggled, however, against the behemoth that was Nintendo. With the Game Boy, Game Boy Color and with the Game Boy Advance looming on the horizon (and with it all being fuelled by Pokémon mania) SNK failed to gain a decent foothold in the market. Sales declined, and the console was discontinued in Japan in 2001. Following that, SNK its self went bankrupt. It’s around in a different form in the present, but 2001 marked the original end of SNK and its Neo Geo line of systems.

Over 80 games did see a release on the system before all of that, however, which certainly isn’t something you can angerly shake a stick at. While American and European markets would see the final Pocket Color games in 2000, it appears that at least four games were released in Japan in 2001.

The finality of those was SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters Clash 2 Expand Edition on the 13th of September. If it’s one writing this series has taught me, Japan sure does love unnecessarily long game titles. A sequel to 1999’s SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters Clash (also on the Pocket Color) this digital card game featured characters from both SNK and Capcom games. While most are from fighting games, there are a variety of characters from elsewhere too. The gameplay resembled Magic: The Gathering in many ways, although is considered to be much simpler. Three cards are allowed on the playfield at any one time, although there is no mana to be spent, instead substituted for Special Points which are gained as the gameplay goes on. Riveting stuff.

Card Fighters 2 Expand Edition is the sequel and includes 124 new cards from games such as Onimusha, Mega Man Legends and even Dino Crisis. While the original was actually released as two different versions that allowed you to start with either a Capcom or SNK card deck, this only released as the one edition (although you can still choose which deck you wanted to start with).

There was a third version of the game on Nintendo DS in 2006, but the American variety was released with a game breaking bug and had to be recalled. Because of this, the game was poorly received and the series was never heard from again.

Previously, on The Last Official Release:

Neo Geo CD – The King of Fighters ’99: Millennium Battle (1999)
Neo Geo AES – Samurai Shodown V Special (2004)
TurboGrafx-16 – Magical Chase (1993)
Atari 7800 – Sentinel (1991)
Atari 5200 – Gremlins (1986)
Sega CD – Shadowrun
32X – The Amazing Spider-Man: Web of Fire (1996)
3DO – Creature Shock (1996)
CD-i – Solar Crusade (1999)
Atari Lynx – Super Asteroids & Missile Command (1995)
N-Gage – Civilization (2006)
Fairchild Channel F – Alien Invasion (1981)
Atari Jaguar – Worms (1998)
Virtual Boy – 3D Tetris (1996)
Sega Saturn – Undefined Japanese Game (2000)
Intellivision – Spiker! Super Pro Volleyball (1989)
Super Nintendo Entertainment System – Metal Slader Glory: Director’s Cut (2000)
Sega Genesis – Frogger (1998)
Sega Master System – Mickey’s Ultimate Challenge
Game & Watch – Mario the Juggler
PS1 – Schnappi: 3 Fun-Games
N64 – Tony Hawks Pro Skater 3
Game Gear – The Lost World: Jurassic Park
NES – The Lion King
Atari 2600 – Klax
Game Boy – Shikakei Atama o Kore Kusuru: Kanji/Keisan no Tatsujin
Dreamcast – Karous

The post The Last Official Release: Neo Geo Pocket Color – SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters Clash 2 (2001) appeared first on Old School Gamer Magazine.