Did you know SNK made games prior to the Neo Geo?
Creative Staff
Director: Frank Cifaldi
Producer: Stephen Frost
Music: Bob Baffy
What They Say
2018 marks the 40th anniversary of legendary studio SNK! To celebrate this extraordinary milestone, a variety of classic arcade games from SNK’s golden age are coming back together in one anthology on Nintendo Switch. SNK 40th ANNIVERSARY COLLECTION is packed full of retro games and a treasure trove of features!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
If you were a child of the 80s and spent any amount of time in arcades, it was virtually impossible to miss SNK’s contributions. The company that would later come to fame for the Neo Geo line was perhaps not as mainstream as Atari, Nintendo, Namco, and others in the 80s, but it was nonetheless popular for their interesting takes on popular genres, as well as some rock-hard difficulties.
With the 40th Anniversary of SNK as a game maker coming up, SNK has teamed up with NIS America to release this collection of games for the Nintendo Switch from their pre-Neo Geo era—games that have been overshadowed by, and in many cases virtually forgotten due to, the popularity and ubiquitousness of the Neo Geo in the 1990s and beyond, both by the public and the company itself.
Well, that changes now. Included on the cart in this release are Alpha Mission (1985), Athena (1986), Crystalis (1990), Ikari Warriors 1-3 (1986, 1986, and 1989), Guerilla War (1987), P.O.W. (1988), Prehistoric Isle (1989), Psycho Soldier (1986), Street Smart (1989), T.N.K. III (1985), and Vanguard (1981). In a nice touch, they are providing both the arcade and console versions of games (mostly NES) that had both arcade and home releases, as well as the opportunity to toggle between the U.S./World and Japanese versions. While there might not be much difference (if any) between the regions, there are enough differences between the console and arcade versions that having both is a nice treat. For example, the arcade and console versions of P.O.W. might have the same basic gameplay and concept, but the console version adds some depth by introducing power-ups and legitimate boss encounters. The same can be said for the other games where both versions are available.
There’s a nice mix of games here already, but aside from these that will be released on the cart on November 13, NIS America is also promising eleven more titles coming on December 11 in the form of free DLC: Beast Busters (1989), Bermuda Triangle (1987), Chopper (1988), Fantasy (1981), Munch Mobile (1983), Paddle Mania (1988), Ozma Wars (1979), Sasuke vs. Commander (1980), SAR: Search and Rescue (1989), Time Soldiers (1987), and World Wars (1987). These releases are all arcade only. Most will be delivered automatically via patch on December 11, but Beast Busters and SAR: Search and Rescue will need to be downloaded manually from the eShop. It would be nice if all the games were available on the cart from the get-go, if for no other reason then I always worry “what about 10 years from now if the Switch eShop isn’t available anymore, and I don’t have the saves?”, but at least the games are coming, they are free, and there’s always hope that they will be bringing more. SNK has such a rich catalog of games that there’s more than enough for another entire collection (which might be the reason they aren’t all here!).
So, of course, the question is how well do the games play (for the purposes of this review, I will be focusing on the games available on the cart at release, as those are the ones available to me at the time of writing.)? Well, it depends on what you mean by that. These games play and sound as well now as they did when they were released. For each title (and each variation of each title), you are getting an experience as authentic as you would if you were standing in front of the cabinet dropping a quarter in (or popping the game into your NES). There is also the opportunity to save a state for each game (only one for each game) and rewind gameplay about 30 seconds or so to go back and redo something you might have messed up or would like to play again, both of which are a nice touch.
For the arcade titles, we get a smattering of options to choose from, such as difficulty level, number of lives, etc., but each one also has infinite credits, so you don’t need to worry about not being good at the games in order to do well (which is good, because SNK games tend to be HARD). The console titles give you everything the original releases did, including all options and cheat codes (yes, the ABBA continue code in the first Ikari Warriors still works). And like the Neo Geo became famous for in the 90s, SNK games of the era tended to stand out in the looks and sound department, and that is all preserved in this release. Visually, you can choose from three different display options: Smart Screen (which preserves the original size and aspect ratio), Full Screen (which zooms the game in, preserving the aspect ratio but vertically or horizontally fills the screen depending on the need of the game), and Stretch Screen (which literally fills the whole screen). I prefer the default Smart Screen as Stretch Screen looks distorted and Full Screen looks a little pixelated, and it also fills the blank space around the game with some concept art, giving us a pleasing aesthetic. I would guess most people will prefer Full Screen, however. You can also choose to turn the border off and play with the screen filter to change colors or add scanlines to replicate old CRT TVs and arcade monitors. So from a presentation stand-point, the games are great.
The other way to take that question is how well do these games hold up? The answer to that question really depends on your tastes and potentially how much you like older video games. Outside of Athena (which, honestly, was that ever considered good?), each of these games are good examples of their genres at the time, but they are all definitely products of a bygone era. The Ikari games and Guerilla War (which might as well be Ikari Warriors 4 for how it plays) are nice run-n-gun, Rambo-style games, while P.O.W. takes the Double Dragon-style beat-em-up genre to a prisoner-of-war camp. But there is a reason why Final Fight reinvented the beat-em-up genre: Double Dragon is a slow, repetitive game with a small moveset, which might be fine for a game or two, but tends to discourage replay. P.O.W. is similar in that vein. Final Fight took the basic ideas of that genre and expanded on them in almost every way so that it was almost unrecognizable from what came before. Contra and Metal Slug did the same for the run-n-gun genre. The games in this collection are a great look at history, but if you weren’t around for that history, you might find yourself struggling with some of them.
That said, there are some nice gems in this release. Street Smart might be a basic one-on-one fighter (in the vein of Street Fighter II or, more closely, Pit Fighter), but it plays smoothly, has a great presentation and variety of opponents, and leaves you with a good sense of satisfaction upon beating them. I hadn’t played Street Smart before this collection, but it’s a lot of fun travelling around the country and beating your eclectic challengers (though the fact that you collect women as trophies for your victories is something that might not fly as well today as it did in 1989). Prehistoric Isle is fun take on the shoot-em-up genre, but rather than an epic sci-fi adventure like R-Type, you are a biplane flying over an island inhabited by dinosaurs. This is actually a game that holds up really well as all of the modern conveniences like options, powered up weapons, and frenetic fighting are on great display.
And even the obsolete games can provide a lot of fun if you can accept them for the time-period they were released. One of the great things about SNK as a developer was that they always had some neat ideas for how to take an already existing concept and add a twist that made it their own. P.O.W. adds military weaponry such as grenades and machine guns to a genre that normally only gets as sophisticated as bats and knives for weapons (at least, weapons you can use). The three Ikari games, while similar in concept, all play very differently, with the last actually being more of a vertically scrolling beat-em-up rather than a run-n-gun. Add in the ability to hop into tanks and helicopters, and you get an interesting mashup of contemporary jungle run-n-guns like Commando and Rambo and vehicle ones like Iron Tank and T.N.K. III (both also in this collection). SNK’s tendency to challenge the norms of a genre are part of what makes them such a legendary game developer, and I think this collection does a great job of showing off many of those tendencies.
Of course, the real gem in this release is Crystalis. Released for the NES in 1990, this action RPG is well-beloved by many gamers but has been out-of-the-limelight for many years. Despite being in an era where classic games (particularly classic games from the NES) seemingly get re-released every other week on every platform possible, Crystalis saw an ill-received Game Boy Color port in 2000 and has otherwise been invisible. It never made it onto the Wii’s Virtual Console, it’s not part of the NES Classic, no Playstation Store, Steam, iOS, or Android releases, which is really odd considering its classic status. But this collection is finally bringing it back to the light.
Known as God Slayer in Japan, Crystalis is set 100 years after a global thermonuclear war literally bombed the world back to the dark ages, and technology has largely disappeared. But the evil Emperor Draygon is determined to rediscover the lost technology and use it to subdue the world, and it is up to you—a reawakened cryogenically frozen scientist from before the war—to travel the world and stop Draygon. Similarly to how Ikari combines elements from two different styles of run-n-gun games, Crystalis combines the gameplay of The Legend of Zelda with traditional RPG elements such as leveling up, spells, and elemental strengths and weaknesses. This might not seem like such a big deal now, but when Crystalis was originally released, this was pretty revolutionary, and the good news is that Crystalis holds up well. Unlike something like original Legend of Zelda, which many modern gamers find to be obtuse, or the old Final Fantasy or Dragon Warrior games, which can be seen as overly grindy and repetitive, Crystalis does a great job of taking what works in each and mashing them together, giving players a rich adventure to experience. Every other game in this collection will be something you will likely play casually and come back to when you want to kill twenty minutes, but Crystalis is a game to get immersed in and enjoy for probably 10-15 hours on a first playthrough.
Aside from the games, NIS America provides some great bonuses in game, too. For starters, each game has a video playthrough you can watch if you are stuck on a certain area, are looking for some gameplay ideas, or even if you just like to watch games being played (this includes a complete two-and-a-half hour playthrough of Crystalis—obviously this person knew what to do!). These aren’t speed runs or anything, but more designed to show how the average player can play and beat these games. Games that have both console and arcade versions provide videos for each version, though only for the U.S./World editions. This was a nice bonus I was not expecting.
The other bonus on the cart is a museum that provides a timeline of SNK’s complete game library from 1978-1990, including plenty of screenshots and information about the development, release, and play of each game. Like the games available to play, the timeline details arcade, console, and computer releases of each game. Aside from the timeline, there’s a bonus features section that has plenty of imagery including advertisements, concept art, a couple of issues of a fan newsletter SNK used to put out, and some arcade manuals. The stuff included in this section is not necessarily limited to just the games playable on this release but casts a bit of a wider net for a more comprehensive look at SNK’s work. Rounding out the on-cart museum are complete soundtracks for the arcade versions of each game on the cart (just try not to listen to the cheesy J-pop idol song from the first level of Psycho Soldier on loop!). As of this writing, there are only soundtracks available for the games releasing on November 13. The DLC game soundtracks are not available, though I assume that they will be added when the games are.
Additionally, there is also a limited-edition collector’s release for this title, which is only available to order from either SNK’s or NIS America’s online stores. If you decide to check this out, the set also comes with a hardcover art book, a series of art prints (one for each game on the original release), a two-disc CD soundtrack, and a collector’s box to keep it all in. For this review, I have only had access to a digital version of the game, and cannot attest to their quality, but it looks like a great set if you like that sort of thing.
As a final note, there have been a number of bugs reported in pre-release versions of the game that affect things like the audio and rewind functions in the game. I have not personally experienced any of these bugs, but NIS America promises a Day 1 patch for the game that will address these issues. In the patch, they are also going to provide more control options to add auto-fire capability to some games and offer the opportunity to simplify the controls in some of the games. For example, in the original arcade version of Ikari Warriors, you had a joystick and two buttons to move your characters, shoot, and throw grenades, but the joystick also rotated as well as moved in eight directions, and this is how you controlled which direction your character faced (so that you could ostensibly walk up but fire down, for example). For this release, they have replicated this scheme by using the left stick to control your character, the direction he fires with the right stick, and then shoot your gun and throw grenades with the ZL and ZR buttons. That provides a lot of precise control over your character, but it is also a lot to keep track of. So they are going to provide a “single-stick” mode for it and other games like it that will combine movement and direction into the left stick so that you are always facing the direction you are walking (like in the NES version). You have less control over your character that way, but it might be easier to play with. As of this writing, the Day 1 patch has not been released, so I cannot say how well these enhancements work, but they sound like a nice option to have.
In Summary:
The SNK 40th Anniversary Collection is a fun little collection. The inclusion of Crystalis is worth the price of admission alone, if for no other reason than its lack of availability otherwise. But for the most part, it’s going to be something that only real fans of old school arcade games will enjoy. The presentation is great, and all the games are replicated faithfully, but SNK has never skimped on the challenge and many of these titles are relics of previous eras of the genres they represent. Terrific examples of those eras, but previous eras nonetheless. Modern gamers with little interest in gaming history will find little here to keep their interest, but people like me who grew up on these games or otherwise have an appreciation for what gaming in the 80s looked like should find a lot to like in this collection. It would be nice if everything would be on the cart and not coming as DLC (even if said DLC is free), but at the same time, I can hope that perhaps there will be more DLC to follow as there are so many games I’d love to see on this collection (gimme the non-license challenged Fighting Golf!). Add in all the museum stuff, and there’s a lot for people like me to sink their teeth into, even more if you decide to invest in the Collector’s Edition. Outside of Crystalis, it’s not going to be a collection you’ll spend inordinate amounts of time with, but for short bursts of quick, casual gaming, there’s a lot to have fun with here. NIS America and SNK have done a wonderful job with this. Recommended.
Content Grade: B+
Graphics: A
Sound: A
Text/Translation Grade: N/A
Packaging Grade: N/A
Controls: A
Age Rating: T – Teen
Released By: NIS America
Release Date: November 13, 2018
MSRP: $39.99
HD Video Output: 1080p
Approximate Play Time: N/A
Replay Value: High
Review Equipment:
Nintendo Switch (w/HDMI Connection), TCL 40S305 40-Inch 1080p Roku Smart LED TV
