NeoGeo Battle Colliseum

With only a few titles released on the consoles every year, the fighting genre has been quite stagnant as of late.  Even the handhelds are only seeing a select amount of games being developed, so it’s no surprise that when a new fighter is published -- that being if it isn’t a port of a game from the early ‘90’s -- there’s always a rising hope that it could spark an interest in the genre again among casual gamers.

Developed by SNK Playmore, NeoGeo Battle Coliseum had a reputation for itself before ever being released.  Based around the simple premise of tag-team brawling -- as previously seen in SVC Chaos: SNK vs. Capcom -- NGBC has a lot going for it that should attract NeoGeo and SNK fans to come out of the woodwork.  Perhaps the biggest reason to pick up NGBC is for the awesome character selection provided.  So without further ado, let’s discuss the primary reason to buy the game.

For the character selection, NeoGeo Battle Coliseum offers a wide selection of interesting individuals to choose from.  There’s no doubt that with over thirteen games represented that all eyes are on the characters.  Here’s a quick rundown of a few titles that may draw some interest including: The King of Fighters, Fatal Fury, The Art of Fighting, Garou: Mark of the Wolves, World Heroes, Samurai Showdown, Metal Slug, King of the Monsters, and The Last Blade.  With over 40 plus characters featured in the game, players can expect to take control of many of the usual suspects such as: Terry Bogard, Gesse Howard, and Kyo Kusanagi.  The character selection alone should attract several SNK Playmore fans to NeoGeo Battle Coliseum.  It gets even better with the simple fact that the majority of the characters are selectable right from the get-go.

Now, there wouldn’t be any use of having a diverse amount of characters in a game if there weren’t game modes to use them in.  There are three main game modes found: Arcade, Tag, and Survival.  Unfortunately, there’s not enough to distinguish them apart due to all of them sharing a lot of similarities.  The main objective in the Arcade and Tag mode is to take two of your favorite characters into one of the modes and fight the onslaught of characters until you reach the boss at the end.  The only difference between the two is that Arcade allows you to use up both of your fighter’s health bars while the Tag mode matches end if one of your fighters goes down for the count.  As for Survival mode, it’s the same game mode what players should have come to expect in every fighting game – running through a gauntlet against fighters until you reach a boss.  The only twist is that Survival lasts up to 300 seconds and then the boss battle ensues.  Beat the boss, and you’ll claim victory over the Survival mode.

Oddly enough, non-existent to NeoGeo Battle Coliseum is a storyline.  The only real purpose of playing NGBC is to try out all the fighters, but after finishing that, NGBC becomes a quick 15 minute fix to cure any itch you have to pick up the controller again and brawl.  With the lack of replay value, the only salvation for players who want to get more out of NGBC is to invite their friends over for multiplayer.  The multiplayer is found only through offline, so you won’t be checking online for combatants to compete against.  If you have friends, then make sure to invite them over; with the simple pressing of the start button, they’ll be able to jump in at any time.

Moving on, the combat found in NGBC is as addictive as any other SNK Playmore title.  Characters can be switched in and out in real-time with the character sitting out gaining lost health.  If you have ever played any of Capcom’s “VS.” titles, then you’ll know where the gameplay originates from.  The fluidity of changing partners on the fly is superb and didn’t slow down the mechanic of fighting opponents.  On top of that, the computer A.I. puts up a good fight for the most part as it does become increasingly more difficult as the game progresses.

There’s of course the high quality moves to pull off that will require some skill on behalf of the player.  If you have ever played a fighter then you should have come to expect throws, long excruciating combos, counter-attacks and several other standard features found in the fighting genre.  There’s even power/special moves added in which are accessible in certain situations such as when someone is hit with a hard blow or has their move charging up while waiting to jump into battle. The power moves help change the tide of the fights in dire moments.  While the list of moves is extravagant, many of the characters share similar moves.

For the visuals, NGBC is on par with what I expected.  With static environments and a few effects added in for good measure, the environments are on par with any other 2D fighter.  The character sprites are prettier than I first imagined, but they could have been detailed a little better since they haven’t aged that well.  So while the look of NGBC is outdated, it’s still passable.  Lastly, the audio is average with a predictable techno soundtrack that may in fact annoy everyone. 
 

Gameplay: 6.4

I am sure people have played a SNK title or even a Capcom fighter in the past to expect what a 2D fighter has to offer.

Graphics: 6.1

The loading times are horrendous!  The developers need to rework the programming to cut down these load times in the future.

Sound: 5.5

With a generic techno soundtrack, the audio isn’t going to change lives.  I had to mute it at times to keep myself from turning the game off.

Difficulty: Medium

The bosses are cheap, so the difficulty lies in the middle of the road.

Concept: 7.0

The ability to play with all these characters is the highest selling point of NeoGeo Battle Coliseum.

Multiplayer: 6.0

With no online play, this fighter isn’t anything special.

Overall: 6.1

The biggest attraction to NeoGeo Battle Coliseum is the character selection, but everything else is below average.  With not much to offer outside of a laundry list of fan favorite fighters, NGBC is catered towards die-hard fans only.