SNK ARCADE CLASSICS Volume 1

In a bar in a dangerous district in Tokyo, a muscular man steps into a bar filled with gang members and proceeds to break a bottle over the heads of anyone dumb enough to attack him. Half way across the world in Brazil, an attractive and very busty young woman is locked in battle with a mercenary that wishes to win the underground fighting competition. Deep in an unknown jungle, a lone soldier fights off waves of enemy soldiers with but a handful of grenades and a machine gun while in space a fighter ship helps defend our planet. These scenarios are but a small taste of what you’ll expect from the compilation of classic games found in SNK Arcade Classics Vol. 1 for the PlayStation 2.

Anyone who has spent a great deal of time plunking down quarters into a Neo-Geo arcade cabinet will easily remember most of these classics while a few others that have long been forgotten will bring back some fond (as well as not-so fond) memories. The original Metal Slug will be one of these games you will remember fondly and it’s followed closely by the fighting game classic, The King of Fighters ‘94 as well as Fatal Fury. There are also a few games that have finally resurfaces such as Top Hunter, Shock Troopers and the forgotten King of the Monsters. Whether you like a fighting game, a shooter or even a sports game, this collection delivers the goods … 16 to be exact.

The fighting games are composed of the aforementioned The King of the Fighters ‘94 as well as Fatal Fury but the collection also includes the 1992 arcade classic Art of Fighting and the 1991 classic Burning Fight. Samurai Shodown returns with its sword and blade fighting one-on-one battles as well as the vicious fighting tournament that is World Heroes. The collection even includes the awful King of the Monsters - a game where massive monsters turn various cities in Japan into their own personal wrestling ring. While Burning Fight and Fatal Fury (the game where you try to rescue your sister from street punks) feel the same, these arcade games are actual the more fun to play. There’s nothing wrong with The King of Fighters ‘94 but on a technical level, Fatal Fury is just plain awful thanks to framerate and control issues.

Sadly, some of the side-scrolling shooters suffer from the same dip in framerate. The controls are better for games like the Commando-inspired Shock Troopers and the forgotten sword-slashing Sengoku. I was once again happy to see the forgotten gem that is Top Hunter (a funny little shooter featuring bounty hunters Roddy and Cathy). Magician Lord is also one of those retro classics that haven’t been seen in awhile and the game is still good fun. The 1992 classic Last Resort can also be found here and the game - where you fly a fighter ship in space - holds up rather well. Metal Slug has been seen before in SNK’s other compilation - Metal Slug Anthology - and so it’s not surprising to see that the game is still fun even today.

 
Bad Action Movie Idea #25: Forest Gump II: Fight Forest Fight!

There are also sports games in the collection that include everything from baseball, soccer and even golf. Of the sports titles available, Super Sidekicks 3 are, by far, still one fun arcade version of soccer. The game comes complete with a short number of countries but a generous list of tournament modes whether you want to play for a South American Cup or for the World Cup. Neo Turf Masters is a golf game that might not be as deep as recent golf games but it does the trick nicely back then and is still fun today. Unfortunately, I got very little fun out of Baseball Stars 2 and time has not been kind to the awkward gameplay.

As I mentioned, a good majority of the games run into some framerate issues and the lengthy load times are just plain ridiculous. Another element that just doesn’t work is the fact that the game provides goals you will have to meet for each game to unlock that game’s extras. It’s fine if the unlockable goodies are artwork and videos but this game has you unlocking special moves for games like Samurai Shodown or The King of the Fighters ‘94. At least the collection features multiplayer modes for each of the games and the budget price is also an appealing factor.

Visually, most of the games are colorfully retro and the characters and backgrounds will be sure to bring back memories. Certain games do look better than others so expect some visual highlights (Metal Slug) and some not so pretty (Sengoku). There are also games with animated cut scenes that were good back in the day but look rather funny now.

 
“Um, it’s Ok, kids. The red stuff coming out of him is Strawberry Quick. Yeah, that’s it.”

As far as the music is concerned, some games have some rather catchy tunes while only a few of them will have you turning down the volume. The rest of the game’s sound - depending on the games - is handled the way you would expect a retro classic to sound like and some of it is actually good. Then again, at the time, the attempt at voice work is still quite hilarious. I mean, you can never really make out what many of the fighters in The King of Fighters ‘94 say and don’t even try to understand what brawlers in Art of Fighting say when you pick a character.

The first volume in the SNK Arcade Classics compilation series for the PlayStation 2 is filled with juicy classics that don’t run as smoothly as they should on this console. Some of these classics are still very fun to play while a few others haven’t aged very well so expect some hits as well as a few misses in this collection. Still, if you’re a fan of retro gaming, you might just want to give this one a try as a rental. If, however, you have fond memories of most of the games, you will probably want to give this one a good home among your collection seeing as the budget price is just right.

Gameplay: 6.9
Games like Shock Troopers and Metal Slug will bring back very good memories while duds like King of the Monsters and Baseball Stars 2 will give you pixilated nightmares. Sadly, the worst part is that the games run into some framerate issues that have no places on the PlayStation 2.

Graphics: 7.0
Some games look quite lovely in a retro kind of way and other timeless games still look as good as they did back in the day. The more colorful games will definitely stand out in this one.

Sound: 7.0
Fans of many of these classics will fondly remember the King of the Fighters ‘94 sound effects or the music that plays during Metal Slug. The attempts at voice clips are embarrassingly bad, though, and some music can be way too cheesy at times.

Difficulty: Medium/Hard
Expect the fighting games to be frustratingly difficult and the shooters to be extremely challenging. Even the sports games will give you quite a workout. The good news is that playing along side a friend in the games that offer co-op will help.

Concept: 7.0
Many old-school gamers will remember a good majority of these SNK games while newer gamers have probably played one of these thanks to past compilation releases like the recent Metal Slug Anthology or Fatal Fury: Battle Archives collections. It’s good to see forgotten gems like Super Sidekicks 3 or Top Hunter.

Multiplayer: 7.0
A friend can join you at any time in most of the games and it’s always great to have somebody lend you a hand in games like Top Hunter or Shock Troopers. You can even go up against a friend in the fighting and sports games.

Overall: 6.9
SNK Arcade Classics Vol. 1 brings us a hearty collection that isn’t bad at all but it’s just not presented as good as it should have been considering the console’s track record of doing justice to other classics. In other words, while not all of these games are winners, they should at least run without framerate stutter or unnecessary slowdowns. Still, many of these games will provide gamers with some fun times.