Game #1124: Neo Geo Pocket Color Selection Vol. 1

  The king of pocket fighters.

 

 The Neo Geo Pocket was a console I always wanted to own, ever since I first laid my eyes on SNK VS Capcom screenshots. The sprites looked cute, but badass in a way, and the game received praise everywhere. I was so happy the day I learned it could be emulated, and I played most of its relatively small game library this way. Neo Geo Pocket Color Selection Vol. 1 is a compilation of 10 games, 10 game which I think are the best the system has to offer, featuring most of its fighting games(I think only the first KoF pocket release is missing) and a few others in a neat little cart.

 So, as far as general goodies go, this compilation offers beautiful 3-D renditions of each of the game's boxes as well as of the Neo Geo Pocket cart. You can play every game in Color or B&W modes and you get most of the instruction booklet for every game. You can change between the NA and Japanese version of every game. There are no savestates, which is a bit disappointing, but there's a rewind feature... although it's a bit limited, as it can only go about a minute back in time, I think. It's an odd limitation, but it's not too bad. You can some of the game in multiplayer, each player holding a different joycon, since the screen gets doubled and turned 90 degrees so that players should face each other holding one end of system. I thought it was pretty ingenious.

Games:

SNK VS Capcom: The premiere fighting game in a system known for its fighters. The character roster is top notch, and considering the system only had two buttons, it works really well. One button punches and the other one kicks, depending on how long you press the button you'll either perform a weak or fierce punch/kick. You can battle in 1 vs 1, tag play or in KoF styled teams. It's amazing. The one problem with the game is how much time it takes to unlock all characters, as it will take you many, many playthroughs. And that taking into account that it was made easier than it was in the original release!

 The Last Blade: Sprites are a bit smaller than in SNK VS Capcom, but the controls are basically the same. It has most characters from TLB1 and 2, and after you finish the game with every character, Arcade Mode begins covering the TLB2 storyline! Unlocking characters is also a bit of a chore, but it's much, MUCH easier than in SNK VS Capcom. Just abuse the Rewind feature to score Perfects and amass a ton of points.

 Big Tournament Golf: For a golf game... it was pretty decent. I mean, it was nothing worth writing home about, but it kept my interest for a few minutes.

 Samurai Shodown: An adaptation of the Samurai Shodown 64 game. It's surprising how they kept the Slash/Bust versions of each character, as some characters even change their stance and not only their moves! Thankfully, there are no annoying hidden characters. It's decent, but I liked The Last Blade a bit more.

 King of Fighters R-2: It's similar to SNK VS Capcom, but limited to SNK characters. It was pretty fun.

 Metal Slug - The First Mission: Metal Slug but with a life bar and bit sized levels. It's a fun 2-D sidescrolling shooter, and you even get to pilot a plane and a tank.

 

 Metal Slug - The Second Mission: Very similar to the previous game, but adds a few more secondary weapons and a few submarine sections. It looks better and it's a bit longer, but I liked the first one better.

 SNK Gal Fighters: A bit kooky, a bit silly, but it's surprisingly fun. While it features some of the same sprites from KoF R-2 and SNK VS Capcom, characters have sillier movesets in this one. It's also the fastest-paced fighter in the cart, which made me an instant fan. I don't really like the concept, but I think that gameplay wise it's the best one, as I liked its speed.

 Fatal Fury: An adaptation of Real Bout 2, while it features the same sprite-style as SNK Gal Fighters, KoF and SNK VS Capcom, this one features a ton of characters exclusive to this one. And that's about it, it's similar to the aforementioned fighters, but sticks to 1 on 1 fighting.

 Dark Arms - Beast Buster: The only game in this cart I hadn't played before. Basically, you create different guns, which range from Punches, Fines, Proper handguns to doppelgangers and then you can evolve them, by feeding them capture enemies. There's a Pow/Stamina gauge for each weapon as a way to encourage you to switch your weapons, and there's also a day/night cycle, but what's truly staggering is how many weapons there are, and they can change a lot when they evolve. I feel like the capture system is a bit annoying, as using your guns kills monsters outright, so in order to capture them you must use a very weak peashooter instead of the guns you are building up. Still, overall, it was pretty good.

 And those are the 10 games featured in this cart. The biggest hurdle SNK has now is how to market the next collection, as I feel like these are the best games the system has to offer by far. As for the collection itself, every game in here is great, and while most of them are fighters, there's variety in here, there's even a Golfing game! 

 

 8.0