{"id":18586,"date":"2019-01-04T00:01:05","date_gmt":"2019-01-04T00:01:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/?p=18586"},"modified":"2018-12-18T20:08:34","modified_gmt":"2018-12-18T20:08:34","slug":"the-games-of-the-snk-40th-anniversary-collection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/2019\/01\/04\/the-games-of-the-snk-40th-anniversary-collection\/","title":{"rendered":"The Games of the SNK 40th Anniversary Collection"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>NIS America recently released a collection of some of SNK\u2019s arcade hits on the Switch.\u00a0 While SNK is mostly known for their fighting games and NEO GEO, before then they made other arcade games, too, and that\u2019s what this collection is all about.\u00a0 So no King of Fighters or other NEO GEO games.\u00a0 Mostly pre-90\u2019s stuff here.\u00a0 But despite having a lot of army themed shooters, this is still a pretty good collection, so I thought I\u2019d go over the games on it today.<\/p>\n

Before I start, I wanted to say that I got the special edition of this game, so here\u2019s G.P. the GamerPuppet showing off what was inside.\u00a0 You got the game, an art book with developer diaries on many of the games, a soundtrack with way too many versions of Psycho Soldier for my taste, and some postcards.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

One neat little detail about the box is that there is printing on the inside, too!\u00a0 As someone who used to work in printing, I know how expensive that is!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

So you can choose to play the games or watch a demo.\u00a0 You can also rewind and save your games, too!\u00a0 There is also a history section where you can view art and screens of nearly every game in SNK\u2019s arcade pre-NEO GEO library, and they even have information I didn\u2019t know about and it was different than what was in the art book!\u00a0 Very impressive.\u00a0 Only problem is the game is a bit buggy and would reset on me a couple of times, but only in the menus (so far).\u00a0 Also, about half the games on this collection were considered DLC, but they just appeared in a software update and they were all free.\u00a0 So it\u2019s all good, but kind of weird they did it that way.\u00a0 Anyway, so let\u2019s take a look at the games on this list.<\/p>\n

Alpha Mission<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is a generic vertically scrolling space shooter where you shoot both ground and air targets.\u00a0 It was clearly trying to copy the popularity of other games like Star Force and Xevious.\u00a0 It also had a weird power-up (and power-down) system using letters of the alphabet that they would also put in later games.\u00a0 In Japan the game was called ASO, or Armored Scrum Object.\u00a0 Yeah I think we got the better name.\u00a0 I know that was what it was called in Japan because you can play the US and Japanese versions of many of these arcade games!\u00a0 On some games, you can even play the NES version! \u00a0Including this one!\u00a0 It\u2019s amazing to see how bad the NES versions are compared to their arcade counterparts.\u00a0 When my brother Jeff saw some of these games, he understood better why I preferred arcade games over the NES back in the day.\u00a0 I remember Alpha Mission pretty well, because not only was it at the local Pizza Inn near my house, one of my best friends had the NES version for some reason.\u00a0 So I played it a lot.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know if where I live in Texas had a good SNK distributor, but I remember a lot of the games on this collection.\u00a0 But when I talk with some people from other parts of the country, they don\u2019t have as many memories of SNK games.\u00a0 Later, SNK would release Alpha Mission 2 on the NEO GEO.<\/p>\n

Bermuda Triangle<\/strong><\/p>\n

Speaking of sequels, this game claims it\u2019s a sequel\/spinoff to Alpha Mission.\u00a0 They say the ship from Alpha Mission went back in time for this game, and they use the name \u201cAlpha Mission\u201d in the voices, but other than that, it\u2019s not too much related.\u00a0 The ship doesn\u2019t even look the same.\u00a0 Your ship is so big on screen that it\u2019s hard to avoid things, but luckily you can take multiple hits.\u00a0 Otherwise it\u2019s just another vertically scrolling shooter with backgrounds from different time periods.<\/p>\n

World Wars<\/strong><\/p>\n

They also claim this is a sequel to Bermuda Triangle, since it came out shortly thereafter.\u00a0 It uses a lot of the same music and voices.\u00a0 Seems like they took the lazy way out, but a lot of arcade game makers did this back in the day.\u00a0 Even my favorite company Namco did this with games like New Rally-X and Assault Plus.\u00a0 Your ship is smaller, but can only take one hit.\u00a0 Instead of going through time periods, you travel around the world.<\/p>\n

Chopper 1<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yet another vertically scrolling shooter, this one featuring a lot of helicopters.\u00a0 The graphics are pretty good for the time, but you die in one hit and lose all your power-ups and get sent back in the stage a bit, so it\u2019s pretty hard.<\/p>\n

Crystalis<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is actually just a NES game.\u00a0 It\u2019s an action RPG with an overhead perspective, like Zelda or Secret of Mana and has a post-apocalyptic setting.\u00a0 I\u2019ve heard it\u2019s pretty good.\u00a0 I never played much of it myself.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t available to rent at the local video places when I was a kid, and it was too expensive to buy.\u00a0 It also came out pretty late in the NES lifecycle, but it\u2019s still pretty popular among fans and that\u2019s why I\u2019m sure they included it here.\u00a0 I\u2019d like to sink my teeth into it, but I don\u2019t have time right now and it\u2019s hard to fiddle with NES style menus and things.\u00a0 You can play the Japanese version of this game, too.\u00a0 It\u2019s called God Slayer over there.\u00a0 I can understand why they changed the name for the US.<\/p>\n

Fantasy<\/strong><\/p>\n

For a 1981 arcade game, this one is pretty ambitious.\u00a0 You play as a guy trying to save your girl from pirates, and must go through several screens to do so.\u00a0 Some areas are like vertically scrolling shooters, some are like overhead mazes, and some are Donkey Kong platform challenges.\u00a0 I love the voice work.\u00a0 You start on an island and the guy says to the girl, \u201cHello, how are you?\u201d and she replies, \u201cI\u2019m fine, thank you.\u201d\u00a0 And then pirates come to take her and she says, \u201cAAAAA!\u201d\u00a0 Unfortunately I couldn\u2019t get past the first screen where you try to land your balloon on the pirate ship.\u00a0 It\u2019s impossible to avoid the cannon fire!\u00a0 So if you want to hear more about the game, just look for it on YouTube.\u00a0 I don\u2019t ever really remember seeing this game in arcades at all.<\/p>\n

Ozma Wars<\/strong><\/p>\n

When Space Invaders first came out, it was very popular and many arcade parlors would just have rows and rows of that same game.\u00a0 Other companies tried to copy cat that game, and this is SNK\u2019s entry.\u00a0 You shoot different kinds of spaceships that come toward you.\u00a0 You can also shoot a comet at one point and then try and shoot a giant orb that fires tons of missiles at you that are impossible to avoid.\u00a0 You also refuel from a ship that looks like the one in Space Battleship Yamato (Star Blazers in the US).\u00a0 The worst thing is the annoying siren sound they play in the background!\u00a0 Ugh!<\/p>\n

Vanguard<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is another old shooter.\u00a0 You are a spaceship scrolling forward to the right, but sometimes you can move diagonal and upward as well.\u00a0 You can fire in four directions, but your ship always stays in the same position.\u00a0 It\u2019s impossible to avoid some of the enemies, though.\u00a0 It kind of reminds me of Defender, but gameplay wise it\u2019s closer to Konami\u2019s Scramble.\u00a0 I don\u2019t remember this game much in arcades, but apparently it was popular enough to get a lot of home ports on consoles at the time.\u00a0 I think there was one on the 2600, and even the Vectrex got a port!<\/p>\n

Sasuke vs. Commander<\/strong><\/p>\n

This early shooter reminds me of Galaxian, but instead of a space setting, you must shoot ninjas who are jumping from tree to tree.\u00a0 Not only must you avoid their ninja stars, when you shoot them they fall, and you must avoid their falling corpses, too!\u00a0 It\u2019s amazing how a simple, tired space shooter can feel fresh with a new setting.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think this game ever came out in the US, but I\u2019m surprised it didn\u2019t considering how popular cheesy ninja movies were in the 80\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Prehistoric Isle in 1930<\/strong><\/p>\n

And speaking of generic shooters that seem fresh because of a new coat of paint, here\u2019s a horizontally scrolling one that\u2019s not set in space, but has you fly biplanes and shoot dinosaurs on a lost island instead of aliens!\u00a0 You shoot a lot of pterodactyls and cavemen (who latch onto your plane and pull it down), and the bosses are real dinosaurs and they even give you their name!\u00a0 For some reason, this game always stuck out in my mind to me.\u00a0 At the time I remember thinking how amazing the graphics looked, and I usually only played it at the basement floor of the West End Mall in Dallas.\u00a0 The whole bottom floor was a Tilt arcade!\u00a0 I loved that place.\u00a0 They made a Prehistoric Isle 2 on the NEO GEO set in more modern times.\u00a0 You flew helicopters but still shot at dinosaurs!<\/p>\n

Paddle Mania<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is kind of a cross between tennis and air hockey.\u00a0 You view the field in an overhead perspective and use the left stick to move and the right one to swing your racket left and right to hit the ball.\u00a0 If you can get it past the opponent\u2019s goal, you score a point.\u00a0 It\u2019s really only fun with two players, though.\u00a0 I THINK I kind of remember this game in arcades, but Data East would later perfect this idea with WindJammers on the NEO GEO.<\/p>\n

Munch Mobile<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m so glad they put this game on here.\u00a0 I\u2019ve always wanted to play it more often.\u00a0 In the game you are a cartoony car with eyes and drive on a road in an overhead perspective.\u00a0 You must steer left and right to avoid crashing.\u00a0 But you use the right stick to stretch out an arm left or right to grab fruit and other bonus items.\u00a0 Then you must move the arm back in so the car can \u2018eat\u2019 the food to refuel.\u00a0 After that, you can extend the arm back out to dump the trash (apple core, fish bones) in wastebaskets for points.\u00a0 The game was called Joyful Road in Japan.\u00a0 I never heard of this game until I saw it on the game show Starcade as a kid.\u00a0 Only place I ever saw it was at a sit-down-and-eat pizza place (remember those) called Crystal\u2019s Pizza.\u00a0 Only problems I had with the game is that if you\u2019re just one pixel off the road, you crash, and the hit detection on grabbing the fruit is iffy, too.\u00a0 Still, this has always been such an intriguing game for me for some reason.\u00a0 And I\u2019m not just the only one.\u00a0 When I showed it to my brother Jeff, he was very interested in it, too!<\/p>\n

Athena<\/strong><\/p>\n

In this 2-D platformer, you play as bikini-clad cutie Athena, who beats up monsters and giant trees.\u00a0 You can collect armor to help you out.\u00a0 Shoes let you jump high, armor and shields let you take hits, a helmet that can let you bash blocks from above, and different weapons.\u00a0 I never really liked this game much.\u00a0 Although the NES version isn\u2019t THAT bad and far from the arcade, after playing it on this collection, too.\u00a0 If the name Athena sounds familiar when associated with SNK, there\u2019s a reason for that.<\/p>\n

Psycho Soldier<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is supposed to be the sequel to Athena.\u00a0 You play as her distant decedent: Athena Asamiya, a Japanese schoolgirl with psychic powers.\u00a0 If she sounds familiar to you and you\u2019ve played King of Fighters games, she\u2019s also in most of those along with Psycho Soldier\u2019s player two character: Sie Kensou.\u00a0 You can play as the original Athena in some of SNK\u2019s other crossover fighters.\u00a0 Psycho Soldier is a horizontally scrolling shooter where you jump from four platforms to move up and down.\u00a0 If you\u2019ve ever played Capcom\u2019s earlier game SonSon, this game is almost just like it.\u00a0 Psycho Soldier is most notable for being the first arcade game with a theme song with vocals.\u00a0 They play it on the first stage.\u00a0 Give it a listen on the Internet sometime if you\u2019re curious.\u00a0 It\u2019s so bad!\u00a0 I never saw this game in arcades as a kid, but many years later after I graduated college, my friends and I were driving around looking for rare arcade games (yeah we were wild and crazy), and we found a Psycho Soldier arcade machine in a laundromat!<\/p>\n

TNK III<\/strong><\/p>\n

This game is known as Tank in Japan.\u00a0 This game started SNK\u2019s trend of army war shooter themed games, which we\u2019ll go over below.\u00a0 You drive around a tank and can move and shoot in different directions.\u00a0 They claim this game is the predecessor to Ikari Warriors, and the tank in it is driven by the same character: Clark Jones.\u00a0 But he never leaves the tank so you don\u2019t really know.\u00a0 Supposedly this game was a hit and saved SNK from bankruptcy.<\/p>\n

Iron Tank<\/strong><\/p>\n

Also known as Great Tank in Japan.\u00a0 Usually on this collection they put the NES version in the same spot as the arcade version, but this one got its own slot even though it\u2019s just an updated and reworked version of TNKIII.\u00a0 But since it was built from the ground up for the NES, it\u2019s not as bad as some of the other NES games on this collection.\u00a0 I love how the soldiers you can shoot and run over are all cutesy squatty chibi marshmallow guys.<\/p>\n

Ikari Warriors<\/strong><\/p>\n

At least as far in my neck of the woods, Ikari Warriors was super popular.\u00a0 It was in all the arcades, and my friend\u2019s neighbor had it on his computer so we played it a lot there, as well as the NES version.\u00a0 It\u2019s another army themed shooter in a jungle setting and was clearly inspired by popular movies at the time, like Rambo.\u00a0 You play as Ralf or Clark (Paul and Vince in the US), and shoot army guys on foot and can also climb into tanks.\u00a0 People say Capcom\u2019s Commando was the game that really started the whole army game craze, but Ikari Warriors is the one I remember most.\u00a0 SNK still uses Ralf and Clark in their more modern games like King of Fighters and Metal Slug.\u00a0 The NES version is on this collection, too, but it\u2019s awful.\u00a0 I hear it was programmed by an outside company, the same one who did a lot of Capcom\u2019s early NES games and they were notable for not being very good at what they did.<\/p>\n

Ikari Warriors 2: Victory Road<\/strong><\/p>\n

This was a total departure because instead of a jungle setting, you\u2019re plunged into an alternate fantasy world where you fight goblins and monsters instead of soldiers.\u00a0 Instead of guns and tanks, you get weapons like swords and metal armor.\u00a0 I guess it was inspired by the other type of popular movies in the 80\u2019s: fantasy films.\u00a0 But you still play as Ralf and Clark.\u00a0 I read that they made this game and Ikari Warriors two player games because at this time, Japan made laws to close arcades earlier, and they wanted to make two player games to double the revenue. \u00a0Victory Road has exceptional voice work for the time, and it\u2019s very clear.\u00a0 The arcade version of this game was at the front of our local Wal-Mart for a while when I was a kid, so I\u2019m pretty familiar with it.\u00a0 The NES version is on here, too.\u00a0 It\u2019s a little better than the first game on the NES, but not by much.<\/p>\n

Ikari 3: The Rescue<\/strong><\/p>\n

This one came out a few years after the other Ikari games, so I was surprised when I first saw it in an arcade.\u00a0 The graphics are vastly improved and I thought they looked awesome at the time.\u00a0 This game is really more of an overhead beat \u2018em up than a shooter, as you rely more on your fists and feet than guns.\u00a0 You still play as Ralf and Clark, and the setting is a return to the first, more of a realistic military in the jungle setting.\u00a0 The NES version is on here as well.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t know there was a NES version.\u00a0 As it was released late in the NES lifecycle, the graphics look great and the 8-bit soundtrack is rockin\u2019!\u00a0 It\u2019s a little different from the arcade, too.\u00a0 Unfortunately, it\u2019s not as fun as enemies hop and bop around like they\u2019re in a pinball machine, so it\u2019s hard to hit them!<\/p>\n

Guerilla War<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is pretty much a spiritual successor to Ikari Warriors.\u00a0 It plays the same, just with different characters.\u00a0 I remember seeing it in arcades a lot.\u00a0 Did you know that in Japan, the main characters in this game are real life dictators like Fidel Castro, and they are going on a murderous rampage to save their countries?\u00a0 Yeah, it\u2019s crazy, but true.\u00a0 Naturally they changed things for the US.\u00a0 The NES version is on here, too.\u00a0 Surprisingly, it plays way faster than the arcade version!<\/p>\n

P.O.W.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is another army themed game, but instead of a shooter it plays like an early side scrolling beat \u2018em up, similar to Double Dragon.\u00a0 I remember it being fairly popular in arcades and on the NES.\u00a0 The NES version is on here, too, and aside from lesser graphics, it plays pretty much the same.<\/p>\n

Time Soldiers<\/strong><\/p>\n

This could\u2019ve been a Ikari sequel but it\u2019s not.\u00a0 It plays the same, though.\u00a0 You travel to different time periods to save your friends.\u00a0 It\u2019s also non-linear as you can go through different time portals in the levels.\u00a0 You can go to WWII times, prehistoric, ancient Rome, and more.\u00a0 Not sure how dinosaurs could fire missiles or how the Romans got a hold of a three headed dragon, but oh well.\u00a0 At first I didn\u2019t remember this one, but after playing it, I do remember it in arcades after all.\u00a0 In Japan the game is known as Battle Field.\u00a0 I think the US name is a bit more descriptive.<\/p>\n

Street Smart<\/strong><\/p>\n

And last is SNK\u2019s first fighting game!\u00a0 It\u2019s also one of their last arcade games before they would start using their NEO GEO hardware.\u00a0 In later SNK fighters, they were known for good characters designs, but not here.\u00a0 You just play as either a generic karate man or wrestler and fight other generic brawlers.\u00a0 In two player mode you work together to fight the CPU, and then you fight each other for the affection of a 16-bit babe who tells you congratulations.\u00a0 The losers are picked up in an ambulance that says SNK Hospital on it.\u00a0 I\u2019m sure that\u2019s an interesting place.\u00a0 I wonder if the generic characters and settings were later embellished upon in their later fighters?<\/p>\n

And those are all the games on the SNK 40th<\/sup> Anniversary Collection.\u00a0 I only wish they included more games like Marvin\u2019s Maze.\u00a0 What are your favorite SNK games and characters?\u00a0 My favorite SNK games are Neo Mr. Do! on the NEO GEO and SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters Clash on the NEO GEO Pocket Color.\u00a0 I\u2019ll let you try and guess my favorite characters.\u00a0 The first is a dog in the Samurai Shodown games, and the other character is a blue haired army lady who is on the Ikari Warriors team.\u00a0 And that\u2019s all for now!\u00a0 Later!\u00a0 –Cary<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NIS America recently released a collection of some of SNK\u2019s arcade hits on the Switch.\u00a0 While SNK is mostly known for their fighting games and NEO GEO, before then they made other arcade games, too, and that\u2019s what this collection is all about.\u00a0 So no King of Fighters or other NEO GEO games.\u00a0 Mostly pre-90\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":18559,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18586"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18586\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18588,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18586\/revisions\/18588"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}