« Are Your Legs OK? Are You a Monkey? | Main | Where to buy NeoGeo Pocket Games »
Review : SNK NeoGeo Pocket Color and Games
As I previously mentioned the SNK NeoGeo Pocket Color and ten games are being re-released in a super limited run.
SNK with their NeoGeo Game system will forever have a special place in 2d video game players hearts. Their 12 year old NeoGeo arcade machines were the home to some of the best 2d games ever. I will venture to say that no company has been more faithful to 2d games than SNK not even Capcom. Capcom is slipping, Playmore/SNK is still making new 2d games.
Their arcade system served them well but the technology was aging and the company sought to diversify. In 1998 and 1999 they released the NeoGeo Pocket and NeoGeo Pocket Color in Japan. The black and white systems were quickly replaced with the NeoGeo Pocket Color.
Nintendo was still dominating the market with their follow up to the Gameboy, The Gameboy Pocket and the Gameboy Color. Nintendo had already beaten Atari with their Lynx, Sega with the Gamegear, and NEC with the Turbo Grafx Express. But the Gameboy Color represented a minimum upgrade to the weak and ancient Gameboy and they had already failed to replace it with the Nintendo Virtual Boy. It seamed it was entirely plausible for SNK to carve out a huge chunk of the market for themselves and beat Nintendo at their own game.
They actually had a really good chance and they did very well in designing and marketing the NeoGeo Pocket but they were doomed to failure by one game.
Pokemon
That damn game created a massive resurgence to the Nintendo Gameboy and drowned out the NeoGeo with cries of catching them all and Pikachu.
Pikachu and that prick Ash killed the NeoGeo Pocket... think about it.
SNK made a good hand held system that had pretty good specs at the time. The unit was roughly the same size of the Gameboy Color but a bit thicker. Rather than being vertical it was a wide design like the Gamegear and later the Gameboy Advance. Instead of having a gamepad it had a small joystick that had a good range of movement. The joystick is actually really slick and I would not be surprised if a similar design ends up being a part of future hand held systems like the Playstation Portable and the Gameboy Next.
It ran on two AA batteries and a watch battery to save the time and preferences. You could get 40 hours of play out of a single pair of AA batteries, not to shabby. The backside of the unit was nicely curved and it actually had stuff to hold on to rather than the Gameboy Color that felt like you were playing a bar of soap. It also had a option to link to the Sega Dreamcast to trade game data but only one game I know of actually really used it, Capcom VS SNK 1.
It had a pretty big color screen that was not back lit but still clearly playable in most light levels. It was a shame that Nintendo was not able to pull this off better in the Gameboy Advance.
It had a 16- bit Toshiba TLCS900H CPU running at 6.144 MHz , a sharp 160x152 screen , A pathetic 16 K for Ram and 4k for Sound Ram. The screen could pull of 16 palettes per plane, 48 palettes and 146 colors on screen out of 4096.
The backgrounds could look pretty good and the character animation could be good but there was a restriction to the colors that could be used in any given character. The sound chip was not that memorable and defiantly very 8-bit sounding.
The cartridges were smaller than the Gameboy and almost the size of the GBA but they were able to store four megs of cute animation and fighting goodness. SNK was able to get some good third party support including a Sonic game from Sega and damn good first party support. The best games were super deformed versions of their arcade 2d fighting games.
In order to really get what the games are you have to understand the Japanese phrase "Super Deformed". All things cute is worshiped in Japan. The work Kawaii is not quite the same as cute is in English. A Super Deformed or SD version of a character is a cute abstracted version of the character design. They are really short, the eyes are even bigger and they are more prone to cartoony action. Almost all the games for the NeoGeo Pocket are using Super Deformed abstractions of the more realistically drawn arcade games. It really works on a smaller screen with less memory. They are able to deliver a lot of animation and the fighters are instantly recognizable in a really tiny form.
Now on to the games that are included in this ultra limited re-release.
Pac-Man
The good news is that there is a arcade perfect version of Pac-Man for the NGP. The bad news is that it is just the first Pac-Man game with no Mrs. Pac-Man and no Pac-land. Ah well.
Neo Turf Masters
The Japanese love a good game of golf and like it even better if it is full of cute Kawaii players. It is a good accessible golf game but I am not crazy about the game of golf.
Puzzle Bobble Mini
One of the NeoGeo's most super addictive cracktacular non fighting games was Puzzle Bobble by Taito. It is also called Bust a Move in the US. Puzzle Bobble Mini is a fine portable version of one of the most addicting non-Tetris clone puzzle games. Fear it for it evil take control in the weak hearts of men.
Sonic The Hedgehog : Pocket Adventure
Sega was still probably a bit bitter about the death of the Gamegear so they made a really fine Sonic the Hedgehog game for the NeoGeo Pocket Color. SNK liked it so much that they bundled the game with the system in the US. The game design is based on Sonic 2 for Genesis and the graphics are better than the Gamegear but not as good as Sonic Advance for the GBA. I love Sonic and having this on the NeoGeo Pocket is a real gem. Kiwi would love it.
Metal Slug 1st Mission
Ahh Metal Slug. The almost perfect mixture of 2d side scrolling cartoon military action with the perfect amount of surreal gun violence. This is a new mini adventure that packs the same nitro punch of the arcade slaughterfest. It brings a smile to my face to know that there is a new Metal Slug game being made of the Gameboy advance, and the NeoGeo Arcade. Metal Slug mean surreal kawaii cute gun violence.
And that bring us to the fighting games. They are all super excellent in providing kick ass fighting game play with good animation but with smaller super cute graphics. This is where the NeoGeo Pocket really shines. I love the Super Deformed fighting games and I hope that we see them brought back on the Gameboy Advance.
Fatal Fury F-Contact
This is a based on the damn fine NeoGeo fighting arcade game and there is 100% the ass kicking with 200% cuter graphics. Terry and Mai Rules the game but if you are a NeoGeo freak you already knew that.
Last Blade
Last blade is a little known samurai sword fighting classic. Most gamers of the era know of Samurai showdown but Last Blade was among one of the last games made my SNK before they folded and sold shop. The NGP version kicks ass.
Samurai Shodown 2
Ahh Samurai Shodown. I love this game and the arcade game showed that there could be a lot more to a fighting game than ripping off Street Fighter. The timing and combos are perfect. I am over joyed to see that the are developing a new Samurai Showdown game for the arcade. Gabe of Penny Arcade is psychotically devoted to this game and the NGP version is all that and a bag of nuts. This version has some new fighters who have never been in any other game.
The King of Fighters R2
The King of Fighters has been a constant staple in Japanese arcades since 1994. There has been a new and updated KOF game every year since. 2003 has been the only exception but that is only because of SNK VS Capcom SVC Chaos is taking place of a KOF game this year. The NGP game is fast and furious with all the combos and fighting strategy that makes the big brother version sacred. The Kawaii version are to die for and I hope they keep making new KOF games every year until I die. There is really cool Super Deformed perspective in the animation of this game where the hands and feet get bigger when they are laying the smack down. It really reminded me of Capcom's Pocket Fighters.
And that brings us to the greatest hand held game ever made for any platform.
SNK vs Capcom : The Match of the Millennium
It is like two great tastes in one. I love it so much that I already reviewed it in it's entirety. It is so good that I am going to go take a break from writing this article to go play it. Tons of fighters perfect game play and wonderful art. If Playmore and Capcom ported this to Gameboy Advance right now they would have a blockbuster on their hands.
The NeoGeo Pocket is dead as a doornail. There is no plans to make new games or make another manufacturing run of the hardware. After this limited re-release the hardware and games will fade and only be found in emulation and eBay. SNK was consumed with debt and folded shop but sold their library to Playmore. Playmore has pulled a Ted Turner and has been doing good things with the intellectual property they purchased from SNK. They have commissioned all new games using the SNK library and later on this year gamers well be treated to new SNK games on a variety of platforms besides the NeoGeo Arcade. Hopefully the NeoGeo Pocket games will get professionally released in a collection or ported to Cellphones and other hand held systems.
I will be getting more portable game play out of this $120 worth of out of print games than on a more powerful Nokia- N-Gage. ( I don't plan on getting an N-Gage unless some one from Nokia gives me one.. hint hint. ) Why is it that a dead cheap game system can deliver better gaming than a $300 Java based cell phone or a $500 PDA? Despite it's relatively low power in the hardware SNK was able to make up for it in quality games and in the end that is what counts.
This is quite a find and I suggest that everyone who loves 2d games and finds a NeoGeo Pocket in this limited re-release that you pick it up without hesitation and delay. They are damn fine games and you will probably never get another chance.
Jake at August 19, 2003 
Reviews
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.8bitjoystick.com/cgi-bin/mtype/mt-tb.cgi/337
Comments
I still can't bring myself to play Pokemon despite all the acclaim, though it does show how Nintendo's always favored solid software over system specs.
In any case, the NGP looks cool and is brimming with nostalgia. Pretty cheap too.
Posted by: Trapp at August 19, 2003 6:37 AM
Pokémon was out in 1996 - a clear 3 years before the NGP. It was out at a time when there was nothing decent to buy on any other console and the hype surrounding Mew made it the success it is today.
Posted by: Matt at August 19, 2003 12:27 PM
The real fault with the NGP lies with ARUZE, the pachinko company that bought and quickly ruined SNK. Worth noting is that the copy of last blade in these packs is the NEVER RELEASED U.S. version. Check out the E.S.R.B. rating. fancy.
Posted by: Ian at August 19, 2003 9:48 PM
Tomorrow I am free and can call you when I get off work. so before 6:00
Posted by: Jake at August 20, 2003 10:04 AM
Dude I soooooo wanted one of those back in the day. It's a shame they had such a short stint. I need to upgrade my handheld right at the moment. I'm still the green & black GB going on over here. I wonder if the store near me has one? Hmmmmmm. I do have a trip comming up here soon & a Neo would be the ideal thing. Anyway thanks for the tip. (Oh yeah by the way Too broke for a GBA & hardly play handhelds as you can plainly see so out of date is cool with me).
Posted by: Rick at August 20, 2003 8:41 PM
I have a neogeo pocket and SNK's handheld sytem is great! It's a shame neogeo pocket is dead now
considering it has great titles, especially from
Japan and Europe. Games like Cotton, Evolution,
cool boaders pocket are great too. There's even a english copy of Cotton from www.telegames.co.uk
but only accept GBP 60.90 and i'm still looking for games for the system!
Posted by: Eric Brown at November 24, 2003 2:37 PM
The NGCP rules, I only wish it could have lasted long enough to get us Rockman Battle & Fighters, and maybe a Sonic Pocket Advenure 2.
Posted by: Kenta at August 26, 2005 5:02 PM
just ordered a NGPC off of www.japangamestock.com hopefully I will get it soon!
Posted by: Nick944 at August 6, 2007 11:02 AM
