Neo Geo Arcade Classics Vol 1 for the PS2 is the few physical media for the neo geo that exists, unless you have a Scrooge McDuck bank on getting legit neo geo games. When I got the game it was 25 dollars which is pretty steep for me on getting any PS2 game, but this was a game I’ve been looking for since I love compilation games. Neo Geo games are so stupidly expensive, I learned that the person who I got it from was a neo geo collector and sold off his collection due to frustration. I would get it when the cheapest neo geo game is 100+ dollars. It consists of 16 neo geo games which is a pretty big size of games for a 6th generation compilation disk. One odd thing about it being Volume 1 is that they never made a 2nd volume for this supposive series. Pretty odd that they don’t put out much accessible physical media for the neo geo...like cmon SNK...alright lets get in the meat and potatoes here:
We got Metal Slug one of the big boys for SNK, Shock Troopers a great top down shooter, Magician Lord a tough as shitbricks 2D platformer with relentless enemys, Neo Turf Masters a pretty casual golf game that makes me rage quit in the middle of a 18 hole, Top Hunter a 2 planed 2D platformer with elasticgirl punches and a metal slug 001 wannabe, Baseball Stars a ok baseball game, The King of Fighters ‘94 another staple for SNK, King of the Monsters a pretty sick beat em up on killing aliens, Sengoku another brawler where you transform your Michael Jackson self into various ghosts of samurais or okamis, it’s a dynamic list to choose from.
The extras you can find in the game consist of art work, medals which consist of beating it from easy to beating metal slug with just the knife, unlocking move combinations for the 2D fighting games, and that’s about it. So the bonuses fall flat here, but it’s not a turnoff. If you get turned off because you don’t know Mai Shiranui’s scissor kick because you want to see that 1 frame of her crouch, then don’t be. The way they emulated these games are straight from either the home console or the ADS arcade boards because the neo geo start up has different tunes for specific games, kinda weird how I noticed that since they sound near identical but pretty neat thing that they do have different jingles. Overall I give it a play out of 10, if you find it I recommend it. If you like signature styled 90s arcade games as classic as SNK’s legacy, this is the game to play.