The Official NEO-GEO Thread!

[+Charlie Cat]

 

Fascinating- and especially that it is "only" listed at $4,000! I first heard about that title on Racketboy's (now grossly out of date) article on the subject:

 

http://www.racketboy.com/retro/snkneo-geo/the-rarest-and-most-valuable-neo-geo-games

 

Factoring in seller's fees to Ebay and it is almost as if whoever posted that auction actually used the Racketboy pricing. Perhaps they did...

 

Can't argue with that about Quiz Chibi. The last time I saw it on ebay was $7000. The Racketboy article is nice with the rarest Neo-Geo games. Thanks for posting.

 

The KOF 2000 English games had a very controversial issue with Neo Geo Freaks years back. SNK/Playmore actually took them to court over it. The case was dismissed soon after!

 

Kizuna Encounter (Euro) only 5 existed the last time I heard about it.

 

Last Hope is interesting. Only 60 copies exist and when NGDEVTEAM was making them, you (as the buyer) had to supply a donor cart and a case for it while paying $700+ on it.

 

 

Anthony...

Edited May 17, 2014 by fdurso224

[Reaperman]

Yeah, I talked myself down from Shock Troopers and filled some holes in my collection for cheaper. AoF1, FF1, WH1 and KoF '94 for $45. I don't have any of them.

Well, maybe--I recently won another World Heroes (sub $10) but I'm suspecting the seller is going to flake on me because it's been 10 days and he hasn't marked it shipped.

Edited May 17, 2014 by Reaperman

[+Charlie Cat]

Yeah, I talked myself down from Shock Troopers and filled some holes in my collection for cheaper. AoF1, FF1, WH1 and KoF '94 for $45. I don't have any of them.

Well, maybe--I recently won another World Heroes (sub $10) but I'm suspecting the seller is going to flake on me because it's been 10 days and he hasn't marked it shipped.

 

Awesome pick ups! . Four games for $45 is a sweet deal!!

 

Anthony...

[+Charlie Cat]

Hi guys,

 

Played KOF 98 today and have to say it my favorite game out of the series. great music, art work and a real button pusher trying to do the right moves!.

 

Anthony...

[Reaperman]

Hi guys,

 

Played KOF 98 today and have to say it my favorite game out of the series. great music, art work and a real button pusher trying to do the right moves!.

 

Anthony...

It's probably my favorite too. The boat level is especially memorable.

I first played KoF '98 in the early dreamcast days (aka KoF Dream Match '99).

The 1998-1999 period is my favorite for neo geo. They seemed to have tons of money to polish their games, and even had enough free cash to play with handhelds.

 

Occasionally I'll pick (the real) KoF '99 as my favorite in the series, but this isn't one of those days. Rainy courtyard stage in '99 is great, but it doesn't quite beat the boat level in '98, IMO.

 

---------------------------------------------------

I've been trying to get better at metal slug 3. I'm good enough to get the ol' "you're great" on the first level, but I can't even beat the second level. (I play with continues off) That second boss is rough--rough, I tells ya.

 

They make it look easy in this vid, so I'll try some of that next time. Score looks very low there given the skill displayed. Maybe they're on a port that lets them skip levels for practice.

Edited May 19, 2014 by Reaperman

[+Charlie Cat]

It's probably my favorite too. The boat level is especially memorable.

I first played KoF '98 in the early dreamcast days (aka KoF Dream Match '99).

The 1998-1999 period is my favorite for neo geo. They seemed to have tons of money to polish their games, and even had enough free cash to play with handhelds.

 

Occasionally I'll pick (the real) KoF '99 as my favorite in the series, but this isn't one of those days. Rainy courtyard stage in '99 is great, but it doesn't quite beat the boat level in '98, IMO.

 

---------------------------------------------------

I've been trying to get better at metal slug 3. I'm good enough to get the ol' "you're great" on the first level, but I can't even beat the second level. (I play with continues off) That second boss is rough--rough, I tells ya.

 

They make it look easy in this vid, so I'll try some of that next time. Score looks very low there given the skill displayed. Maybe they're on a port that lets them skip levels for practice.

 

Oh man, that vid is crazy! Wish I was that good! KOF 99 was good as well and if you purchased the AES game. It came with a phone card as a thank you for supporting SNK!

 

The rain stage in the garden courtyard was nice and it showed that the Neo-geo had plenty of life and possibilities on enhancing the graphics even further!

 

Anthony...

Edited May 19, 2014 by fdurso224

[+Charlie Cat]

Hi guys,

 

Now this is cool, an official Neo-Geo bag from SNK so you can store your systems and games.

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEO-GEO-BAG-/251534137743?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a909a598f

 

Anthony...

[+Charlie Cat]

Hi guys,

 

Took out Art of Fighting 2 for the AES. Man talk about a challenging game! It has to be one of my toughest games to defeat! I remember playing this on the MVS in the arcade and was amazed on the camera zooming technique that this game had to offer! Starting out, I would lose to the 1st or 2nd enemy in the game.But as time progressed, I was getting better and fought Mr.Big at the end. When I found out that Geese Howard was a special boss at the end, it took me a while to get a perfect run in order to face him. It was worth it though and AoF2 is no doubt a fantastic fighting game from SNK and for the fighting scene!

 

 

Anthony....

Edited May 20, 2014 by fdurso224

[+Charlie Cat]

NICE! An authentic copy of "Bang Bang Busters" is up for sale on Ebay and only 100 were made by Neo Conception International (NCI).

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Bang-Bang-Busters-NEO-GEO-AES-JAPANESE-SNK-NEOGEO-Genuine-Serial-81-limited-100-/360837000413?pt=Video_Games_Games&hash=item54038facdd

 

neo-geo.com also has the English and Japanese versions on the neo store.

http://www.neostore.com/Bang-Bang-Busters-English-AES-p/19.htm

http://www.neostore.com/Bang-Bang-Busters-Japanese-AES-p/14.htm

 

 

What is Bang Bang Busters? Good question.

 

According to NEOGEOPROTOS.com, as stated

 

"This game is from Visco and it was originally intended to be released back in 1994. It is an action-platform type game with play mechanics similar to Mario Brothers, Snow Brothers, and similar style games. The two characters can actually "blow up" enemies by puffing them as is done in Dig Dug, and even toss them onto other enemies for chain points. It also contains special bonuses and many stage bosses. It was rumored that the game was undergoing re-consideration for release in 2000. About a year later, Zupapa made it to market instead. This game also goes by the name "Bang 2 Busters" by some sources. As a point of reference, in the Japanese culture, it is considered to be a tremendous compliment when a proper name is "doubled". Video games are no exception to this. Examples: Joy Joy Kid, Fun Fun Brothers, Pair Pair Wars, Waku Waku Seven and even Doki Doki Panic, cousin of the USA Super Mario Brothers 2!"

 

A nice game to have in your collection.

 

Anthony...

[Reaperman]

Today I figured I'd give sonic wings 3 another shot since it's come up in here a few times. 3 always looks like a cool game, and I really like aero fighters 2, which is probably my most played game for neo geo. The end result is that I actually did have fun with AF3 this morning--a lot more than I was expecting. Screens scrolled by, and stuff blew up--it was a solid enough shooting experience to keep my hands in the game for 12 credits or so in a row, which is really a lot for me in one sitting (especially since I don't continue). I think I liked the change of scenery (over AF2) enough that I'll probably even go back for a few more right after this post.

 

The game's not really where I had my fun, though. I had it actually picking out the many little bits of this game that I didn't quite like--just as one does with a bad movie. The thing is that while there is obvious 'big elephant in the room' of the levels being very short, my other complaints are all pretty easily remedied. I've spoilerized my ranting below, since I'm probably the only one who wants to hear about it, but I had fun writing it out.

 

 

 

 

 

1. My main complaint in the game is its scoring, oddly enough. Scoring is very important in determining how players will play a game, and I only recently learned this lesson over here (which is obviously why I'm hyper-critical of it). Taking a look at Aero Fighters 3, it's about as bad as it gets.

• Using level 1 as a handy example: Getting to the end screen of it gives, I dunno, 9k-10k of points by shooting little things and getting pickups. However at the end, there seems to be a somewhat random number of currency drops, and since the screen is no longer scrolling, many of them are worth max points. So you jump up to about 100-140k worth of points just on that screen alone. Why even bother with the rest of the level, eh? Just play the random slot machine at the end. Talk about a motivation killer--I will also mention that one of the random placement points for the bonuses is visible but cannot be grabbed as it's too far left for the plane to go. Quality control at Video System must have been low that year. If these bonuses would have been sprinkled throughout the level, they'd add a lot of risk/reward since they rapidly lose points as they scroll down the screen and they'd also motivate memorization/replay. A real missed opportunity there.
• Exploiting bonus levels is part of the fun in AF2, but AF3 hurts here quite a bit. (edit: per here the levels are not random but are chosen by which wing gets blown off of the boss's escape plane first--that's not much better, but it's something) Firstly AF3 made the bonus levels random--players see their first one at level 3, and are all hoping for the massively profitable desert scene over the ocean scene. The desert scene offers people who are somewhat competent (I always miss a few) somewhere around 400k-500k in points. This is an INSANE value, and since I'm only good enough to see one bonus level right now, there is a huge temptation to quit the game if I see an ocean instead of a desert. AF2 didn't have this issue as badly, as the bonus levels were not randomized, and didn't provide nearly this number of points in comparison with standard levels. The demotivation this provides me, is to not waste time memorizing every little detail of a standard level--just survive them and memorize the desert bonus level. That's crap.

2. After scoring, another big complaint I had was the handling of the aircraft themselves. AF2 seemed to start with some kind of fairly playable 'basic plane' and build bonuses on top of it, meaning that each aircraft felt slightly different but generally felt it had a shot to complete the game. AF3 seemed to want to exaggerate the differences in planes by not just giving this imaginary "basic aircraft" buffs in certain areas, but also give the aircraft critical weaknesses in other areas. The end result is that almost all of these planes feel like they're in some way not complete. As if one of their game mechanics is so broken that they cannot at all rely on it. My least favorite of these are the planes with secondary weapons that do not hit bosses. (either by being destroyable by the bosses bullets, or in one case because it auto-targets bullets flying at the player instead of the boss itself). Since a boss is now 2/3 of the game...well yeah...

 

3. And of course--the levels are too short. This itself isn't really as much of a problem for me as a design choice that I don't care for, however it does spawn many things which really are issues.

• Most obvious is the music. Many levels have their own music, however players only get to hear 30 seconds of it before the boss music starts playing, and it seems that there is only one 'boss music.' Perhaps a second or third theme should have been added to make the game feel more complete.
• Sightseeing. When I play racing games, fighting games, and scrolling shooters, enjoyment of the background scenery is often as important to me as the actual gameplay. This game's short levels provide very little of it, and once a boss appears the scrolling either stops entirely or starts scrolling the same screen over and over again. If I'm fighting a plane over a lousy desert loop, maybe give me something to look at on the ground. Ranches, railroad tracks, crashed flying saucers--freaking something. Make me feel like I'm not 'missing out' on things to look at because of short levels.
• The short levels mean that this game seems to go 'nanas' a lot faster that AF2. A mahjong tile in a school girl outfit is a level of effing nuts that both games pretty much reach after the same number of levels, but the difference is that one has levels about half the length of the other.

pfew--rant over.

 

 

Edited May 24, 2014 by Reaperman

[Austin]

[rant]

 

Beat the game without continuing, then complain about the scoring system.

[retrorussell]

I wish I knew what the hell the announcer says at the end of a level in Aero Fighters 3. The sound goes wonky and he sounds like he's gargling.

I have Art Of Fighting 2 as well. Executing moves just seems off. I can't get them to work terribly often! Otherwise I like the game; the dialogue is funny.

[+Charlie Cat]

 

I have Art Of Fighting 2 as well. I like the game; the dialogue is funny.

 

Yuri: "Well, no more calling me SCREAMY MIMI eh. big brother?

 

I also love the great work that they did with the Lincoln Continental and the Mr.Big stage!

 

Anthony...

Edited May 24, 2014 by fdurso224

[+Charlie Cat]

Today I figured I'd give sonic wings 3 another shot since it's come up in here a few times. 3 always looks like a cool game, and I really like aero fighters 2, which is probably my most played game for neo geo. The end result is that I actually did have fun with AF3 this morning--a lot more than I was expecting. Screens scrolled by, and stuff blew up--it was a solid enough shooting experience to keep my hands in the game for 12 credits or so in a row, which is really a lot for me in one sitting (especially since I don't continue). I think I liked the change of scenery (over AF2) enough that I'll probably even go back for a few more right after this post.

 

The game's not really where I had my fun, though. I had it actually picking out the many little bits of this game that I didn't quite like--just as one does with a bad movie. The thing is that while there is obvious 'big elephant in the room' of the levels being very short, my other complaints are all pretty easily remedied. I've spoilerized my ranting below, since I'm probably the only one who wants to hear about it, but I had fun writing it out.

 

 

 

 

 

1. My main complaint in the game is its scoring, oddly enough. Scoring is very important in determining how players will play a game, and I only recently learned this lesson over here (which is obviously why I'm hyper-critical of it). Taking a look at Aero Fighters 3, it's about as bad as it gets.

• Using level 1 as a handy example: Getting to the end screen of it gives, I dunno, 9k-10k of points by shooting little things and getting pickups. However at the end, there seems to be a somewhat random number of currency drops, and since the screen is no longer scrolling, many of them are worth max points. So you jump up to about 100-140k worth of points just on that screen alone. Why even bother with the rest of the level, eh? Just play the random slot machine at the end. Talk about a motivation killer--I will also mention that one of the random placement points for the bonuses is visible but cannot be grabbed as it's too far left for the plane to go. Quality control at Video System must have been low that year. If these bonuses would have been sprinkled throughout the level, they'd add a lot of risk/reward since they rapidly lose points as they scroll down the screen and they'd also motivate memorization/replay. A real missed opportunity there.
• Exploiting bonus levels is part of the fun in AF2, but AF3 hurts here quite a bit. (edit: per here the levels are not random but are chosen by which wing gets blown off of the boss's escape plane first--that's not much better, but it's something) Firstly AF3 made the bonus levels random--players see their first one at level 3, and are all hoping for the massively profitable desert scene over the ocean scene. The desert scene offers people who are somewhat competent (I always miss a few) somewhere around 400k-500k in points. This is an INSANE value, and since I'm only good enough to see one bonus level right now, there is a huge temptation to quit the game if I see an ocean instead of a desert. AF2 didn't have this issue as badly, as the bonus levels were not randomized, and didn't provide nearly this number of points in comparison with standard levels. The demotivation this provides me, is to not waste time memorizing every little detail of a standard level--just survive them and memorize the desert bonus level. That's crap.

2. After scoring, another big complaint I had was the handling of the aircraft themselves. AF2 seemed to start with some kind of fairly playable 'basic plane' and build bonuses on top of it, meaning that each aircraft felt slightly different but generally felt it had a shot to complete the game. AF3 seemed to want to exaggerate the differences in planes by not just giving this imaginary "basic aircraft" buffs in certain areas, but also give the aircraft critical weaknesses in other areas. The end result is that almost all of these planes feel like they're in some way not complete. As if one of their game mechanics is so broken that they cannot at all rely on it. My least favorite of these are the planes with secondary weapons that do not hit bosses. (either by being destroyable by the bosses bullets, or in one case because it auto-targets bullets flying at the player instead of the boss itself). Since a boss is now 2/3 of the game...well yeah...

 

3. And of course--the levels are too short. This itself isn't really as much of a problem for me as a design choice that I don't care for, however it does spawn many things which really are issues.

• Most obvious is the music. Many levels have their own music, however players only get to hear 30 seconds of it before the boss music starts playing, and it seems that there is only one 'boss music.' Perhaps a second or third theme should have been added to make the game feel more complete.
• Sightseeing. When I play racing games, fighting games, and scrolling shooters, enjoyment of the background scenery is often as important to me as the actual gameplay. This game's short levels provide very little of it, and once a boss appears the scrolling either stops entirely or starts scrolling the same screen over and over again. If I'm fighting a plane over a lousy desert loop, maybe give me something to look at on the ground. Ranches, railroad tracks, crashed flying saucers--freaking something. Make me feel like I'm not 'missing out' on things to look at because of short levels.
• The short levels mean that this game seems to go 'nanas' a lot faster that AF2. A mahjong tile in a school girl outfit is a level of effing nuts that both games pretty much reach after the same number of levels, but the difference is that one has levels about half the length of the other.

 

Correct on everything you said! +1 for you Reaper!

 

Anthony...

[retrorussell]

IIRC Yuri's taunt is her slapping her rear end. What a slut!

[+Charlie Cat]

IIRC Yuri's taunt is her slapping her rear end. What a slut!

 

Hahahahahaha.... :rolling:

 

 

Anthony...

[Charlie_]

Played World Heroes Perfect today. On the MVS cabinet.. too lazy to get the AES out.

I always use Erick. That fast bastard has some cool moves.

[+Charlie Cat]

Played World Heroes Perfect today. On the MVS cabinet.. too lazy to get the AES out.

I always use Erick. That fast bastard has some cool moves.

 

Especially for a big guy like him! I love it when he sucks his gut in to look macho and can't hold his breath any longer and his gut comes right out!

 

 

Anthony...

[retrorussell]

I remember seeing mention of a possible World Heroes 3. Unfortunately it never happened.

[+Charlie Cat]

I remember seeing mention of a possible World Heroes 3. Unfortunately it never happened.

 

I heard that as well. I think ADK was having trouble during that time period. According to Wikipedia,

 

"In early 1990s, ADK started developing many games for SNK's Neo Geo system. However, through the mid to late 1990s, ADK failed to win very much success, especially during the eras of the Neo Geo Pocket and Neo Geo Pocket Color handheld systems, which were also failing at the time. The company eventually went bankrupt and closed its installations in early 2000 (SNK itself would declare bankruptcy the very next year). SNK's successor SNK Playmore ended up buying ADK's intellectual properties."

 

 

Anthony...

Edited May 26, 2014 by fdurso224

[+Charlie Cat]

Hi guys,

 

Decided to take out "The Last Blade" for the AES today. This is truly is a fantastic game that help make the Neo-Geo what it is today. If you what an alternative from the Samurai Shodown series. Play this title. The music is awesome in which its synthesized instruments from the 19th century and has two modes to power up (Power or Speed mode) A good plot in the story mode and has excellent combos on each characters!

 

Definitively a must to play and have in your collection as well as the sequel "TLB2".

 

 

 

 

Anthony...

Edited May 26, 2014 by fdurso224

[+Charlie Cat]

Hi guys,

 

Found a video called, "Games That Defined The Neo Geo Pocket Color" by Project COE . Its a good video and its on a handheld system that had real great potential, but was short lived. Wouldn't mind if small developers started making games again for the NGPC. Enjoy.

 

 

 

Anthony...

Edited May 27, 2014 by fdurso224

[+Charlie Cat]

Hi guys,

 

Today, I decided to take out "Mutation Nation" for the AES. This is a pretty good beat'em up game for its time and fun to play. The title was over shadowed by other brawlers series for its time like Double Dragon, Final Fight, Street of Rage, etc. Graphics were good for its time and the same for its music. Bosses in the game can be a nuisance at times, but after you get use to their patterns you should have a problem afterwords. Love the power ups spheres of fire. wind. lighting, and light. A nice two player game to have with your friends to play. The game is also available on the MVS and CD.

 

 

Anthony...

Edited May 29, 2014 by fdurso224

[Reaperman]

Today I filled a couple more holes in my collection--Fatal Fury 2 & 3 MVS.

 

FF3 was one of my first NGCD games (it came with that, Galaxy Fight and Stakes Winner), and it'll be nice to get it on a format that I actually use. I remember liking the helicopter stage, but can't remember much else. Oh, and it had a character select screen that was hard to use.

 

FF2's got some amazing background motion with its boat and train levels. Obviously not up to the standard of the boat level in KoF '98, or the train level in MOTW, but it's nice to see where these ideas might have formed at.

 

Now the only MVS Fatal Fury game I don't have is Real Bout Special.

Edited May 29, 2014 by Reaperman

[Charlie_]

Hi guys,

 

Today, I decided to take out "Mutation Nation" for the AES. This is a pretty good beat'em up game for its time and fun to play. The title was over shadowed by other brawlers series for its time like Double Dragon, Final Fight, Street of Rage, etc. Graphics were good for its time and the same for its music. Bosses in the game can be a nuisance at times, but after you get use to their patterns you should have a problem afterwords. Love the power ups spheres of fire. wind. lighting, and light. A nice two player game to have with your friends to play. The game is also available on the MVS and CD.

 

 

Anthony...

Yes! Excellent game. I hold Mutation Nation and Robo Army as equals. Both are very fun beat 'em UPS.

Edited May 29, 2014 by Official Ninja