I can’t convey to you how bad I wanted a Neo Geo console back in the day. Unfortunately, the price always held me back. I remember one particularly bad time where I traveled quite a distance to finally get one, only to hover at this location for hours, looking longingly at the box and never fully committing.
In 2008, these games of the early 1990s don’t seem to have the $600 appeal that they did back then. But there’s no denying that the console, and more importantly, the arcade system (MVS for you SNK geeks), saw some great videogames.
In the long run, I probably saved a bunch of money by pumping quarters into those red-topped Neo Geo arcade machines. Sure, I played a lot ofSamurai Showdownback in the day. But I’m sure I didn’t drop $600 worth of quarters.
SNK Playmore takes us back to those days with the release of their SNK Arcade Classics: Vol. 1for PSP and PS2. Do these games stand the test of time? Are they still worth your quarters?
Hit the jump to read our full review.
SNK Arcade Classics Vol. 1(PS2, PSP)Developed by SNK PlaymorePublished by SNK PlaymoreReleased on August 01, 2025
SNK Arcade Classics: Vol. 1contains 16 arcade hits from your beloved arcade crawling pasts. Given SNK’s rich fighting game history, the original versions ofArt of Fighting, Samurai Showdown, Fatal Fury, King of Fighters ’94,Burning Fight,King of the Monsters, andWorld Heroesare included. But it’s not just fighting; classic platformers likeMetal Slug, Magician Lord, and the awesomeTop Hunterjoin in for some variety. Sporting is represented with the unintentionally hilariousNeo Turf Masters, the challengingSuper Sidekicks 3,andBaseball Stars 2.The super-JapaneseSengoku, difficultShock Troopers, and shooterLast Resortround out this full collection. The line-up is exactly the same for the PSP and PS2 versions.
All of these titles are presented in their arcade form, all set on “free play.” It only took me a couple of “continues” to realize how much money I’m saving by owning these titles, especially seeing as SNK likes to make their games quite difficult. These games (except one,World Heroes) are presented in a menu that lets you scroll through and pick your pleasure. As you play through each game and accomplish some preset goals, you’ll unlock options inothergames in the collection. It was kind of weird having to beatTop Hunteron “easy” to unlock Mr. Big’s move list inArt of Fighting.But this does entice you to get your feet wet in other titles that you might not normally take an interest in. Think of these goals as “Achievements” that you actually get something for. Unlockables include move lists, art, movies, and even the gameWorld Heroes. I guess SNK wanted you to work for that one.
On both the PSP and PS2, all of these arcade games look exactly as you’d expect them to: old. But they’ve held up well over the years. On the PSP, the emulation doesn’t fill the entire screen by default, but options are provided if you should wish to stretch them out a bit. Aside from this, none of the games feature any visual enhancements; they look just like they did back in the early 1990s.
I’m not sure if it is the emulation or the original programming at fault, but game controls vary from fine to clunky. You’ll have absolutely no problem with the less button-intensive games likeNeo Turf MastersorBaseball Stars 2. But some of the controls in fighting titles likeKing of Fighters ’94orArt of Fightingseem a bit clunky, and maybe a touch worse on the PSP than the PS2. Titles like the platformerSengokuandBurning Fightseem fairly bad to me, but even at their worst they’re not unplayable. In the worst cases, an up-forward jump ends up being just an up-jump.
I wouldn’t say that the loading times were bad, but they do seem to make you wait a bit on some games, especially in the PSP version. It seems that the entire game is loaded into memory for both versions before the game starts; once that happens, everything is instant. The only exception isShock Trooperson the PSP; it seems to need to load during gameplay, and sometimes the action lags a bit because of it. Otherwise, once you get going, load times won’t pose any problems.
Each of these titles has its own charms. Games likeSamurai ShowdownandMetal Slughave obvious retro appeal. One of my favorites was the so-bad-it’s-good platformerMagician Lord. I died countless times, but I enjoyed restarting every time, laughing at the lanky enemies all the while. I never had a chance to playTop Hunterbefore this, but the stretchy-armed action is good fun.Burning Fightis an old-style side-scrolling brawler, but I laughed out loud several times during my playthrough. The only game I wasn’t crazy about wasSengoku, and I think it had more to do with its clunky controls than anything else; I had no problems with the silly future guy fighting ancient Japanese warrior spirits at all. All of the games seemed to have an unintentional humor to them, so much so thatI put together the above video to demonstrate.
SNK Playmore did a pretty good job of putting together a nice sampler of their classic titles. It’s fun to poke around and play through these older games. Going through them almost gave me a sense of strolling through the dimly lit arcades of yesteryear, armed with a pocket heavy with quarters. If you consider how valuable some of these titles are to collectors, you could say that you’re get thousands of dollars worth of games for your $20 (PS2) or $30 (PSP). If “old” is good in your book, this collection is definitely worth your time and money.
Score: 7.5(Good. Replayable, fun, but nothing innovative or amazing. The game potentially has large flaws that, while they don’t make the game bad, prevent it from being as good as it could be.)
