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Not content until every one of its games is available in some packaged form or another, SNK Playmore releases its largest classic compilation to date with Arcade Classics: Volume 1. It’s a 16-title trip through the decade when fighting games ruled the arcades and a plucky blue hedgehog tried to steal business away from a successful plumber. So put down the Tickle Me Elmo and take a deep breath (without inhaling); X-Play is flipping the calendar back to the early 1990s.

Recycling Effort

The included games are a nice sampling of what SNK released to arcades and its pricey home console between 1991 and 1997. Most, if not all, feature large character sprites, vibrant colors, scaling, multiple scrolling backgrounds, and speech. While the largest cartridges for the Super NES and Genesis ranged from 4 to 32 megabits in size, many Neo Geo games approached 100 and more. Sure, some of the titles in this collection are old enough to be sipping Metamucil and watching Wheel of Fortune, but many still look good even by today's standards. Of course, it's playability that counts.

Arcade Classics isn't the most diverse collection, but that's largely due to SNK's myopic focus during the time period. Two-dimensional fighters and shooters were the publisher's bread and butter, fish and chips, and eggs and Canadian bacon. Half of the 16 titles are fighting variants. Representing the one-on-one fighter are Fatal Fury, Art of Fighting, World Heroes, Samurai Shodown, and The King of Fighters '94. Side-scrolling beat-'em-ups include Sengoku and Burning Fight, while the oft-overlooked "wrestling with Godzilla-sized beasties" is accounted for with King of the Monsters.

Shooters and sports form the second biggest piece of the Arcade Classics cake. The wildly entertaining (and well traveled) Metal Slug is a run-and-gun title in the vein of Contra, while Ikari Warriors fans will appreciate the relentless action found in Shock Troopers. Also included is the sci-fi blaster Last Resort, which is reminiscent of R-Type and nearly every horizontal shooter ever made. Joystick jocks will high-five the inclusion of Baseball Stars 2, Neo Turf Masters, and Super Sidekicks 3, which offer addictive, over-the-top fun on the diamond, links, and pitch. The final two titles, Top Hunter and Magician Lord, are platform-style games. The former features co-op play and lets you jump into the background. The latter just makes you want to jump off a building.

Improving the Experience

One of the great ideas from other console compilations, such as the Sega Genesis Collection, is instilling in-game objectives or achievements to unlock bonus content. SNK Arcade Classics lets you shoot (or swing) for 136 medals. Objectives include beating a game on a specific difficulty level, scoring a set number of points, defeating enemies using one attack method, and similar challenges. The problem is that the rewards aren't particularly exciting, with the bulk being artwork. Other rewards include music, move lists, and videos, with the latter primarily consisting of in-game footage of prisoner locations in Metal Slug or secret areas in Magician Lord. Players can also unlock World Heroes by winning medals, but more games should have been included as prizes.

Arcade Classics doesn't include remixed tunes or visual enhancements for any of the titles, but they can all be customized to an extent. In addition to tweaking button assignments and difficulty settings, you can view the action on a full or partial screen display and adjust brightness levels. A variety of cheats are available, and both progress and high scores are saved to memory card. Games are automatically set to "free play," offering unlimited continues or credits. Yet there's no online support, which is sorely missed since head-to-head and co-op action are a big part of this collection's appeal. A more detailed user profile that tracked wins, scores, favorite characters, and so forth for each game would have also been nice.

Hits or Misses?

There are several PlayStation 2 arcade collections that are more balanced. Some offer more games. Where this collection excels is the amount of playability offered for a reasonable price, especially when individual Neo Geo titles are ringing up at $9 apiece on the Wii's Virtual Console. Could this compilation have been better? Certainly. Five of the games are already available in the publisher's earlier collections, and some of the platform's more distinctive titles (Over Top, Crossed Swords, etc.) have missed the cut. Despite a few minor complaints, SNK Arcade Classics is a safe purchase for retro game fans looking for a challenging, action-packed trip down memory lane. 

Review by: Scott Alan Marriott