SNK Classics Vol.1

Wii, also PS2 and PSP
Rose tinted gaming
There was a time in the days of old, when SNK were kings, touting an outrageously expensive console that equaled the power of arcade machines, and indeed sat inside many of them. These days, affordable super powered home consoles have driven the arcade scene into the ground, leaving those communal centres full of dire gambling machines and ghosts of a glorious past, dancing out their last days on a DDR machine.
SNK franchises of old, live on though, with King of Fighters and Metal Slug still going strong. For those of you too young, or with faded memories, here’s SNK Classics Vol.1 to jog your synapses, compressing a generous selection of about 16 games on one reasonably priced disk.
The selection on offer is an odd bunch of mixed quality, ranging from the mighty Metal Slug to the rather forgettable Sengoku. The genres on offer mainly populate one on one fighters and scrolling street brawlers (as was popular in the early 90’s), with a light mixture of sports, shooters and platformers, thrown in for good measure.
King of Fighters ’94 is a classic, and the first game in the series to pool characters from Art of Fighting and Fatal Fury. Those two are included too, as is the decidedly average World Heroes and the mighty introduction to Samurai Showdown – a weapons based beat-em-up that has aged especially well.
Other memorable titles include the platform shooter Magician Lord, the Godzilla style wrestling game King of Monsters, and the side-scrolling shooter Last Resort.
Aside from those well-known games there’s also a smattering of quirky gems like the comedic Top Hunter and entertaining Shock Troopers.
Arcade Classics Vol.1 is by no means a definitive SNK collection and many of these have popped up on the Wii’s virtual console or been released as part of series compilations. For anyone looking for a slice of fun, affordable, 2-player nostalgia, and not too bothered about playing every iteration of beat-em-up X, you really can’t go wrong.
7/10