Quick Look: SNK 40th Anniversary Collection

Man it really sucks that NISA is publishing SNK's games in the west from now on it seems.

Like I'm torn between supporting one of the devs I want to support the most and not supporting one of the publishers I don't want to support the most.

Also, a little FACT CHECK for Jeff here, the Athena in KoF, Psycho Soldier etc is NOT the same as Princess Athena, but rather a modern day descendant of her.

That mario party tile on the end of that switch UI...

Regarding the package as a whole, does anyone know of any other collection games that have the concepts of:

* Watch a solid play-through

* JUMP INTO that play through at anytime

* Rewind gameplay

I'm not that into old games but these features would actually make me willing to try old games out.

Regarding the QL:

@alien765 Why shouldn't Jeff like/dislike the games, regarding preservation? I think it's good that Jeff is so into the preservation of games, regardless of whether he likes them.

It shows that he is into it on principle not on preference, which seems pretty important for preservation causes. For example, should a librarian only stock books that he/she personally enjoys in a library? Or a historian only present viewpoints they agree with?

In any case, he nor Ben don't really seem to be shitting on them anyway, not that it should matter.

@benpack, I'm in my 20's, and I always appreciate hearing your perspective on old (and new) games!

Thanks.

Sad that Jeff didn't let the Blues Brothers theme on the title screen play on Street Smart. Also unfortunate there was no mention of the Star Trek music when you first begin a game of Vanguard.

@alien765: Jeff seemed genuinely impressed by how these games were handled. He mentioned that while the games themselves may not hold up, it's cool that you can play them in different regions, different ports, and even watch a playthrough, features he seemed pretty surprised and impressed by. He sounded pretty up beat to me.

@hassun: I believe this yet another project from the Frank Cifaldi/Mike Mika incarnation of Digital Eclipse. Having played both their “Mega Man Legacy I” and “Disney Afternoon” collections, I think I recognize their fingerprints in the depth of the archival material.

Those twisty SNK joysticks were ALWAYS broken on most machines in my youth.

Was NOT prepared for Ikari Warriors II's VO lol

Oh hell yah, POW. I wonder if it holds up heh

Ben "Satan of Saturn" Pack!

Grimace represents milkshakes because he triple thick

Some of that Psycho Soldier art looks like it was drawn by a 13 year old me.

Now I'm curious to what happens if the timer on the top of Ikari Warriors 3 hits zero.

I'm going to have to blame Ben since he didn't lavish a 33 year old game with a shower of praise. Sickening

Fly through the UNEXPERIENCED ZOON. Thanks.

@missashley: I like to think Breath of the Wild is a nice take on Athena's weapon replacement combat

I vaguely remember hearing that Ikari Warriors II was weirdly different from the first, and Jeff even mentioned it, but I was not prepared for that guy's cameltoe on the cabinet artwork.

This seems really well put together and presented. The watch and jump-in-and-play features are the type of neat additions you need if you want people to not just go find your ROMs somewhere online instead.

The old man from Vanguard looks like he’s getting Lasik...

never played any of these games but Ikari warriors 12&3 all look cool.

Hot dog the Athena art style is rad. How has this not come back as a rogue-like-like-like? Last release was a mobile game in japan in 2006

And wow, psycho soldier theme freaking rrripss

A lovingly made collection for sure! The menus and both versions of roms and all the “quality” home versions. Great! I didn’t know much about these early snk titles, imma check this out

I'm 99.9% sure Ben is thinking of Faxanadu when thinking about "that super complex NES RPG," 'cause Crystalis is super straightforward and Faxanadu is that weird side scroller where you have to learn all sorts of spells through ingredients and all that by talking to NPCs and all that jazz. It's... a thing. And also not SNK.

Fantastic times with Old Game Jeff and Actual Child Ben Peck, though.

Am I hallucinating that Vanguard starts with the Star Trek TNG theme? Anyone else here that? Right at the start of the gameplay.

@jonny500: Sounds like it or the end credits theme to Star Trek the Motion Picture

I'm excited to sit right in front of my monitor like a moron child and watch this Quick Look!

ABBA

I loved Athena back in the day. Unlike Jeff who returned it immediately, my friend and I rented it over and over. It was one of the first - if not the first - platformers Iever played that had multiple paths through every level, with lots of secret areas.

Re: the "quality of games vs. quality of presentation" debate: Shaun Musgrave, a reviewer at TouchArcade with a strong background in console titles, just wrote a thoughtful article about how he approaches the issue. A key couple paragraphs:

I think there are four main criteria to consider when evaluating these sorts of things: the game itself, how well the port re-creates that game, the options, and the extras. How important each of those things are will depend on the individual, but I find that in general, the order goes like this: more people care about the game than the port quality, and more care about the port quality than the options, and more care about the options than the extras. Some people are very passionate about one or more of these points, though, and as usual when it comes to matters of passion, most people seem to think their way is the right one.

When I review one of these products, I try to consider all four of these points. Generally, I like to focus on the game content itself, as I think that’s most relevant to most readers. I’ll usually only spend a lot of time on the other three if they’re very well done or very poorly done. For example, no matter how much I love Phantasy Star II, I still felt the need to talk more about the poor emulation in the initial SEGA Forever version of the game because it was exceptionally bad. By the same token, Digital Eclipse’s recent releases have had very good extras, so I feel compelled to mention that when I otherwise might not make a note of such things.

From my limited research I uncovered that Grimace was originally pitched and showcased as an evil character, weirdly enough sprouting 4 arms with which he could steal milkshakes easier.

His appearance apparently has little to do with milkshakes and the association was dropped altogether when he was rebranded as one of the good guys.

NOTHING STOPS THE GAME ROOM QUICK LOOKS.

The mustache is back!

Oh man, that Psycho Soldier song.....so catchy!

I found out who the Vanguard guy is shooting at

Can't believe no one said it yet, but...

NOTHING STOPS THE GAME ROOM!

I love all the art that's included

@ronniebarzel: That would make a lot of sense.

Brings back memories watching crystalis. That is an insanely good action RPG for Nintendo, the best I would say in fact.

The only game there I have played is Ikari Warrios on NES. Great co op game and I spent more time playing it than any Mario or Zelda on NES.

Seems like a lot of heart went into this collection

Take a ride on the Champion Ship.

Time to wrestling: 48:08

I'm fairly certain the invincible music in Vanguard is from the cinematic classic, Flash Gordon! From the it where Brian Blessed leads the bird men in an attack.

https://youtu.be/Y6B9nkrSuMI

Crystalis was my jam as a kid. It's probably my "I was 8 so I only had three games and played them all to death" game. I've played it through so many times, and hearing that music again was An Experience.

This Crystalis music is reactivating some neurons in my brain that I had LONG since forgotten about.

I had a friend who lived way out in the middle of nowhere and we'd bang our heads against Crystalis anytime I came over. Never got very far.

This looks great. Haven't played many of the games on it and those arcade graphics really hold up. The NES... Not so much.