When someone mentionsSNK, you likely think of The King of Fighters and start having images of popular characters like Terry Bogard, Kyo Kusanagi, and Mai Shiranui engaged in hand-to-hand combat. However, SNK has dabbled in other genres over the years with a surprising amount of success.
Given that arcade games are SNK’s original forte, SNK has created excellent fast-paced games within genres such as shoot ‘em ups, beat ‘em ups, and sports titles. SNK has even made successful action-adventure and RPG titles. Digging into SNK’s library is an excellent way to discover hidden gems from older eras.
10Nam-1975
The first game made for the Neo Geo was Nam-1975. At the time, it blew away people with its vibrant graphics and crisp gameplay. For fans of war movies, Nam-1975 has a lot of references to popular films like Apocalypse Now and Full Metal Jacket.
It’s the perfect length for a short game that does not overstay its welcome. Nam-1975 is a gallery shooter, so you have full perspective of the screen and can choose whether to pick up more powerful weapons or clear enemies with your grenades. The ability to evade enemy fire makes it much more engaging than a popular gallery shooter like Duck Hunt.
During the golden age of beat ‘em ups, SNK launched one of the finest in Sengoku 3. Thanks to the power of the Neo Geo, Sengoku 3 had gigantic sprites, fluid animations, and wonderful colors that captured the ninja and samurai theme of the game.
It was one of the few four-player beat ‘em ups of its time. All the characters have their own unique ninja arts and have access to big combos, including aerial combos, which are needed to take down some of the tougher zombies in this game.
8Baseball Stars 2
The first Baseball Stars was one of the most praised sports games on the NES. The sequel was a mainstay for Neo Geo consoles everywhere. The gameplay between Baseball Stars and Baseball Stars 2 is not significantly different, but the visuals are a major upgrade. Baseball Stars 2’s aesthetics are the perfect showcase of how beautiful games could look during the 16-bit era.
All the characters are proportioned in a fun, cartoony way, and the massive sprites filled with hundreds of different shades of color make it a joy to look at. Baseball games can be too slow and long for many people, but Baseball Stars 2 has the right tempo to keep you engaged until the end of the game.
7Samurai Shodown RPG
Most people, including fighting game fans, have no idea the Samurai Shodown series features an RPG. It originally came out in Japan on the niche Neo Geo CD platform. It was only in the 2020s that English speakers could enjoy the game through a fan translation.
The Samurai Shodown RPG is a standard turn-based RPG but has some unique conventions for its time. Similar to a fighting game, you can pick your character from the start, with a cast of six characters at your disposal. There are also two different storylines you can engage in. The overall narrative follows the plots of Samurai Shodown and Samurai Shodown 2 but has far more detail than the fighting games.
An over-the-top action-adventure game for the NES in the same vein as Zelda, Crystalis is a great title that largely went under the radar. It’s lighter on the adventure elements but has more emphasis on combat and better controls, such as eight-way movement.
Staying true to SNK’s arcade roots, Crystalis does not bog you down with grinding. You can progress rapidly as long as you are good enough. There are warp boots and spells that allow you to teleport and explore parts of the map you have already been in, making it a technically impressive experience as well.
5SNK Vs Capcom: Card Fighters Clash
The collaboration between Capcom and SNK was mainly a union of their fighting game series, which led to popular titles like Capcom vs SNK 2. SNK vs Capcom: Card Fighters Clash went in a different direction and instead put key characters from both series into a TCG-style format.
The gameplay is quite tactical and revolves around sacrifice. You can attack your opponent’s life points, but your opponent can block attacks using their own cards. Each card has its own strength and health, so losing too many of your strong cards can leave you defenseless for the late game. Although unorthodox, this ended up being atop game for the Neo Geo Pocket Color.
Compared to the previous two Metal Slugs, Metal Slug 3 is a colossal game. It’s filled with more characters, weapons, and several different paths you can play, which adds replayability, offering around twice the amount of content as its predecessor.
The length of Metal Slug 3 might be too daunting for newcomers, but veterans of the series will love being pushed to their limits. Metal Slug 3’s stages are made with the reasonable assumption that a player has beaten the previous two, so it is a game that is beloved byMetal Slug fans everywhere.
Despite conventional wisdom, Metal Slug X is the second Metal Slug game, not the tenth. It’s an upgraded version of Metal Slug 2, which originally suffered from a bad frame rate. Metal Slug X captured the original vision of the first game while raising the production value immensely.
The stage design and difficulty of the enemies are much more complex and tough than the first Metal Slug. However, Metal Slug X does an excellent job of never cluttering the screen with too much, as many other run-and-gun games do. Metal Slug X has all the chaos and explosions one expects from the series while still providing enough clarity to engage with your environment intelligently.
Even better than the Metal Slug series, Shock Troopers is the pinnacle of SNK’s shooting game experience. You have several different characters at your disposal, with gun gameplay that provides feedback, making you feel powerful. The gameplay is quick, but the controls are fluid.
There are several options to play as well. you’re able to play with a solo character or juggle several different characters as you burn through lives. There are different paths to progress through the game, such as the jungle terrain, which provides more variety when you want to replay Shock Troopers.
It’s possible the best tennis game isn’t actually a tennis game. Windjammers is a high-octane, net-based sports game. You throw a frisbee, which can ricochet off the wall at different angles and speeds to try to get past your opponent. If your opponent catches the frisbee, it’s their turn to throw it back.
The speed of Windjammers is incredible. It’s more fast-paced than even most of SNK’s fighting titles. The characters in Windjammers have different attributes. There are characters who have more tricky angles, others with more movement speed, and some who throw with so much power that it sends the opponent flying back several feet after they catch it. Windjammer stood as one of the best hidden gems ever, and it finally got recognition after along-awaited sequelin Windjammers 2.
