We're getting a handsome helping of arcade classics later this year thanks to SNK, which is celebrating its 40th birthday with a bumper compendium of its most famous coin-op games.
Here's some PR:
To celebrate the 40th anniversary of legendary studio SNK, a variety of classic arcade games from SNK's golden age comes back together in one anthology on the Nintendo Switch as SNK 40th ANNIVERSARY COLLECTION! In it, you will find prized classics such as Athena, Crystalis, the Ikari Warriors trilogy, and more.
With a treasure trove of features such as updated graphics at 1080p resolution, redesigned control schemes, and a special SNK Museum Mode featuring the extensive history of SNK with high definition artwork and original promotional assets, this extraordinary "modern meets retro" collection is for all gamers who want to have a slice of gaming history in their hands!
Comments 130
Yes ! Sounds great
Brb, I need to do my happy dance!
Wonder which titles will be released and how many we have already had via the weekly Aca releases ?
I've heard lots of good things about Crystalis so I'm glad it's finally getting a rerelease as part of this.
@lemonjellydude This is pre neo geo snk...so we haven't had any released! They are going to be announcing more games later but so far there is;
Alpha Mission
Athena
Crystalis
Ikari Warriors Trilogy
Guerilla War
P.O.W
Prehistoric Isle
Psycho Soldier
TANK
Street Smart
Vanguard
@lemonjellydude Hamster have the publishing rights for those.
They have the limited edition up for preorder on SNK's/NIS America's store. They've already sold half of them.
Ooooh, intruiging
I can't wait for this collection to come out and I hope it's all arcade perfect.
@GrailUK I really hope it's more than this right here.
Coin-op and NES games, not just arcade games like the article above makes it sound.
In the initial partial game list (Remember, more remain to be announced), these include both the NES and arcade versions of each game...
-Alpha Mission
-Athena
-Ikari Warriors
-Ikari Warriors II: Victory Road
-Ikari Warriors III: The Rescue
-Guerrilla War
-P.O.W.
-TNK III
NES exclusives include...
-Crystalis
Arcade exclusives include...
-Prehistoric Isle
-Psycho Soldier
-Street Smart
-Vanguard
Will be nice to get proper right analog stick support for the many LS30 rotary stick games in SNK's arcade catalog. This unique arcade stick was a regular 8 way digital stick for movement, with a 12 position spinner mechanism for aiming that essentially served as the stick handle itself. Then the stick was topped with a thumb button for firing your main weapon.
Was clever, but difficult to adapt to home consoles in the pre dual-analog days. The PSP Mini versions had to settle for left/right rotation with the shoulder buttons since the PSP lacked a right analog stick, which didn't work out well. Now, the 12 positions of the rotary mechanism can just be mapped to the right analog stick for 12 way independent aiming, just like Heavy Barrel worked on Data East Arcade Classics for the Wii (Another LS30 stick equipped arcade game).
I hope Satan of Saturn is included. Of the pre Neo Geo SNK games that didn't already make it out on the PSP, this one tops my list.
who needs SEGA Mega Drive Collection and The Disney Afternoon Collection. when we have this!?
joking wise, happy to see more SNK games.
Dear Capcom and Sega, this is how you release a collection for Switch.
Nice little collection. Haven’t played some of these in a long long time and others not at all. Is this only on switch?
You say SNK, I say OOOOOOOOOKAY!
Yes please.
@RetroGamerAndrew
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5QAVBhLvLw
Have pretty much all these for Vita, will be getting on switch day one! Is it fall yet!?
@GrailUK ahah dead on mate! That's exactly what I was thinking about!
Oh baby!!! I’m soooo in!! The last time I played Vanguard was on my Atari 5200!! Whoops I’m wrong it was on PS3! Anyway, The Switch is really building a tremendous classic game library!! Man!! Mega Man Collection next and Atari Flashback collections down the road!!
I got stung by namco museum on switch. Which i didn't get anywhere near 30 pound worth, lets just hope this is more worthy of my money. On a side note i only played ikari warriors the 1st one on the c64 and pow possilby on the c64 but i can't recall if that's correct for pow.
Not seen any mention of tate mode, but I hope Ikari Warriors has it.
Preordered! This collection is moving fast!
@GrailUK To skip that on the Switch would be shameful. I hope we can just take it for granted that TATE mode will be here.
Cool ! That’s good to know thanks !@GrailUK
I want this just for Vanguard. I haven't played it since the mid 80's and would love to have another go at it.
@Atariboy
Wait... Victory Road is actually Ikari Warriors II? I remember seeing countless cool adverts for it at the time in ZZap64, but I never realised it was an IW title, somehow.
@Ooyah Yeah, it's the sequel.
Officially its title is Victory Road, but it's the sequel to Ikari Warriors. So sometimes you'll see the title spelled out in full, despite the attract mode only saying Victory Road on the title screen.
Similar deal with Ikari Warriors III: The Rescue. I believe the official title on the arcade marque is actually Ikari III: The Rescue. But sometimes like in the press release that they sent out for this announcement, you'll see the full title for the sake of consistency and clarity.
@Ooyah When I saw it in the arcade for the first time, I honestly thought it was a bootleg!
Yes!
Very excited for this! It’s worth it to me for the Ikari games alone.
That reminds me. Need to add some Neo Geo goodness to my library.
guerrilla war. yes please.
overpriced for my tastes
Will wait and see the whole game list......while the nostalgia of this collection pulls at my wallet, I probably would only play it a handful of times. Then again Ikari Warriors!
Please, please let the limited edition retail release come to Europe. This is right up there with FIRE EMBLEM Switch as my most anticipated game release of the year. So happy, P.O.W was a huge part of my arcade gaming childhood 👍
I want to believe that someday we will get retro content for the rest of us on Switch. Not everyone grew up in the 80s or early 90s. Those of us who were kids in the 90s and teens in the early 2000s want our nostalgia too.
And yes, I am jealous.
I need midway arcade treasures for my dream line up to be perfect!
@Heavyarms55 That nostalgia, unfortunately, is getting milked with remasters. Must be all about the polygons and frames per second or something.
@Atariboy Hey buddy, thanks for the informative post regarding the control schemes.
You mention several SNK pre-Neo Geo hardware arcade titles were previously released on PSP? I must've totally missed that. What games came out and are they still available via PSN?
@Lord How do we make this happen. I had those for the Gamecube and were amazing!
Ehhh, was hoping for different games. A majority of these are clones. I might get it for Crysalis.
@CW13 Which SNK arcade games do you have on Vita?
Arcade Baseball Stars Professional, packaged with BS2, and their NES counterparts would be amazing. Please make it happen SNK!
For GODS sake!!! Will somebody please just port and release Windjammers at some point
Will wait until the full game list is out before deciding
Is that "Prehistoric Isle in 1930"? Man, that game cost me lots of money back in the day!
My friends and I got so good at it, that in the end, we regularly made it to the final boss with just a couple of credits. When the owner of the bar where we used to play changed it for a new game (I think it was Taito's "Rastan") it just wasn't the same. We enjoyed lots of games after that, but none of them managed to capture our hearts the way that "Prehistoric Isle" did.
Which is a long roundabout way of saying that I'll consider any other games included in this compilation a welcome bonus, but "Prehistoric Isle" alone makes it a must buy for me
Used to play Guerrilla War all the time with my brothers back in the day. It’ll be nice to have both arcade and home console versions. I can’t wait!
Day one purchase, without hesitation.
> Crystalis
WHAT??? Be still my beating heart! =D
I'll pick up the non-collectors edition off amazon when that goes up or if they get 0 copies like Megaman legacy, guess I'll get it digitally. Only played the Ikari Warriors trilogy on NES and the first one in an arcade but there's so much hype in the comments that some other games of the 40 must be good and worth 40-60 bucks.
I would like to see Alpha Denshi games released on this set since they were bought out by SNK years ago.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADK_(company)
Sounds absolutely fantastic! This is a release that I would like to have a physical copy of.
IKARI WARRIORS?? TAKE MY MONEY 👍
So is this physical?
Sounds like the PSP collection released years ago. But that was only released physical in Japan (and that was kind of pricey now, last I checked), internationally they only split the games up and sold them individually on PSN.
@KingMike Yes it's physical but in limited form apparently?
https://snkonlinestore.com/snk-40th-anniversary-collection-limited-edition-nintendo-switch
@Late Thank you for posting that link! Totally picking this up now. I'm disappointed that the article author didn't include this super important link.
So does it seriously contain the NES versions as well? crosses fingers
@Magrane You're welcome. I don't know if they're going to make a standard edition. So far they're only selling the limited edition. Unfortunately, I'm from Europe and they don't deliver games here.
And yes, it has NES versions as well. The preorder site says: "Get the complete experience by playing both the arcade and home console versions on many of these titles!"
... give it to me now!
Sounds good I hope the collection reaches the UK.
Already got my favorite SNK stuff from ACA Neo Geo, so this is kinda pointless for me as a purchase. But yeah, nice release regardless.
@Shiryu Totally pre-ordered. This is a must-have for the retro gaming community.
I have waited a long time to see the NES versions officially released as a compilation! I spent oh-so-many hours on NES Guerilla Warfare.
I hope they add Dexterity to the list.
Ikari Warriors, you say? And the sequels too?
"BATHTIME!"
Wow... I remember that Street Smart game. Looking forward to this.
This is such great news!!! Does anyone know if it's going to be a standard physical release also? Or is it just the limited edition that will be physical?
Less than 50% stock left. Get in your orders!
They had me at Ikari Warriors, POW, guerilla War, and Crystalis! Oh, man! Between this, Mega Man Legacy, Street Fighter Collection, Flashback, the recently announced Atari collections, the weekly ACA/Johnny Turbo releases, the Fall launch of the online service, Mega Man X Collection, and so many awesome retro-inspired releases, I’m one Sega Genesis Collection (why, Sega?!) and a few Gamecube rereleases away from breaking out into song!
Disappointed that the physical edition is only available in the US. Tried to order from the Nis America site and wouldn't allow shipping to the UK despite it NOT being listed as a pal country they don't ship to.
@Miketeevee76 I'm sure NisaEurope store will get it soon. They tend to get all the US releases.
@GrailUK hope so. I'm not overly worried I'm assuming at the very least we'll get it on eshop, I'd ideally love the collectors edition though. Probably due to regional licensing issues.
I'd really like to see Capcom reissue the arcade collections orignally released on ps1, ps2 and psp. I also think Sega are missing a trick too with their back catalogue of arcade goodness.
"Coming this fall"
Fall of what? Isn't this a British site? Since when did the U.S. become the world?
Autumn. Autumn. Autumn. Autumn. Autumn. Autumn. Autumn. Autumn. Autumn. Autumn. Autumn. AUTUMN.
And no, I don't care how many visitors from across the pond this site gets.
Bring on the Crystalis. All the roms I have played for it are buggy. I think Nintendo owns the rights to it. I could be wrong.
Yep, Crystalis is included with many more to be announced. I remember this really hard game called Athena. I beat it. The ending is so lame. I got the arcade version on the Vita and it sucks. I would love that Nes version.
@TheMudHutDweller Hate to burst your bubble...
http://grammarist.com/usage/autumn-fall/
"Some who consider British English the only true English regard fall as an American barbarism, but this attitude is not well founded. Fall is in fact an old term for the season, originating in English in the 16th century or earlier. It was originally short for fall of the year or fall of the leaf, but it commonly took the one-word form by the 17th century, long before the development of American English. So while the term is now widely used in the U.S., it is not exclusively American, nor is it American in origin."
@Morgan19
Worth it for that alone. never got to play it but all the stuff about it in my old Nintendo Power magazines made it seem fantastic.
@Morgan19
Ah, this old chestnut.
What's your point? This isn't the 17th century. The word is no longer commonly used (if at ALL) in my part of the world.
Oh, and please stop thumbing up your own comments. That's just really, really sad...
Bubble is still intact, by the way.
@TheMudHutDweller How can you tell who thumbs your posts? (Honest question!)
Everybody knows what Fall means even if they don't use it in their country. Stop playing dumb.
@GrailUK
Because people will always try to validate their positions in some way - even if they are demonstrably wrong. You just need to look at YouTube comment sections to know that. I could be guessing wrong, but I doubt it...
@Bass_X0
No they don't. This (your) kind of stupidity is the problem. THE UNITED STATES ISN'T THE F*******G WORLD. Stop pretending that it is.
@TheMudHutDweller Owwww. I see thanks. To be honest I'm not that bothered either way. I don't mind Fall because falling leaves is a nice romantic image and besides, it was an American announcement, so it was probably their words not the writers.
Nice, i actually never played any of those pre-Neo Geo SNK games.
Definitely getting it.
@TheMudHutDweller When it comes to english speakers, it is the world. There are more American users on sites like this than there are those from the UK. Besides, its 2018, most of the english speakers outside of America are aware of what most common American words mean even if its just from watching American TV shows and movies. And those few who don't require the education. I remember watching the cartoon Batfink as a child and wondering what a "zip code" was. Now I know.
@Alikan you can only get it at NIS site.
For goodness sakes, I've never seen people act so aggressively with such a mindset of superiority with regard to something so inconsequential as language, grammar and/or spelling as UK citizens are toward any word not staunchly British, particularly those with even the slightest whiff of American usage.
God forbid someone say fall instead of autumn, or soccer instead of football, or color instead of colour... you can bet there will be hell to pay and insults harshly dealt.
@GrailUK
To be fair, we're also getting our nostalgia stroked with 1080p HD fur in Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze. Only a degenerate would fail to appreciate that soft, shiny HD fur 😆
@JaxonH Shouldn't that be nostrilga poked? New nose umm I mean who knows?
No Virtual Console on Switch? Fine! We'll make our own Virtual Console! With blackjack! And hookers! In fact, forget the blackjack!
Can ppl here accept now that VC isn't coming and that the new VC is Nintendo Classics and third parties doing this types of collections.
I've only heard of 1-2 games in this collection, so I'm very curious at the gameplay at hand. Hopefully some nice youtube compilations will do the rounds soon for lazy people like me
Buying. Buying! Buyyyyyyyying!
I pre-ordered as soon as I saw the news. Crystalis is one of my all-time favorite games, and this is the first ever official re-release — 27 years later! (I don't count the 2000 Game Boy Color port, which had a lot of issues and replaced the amazing OST with an uninspired, jaunty soundtrack that doesn't fit the game's darker themes)
@Lroy SNK Arcade Classics Volume 0 for the PSP released in Asia, South Korea, and Japan (Three separate SKU's) with the following lineup.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/psp/620678-snk-arcade-classics-0/data
We didn't get that, but all but one of these games was split up and sold individually for $3 a game as PSP Minis on the North American Playstation Store, playable on the PSP/PS3/Vita/PSTV. In addition, several other games were added as Minis that didn't make the cut for that collection, which I've listed below.
Chopper I
Gang Wars
Ozma Wars
The Next Space
Time Soldiers
Vanguard
So far, all that's new here are the inclusion of the NES ports of many of these arcade games, and NES Crystalis which was a console exclusive.
@JJ286 Considering we already know that NES/SNES classics are planned for Nintendo's full fledged online service when it launches, how about a big no?
@Atariboy Well I think you'll end up disappointed.
@JJ286 I think not.
Arcade compilations, the NES/SNES Classic Edition, and standalone digital releases of arcade classics can co-exist with a Virtual Console. They're not mutually exclusive.
Not sure why people are putting 2 and 2 together, and coming up with something other than 4. Especially when Nintendo has already confirmed that online enabled Nintendo console classics are planned for their online service.
@Atariboy you wouldn’t want the NES port of Ikari warriors 2(victory road) I remember it being absolutely horrible.
It looks amazing and I hope it comes to Europe and the price is a little lower. If it's a standard edition only, well, better than digital, but at least that. And in that case way cheaper.
@Atariboy I'd never heard of Satan of Saturn before until you mentioned it, looks great and what a brilliant name it has. Although the French national anthem jingle at the start of every new life/level is a tad annoying.
Day 1 purchase.
@Bass_X0
"When it comes to english speakers, it is the world."
Not an argument, unless you're suggesting that I should bend the knee - which is something that will never happen. It's almost like you want some interloper from some other part of the world to perpetually foist their culture onto you. You're very strange.
"There are more American users on sites like this than there are those from the UK."
And I don't care. Irrelevant. I guess by your logic that means that, if a large group from a foreign nation moves to our country and creates some enclave somewhere, they should be able to instate the laws of their religion/former homeland there. Now, you can call it a bad analogy if you like, but I don't really see how.
"Besides, its 2018, most of the english speakers outside of America are aware of what most common American words mean even if its just from watching American TV shows and movies."
Whoop! Current year, everybody! You're assuming that everyone watches American television programs and movies. No. In fact, I don't watch television at all. I have the Internet, which means I don't have to watch vacuous, insipid crap if I don't want to. I don't really even watch American YouTubers, if I'm being honest. Contrary to what you might believe, but not everybody outside of the U.S. was weaned on American television. I certainly wasn't, that's for sure.
"And those few who don't require the education. I remember watching the cartoon Batfink as a child and wondering what a "zip code" was. Now I know."
"And those few who don't require the education.."
Interesting usage of language right there... It's actually pretty useless information if one has have no plan to ever visit the United States. Or is it the common goal of every British man, woman and child to visit that country? I jest, of course, Ameri-weeb. Maybe.
@TheMudHutDweller Let it go already, you're just making yourself look foolish and hateful just because you dislike America.
So many bundles coming to Nintendo Switch this year
@Atariboy Ah thanks for that, @Meppi64 also clued me into the fact they were PSMinis. No wonder I missed them. I'm stuck with UK PSN and only ever bought about 3 minis before forgetting they were even a thing, lol! ☺️
@JaxonH well put Ja!! Everyone should respect their respective backgrounds etc and just talk games! 👍
Crystalis just might be my favorite NES game, day one for me!!
@joey302 You are totally right. Omg stop calling it Contra. It's Gryzor!!! And don't get me started on Rush 'n' Attack! Heh heh.
@Lroy I have the following: Athena, Alpha Mission, Bermuda Triangle, Chopper 1, Gang Wars, Gold Medalist, Guerilla War, HAL 21, Ikari Warriors(1,2&3), P.O.W., Prehistoric Isle, S.A.R., Street Smart, & Time Soldiers. Also have SNK Arcade Classics Volume 1& NeoGeo Heroes Ultimate Shooting(both psp games which I prefer on vita for control mapping like the others!)
@CW13 Awesome 👍
Crystalis was the best action rpg on the NES by far. Sorry Zelda.
Anyone know if these will be the arcade games or NES ports? I loved playing Ikari Warriors on the arcade machine near where I lived when I was a kid. Wasn’t a huge fan of the NES version. Playing the actual arcade version would be amazing.
@Atariboy
"Let it go already, you're just making yourself look foolish.."
How, exactly? I've made a cogent argument for everything. It's undoubtedly the reason why you've resorted to making some pathetic ad hominem.
"..and hateful just because you dislike America."
Yeah, nice straw man. I hope that's just hyperbole, because I've looked over my comments and cannot find any instance of America-bashing.
@th3r3ds0x Good news! Both! (for most of the games.)
@TheMudHutDweller You've been crying that someone said fall instead of autumn, on a site that you've declared should be British-centric with no place for anyone or any material that caters to the other side of the pond.
@th3r3ds0x Like GrailUK says, both.
The exceptions at least in the initial lineup that we know about, are games that never had NES conversions. But where one is available, it's been included.
Here's the lineup taken from the initial press announcement, which NintendoLife didn't reprint. Note the many games with both versions listed.
1. Alpha Mission (Console/Arcade)
2. Athena (Console/Arcade)
3. Crystalis (Console)
4. Ikari Warriors (Console/Arcade)
5. Ikari Warriors II: Victory Road (Console/Arcade)
6. Ikari Warriors III: The Rescue (Console/Arcade)
7. Guerrilla War (Console/Arcade)
8. P.O.W. (Console/Arcade)
9. Prehistoric Isle (Arcade)
10. Psycho Soldier (Arcade)
11. Street Smart (Arcade)
12. TNK III (Console/Arcade)
13. Vanguard (Arcade)
We're interpreting this to mean that both versions will be included in those cases where "Console/Arcade" is listed. And while NES isn't specifically spelled out for us, this lineup mirrors SNK's NES library to a tee, including one NES exclusive.
SNK at the time wasn't an active console publisher outside of the NES (Plenty of computer ports were done in-house though). Elsewhere like Vanguard on the Atari 2600/5200, Street Smart on the Genesis, or Ikari Warriors on the Atari 7800, SNK licensed their IP out to another developer/publisher in those pre Neo Geo days.
Preordered, very nice Shipping is $10 it comes down to just $75, with hardcover art book, soundtrack, collector's box. Really good deal .
I just can't wait for FALL already. Is it FALL yet.
$65?! Too much for me then...
@Atariboy they aren't mutually exclusive but its not coming simply because third parties earn more money doing this sort of collections than with VC.
The new VC will be third party collections, NEO Geo, Arcade Archieves and Nintendo Classics.
I think thats still a pretty cool thing and fair for third parties cause with VC, third parties needed to price their games like Nintendo establish and that ain't fair because a game being old doesn't mean it needs to cost $5 or $8.
@JJ286 We've had classic compilations and the like since the mid 1990's, including on the Nintendo Wii where the Virtual Console was born.
I'm sure Nintendo will want their library available here. And not every 3rd party publisher has the resources, desire, or lineup to justify creating their own collection or investing in programming a variety of emulators. So I bet we'll see a Virtual Console that's again dominated by Nintendo themselves and 3rd parties that don't want to go their own way and would rather license their content to Nintendo for a slice of the profit.
Heck, I'd say we can speculate right now that Sega just might be going this way. The new Sega Genesis Classics collection is conspicuously absent on the Switch, despite being announced just recently, months after the Switch had established itself to have a promising future ahead.
I bet there's a reason, and I bet we'll be learning exactly what it is before the year is out.
@Atariboy Look I ain't going to fight about this, time will tell.
@JJ286 That's fine by me, this is the type of argument that's unwinnable until some time has passed.
Athena...good God. What a frustrating NES game. Bad controls, items popping up on screen that I couldn't figure out what they did & a Tree Boss with the Mick Jagger lips.
Oooh, & jumping was done by pushing "up" on the d-pad. Sure hope I can map that to a button this time around.
@Atariboy @TheMudHutDweller Just stop, both of you.
Price per game for the SNK classics on eShop is too high, hope this is well priced.
@TheMudHutDweller I already told the both of you to stop. He did, but you can't let it loose apparently. It doesn't contribute to the discussion at all. So this is your last warning.
Ikari Warriors and Crystalis, is that you?!
@Lroy @Miketeevee76 Preorder from NISAEurope starts 17th April
@GrailUK Yippee!
@GrailUK nice one, cheers. My trigger fingers primed for that pre order button!
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