SNK's New Neo Geo Might Not Be What You Were Expecting

Make it compatible with Switch, PS4, X1 and I'll buy one.

People ask "who is SNK?" (especially Smash Bros. fans), but no one asks "How is SNK?"

Well, the Capcom stick hybrid was a difficult sell because of the price, and the fact you can grab a Pandora for around the same price with pretty much all of those titles on there.

The Neo Geo Mini has crappy output to HDMI, doesn't it? I can't see too many buying this for using the stick on their existing Mini.

So that boils it down to the quality of HDMI output, game lineup and price on this to make it viable for everyone else. It's a nice looking stick, so hopefully they can tick those other boxes too.

I've just bought the Hori Hayabusa arcade stick for the Switch and already have plenty of Neo Geo games to play with it and many others. I'd have been tempted by the Capcom one had it been a bit cheaper and had the ability to connect to existing games consoles to use as a controller

Interesting that it is an 8 button arcade stick, when Neo Geo only has 4 buttons.
I wonder if this means it will be compatible as a controller with other consoles or PC, or if it will include built in arcade games from other companies... or maybe the extra buttons can be used for combinations of other buttons, like one button is A+B, one is B+C etc.

Edit: also, I hate how they don’t use the original Neo Geo button laytout for the ABCD buttons...

They could just be upfront and not confuse people with their teaser announcements.

The way they put it months ago, it seemed like they were relaunching the Neo Geo AES, just this time with 720p output and other quality of life improvements, and of course preloaded games. It would have been like the mini trend, just not smaller than the original (or maybe yes, who knows). That's not ridiculous at all, if you think about it.

Talk about a let down.

Ehh, no this is about what I was expecting from SNK, another nostalgia toy for the arcade frenzied 30-40 somethings out there (like me). This looks like something I’d want to buy if the moddin’s good, if you know what I mean

If:

• the collection is very good or there is a convenient way to change the ROMs,
• the emulation is fine,
• there's a possibility to play with someone else,
• it doesn't get a "made for nostalgic mid/upper working class" pricetag,
  I would gladly buy one.

PS: I forgot an important clause, the "no-battery" one

@JoakimZ This will; have built in games and also work with other consoles as a stand alone stick. There are clearly four mode buttone on the right hand side and the colour buttons are not in traditional Neo Geo order.

@Rei It has usbc ports that can be used for the dreadful Neo mini joypads.

@RupeeClock The X was nothing to do with playmore, it was merely a licence and that's why they then revoked the licence as it was so poor.

@Rei Ahem... the article clearly states that it is powered by a USB Type-C connector, so no batteries required.

What’s the deal with that Capcom stick anyway? Hasn’t been much about it since the initial announcement and the controversy with the emulator.

Curious as most of their catalogue is available on Switch, PS4, etc or at least the ones I care for I have access to for a long time. Weird how we are getting all these "Mini" consoles now. I do like the controller and would buy it if it was just a compatible arcade stick for my Switch/PS4.

Im confused. What is this thing ? Just a joystick for the NGM ? But 8 buttons , so maybe compatible with other systems? Or is it a system in a stick with built in games ?

Seems to me that they are now milking the NeoGeo brand for all it's worth. My guess for their third product would be an actual arcade emulator cabinet similar to what Arcade 1ups are doing but with NeoGeo roms instead. Well that's all I got for NeoGeo, considering most of their games are on Switch and compilations already, I'll just skipped on these. Now if they ever release a NeoGeo Pocket Color Mini with all its games I would buy that day one.

Slightly disappointing, I thought it was an actual console, maybe with a slot for existing carts?

Which makes me wonder if Hyperkin (or someone else) will ever jump on that train of thought and make a Neo Geo clone?

@Damo How do you know it's a console and not just an arcade stick for the NeoGeo Mini (or modern platforms)?

Key for me is 1) emulation (should be okay) 2) quality of the actual stick (neogeo x sticks used the same moulds as the original aes stick but used inferior internal parts) 3) games and 4) price (also need to factor in that you will likely want 2 of these to take advantage of all those fighting games

@YANDMAN I agree - the button layout doesn’t fill me with confidence! Shame this couldn’t have been a replica of the excellent neogeo cd kidney bean joystick

.......So the next Smash fighter is a controller?

@Galarian_Lassie Kids these days...

@fuzzyspud Personally I am happy that I got the ACA Neo Geo games on my Switch and the Hori arcade stick to go along with them. It seems to be a much better setup to this.

I would buy that arcade stick for the Switch. Hopefully it will see a release in the near future.

I didn't know a Metal Slug game is in development. I hope it comes to Switch running at 60fps! It would be beautiful to have a higher resolution Slug on the little screen!

@rob7979 This is exactly what this is meant to be, they even stated as much in their press release.

I personally think this is just something to tie them over until they announce something much more substantial, hopefully this will be a clicky stick this time around.

The omission of Neo Turf Masters is a crime on par with human trafficking.

Unless you love fighting games this thing isn't for you as all the games are just that. C'mon seriously SNK you couldn't just throw in a Metal Slug, Sengoku, Magical Drop, Alpha Mission II, Last Resort, 2020 Baseball, or Nam 75 in there for variety sake?

I actually like the idea of a modern-retro console that's just the controller with a whole bunch of digital games pre-loaded onto it, no console box necessary. But I'm not personally interested in one that's from SNK and only contains a bunch of fighting games. A version from Nintendo or Sega that had a mix of say 50 of the best games for those systems on it would be brilliant though.

@Galarian_Lassie I heard that before...maybe some originality?

I'm about 95% ok and onboard with this, but.. I wonder why they would skimp on Art of Fighting 2 (didn't much care for part 3).

Is this thing an octagon gate or a square gate?

Still no rage of dragons or matrimelee 😞

I know there not SNK's own but neither is kizuna encounter

Always funny to get a bunch of notifications at the same time, for a comment made over 2 weeks ago.

Seriously - this thing only comes with 20 games? At least put some decent 1 player games on there lol.

eh? just fighting games? does it play online?

these single genre collections sure are weird to me, racing games and fighting game i imagine you'd just want the latest version, RPGs might be intimidating though you don't have to play them 1 after the other, platformers and shoot em ups seem fine to me though.

But will clicky buttons still be hard?

@ReaperExTenebris SNK mentioned that it can be used as a PC compatible controller. And SamSho 6 was an Atomiswave game, not a NEOGEO hardware game. Atomiswave is closely related to SEGA NAOMI arcade hardware, which the Dreamcast was based off of.

@JedRock Actually, I'm wondering why they put in AoF 1 and not 3 which plays better than the other 2, IMO, and is one of the better technical showcases for the system. (and we really didn't need all those World Heroes games, just WH Perfect and maaayybe 2)

@ancientlii For fighting games, like all the KoF's and Samurai Shodowns that are in this thing, not all of them play the same and everyone has their own favorites. Even if they're not the most current iteration. Like all the Street Fighters play differently and I'm cool with all of them except for the first one and V. I like KoF's '94, '95, '98, '00, and XIII all for different reasons. And I prefer Samurai Shodown II, III, and 7 (the latest one), but I'm warming up to V Special the more I play it. Some of the conventions that I go to, and a bunch of the fighting game majors, still hold side tournaments for older titles. They'll keep doing it for as long as there's still people interested in competing.

@EmmatheBest I haven't seen hard buttons since my old Topmax Dreamcast fight stick and Pelican Playstation Arcade stick from the late 90's-early 00's. I think we should be ok now that high performance buttons like Sanwa and HORI have become mainstream.

@masterLEON My comment was dealing with the infamous answer to the question that was asked about the previous Neo Geo Mini, why the D-Pad didn't 'click' like the original Neo Geo CD controllers.

@EmmatheBest I totally read that wrong.

I hate how the 20 games selection is so unthought off ...

How many of these Neo Geo emulation devices are they making now? Seems like a new one every month.

Kinda dumb that it has Art of Fighting 1 and not 2/3. The first one is pretty bad.

As much as I don't want to link to Kotaku, I can't find any other pics to show how huge these sticks are (and Brian is cool, afaik; he knows a fair bit of Japanese arcade culture):

https://kotaku.com/the-neo-geo-arcade-stick-pro-is-massive-in-person-1838088024

Looking at the size of the ball top and shaft cover there's a chance they used the "NEOGEO stick", a Seimitsu LS-40, that was popularized by their Japanese MVS cabinets. If it's true, that makes me a happy camper It's the same stick I installed in my trusty Madcatz SFIV Arcade Fightstick.

No Metal Slug this time?
just tons of editions of a few fighter games

might as well get a Street Fighter collection

Having World Heroes 2 & Jet on there is 100% pointless. They should have given us Real Bout Fatal Fury & Real Bout Fatal Fury 2 instead.