Not so long ago, SNK's portable fighter SNK Gals' Fighters was rated by the Korean Game Rating and Administration Committee, hinting that a release was happening soon.
Well, guess what? The game has just appeared on the Nintendo Switch eShop. First released on the Neo Geo Pocket Color in 2000, the game is a one-on-one fighting game with an all-female cast, and is the spiritual forerunner to the more recent SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy.
This isn't the first time that SNK has released a NGPC game on Switch; Samurai Shodown 2 was offered as a pre-order bonus with some copies of the recent update.
SNK Gals' Fighters costs$7.99 / €7.99. Will you be downloading it?
Comments 39
i would love if this meant more neo geo pocket color games could make a reappearance.. lovely console with some real gems
No Kula Diamond as far as I know, which means this is only a maybe. I'll take a closer look.
Wasn't it supposed to be a pre-order bonus of another release?
Cool I’ll pick this up.
Wished the Samurai Shodown NGPC game was available to buy... would love to see more too. The Sonic Pocket Adventure was amazing. I definitely loved the little d-pad on the NGPC. The games might not be the same without it.
Yeah, i did pick it up a few hours ago. It has a lot little details that makes it cool, like the buttons on the screen being pressable and being able to play it without any joycon (if you don't care playing with the touch screen), being able to play sideways on two players, with each joycon attached and each player having their screen on the side of the joycon, being able to choose the model of the NGP... a love letter.
yess new pick up
@Moroboshi876 it was Samurai Showdown 2 for NGPC which was a pre-order bonus for Samurai Showdown/Spirits on Switch.
I would be tempted to get Gal Fighters on Switch if I didn't already have the NGPC original.
Definitely a lot more affordable than the original cartridge on NGPC! I'll be picking this is up and show support. Hopefully more NGPC games will make it to the Switch.
Cool. The NGPC fighters all have a really distinctive style. Did that game that emulated that style ever see the light of day?
@ROBLOGNICK do you mean Pocket Rumble? It's been out for a long time.
Now, how cool is this?
(Very cool, in case you were stuck.)
I’d definitely buy that NGPC version of Samurai Shodown 2 if they ever bring it to the eShop as a regular release
@GauBan Hm... But I could swear this particular game was already the subject of an article here in Nintendo Life. Weird.
This will be my first time playing a Neo Geo Pocket game. Getting this along with SOR4.
@Moroboshi876 There was an article about it being rated in South Korea. The preorder bonus part was just a guess based on similar case with Samurai Shodown.
@gcunit This game was released in 2000 before Kula Diamond made her debut in KoF2000. I will need to check the release dates for both games though, but I do know they were released the same year.
@Late Thanks! That was it!
@ROBLOGNICK yes, it's even on the swich since, like, two years. Pocket Rumble, look it up, it's reeeeeally good.
Far too expensive for what it is.It should be half that price
Ooh I’m more interested in this than the recent reimagining.
A Neo Geo Pocket collection would be even more tempting though.
I was one of the few who wanted NGPC VC over Virtual Boy during the 3DS run.
But admittedly I only cared about one game (Sonic) and it's only about a step above the Game Gear games.
SNK Heroines was trash. I liked the Tag Team and moves but it was just fan service and didn't even get any support. The only other fighting game I like is Smash Bros and even though the command inputs are too complicated, Tekken. Blade Strangers is the only one I want to try, as it stands.
The Neo Geo Pocket Color is a truly underrated handheld and I'd love to see more titles make it here. I'd much rather play this than that newer SNK Gals game, personally.
In an ideal world they'll also put out a Joy-con that has that excellent clicky joystick that was perfect for fighters.
Downloading this tonight.
Except for a slight input delay (not talking about an attack power's dependency on how long you hold a button) and no "suspend" option, it's not so bad. I hope SNK and Capcom can agree to port some of their crossover games on the near future.
UPDATE: I later realized that the gameplay suspends automatically when you close the game and picks up right where you left off the next time you launch it.
Another great NGPC port by Code Mystics! Hopefully this sells well enough to merit porting more of the NGPC library. KoF R-2, the Metal Slug games, Fatal Fury 1st Contact, and others would do well here.
I forgot how grindy the character unlocks are, though. Basically beat the game twice with everyone, which should unlock 2 characters, Yuki and Whip. Then one more time with everyone plus the unlocked characters to get Miss X (assuming you played straight through and didn't continue, but it's possible to unlock characters sooner if you continue enough times). So Yuki unlocks at 100 matches, Whip at 150, and Miss X at 200.
@DrDaisy The game gets a little more snappy, and runs at a more visible 60FPS, if you bump up the game speed in the options. At least game speed 3, 4(max) if you want turbo speed.
@masterLEON Does it have any extras like filters (scanlines) or fullscreen (without the NGPC) etc?
@Spideron Not scanlines in the usual sense, but the screen grid that replicates a TFT LCD display. Fullscreen can be done by cycling to the black border and zooming in to fill (R stick). It's not too precise if you're trying to get perfect square 'pixels', you can easily go over/under (also mind the NEOGEO pocket's near-square 160x152 resolution). For me, I zoom in all the way with the grid on, then tap the R Stick to zoom out until the pixels feel even enough so the bunched up patterns go away. From there I can either leave it alone (if I just want to play), or turn the grid off (if I'm recording). Either way, if you did it right, there should be minimal to no screen scroll hitching or artifacts that's common with variable screen scaling methods, though I really wish there was a way to see/control how much scaling there is. EDIT: The screen scaling is uniform, there's no way to stretch the screen wider.
So Sakurai couldn't put Mai in his E10 title but she's appearing here alright.
Cool that they are releasing their NeoGeo Pocket Color games now, hopefully they release more so I get a chance to play Metal Slug: Second Mission, Dive Alert, Sonic's Pocket Adventure, KOF: Round 2, Last Blade, and SNK vs. Capcom: Match of the Millennium.
@masterLEON "Yuki unlocks at 100 matches, Whip at 150, and Miss X at 200."
That explains why I didn't unlock anyone after beating the game. Either GameFAQs is lying or conditions for unlocking characters were changed for the Switch Port.
@DrDaisy I think I misread the match count. It's Whip at 80, Miss X at 100, Yuki at 150, all with possible alternate conditions. I already got Whip last night after beating the game with everyone once, so if I finish going through the roster again I should get the other two.
@masterLEON So it doesn't matter if you beat the game or not? It's determined by how many matches you have like in some of the Super Smash games?
@DrDaisy Possibly. Maybe someone already has 2 players to play with and they go on for a few hours, theoretically (according to GameFAQs) they'll unlock the 3 characters that way without going through the story mode. It's infinitely easier to play 2P now that you don't need a 2nd NGPC and a link cable. However, story mode is kinda easy if you're familiar with the characters and King of Fighters in general.
But, plot twist! I only played with 3 characters (Whip and Mai last night, Yuri just now) on my 2nd go around, and I've already unlocked Yuki and Miss X. Both characters with one play through!
Sorry, I just don't know anymore, LOL.
EDIT: Reviewing the capture, I managed to beat the game without losing a round. But the only way that makes sense is if a+b happened, where a)beating the game without losing the round unlocked Yuki and b)crossing the 100 match threshold unlocked Miss X.
@masterLEON Thanks for the feedback, was hoping for a ratio-locked zoom function that filled the screen - or at least scaled the screen larger than what I've seen in videos. So if I get you right there's at least some kind of zooming function to get a larger picture. Too bad about no scanlines though. Grew up playing on CRT-screens so I always look for that. I find it 'rounds' the usually pixelated look somewhat.
@Spideron Yup, locked aspect ratio and you can zoom in until the top and bottom of the NEOGEO Pocket display, where the 'pixels' begin and end, touches the top and bottom edge of your TV.
Oddly enough, this is one of the first times I noticed where there is no kind of smoothing option at all. Scanlines I can give or take in this case, since they weren't on the original handheld system. But scaling 160 vertical lines up 4.5x to 720 without any kind of smoothing results in pixel edges that you can cut yourself on, LOL. All it needs is just a little bit, to soften the edges. I like the one in the SEGA AGES games, that smoothing filter is super subtle. It's perfect.
@masterLEON (Late) thanks for the feedback!
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