SNK 40th Anniversary Collection

Tue 6th Nov 2018

Nintendo Life said:

This is how retro compilations should be done. Although the emulation has a few little hiccups along the way, the overall package here is wonderfully presented. Rather than just slapping a rudimentary menu over a bunch of old ROMs, it’s clear there’s been a lot of effort made here to catalogue an often forgotten period in one of Japan’s most important game developers. As with all compilations, there are a few misses, but the quality is generally high, and the supporting museum mode is an absolute treasure trove for retro enthusiasts.

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8/10

Fri 20th Jun 2025

JJtheTexan said:

The release of SNK 40th Anniversary Collection was especially meaningful to me, as it was the first time in nearly 30 years that my beloved NES game, Crystalis, got an official rerelease. (We aren't counting the Game Boy Color port, which made a lot of changes, mostly to its detriment.) For Crystalis alone, I preordered the collector's edition.

Aside from Crystalis, which is among the very best NES titles, there are some very good games here... and a lot of games which are not so great. Fortunately, Digital Eclipse was at the helm, and the collection itself is superbly done. There is so much content here, from arcade and NES versions of most games to concept art and marketing materials. The games themselves also come with quality-of-life features that make them much more enjoyable today, even if their original incarnations are of middling quality.

Just keep in mind that this collection focuses entirely on SNK before Neo Geo, so none of its legendary titles from that era are to be found here.

Guerrilla War, P.O.W., Baseball Stars, Prehistoric Isle, and Crystalis are all good to great, and easily the best the collection has to offer. I do recommend trying every game, though, as it's a fun history lesson from an innovative Japanese developer.

Highly recommended to all Nintendo Switch and NS2 owners.

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8/10