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Topic: Arcade Archives / ACA NEOGEO eShop sales

Posts 41 to 45 of 45

Dimjimmer

The previous sale has yet to end, but there is a new batch of Arcade Archive games, with their discount ending on 5th June. The games in question are:

Baraduke
Baseball Stars Professional
Cyber-Lip
Metal Slug 5
New Rally-X
Ninja Combat
Pac-Mania
Samurai Shodown V
Tank Force
Xevious

Dimjimmer

Teksetter

@Dimjimmer
Yes I just heard the news this morning! A nice little surprise extension of Ake-Aka’s Namco Festival. 3 weeks of sales in a row! This is truly exceptional.

I may have to pick up Xevious in honor of the occasion! 😁

Switch FC: SW-5760-3019-8223
(player name is Beesh)

canaryfarmer

Grabbed Metal Slug 5; not the best of the series but still fun! Yay for all these sales!

canaryfarmer

MontyCircus

There is currently a sale on in North America ending Wednesday, May 29, 2024. (the 30th after midnight ET). See post #34 on page 2 for more info on that.

There is also a new sale on in North America ending Wednesday, June 5, 2024. (the 6th after midnight ET).

That's right, there have been 3 Hamster sales in quick succession, including 2 overlapping ones on now!

Keep in mind, there are over 100 ACA NEOGEO games and nearly 300 Arcade Archives games. And only 5 to 10 of each go on sale at a time, and games from these collections only go on sale a couple of times a year. So you really have to jump on them, because if you miss it, it could be years before any individual title goes on sale again.

ACA NEOGEO METAL SLUG 5
ACA NEOGEO CYBER-LIP
ACA NEOGEO SAMURAI SHODOWN V
ACA NEOGEO NINJA COMBAT
ACA NEOGEO BASEBALL STARS PROFESSIONAL
Arcade Archives XEVIOUS
Arcade Archives PAC-MANIA
Arcade Archives NEW RALLY-X
Arcade Archives TANK FORCE
Arcade Archives BARADUKE

Neo Geo games are on sale for 50% off. Namco Arcade Archives games are on sale for 30% off.

A while ago I googled for lists of the best Neo Geo games. I looked for ranked lists at least 25 games long. I ended up finding 7 qualifying lists with 132 unique games and a total of 410 separate entries.

Metal Slug 5 ended up the #37 best Neo Geo game
Cyber-Lip ended up the #48 best Neo Geo game
Samurai Shodown V ended up the #55 best Neo Geo game

But I wouldn't recommend any of these 5 Neo Geo games for a variety of reasons.

  • Metal Slug 4 & 5 were made by a different company, and are a bit slap-dash in comparison to the best of the series (Metal Slug, Metal Slug X and Metal Slug 3).
  • Cyber-Lip was a Neo Geo launch year title, and as a run and gun game, does not hold a candle to the Metal Slug series that would launch 6 years later.
  • Samurai Shodown V is a fine game, but there are 3 better-regarded games in the series on Neo Geo. Add to that, there is an enhanced version Samurai Shodown V Special, that is the best version of that game. And if you're that interested in the game, you might as well just get the SAMURAI SHODOWN NEOGEO COLLECTION which includes 7 games in the series. It tends to go on sale over New Year's, every 2 years.
  • Ninja Combat is another poor launch year title, this one is a beat 'em up, which as NintendoLife reports, all playable characters and enemies walking animations look like they have crapped their pants.
  • Baseball Stars Professional is an actual Neo Geo launch DAY title. And if you're itching for some arcade baseball action, ACA NEOGEO BASEBALL STARS 2 is much better, so much so that it is the #14 best game on the system.
  • Xevious, all vertical shmups made after 1983 built off of its template. If you're interested in early shmup history, it is a must have. If you have the NAMCO MUSEUM ARCHIVES Vol 1 collection, then you already have its NES port.
  • Pac-Mania, it's already in the PAC-MAN MUSEUM+ collection.
  • New Rally-X, interesting story. At the biggest North American arcade game trade show in 1980, there were 4 hit games that had everyone abuzz: Battlezone, Defender, Pac-Man and Rally-X. The consensus sure-fire biggest hit game of those 4 was? Rally-X.
    There are 4 cool things about Rally-X that might not all quite be gaming "FIRST!"s, but they were all pretty novel, especially when packaged together:
  • In-game background music
  • Bonus round
  • A game play area bigger than the screen
  • A radar/map
    A common complaint about Rally-X was that it was too difficult. So they made this New Rally-X (which some Rally-X fans complain is now too easy!), with some added features, graphical improvements etc. I remember playing both versions, so I enjoy it nostalgically, but it is not as well-regarded as the best Namco had to offer.
  • Tank Force, is already included in the NAMCO MUSEUM collection.
  • Baraduke is a mostly forgotten game, except for its numerous strange similarities to Metroid, interesting because Baraduke came first! The sequel Baraduke 2 never left Japan, and is hated for it's hellish, brutal, unfair difficulty. For example, if you die on stage 2, you start your next life on stage 1! Screw that!

So I would say Xevious is the crown jewels of this sale, on an individual purchase level, with the other "good" games in existing collections.

Edited on by MontyCircus

MontyCircus

StarryCiel

I'd still recommend Metal Slug 5 tbh, I always found it kinda underrated. It's not as polished as the first three, but it's very ambitious, has some of the wildest setpieces in the series, and the soundtrack goes ridiculously hard.

StarryCiel

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