Blazing Star

The Neo Geo was the Ferrari of video game consoles back when it was first released in 1990 and its sky high $600 price tag put it out of reach of the majority of game fans. But it also represented the first time actual arcade hardware was made available in a home console format. It didn't exactly help matters that many of the actual Neo Geo game cartridges cost in excess of $300 back when they were first introduced and this made them quite impractical for the ordinary video game consumer's wallet.

Luckily, Nintendo saw the potential of finally making these great games available at a much more affordable cost on their Virtual Console service and D4 Enterprises began publishing a good number of Neo Geo titles for the service beginning in October 2007 in North America.

Sadly, the Neo Geo has only seen 19 releases on the service to date and there hasn't been a Neo Geo release in North America since December 1, 2008. That means that there are quite a few great titles still available for a possible release.

The sheer size of some of the later Neo Geo releases most likely puts them out of reach of the Virtual Console service due to its strict file size limitation. So if you want your Garou: Mark of the Wolves or The King of Fighters 2002 fix, you might have to look to the Xbox Live Arcade service instead. That being said, there are still plenty of Neo Geo titles left that will fit on the service to choose from.

Neo Mr. Do

For starters, there's the amazing Neo Geo shoot 'em up Blazing Star. It's one of the best horizontal shooters available for the system and any other system for that matter. There's also American-Sammy's Viewpoint release as well. It's a shooter that will test even the most seasoned veteran shmup fans and makes use of some really amazing polygonal visuals, especially for the time period.

Of course if shooters aren't your cup of tea, there's always arcade hits like Nam 1975 and Neo Mr. Do. Nam 1975 has long been one of the most beloved of the early Neo Geo arcade releases and Neo Mr. Do is an outstanding and unique update of the original Universal arcade classic. And for those of you who like an offbeat sports title, Windjammers should do the trick for you. Think of it as a cross between hockey and Frisbee tossing. It went largely unnoticed in arcades the first time around, but has become quite a popular title among Neo Geo collectors out there.

In truth, there are a ton of great Neo Geo titles still available that D4 Enterprises could bring to the Virtual Console service. So here's your chance to let them know what Neo Geo games you'd still like to see released on Nintendo's Virtual Console service.

Viewpoint