
May is shaping up to be quite the sports month for Switch retro enthusiasts, with yesterday's announcement just a mere glimpse of the sports variety to come during the next month. HAMSTER has confirmed the following five titles as the next Neo Geo Arcade Archives releases on the Switch eShop:
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Super Sidekicks 2: The World Championship
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Baseball Stars Professional
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Top Players Golf
- Riding Hero

With the exception of 1994 Super Sidekicks 2, all the others games were released in the distant year of 1990 so you can be sure this lot truly brings in the true vintage AES experience. We're certain a chunk of our readers must be ecstatic with the news of Baseball Stars Professional on the horizon, but will you pick anything else along with it? Or the break from one-on-one fighting means you will be staying away from the eShop next month? The comments section is yours.
[source japanesenintendo.com]
Comments 64
Someone here's gonna be very happy
Finally, one of the Baseball Stars games is coming!
Is Baseball Stars Professional worth it? I purchased Super Baseball 2020 because I have fond memories of it in SNES version, but I didn't know BSP was so well regarded.
Also, with "sports heavy" I was expecting the long-awaited release of Windjammers. I'm losing hope.
@masterLEON someone like me! Baseball stars... finally!
@Moroboshi876 Heh, it seems like everyone has that one game they're really hoping for from Hamster. Mine is King of the Monsters 2.
@bluedogrulez It's your lucky day.
I've played Baseball Stars 2 SNK Classics Collection on Wii. Not a bad game despite not from the US. I do want to see Super Sidekicks 3, The Ultimate 11 and NeoGeo Cup 98 onto Arcade Archives. Great memories playing them.
Baseball Stars Professional!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Lucky day indeed. Holy cow is this great and somewhat unexpected news...BRING ON THE AMERICAN DREAMS!!
Just to add to this sporting line up,next week we're getting some arcade horse racing with Stakes Hero.It's supposed to be very good so looking forward to that.
From this new lineup I'll definitely be getting Super Sidekicks 2 ,Baseball Stars Professional and Riding Hero. Top Players Golf is a maybe ,but I already have its sequel ,Neo Turf Masters. Ninja Combat looks good to me but NL awarded it a 4/10 so I'll wait for some opinions from others who have played it. I enjoyed Burning Fight and that was also awarded 4/10 so NC being a bit basic compared to later beat-em-ups is of no concern to me 28 years after it released.If it's fun to play ,that's enough for me.
Riding Hero is like Super Hang On with narrower roads. I struggled to stay on the wide roads of SHO so I doubt I'll be reaching many checkpoints in Riding Hero. Off Road Zero more like.
Yes!! Baseball Stars!!! Day 1. Also look forward to the golf game and Riding Hero!! And yes the fighting games can use a break imo!!
I love you Hamster but honestly i can’t wait for Sega to get rolling!!!!!
This is great now if Capcom can bring all of it's old arcade ports to the switch that would be a dream come true for me.
@Moroboshi876 I am also holding out for Windjammers - but I'm not sure Hamster has the licence. DotEmu did an updated Windjammers for PS4 just last year, so I don't think it's likely to come to Switch any time soon, if Sony has its way. Boo!
Baseball Stars for NES had the ability to create and build your own teams.......I don't think that is possible with BSP?
Still may buy it but the NES version holds more nostalgia for me
@Krull That Windjammers on PS4 bothers me too, but I'm losing hope, not lost yet. Maybe they have an agreement that keeps classic Windjammers from releasing in ACA Neo Geo line for some time, and after that it comes. I don't know.
Actually Windjammers is a Data East game, so technically is not a SNK one, but at the same time Hamster is releasing Data East games, so who knows.
What even is a sidekick?
I hope they get to the more exclusive gems like Samurai Shodown V Special, Kizuna Encounter, Matrimelee, Rage of the Dragon, Kabuki Klash, and SvC: SNK vs. Capcom Chaos. Hopefully after HAMSTER is done with the NeoGeo they move on to SNK's Atomiswave arcade offering so we get KOF 2003 and KOF XI, Samurai Shodown VI, and Metal Slug 6 & 7.
@Moroboshi876 SNK don't even have the license for Windjammers anymore ,it now belongs to some small Japanese company. So even though it was made by Data East,being on a Neo Geo machine meant it needed to be licensed by SNK .I'd say the odds on it ever appearing as an Arcade Archives release are slim to none. To make things worse Dot Emu previously said they are not planning on bringing their port to other consoles so it's not looking good unfortunately.
Sweet! Love me some SUPER SIDEKICKS 2. I'll also grab NINJA COMBAT as I'll happily try any arcade side-scrolling beat-em-up. BASEBALL STARS PROFESSIONALS is tempting but I think the sequel is often regarded as the superior one and I don't feel, personally, I would play more than one Baseball title - being a Brit an' all 😉
Ditto, golf. I have NEO TURF MASTERS. I don't need any other arcade golf game.
RIDING HERO didn't appeal to me based off gameplay and review videos I've seen in the past. It plays like a sort of clunky HANG-ON with this rather pedestrian RPG-career element. I'll pass on that.
But super stoked for SUPER SIDEKICKS 2!
Nice! I'll probably grab them all. It's funny, I jumped on the eshop last night to download 10-yard Fight and WInning Stakes... only to be disappointed that they do not release until May 2! Oh well.
Nice. Hope to see Viewpoint make it onto Switch at some point as well.
I'll be waiting for Baseball Stars 2. I hope next we'll get Football Frenzy !
@OorWullie I don't care about the remake, but has DotEmu the rights for the original too?
You did punch out.
Now do super punch out.
@Moroboshi876 No,those now belong to a Japanese company called Paon. With Data East now long since bankrupt and SNK not owning any rights to the game ,it would mean Hamster have to reach an agreement with Paon but since they've already made a deal with Dotemu I can't see that happening.
That Baseball Stars game is not the awesome NES Baseball Stars game. Oh well, still cool though.
@8bitforever Yes I would love to see a lot of old arcade ports finally come to the system and I've already went on their twitter account and ask them when are you guys going to bring a lot of Capcom stuff to the Eshop?
@OorWullie Yes, it seems unlikely, but what I meant was... has Paon reached an agreement with DotEmu for the classic Windjammers too?
@Dethmunk R-Type (1) is due to come this year to Arcade Archives line.
Ninja Combat is kinda... whack. I never liked that one.
Never heard of Riding Hero. Is it any good?
@Sinton It's what you don't want to be when you're a superhero...
The more the better! I’ve only played the NES Baseball Stars games but I’m really looking forward to trying out one of the NEO GEO ones.
Is this the best one?
See, no fighting games... I'll be sitting out these releases though. However as always, HAMSTER is doing the business.
@shonenjump86 Tough as nails and most reviews completely destroy it, so I think it's safe to say that you should steer clear from this one, unless you're starving for a retro arcade motor racing game, but I'll let you make up your own mind.
Here's a clip:
And here's an extensive video review, also covering the game's story mode:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52lVPfOtC2s
@ThanosReXXX LOL🤣
@ThanosReXXX thanks. Looks like I’m better off with Super Hang On.
At last Baseball! Wanted so badly. Have the NGPocket version. And SideKicks 2 is apparantly where it got real good. Looking to grab Stakes too. Hamster, my wallet hates you but I think you're smashing. Baseball! Baseball! Baseball! All the way!!!!
@shonenjump86 Indeed. The arcade version of Hang On is miles better than Riding Hero. Even the SNES or Megadrive versions are way better. You better save your money for one of the actually good Neo Geo titles.
@Sinton You're welcome. For a second there, you actually had me wondering if you were serious...
Yes!!!! Baseball Stars Profesional is great!!!! Still holding out for some games!!
Real Bout Fatal Fury 2
The Last Blade 2
Samurai Shodown V Special
The King of Fighters 97
The King of Fighters 2001
The King of Fighters 2002
The King of Fighters 2003
Metal Slug 4
Metal Slug 5
Baseball Stars 2
Windjammers
But i’ll be real, Super Sidekicks and Super Sidekicks 2 look incredibly fun!!!
@ThanosReXXX Well, I was serious in the sense: what does it have to with football/soccer, it being the title of a football game. I’ve never heard anyone say «nice sidekick by Messi», for instance.
So whatever happened to that horse racing game we were supposed to get?
Also, KOF 97 and Last Blade 2 are two fighting games we are very noticeably missing.
@Sinton Probably in the sense of team play, so the players being each other's sidekicks. Another option, and a thing to always keep in mind, is that the games were of course made by Asians, so perhaps in their mind, sidekick is a good word for a kick with effect/after touch. What we would call a curve ball or something...
I'm just theorizing here, mind you, so what the real reason for the name is, will probably remain hidden in video game history, until someone somewhere feels it's worthwhile to dig it up and find out the what's what about it all.
@JayJ This one, you mean?
https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2018/04/ride_short_to_romp_next_week_with_saurus_stakes_winner
Broken record time again.....
JUST PORT WINDJAMMERS ALREADY!!!
@ThanosReXXX Yeah that's it! Thanks! Glad to see we are still getting it, Stakes Winner looks a lot more interesting to me than Riding Hero does.
@ThanosReXXX According to Wikipedia, the Japanese title is Tokuten Ou 2 - Real Fight Football. Google Translate claims the first part means top scorers in my language, but «efforts» in English...
I guess it’ll remain a mystery.
@JayJ You're welcome.
And that's a given: Riding Hero is one of the worst games, if not THE worst game on the Neo Geo, so it's not that hard to do better than that. But having said that, Stakes Winner even looks interesting to me, and I don't like these type of games at ALL.
@Sinton I don't think a Google translation is an accurate or good representative of what it would actually mean. And it doesn't need to be translated, seeing as Super Sidekicks is the English title that the Japanese developers themselves gave to it, so we would need to find out what they meant to say with it.
EDIT:
But it will indeed probably stay shrouded in mystery. And perhaps that's even a good thing: not everything needs to be explained or known all the time. As long as the game itself is good enough, and Super Sidekicks is actually a pretty enjoyable series. Well, at least: if you like soccer, obviously.
@ThanosReXXX Yeah IMO racing games didn't really take off until the 32-bit gen. Back in the 16-bit gen I was never really into racing games because there wasn't really anything truly great in the way of racing games back then. I mean we had a few exceptions, but I was never a big fan them.
The best they could seem to do back then was the mode 7 style graphics games like F-Zero, Super Mario Kart, Outrun, Hang-On, and while those were the highlights they aren't exactly what got me into racing games. What got me into racing games was my PS1 with games like Gran Turismo 1 & 2, the early Need for Speed series, the Ridge Racer series, Jet Moto games, Wipeout games, I mean the list just goes on and on, racing games were getting so much better and it is all because of the 3D graphics.
When I look back to the 16-bit gen, it is like "okay I can see how they were trying here" but none of it is stuff that I really want to go back to. Like, mode 7 was a great idea for it's time but now it is kind of hard to look at.
@ThanosReXXX I’m no expert on how SNK operated in those days, but I know they did have an American branch that handled localization, so I doubt that it was the developers themselves that named it «Super Sidekicks». I agree that Google translate don’t tell us the meaning, but that was my point: «Sidekicks» is probably not a fancy term used in Japan.
I'm guessing May will be a sports themed month and Ninja Combat will be the first release in June.
@JayJ Yeah, of course, back then possibilities were limited to what the hardware could do. The best efforts came later on in the 16 bit era with games like Virtua Racing and Stunt Racer FX and the like.
Back then, I myself wasn't a console gamer: I was firmly rooted in Commodore Amiga land and I enjoyed all the 2D/isometric racers that this home computer gave me. I especially liked the Lotus Esprit trilogy, which was really good for what it was, and was already more advanced than games like Outrun and so on.
But obviously, accuracy in racing could never be achieved on those systems, no matter how hard they tried, so I do have to agree that the genre only first truly came into its own on later systems, and nowadays, some of these games look almost frighteningly realistic.
I own quite a few of these games, but even though I like my racing sims, I still prefer arcade racers. I'm still hoping for a sequel to Split Second, but that'll probably never happen, so I'll settle for Pure 2 or Ridge Racer finally returning to form...
@Sinton I know that it is no fancy term used in Japan, but that's also not what I meant, allow me to explain:
Back in those days, bad English was pretty normal in games, and to this day, the Japanese borrow a lot of words that are directly implemented into their own language, without being translated, the effect of which is quite often something not really grammatically correct, nor does it make any sense, so although I'm not saying that this is the explanation for that, but I actually am saying that it could be the reason behind it.
But far as I'm concerned, it stays a mystery. I rather spend my energy on something I'll actually be able to achieve/find out...
As for SNK: yes there was an American HQ, and they did localization, but they were always directed by the main HQ, so they could never make decisions all by themselves without SNK of Japan knowing of it or approving it. In that, they actually didn't differ that much from how Nintendo operates...
@ThanosReXXX Yeah I think arcade racers is the one thing that was done better in the past than it is now. Not that we can't do it, just that the focus on arcade racing has largely went away. We got the best sim racers we have ever had though. I still find Gran Turismo Sport incredible to look at.
@ThanosReXXX Yeah, I would either guess that the developers themselves came up with a name with no real meaning, or that someone in the west with no knowledge of football came up with that name.
At least I’ll take notice if I ever hear someone mention the word «sidekick» when talking about football. 😉
ninja combat uses the same engine as gang wars. both good games.
@JayJ I'm still playing Outrun 2006 every now and then...
But as you might have guessed from my earlier comment, I also like Split Second. And the Burnout games are also still fun to play, as well as some of the current and last gen Need for Speed games. Last gen also had Blur, which was also quite a decent arcade racer.
As for Gran Turismo: I do like the look of some of them, but this house has a strict no Sony policy, so my poison of choice is Forza and Forza Horizon. And as far as looks are concerned, nothing tops Project CARS 2, especially on PC, but also on the Xbox One X and PS4 Pro. Gameplay wise, I don't find it all that great compared to the other sims on offer, though.
@Sinton Hey, if anything, you will now at least remember the game's name, so that part of it's subliminal marketing ploy has worked just perfectly...
I'll tell you what HAMSTER game I want to see.
Hamtaro: Ham Ham's Unite!
Ham Ham Heartbreak
Rainbow Rescue
Heck, Nintendo owns the IP, make a new one! I miss the Hamtaro games. They had some pretty clever puzzles for a kid friendly adventure game.
@OorWullie I had top players golf on the AES- it isn’t very good.
@KingSandyRavage they don’t own the rights to it
Just a note to everyone asking for windjammers- it ain’t going to happen. I’m pretty sure that is now owned by someone else- hence the PS4/vita game which isn’t a hamster release.
@darthstuey when did that happen? Been waiting for Windjammers to be ported for over 20 years now.
@KingSandyRavage hang on!!!! That totally passed me by. It’s already available on PS4!? When did that happen!?
Why does that mean it won’t be one switch also?
@KingSandyRavage https://www.playstation.com/en-us/games/windjammers-ps4/
@KingSandyRavage it’s been out since last summer. I’m sure I read somewhere that it’s a PlayStation exclusive.
@darthstuey downloaded. Totally bypassed me. Shame I’ve got to play it on my crap PS4 when would be miles better and get more playtime on my Switch
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