Reminder: Select ACA Neo Geo Fighting Games On The Switch eShop Are Currently 50% Off

Why isn't there a collection yet? I would love all these games in one cart. Especially the Metal Slug games all in one cart, that would be stellar.

Hamster has had a bunch of 50% games the past three weeks.
Ome of the Sengoku games and a bunch of other random arcade titles (non neo geo).

I've been playing King of Fighters '97 and '98 almost daily for the past couple of weeks and have been having a blast the whole time. KOF '97 is an excellent entry in the series and is very similar to KOF '98 so it's a good place to jump in. And KOF '97 may be more interesting in some ways, such as elements of the presentation and the sequence of boss fights. The only issue with KOF '97 is with music. Specifically, there's some character-specific music, and some light stage music in some spots like the amusement-park stage, but many matches lack music. I think the game's sound effects are strong enough to pull it off and it works in context, even though I think game music is a big deal. KOF '97 was the one I first fell in love with when I encountered the cabinet in a comic shop back in the day. Oddly, as I recall, I was brought there to check out a Capcom game they had, but it was KOF that captured my imagination.

Shame. I'm only interested in '98.

Now Smash Ultimate players can't say they don't know Terry anymore.

Haven’t played any of these, but I definitely would like to try out the series, anyone have any recommendations on which one I should get?

That's good news. When they rarely put Hamster games on sale (like recently happened) they usually aren't quite the best ones.

But I'll pick some of these. Garou Mark of the Wolves was on my wishlist anyway, but I'll add KOF 97 and 2000, which I don't have anywhere else, and maybe FF1 in order to have the original, at this price. I only have the Mega Drive port.

I just can't play 2D fighters. Used to play Marvel Vs. Capcom/2 because, "Mega Man AND Gambit?! Sign me up!!!"
Now, Terry in Smash, I'm thoroughly enjoying the effortless chaining plus the hit-and-run specials. Buster Wolf feels like cheating.

Already have Garou on other consoles, but at that price for Switch, I might as well get it.

@MsJubilee there is a Samurai Shodown collection coming to all current consoles at least. And if it helps, the PS2 version of Metal Slug Anthology is on PS4 if you’re interested.

Garou Mark of the Wolves is great but I'd really like to have seen more titles on sale. I love the Neo Geo games and haven't bought any of them yet for my Switch.

@Zoda_Fett It depends on if you have played many fighting games. I would say Garou Mark of the Wolves is a class intro as the animation is on overdrive and has some great mechanics. However if you need it simple and fun, then fatal fury special would be a good shout. If you want a game with longevity as there are lots of fighters, any of the KoF games are great. Each KoF game has its own style and gameplay mechanics so they are all worth playing, but perhaps try KoF 97 or 2000 as an intro.

@Onion Yes, they should have added all games with Terry on them. I would have included FF3 at least, which is an entry I haven't even tried.

Mark of the wolves, hell yeah! Maybe also pick up a king of fighters, but don't know which one...

I already own ALL kof,ff,aof games on switch

I would recommend KOF 97 and KOF 2000. The other games of that list are very hard to play without an arcade stick since they don't have input buffers.

@Onion They tend to rotate on sales through the year. We've had Metal Slug and others on sale before but they tend to do a small batch at a time.

A full collection with background info and art would be even better, though.

Might get King of Fighters 97. Not a big fan of fighting games but these do interest me for some reason.

Already found them last night and bought TKoF 95, Fatal Fury Special, and TKoF 2000. Just adding G:MotW now.

They all have great pixel art and animation so you really can't go far wrong at the price available.

@sdelfin I totally agree with you, 97 is a very good entry into the franchise for the newcomers. Even 96 if you want my opinion.

I even prefer 96 for one single reason : musics.
For the record, as you noticed, 97 lacks a lot of music : they didn't have the time to finish them for the release... Which is an unbelievable anecdot in the KOF series. I played it on japanese PS1 at the time and it was the same.

96 features some of the best musics, best sound design and best stages in the series.

98 is still the best.

Well. It's a great trilogy

If you get KOF97, pick the characters Kyo, Iori and Chizuru to get the canon ending. It's the final ending of the Orochi Saga, the first arc of the KOF series. They aren't the easiest characters to play so you might be challenged.

Picked up KoF ‘97. I cannot pass Level 4

@MsJubilee Well, there's a KOF, a Metal Slug and a Samurai Shodown Collection for each franchise on Wii. Think even the PS2 also did ones for Art of Fighting and Fatal Fury.

As for modern collections, I think they're just going to stick with the ACA Digital releases. When you consider they put out over 100 Neo Geo games for the modern systems, there's probably too much money to gain from those digitally buying their favorites from the huge selection and, to the most extreme, NEO GEO fanatics (As well as achievement hunters, as most are fairly easy to get 1000 gamerscore or Plat trophy each) buying every last one of them (A nice £600+ from each fanatic. XD)

The first titles sold extremely well on the Switch's launch period, hence why they kept pumping them out so you can bet plenty of Smash Bros players are going to do the same this month (It is the world's biggest selling fighting game after all.).

@MsJubilee I thought there already was a collection of Metal Slug games on Switch?

I got a few of these on the vita. Great games. They still look good and play even better.

@smashboy2000 Completely agree, KoF 96 IMHO is one of the best of the series, the stages and musics are fantastic and I still listen to the official soundtrack!
Also, the selection of teams available were great, the 'Boss Team' was so much fun to play!
I also agree that KoF 98 is the best one of the series.

If I would recommend someone to purchase, then, it would be 98, 96 and 95 (great musics and stages too!).

Fatal Fury Special is also nice even though didn't age so well.
I'd go for Real Bolt Special.

Garou is a must if you like fighting games.

Too bad I literally bought every single Fatal Fury and King of Fighter game there...

I've got most (if not all) of these on PC or Android (thank you Humble Bundle), but they'd still be worth a look otherwise.

At least Garou is on sale.

Real Bout Fatal Fury is much better
besides that the rest are great for $4

@Angelic_Lapras_King ps4 has the ps2 collections but the emulation is horrible.

If you haven't played Garou, STOP WHAT YOU ARE DOING AND BUY NOW.

D'oh, none of the ones I need are on sale. Ah well.

Some recommendations for those new to NEOGEO:

Garou: Mark of the Wolves
King of Fighters 98
Samurai Shodown II
The Last Blade/The Last Blade 2
Real Bout Fatal Fury Special/Real Bout Fatal Fury 2
Metal Slug
Metal Slug X
Metal Slug 3
Shock Troopers
Sengoku 3
Blazing Star
Neo Turf Masters
Magical Drop III
Baseball Stars 2
Pulstar
Top Hunter: Roddy & Cathy
Puzzle Bobble 2
Aero Fighters 2/3
Twinkle Star Sprites
Windjammers (not in the ACA series I don't think)
Shock Troopers 2 (not as good as first but pretty different)
Waku Waku 7
Ninja Master's
Kizuna Encounter
League Bowling
Ninja Commando (did this get removed from the eShop?)
NAM-1975
Spinmaster
Last Resort
Art of Fighting 3 (not as good as the first load of fighters on this list)
World Heroes Perfect (not as good as the first load of fighters on this list)
Robo Army

The last 10 or so games on this list probably aren't quite as highly recommended as the previous ones. All still good fun though.

Never really liked stepping out of my comfort zone when it comes to fighters just stick to what I know SF and MK but that Garou does seem to be pretty favourable. May take a punt and hope I can gel with its characters and gameplay.

@smashboy2000 I wasn't sure if the situation with music in KOF '97 was due to lack of time, or a choice they made for a certain feeling or effect. Thanks for providing some info on that. I know KOF '96 has its fans and it is a good game too. I believe it is the first one with the updated sprites. I do like '97 more, both for personal and technical reasons. But '96 is just fine. '97 is the most similar to '98 in game play in my opinion, but that also makes it redundant since people can just get '98. I really loved the series at that time and I still think the sprites and backgrounds are fantastic.

@sdelfin It was a pleasure and an excitment to discover each year the new KOF. I remember I was a little disapointed by 97 after having spent all those hours on 96. But I still enjoyed it A LOT.

By the way, I played on japanese PS1 at that time. And the soundtracks were the ones from Neo Geo CD. And it was a blast to listen.

@tourjeff I have a soft spot also for Real Bout Fatal Fury Special Dominated Mind on PS1, which is a very unknown entry but has cool gameplay, great graphics and musics. It had also two new characters : Alfred and White, who we never saw again in the serie, except as cameos in characters endings or stage backgrounds.
Alfred is the hero of this episode, White is the boss and is designed as Alex in A Clockwork Orange.

And I have a soft spot for Real Bout 2. Raaaah, such a lovely episode.

@BionicDodo Oi!! You forgot Money Puzzle Exchanger!!!

@madmatt213 I've never played it, so can't recommend it!

I might get Fatal Fury Special so I can train myself to use the direction buttons effectively in every applicable Switch game.

So if I was to buy any one of these games tonight, which one should I buy?

@smashboy2000 I can understand some disappointment after spending some time on the previous version. And I remember at the time, I knew of many people who preferred '96. As I said, '97 was the one I saw in the arcade and really loved the way it looked and sounded. Another reason I became interested in '97 is because I had a Saturn and had just had it modified with a region switch in order to play RAM-cart games. That was maybe September of 1997. When I found out about King of Fighters, is was maybe six weeks before KOF '97 was coming out, so I was happy to wait a short time to get the same game that I saw.

I remember hearing that the PS1 version of KOF '97 was pretty good. I don't remember if the Saturn version had the Neo CD soundtrack, but I was happy with that version.

SNK might be my most video game company ATM from the sheer amount of overexposure they've gotten in the past two years. They're like the Illumination of the video game industry.

The Switch releases and the eShop gets clogged with dozens of NEO GEO games I've never heard of. In 2018, SNK Heroines became super advertised all over YouTube, Nintendo Directs, and this very site. By the way, SNK's 40th anniversary just passed--don't forget to buy the SNK 40th Anniversary Collection! If you missed out, don't worry: They're making a mini NEO GEO system like the SNES Classic, but more obscure. Also, Terry is in Smash Bros. now with 20 character cameos and 50 songs. Cool, huh?

And all this came from a company I didn't know existed and have never cared about. Now I can't forget their name and it annoys me. (If you grew up with their games, have fun with them--I just wanted to vent.)

@Zoda_Fett Of the games on sale, I recomend Garuo: Mark of the Wolves, and King of Fighters 97.

If you're willing to pay full price or wait for a later sale, still get Garuo and then KoF 98, and Real Bout Fatal Fury 2.

If you're willing to buy on another system, KoF 2002 Unlimited Match is the way to go.

@Kidfunkadelic83 Garuo: Mark of the Wolves. Just buy it, you'll thank me later

In all seriousness, it's one of SNK's more accessible fighting games, but makes no compromise with depth. Also, quite possibly the most beautifully animated game built on 16-bit hardware.

Cool. I'll definitely grab 1 or 2 of these. Shame 98 isn't on sale, but other ones definitely still interest me.

@pblive

I'd love a full collection as well. I still own a bunch of compilation discs for my PS2 and they remain some of my most played games. I'd love to see a collection for Sega Ages, Neo Geo, etc. on Switch. As of right now I'm just stalking the sales section every week hoping to get a Neo Geo or Sega Ages game at a good price.

@shonenjump86 I did not know any of this. Thanks for the info!

Does anyone have any good suggestions? I have I have Garou and Kof 98 on other platforms already.

@MsJubilee no problem 👌🏾

@Onion The Midway Arcade Origins collections would be fantastic, too.

I grabbed KoF 95 and it's decent. I'm more of a street fighter guy but that's mostly because i grew up playing it.

Grabbed them all.
Never played then but I like Terry a lot in smash

I would love to see these games revived with hand drawn manga style graphics.
Or a dragonball fighter Z kinda graphics and gameplay style.
Fatal fury / king of fighters is a gem. Or at least ging us King of Fighters / Fatal fury VS Streetfighter.

@John_Deacon

It's bloody hard though, like all of them are.

I got Fatal fury Special
Garou
and KoF 97

I bought them all. I’m a sucker for half priced ACA games.

Not the biggest fighter fan but picked up Garou Mark of the Wolves and King of Fighters 97 and loved them. Thanks for the recommendations everyone!

@The-Chosen-one

Dunno about that, they hold up so well because of the 2D sprite art.
And these chunky pixels have their own charm

@MsJubilee Much like the PSP had? "metal slug anthology"

@KitsuneNight
Thats true

Even better than this Hellblade was 50% off in NA. Though I did pick up all of these as well.

@AxeltheCorvikni KoF 2000! You select 4 characters instead of 3, and one of them is used as Striker (support). Not a fan of this mechanic but it sures add some depth to the game.

@Bliquid I am

get Garou & SF:30th for 3rd Strike and you've basically got the peak of 2D fighting perfection. 1999 was a good year

I've become a fighting fan late in my gaming life. Not good at all, but having a good time playing and discovering new games! Out of curiosity, I was introduced to the Neo Geo lately and got Garou, KoF 98,Blazing Star and The Last Blade 2. Garou is amazing and The Last Blade is great too!