ONLYUSEmeFEET

Came up as $0.01/1 gold coin for me, so I had to jump on such a deal. The Switch is honestly my shmup machine, so I don't mind giving this a spin at all. Had I known of this game's existence, even $1.99 seems fine for what you get, assuming everything technically works.

Ichidant-R, discount NeoGeo games, and Mary Skelter 2 for me. Killer week!

I am surprised that the mobile version I bought years ago on Android is objectively better, with proper pixel sizing and better sprites. All they had to do is make it widescreen for Switch. Why they chose to remake the remake of a remake is anyone's guess.

Lovely game. I would say it nails the 90s beat-em-up motif perfectly, and I'd put it among the best from that era. I'd only rank Dungeons and Dragons, Guardian Heroes, and Streets of Rage 2 above it. More reviews (along with the game's marketing) should showcase Fight N' Rage without its filters as they have put off friends of mine interested in the game. 9/10 from me also!

Cooldown timers are a non-issue if you don't go dying in quests all the time. I've yet to be forced to wait for an energy refill at Level 40. MTX in this game is totally optional, unless you suck.

Ninja Warriors remains one of the best brawlers on SNES and I am downloading it day one for Switch. After Ninja Warriors, most of the team went on to develop Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Fighting Edition and Gundam Wing: Endless Duel. Two of the best SNES fighters and along with Ninja Warriors, easily the best SNES games out there.

Hacking the latest Neo Geo Mini makes it even better. I did a hack on my main unit, and here are my thoughts on it a few weeks after getting the first unit. These things are awesome now.

Well, my "Japanese" Neo Geo Mini came in this afternoon, and it isn't the Japanese version. It's the International Neo Geo Mini in the Japanese cabinet, the cabinet I already have, except it came with a single Kyo marquee sticker instead of G-Mantle. I am too lazy to send it back (I got a decent deal...), so I decided to hack it. I would have been fine with just restoring the Japanese firmware, but the hacked image floating around also comes with multiple pre-built emulators and games, in addition to the original 40 Japanese games. The included FBA emulator in the hack plays Neo Geo games perfectly (as expected, though the games are their VMS versions), and the CPS-1 games also run fairly well. CPS-2 has a bit of slowdown and sound lag, it didn't come with any 6 button fighters, and interestingly there's a pornographic puzzle game among the FBA from the list, but what's there is worth checking out.

What isn't worth checking out is most of the other emulators, those being GBC, GBA, NES, Genesis, and SNES. All of them have non-integer scaling, lack of battery backup (save states do work) and sound issues, ranging from NES and Genesis with "okay" sound to GBA and SNES having sound so bad it hurts to listen to. GBA doesn't have L and R mapped to anything, so most of its games are unplayable (I only could play Super Mario Advance, many games that may work end up crashing). NES seems fine, but the included game selection is piss poor, with Namco PacMan and Ninja Gaiden being by far the best. No Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Mega Man, or any of the usual Famiclone games are present. GBC emulation is the definition of okay, not broken but with shimmering and sound channel issues, it's not worth bothering with its 15 Pokemon games and 10 Winnie the Pooh/Yogi Bear kid games. Genesis is the only emulator worth checking out as while it does have minor sound issues and shimmering, the game selection is solid and it plays better than anything AtGames ever put to market. Super Nintendo, however, is rough. Lack of buttons is obvious, but the game lag and sound are the worst I've seen in emulation. And I played bsnes on Intel HD Graphics! You can play more games with a USB drive, but why would you do that? In short, if you MUST play games on your Mini outside of FBA, Genesis is the only library worth your time.

As for Magician Lord on my International Mini? Love it but damn is the AES version difficult! Infinite continues are nice, but you don't respawn right where you die like in the MVS version. And reloading a memory card save puts you back to the beginning of the level! There isn't a difficulty select, but I am assuming it's on easy as you get 3 hits (6 powered up) instead of 2 (4) hits. Despite that, I find that respawning right where you die is far more valuable, so I won't be playing much AES Magician Lord until I'm better at the MVS version (which I now have on my hacked Mini). I love the game, but it is really difficult and I'm stubborn to use save states. Trying to stick to internal memory card saves only, which means I'll have to 4CC Shock Troopers/2nd Squad as I learned today neither have memory card support.

SNK has me day one with this new system. After their Mini revision, it has been awesome. The International software image inside the Japanese shell. I bought two accidentally, and I am glad to hear one of them can permanently be connected to the new neo geo. I'll leave a review below I did in a reply on another forum. I need to get a blog or something...

Also worth pointing out is that my unit came with one sticker in the box, and surprisingly, it's G-Mantle. I believe this sticker was sold separately in Japan. G-Mantle has cameos in several games, of course, but I can't find any English promotional material featuring G-Mantle which makes me wonder why this sticker, in particular, came in the box. What confuses me is that G-Mantle isn't playable in any Neo Geo game, and is only a secret Striker in King of Fighters 2000.

But what is more surprising than the redesign is that I believe SNK fixed issues with previous versions. The screen brightness at max is perfect for me; I can see everything except some tiny text perfectly, despite playing it way down at my feet. The controls also feel spot on, both the Mini's stick and the external joypads (I opted for the $110 bundle with controllers and generic mini-HDMI cable, all packaged separately). I've never felt like I had more control in Metal Slug than when playing the Mini (I play the Neo Geo X handheld recently, and felt the microswitch controls to be imprecise for non-fighting games). I can do King of Fighters supers that I consistently on the Mini (the ones I know), though I haven't attempted to do Geese's pretzel super yet. Although it still does not have an internal battery, I LOVE having this thing powered on all day through my computer. And from the brief time I played in HDMI, it seemed the same as in earlier reviews, but mine came with a generic cable so I can't say for sure if the official cable would be any better. Does anyone else own one of these? And have access to the black International mini? I have not seen much discussion on my Mini anywhere.

I took the plunge and bought this game. The discount for all of the DLC isn't live yet, but I beat the initial 6 games included in about 20 minutes. Here's a video of the 6 included games and my times (some need improving) and the non-existent eshop discount at the very end. https://twitter.com/ONLYUSEmeFEET/status/1154059215201157121

This is a motion-only game. You can tap the sides of the game using the L-Stick, but you need motion to beat most of these. Pro Controller is what I used, and all the games felt great to me. If I can solve all of these with my feet, you hand weirdos should have no problems!

Technically, it's serviceable. Physics are good, though tapping causes some strange movement to the point where a few games can be cheesed with it. Framerate feels 30FPS to me (docked), but it's solid enough to where I didn't notice during play. HD Rumble and sound effects are both implemented well. Textures are low quality which is my biggest gripe with the entire thing, though the history portion of the game has printed text which somewhat helps. Games all play fine which is much more important than any of this.

I wish the discount was live for DLC so I could give a better recommendation, but the $2 base game feels something between a demo and full game. My assumption is that the DLC games will be on average more difficult (the first pack of 6 is called Meltdown claiming each game is very difficult). With there being 21 games in total, I'd say they'll add an additional 2 hours of just beating each game once?

Leaderboards would be welcome, but $5 for the full package, Original Mobile Games is worth it if you're into games like this and/or history. I wish I knew how much of the net profit of the game went to Strong, as I personally view my $2 (and hopefully $3!) as a donation to their museum, so the price and method of distribution do not bother me at all. This is a solid package that does what it needs to do.

Feel free to ask me any questions!

I remember being the only one that dug the Neo Geo X way back when it released, and I love handheld projects like this, but I can't see the appeal here. Raspberry Pis and chinese handheld devices are widely available. As for premium retro handhelds, it really doesn't get better than the Neo Geo Mini. Or now that it goes for $20, a hacked PlayStation Classic would be great for games that do not require analog controls. If you take the moral high ground and want to support the soulless publishers of these games for some reason, go ahead. But your money would be better spent on new projects old school developers are doing.

A big fan of anime ladies, action games, and pinball, but Senran Kagura never appealed to me as a series. If SK was a pillar of the action genre or adult genre, I could excuse one aspect not being up to snuff. I'd much rather buy an interesting action/pinball game along with a subscription to some adult anime streaming service. Titillation without any kind of payoff just sounds painful.

This would be better than most Switch kart racers if that 60FPS makes it into the port...

Edit: Why does the tab order on this website go to rules before reply? Gets me every time!

@Donutman Nimbus can hold 60FPS docked and a locked 30FPS in handheld. Daemon X barely felt like it held 25FPS docked, and I can't imagine how handheld mode played. Out of these two games, Nimbus certainly isn't the mediocre port...

I'm not surprised, but this confirms I'm never buying Let's Go. Motion controls aren't easy when using your feet, and while I can manage a single joycon, I can't play in handheld mode at all. As I view Pokemon as a handheld series first, I can't justify supporting or purchasing a product inaccessible to me. A shame GF/Nintendo's definition of accessibility only applies to casual gamers and not gamers with disabilities. I'll find challenging rom hacks to re-experience Kanto, instead. That way, my skills will be tested mentally rather than physically. I wish Nintendo would start caring about gamers with disabilities.

Gunbird 2 is the first Switch game I've been interested in for months. Hopefully Zerodiv's port works well at launch this time.

Pocket Rumble is dead on Steam. Looks like an alright game, but I'm not investing time in a fighting game nobody plays. Also, I doubt this plays and controls as well as most of the Neo Geo Pocket's library. If they make a port for the Neo Geo Pocket, I'd be interested.

Does anyone in the comments know if the second loop is present in Zero Gunner 2-? I'm not sure how I feel about their ports after ZG2-. Also, I wish leaderboards would be included in their re-releases.

THANK YOU for not taking points away because a shmup is "too short." I've read way too many shmup reviews recently that clearly do not understand the genre. Please review more shmups for NintendoLife. I'll definitely be picking this one up this week.

@retro_player_22 It is more stamina than health I guess, all it determines is whether or not a pin will KO you. I have fun destroying the city getting points/gaining more stamina; not really sure what else it should give you.

@masterLEON The unfortunate part of King of the Monsters, and why I'd never give the game too high of a rating, is the last third of the game is really unfair. Throughout the game, enemy monsters gain more health than you, which isn't much initially and can be easily dealt with. In the last few fights, however, they basically have twice as much life as you, and get out of pins more times than they should be able to. They also can flawlessly drain your life bar from full to zero in one sequence. That's not to say these fights are impossible, you can win, but the odds are definitely stacked against you. Good luck!

@retro_player_22 Destroying cities and vehicles is an extremely important part of this game. It's the way you refill your life bar at the end of the round and a decent way to score points!

@JayJ For sure, if you're new to the series you're buying. I'd say someone good at King of Fighters '98 could do well in most other games in the series, but it's impossible to translate any previous fighting skill you have to King of the Monsters, especially if you've not played it before.

This is the first review I've seen that mentions the variety of moves in King of the Monsters, which is great to see. I wouldn't say the game being repeitive is negative, however. The reasoning given here could apply to almost any fighting game. The moves may be standardized, but that's almost a good thing.

This game requires tons of strategy to beat on one credit, more than most fighting games, as you have to balance destroying the city to restore your life with beating your opponent. You mention that 3 minutes is plenty of time for each fight, but it absolutely isn't if you want to 1CC the game. Later levels you barely have enough time to beat your opponent, let alone destroy the city to keep your health up. I'd almost relate this balance to scoring in NiGHTs into Dreams. Sure, you can rush through each level of NiGHTs as fast as possible, but to really score in the game, you have to play smart and run the clock.

This is an extremely difficult game (seriously, new players stick to Level 1 until you MASTER the mechanics), but there's way more depth to it than what is mentioned here. Especially for score chasers. Just because the game lacks difficult button combos, doesn't mean the game lacks depth. This is one of the best professional reviews for this game I've seen, but I still feel as though the reviewer didn't master the mechanics of KOTM based on what's stated in the review itself.

@YamAsereht Ha, I saw your comment on that article. What you might not realize is that you can legally buy NEOGEO ROMs on PC (along with SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive ROMs) that can be transferred to a flash cart. I have about 30 legal NEOGEO ROMs I can use anywhere because I bought a NEOGEO 25th HumbleBundle a few years ago. NintendoLife never mentioned or advocated piracy.

All in for King of the Monsters. I've been waiting months for it to hit Switch. Can't wait to finally have a good wrestling game on the system.