We’re all about options here, and going with that theme, we gave the SNK 40th Anniversary Collection a run on the Xbox One. Jason had extremely high praises for the release on PS4 and the Switch, which you can click through to get his thoughts on if you haven’t already. The more pressing question is how does the collection stack up on the Xbox One?
There are a lot of positives that Jason called out, such as the fact that some games come with the NES and Arcade ports, the DLC games added to the Switch port are included already, and the museum for those who wish to reminisce over the history of the older SNK releases are extensive. These still hold true for the most part, so I apologize if my review seems overly negative, but I am here to talk about the differences and what I liked/loathed about this port and don’t want to sound redundant. I enjoyed taking my son on a journey into some of my childhood favorites, but I feel like this collection as a whole is a bit lacking for a number of reasons.
As someone who still lives in the Stone Age with a plasma TV, I found the limited options in terms of the screen size disappointing, and more importantly a concern when it comes to burn in on my display. While you can select from a number of preset options which vary on effectiveness between games, the obvious option to either use grey bars (fun fact: these won’t burn in on your TV!) or to scale the screen to whatever ratio you happen to be using is completely missing.
The same can be said with some controller options, such as the inability to control the aiming speed/sensitivity in one of my personal favorites, Beast Busters. While I managed to adapt to the overly touchy aiming speed by the end of the first level, this is an option that should’ve been a no-brainer. While we’re on the subject of this, I would like to point out that the addition of a rapid-fire button on some of the titles would’ve been a godsend, since some of the shooters require thumbs with the speed and dexterity of Sonic the Hedgehog.
Now, don’t think this is just a bare bones release with no options whatsoever; there are plenty of other options that allow you to control a number of factors, mainly attributing to the difficulty. To me, it feels a bit asinine to include these options, as well as the rewind and save state function that has been included in all of the versions, when free play is enabled, but to each their own. While these are factors that you can choose to ignore if you choose, I feel that the save function is a half-hearted attempt as each game only comes with one save slot.
Before you come at me with pitchforks screaming for me to be set ablaze, keep in mind that I live in Columbus, Ohio, where we have arcade bars for miles, so I have been graced with the ability to play the majority of these titles in their original form. Visually, the arcade translations are amazing in most cases and outside of the occasional slow down (this really shouldn’t be a thing on games that are 20+ years old running on an Xbox One…) hold up well on home displays, but the controls are another story. The button assignments are static in most cases and feel off when switching between games within the collection with an emphasis on the trigger buttons, which just feels counter-intuitive when you’re playing classic games. By far the biggest issue I’ve had with the controls is the way that a few of my favorites (P.O.W. and Guerillas specifically) have a habit of forgetting I am controlling the characters and go into what appears to be demo mode for 3-5 seconds at a time on a regular basis. The issues don’t stop there, as I’ve actually had to use the rewind feature a few times, not because I failed too miserably to own up to it, but the game wouldn’t allow me to continue and ignored any button inputs entirely. This has happened during gameplay as well, not just during the “Continue?” breaks of gameplay.
At the end of the day, SNK 40th Anniversary Collection is in a unique position. It serves its purpose as a tribute to one of gaming’s oldest institutions, but when you compare the price point to the number of games and features, it does not hold a candle to the collections released by Rare, Sega, or Capcom, among others (a number of which having included online play… that this release yet again lacks). If you don’t have another method available to play these games, such as the original NES versions, it’s a great way to get the experience without needing the additional hardware or dated cartridges cluttering up your gaming space, but if you’re a hardcore purist like me, you’ll likely be disappointed at the translation of this version.
6 out of 10
Pros
- Extensive Museum
- The Additional DLC Games Included In a Singular Download
- Arcade and NES Versions
- Difficulty Options
Cons
- Lacking Quality of Life Options
- Some Major Control Issues
- No Online Play
- Only One Save State Per Game
SNK 40th Anniversary Collection was developed by Digital Eclipse in association with SNK and was published by NIS America. It launched on NS November 13th, 2018 for $39.99, PS4 on March 19th, 2019, and X1 on May 2nd, 2019. The game was provided to us for review on NS, PS4, and X1. If you’d like to see more of SNK 40th Anniversary Collection, check out the game’s official site.
Here at GBG we use a rating method that you are more than likely familiar with – a scale of 1 to 10. For clarification, we intend on using the entire scale: 1-4 is something you should probably avoid paying for; 5-7 is something that is worth playing, but probably not at full price; 8-10 is a great title that you can feel confident about buying. If you have any questions or comments about how we rate a game, please let us know.
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