I’m of the mind that game collections are always rather impressive, whether it’s in respect of the time spent finding everything, or the money used to purchase everything. I get caught up in the thrill of collecting different things now and then, my last obsession probably being Nintendo’s Amiibo. It always starts out with a few things you really want, and ends up in getting everything to have a complete collection. In recent years, Capcom has been making the rounds with their long forgotten, money making blue bomber by creating collections of the games. This is by no means a new venture, as I had the collections of 1-8 and X-X6 on the PS2 and Gamecube, respectively. One of the benefits of buying these were they included unlockable games like the kart racer Mega Man: Battle & Chase and the arcade Power Battle series. For those that own the games already, the reason for buying them is the extras included – I own all the Mega Man games multiple times over, but I don’t have all the extras. So when I look at a collection, I weigh the pros and cons of what it comes with, especially when I already own the games. So is the SNK 40th Anniversary Collection worth nabbing if you if you have the games already?
I’ll be straight with you: this is one of the slickest presentations for a “collection game” I’ve ever seen. But Jason, I can just grab the ROMs for these on the internet. Sure, you could do that, but you’d be missing out on so much charm, love, and dedication that’s been piled into this. For one, the extras in this are crazy. There is a complete compendium of every game SNK has made from 1978 to 1990. There are images from every game, the associated advertising/box and arcade cabinet art, as well as factoids about each game as you view the images. If you’re wondering about any of the games that are included in this collection, this is a great place to get some background. There are behind the scenes looks at games, arcade guide books, and even some shots of the instruction booklets for the games they made. There’s also a complete soundtrack for the playable games in the collection. Probably one of the coolest aspects is that a number of the games come with the NES version and their superior arcade counterpart. Each game has a number of options while playing as well, with borders, filters, and the way that you view the screen. If you really want to see how a pro does things, there is a watch feature for the arcade mode that lets you see a tool-assisted speed run. If you’re feeling adventurous, you can jump into the action at any point, taking over where the run left off. Seriously, I’ve never seen this much dedication to a game collection – it makes Castlevania Requiem look like an absolute embarrassment that they outsourced to a high school student with 30 minutes before the deadline.
I can’t stress enough how cool it is to see the vast differences there are between the arcade and NES versions of these games. Growing up, the only things I played from this collection were Ikari Warriors and Victory Road, so booting those up brought back a ton of memories. That alone was worth it for me, but being able to play the arcade versions and see what I was missing playing it at home was something else. Everything seemed to make sense after seeing what the visuals were supposed to be, as it was a huge jump in terms of visual fidelity. If it’s your first time playing the arcade versions, bear in mind that they are much more difficult as they were meant to eat quarters. I will say it’s a bit strange having the controls actually change between the versions, so you want to make sure you know what does what before diving in head first.
As these games lean on the hard side (for the most part), you may find solace in knowing there is a rewind button. This isn’t new in the ROM world, or even the modern day racing game scene, but it’s a large weight off your shoulders if you just want to get through a game and find yourself struggling with death. If this were on the PS4 or X1, I think avoiding that button for the games would come into play, but as this is on Switch, you have no one to prove anything to other than yourself. There are some achievements you can unlock and view in the options menu, but these all consist of beating the games or in the case of Vanguard, completing the second level. On top of rewinding, should you feel the need to play a different game, you can use save states for each individual game, allowing you to start wherever you left off. While many will want to experience these games in the pure form they were intended for, it’s nice that the option is available for those that don’t have the time to dedicate to them.
With a whopping 14 games at the onset (that were played for this review) and an additional 11 coming as free additions on December 11th, the game is far from sparse when referring to playable content. Of the 11 DLC titles, 9 will be implemented via a patch, while the remaining 2, Beast Busters and SAR: Search and Rescue, will be available as a free bundle on the game’s store page the same day. It may not have all the classics you are hoping for, but that’s more games than the upcoming PlayStation Classic. That’s not to say you’ll love every game on here. Street Smart is by no means the best fighter SNK made, which is certainly the genre they are lauded for now, but this was their very first attempt at the genre. If you’ve never played it, it’s awesome to see the growth from the company, and to see what their first attempt was compared to Capcom’s Street Fighter. It may interest you to know that it was also the first SNK franchise to appear on 16-bit consoles. If this kind of info gets you excited, the museum will be a big time sink for you.
There will be a day one patch that addresses many of the bugs that may be encountered, such as the rewind ability being limited to a certain number of uses, or not working at all. There will also be a new optional “Single Stick” mode for all the twin-stick games (Ikari Warriors, Victory Road, T.N.K. III, Guerrilla War). Opposed to using both joysticks to move and shoot, you’ll have the option to use one stick to control both movement and aiming simultaneously. This means that if you’re playing with Joy-cons, two players can now play multiplayer games together without needing extra controllers. There will also be an optional “Auto Fire” mode for all twin stick games – bullets will be fired automatically in the direction that second stick is pointed, opposed to using the shoot button. If you play the game without the patch, it’s possible you’ll run into some games displaying at the incorrect aspect ratio (top and bottom of the screen is cutoff) in addition to hearing some audio pops that were never in the original versions of the games.
Having a game with this many extra goodies is awesome, but a collection of games is only as good as the games it contains. If there was an extensive amount of content in a Barbie collection, I doubt people would care. Luckily, that’s not the case here. As I mentioned, these aren’t necessarily the greatest SNK games ever made, but they offer a great look the company’s rich history in console and arcade games, and is a wonderful trip down memory lane for anyone that played them so many years ago. There are a few things in the game’s museum that I would’ve liked to see included here, even beyond the announced DLC games. Being a 40th anniversary collection, it would’ve been nice to see some more current stuff (within the last couple decades) for comparison sake. When I think of a milestone collection, I want to see a wide range of accomplishments. Many of the games in this were included in SNK Arcade Classics 0 on the PSP, but they never got a whole lot of attention in the US. Still, it’d be nice to see King of Fighters, Fatal Fury, Samurai Shodown, Puzzle Bobble (Bust-a-Move), Garou: Mark of the Wolves, or a number of other games they released. The SNK catalog is insanely huge and diverse, and I’d love to see future iterations of this for 1991-2000 and beyond, since this focuses so heavily on their early catalog. And while this is currently missing stuff like Ozma Wars, their first game, it will be included in the DLC update December 11th.
As it stands, this is probably one of the most in-depth game collections I’ve ever seen. I can’t think of one that showcases a developer with more love than this, and while there are some games I would’ve liked to see be a part of this, there’s so much here that’s done right that it’s hard to complain. Different versions of the games, a comprehensive museum of information and imagery, emulation features such as save states and rewind, and additional control schemes make this the gold standard for future game collections.
10 out of 10
Pros
- Extensive Museum
- Updated Control Schemes
- Rewind/Save States
- Arcade and NES Versions
- Free DLC Games
Cons
- Strictly Early SNK Games
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. The game was provided to us for review on NS. If you’d like to see more of SNK 40th Anniversary Collection, check out the game’s official site.
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