SNK – Obsolete Gamer

Capcom Vs. SNK: Pro

It’s basically what you would expect from Capcom in the past 15 years. Since I already played the 2nd game to death, I was a tad unthrilled at the offerings on the table. I was also mad that they didn’t include analog control even though the PS1 version was released in 2002. I loathe the PS1’s D-pad, and during fighting games my hands feel cramped and the stiff buttons prevent me from reaching my true potential. If you’re not bothered by the PS1/PS2 controller’s D-pad then this a decent fighter, but there’s plenty of better ones to choose from.

Neo Geo

Simon Lethbridge

King of the Monsters

The titanic battles take the form of wrestling matches which, to quote good old Mene Gene, are ‘scheduled for one fall’ and are contested by six monsters – Geon (a Godzilla-like dinosaur), Woo (a blue King Kong-like ape), Poison Ghost (a creature made of toxic waste like Hydorah), Rocky (who is… umm… a rocky creature), Beetle Mania (a large Megalon-like beetle), and Astro Guy (a courageous Ultraman-like superhero). Any of them can be selected and all are fought twice (including your own character) before the game is finished.

Mobile Games

Simon Reed

Metal Slug: 1st Mission

Enemies are still animated enough to be amusing, and the levels are a fairly varied bunch, with vehicle missions thrown in at regular intervals. In fact the game’s main problem is how it structures its levels. Various circumstances (usually involving dying at a certain point) can leave you in random levels over and over again, such as the jail stage.

Mobile Games

J.A. Laraque

Samurai Shodown 2: Coming to Apple and Android Devices

Loved the series and love this announcement. Fans of the SNK classic fighter, Samurai Shodown 2 will now be able to play hit game on their Apple and Android devices. The game will feature all the weapon fighting fun you remember from the 90’s and will include support for Bluetooth controllers which is really good considering I never liked fighting games with the on screen directional pad. As of now there is no online play, but at least you do not have to wait long, the game will be released later this month.

Neo Geo

Kjre Jenkins

Metal Slug 3

The third mission begins in a janky underwater area and the entire stage exemplifies the initial slow pace of MS3 in comparison to other titles in the series. The third mission’s boss is very easy and very generic, which does nothing to prepare you for the little stage of horrors that is the fourth mission. Our zombie friends are back, newly equipped with their own blood-vomit attack, along with Audrey-esque cannibalistic plants. This stage is hard, bloody, and will leave you begging for more.

NES

Eric Bailey

Alpha Mission

Alpha Mission already suffers a blow in being ported to a television setting, since vertically scrolling shooters are much more apt to their original arcade screens, oriented to provide an optimal perspective and taller screen. With so much working against it, and forcing the player to deal with a ship that begins so slowly and existing under the constant threat of downgrades (which, by the way, actually serves to discourage quickly going after power-ups, which seems outrageously philosophically counter-intuitive of shooter design), this video game is just not good. Even worse, it is not fun.

NES

Matt McKee

Lee Trevino’s Fighting Golf

The Masters got me thinking about this game, although ironically, Lee never won that tournament, his only Major fail. But, I put a lot of time into it back in the day, and like real golf, you find you never really master it.
LTFG is a 4-player game, with only 4 characters playable (conveinent). There’s Pretty Amy, the accurate-conscious lady in the pink skirt; Miracle Chosuke and Super Mex (Lee’s happily-embraced racist nickname), who have a good mix of accuracy and power; and my favorite, Big Jumbo, who has the pop in the club, but has a 3-click meter that runs faster, making it more difficult to hit the perfect shot.

Mobile Games

J.A. Laraque

SNK Playmore releases the classic NeoGeo game Metal Slug 3 onto Android

Here is the scoop on the release:
– 2 game modes to choose from: Mission and Arcade
– A whole lot more Slug vehicles to command. More than the original game had.
– Multiple paths and routes to the end of the game with the branching map system.
– Co-op gameplay available via Bluetooth
– Comes with OpenFeint Achievements and Player ranking

Arcade Games

Simon Lethbridge

ASO: Armored Scrum Object

There are eight different collectible armors altogether and aside from a shield they are all offensive including more powerful cannons, super-missiles, and energy beams, right up to a powerful smart-bomb style attack. Using any of them will deplete your energy and they only last for a limited amount of time or number of shots, plus some are better in certain situations than others, so strategic use is advised! There are many other icons to be found too – twenty in total, amazingly – and even one of my sizable reviews isn’t big enough to go into all of them, but suffice to say it’s possible to upgrade and downgrade your ship’s various attributes and, mercifully, there are also icons that let you keep your various power-ups after a life is lost, one each for speed, lasers, and missiles.

NES

Luis Zena

Crystalis

This week I have one of my favorite picks period. Crystalis is the equivalent of an upgraded Zelda title. The game itself is jam packed with action around every corner. The story line is also very interesting since it takes place in the not so far future. The year is 1997, now back in the NES era this would have made more sense since we were in the early 90s but nowadays it doesn’t make much sense since the year has passed and well, just saying they should have made it the year at least 3000. Lets move on, the game is only one of few Zelda-clones which there weren’t many to begin with(The only other one being Faria as far as I know). SNK learned well on how to apply the Zelda-like mechanics.

Arcade Games

ausretrogamer

Guerrilla War

The freedom fighter, and communist leader connection was due to the original Japanese version of Guerrilla War, titled, Guevara. The Japanese game was based on the exploits of the revolutionary, Ernesto “Che” Guevara and the Cuban commy leader, Fidel Castro. Fearing extreme anti-Communist sentiments in the West, SNK did a regionalisation of the game’s dialogue and instruction manual for its US and European releases.

Mobile Games

J.A. Laraque

King of Fighter I 2012 on the App Store

In addition to multiplayer over Bluetooth, ‘Versus’ Battles in KOF-i 2012 can be enjoyed via Game Center, both in ‘Rank Versus’ mode, in which player ranking varies depending on the total number of victories and losses, and in ‘Friend Versus’ mode, where the player’s ranking is not reflected. Also new in KOF-i 2012, a new ‘Time Attack’ mode is available where players must win 10 matches as fast as possible, as well as additional features like ‘Ending Movies’ for each default team, new challenges, trading cards and illustrations.

Neo Geo

Simon Lethbridge

Neo Drift Out

As with the prequel, each course has to be completed within a pretty strict time limit in order to qualify for the next one and they are arguably more testing than before too with regard to the sheer frequency of harsh corners. It seems every other turn here is a hairpin, right-angle, or chicane, and there are numerous short-cuts and obstacles as well. For example, the snow stage features slippy ice patches and course-encroaching snow drifts! Fortunately your car is more than sufficient for power-sliding around most of them, but impact with any obstacles or trackside objects knocks it around costing you speed and therefore time.

NES

Luis Zena

Baseball Stars

This time around, Baseball Stars for the NES takes top honors as it’s a game well over due for a mention right here at Retro Gaming Life. The game itself combines the RPG elements with sports elements in a very satisfying way. You can start up with a horrible team and win games to earn money to buy steroids for your players so they will get stronger and run faster. Is this what the American past time is all about? You bet! You are also able to name your team whatever you want, as I would name mine the Chomps. We finished last in our first season of play but ended up buying enough steroids to strengthen for next season.

Mobile Games

J.A. Laraque

King of Fighters on the Android

Enjoy the complete KOF experience on your Android devices! From art direction to gameplay, THE KING OF FIGHTERS Android brings the complete KOF experience to the Android platforms. The gorgeous graphics of the world-famous fighting series have been faithfully recreated, taking full advantage of the latest Android hardware. The use of the Virtual Pad/Joystick perfectly reproduces KOF’s controls, creating a simple, user-friendly play-style to easily perform special moves and combinations.

Blog

J.A. Laraque

SAR: SEARCH AND RESCUE on PlayStation Network

The government sends down an investigation team to a crashed spaceship that had vanished off its course, in order to determine what actually happened… Infiltrate the spaceship, and battle hordes of alien monsters and robots, in this action-shooting masterpiece of SNK originally released in 1989.

Arcade Games

J.A. Laraque

Aggressors of Dark Kombat

Today’s gameplay footage comes from the SNK fighter, Aggressors of Dark Kombat. Apparently the English title is meant to parody Mortal Kombat which is weird since it is nothing like the game. The game was released in 1994 and is a pretty standard SNK fighter except for the fact that you could walk into the background. Also, you could use weapons and only use two buttons to fight.