SNK have been around the arcades for 30 years, trying to get us to pump our coins into their machines at piers and pubs for a further 5 minutes of play and with the current nostalgia buzz everyone is getting their back catalogue on the market so those of us that missed these great titles the first time around finally get a chance to have a go and see what all of the fuss was about.

 

 

Like any good compilation, SNK Classics has a very good mixture of 16 games to choose from including fighters, beat-em-ups, shooters and sports. Each one looks like a direct port from the arcades so whilst they do look a bit dated, the playability is still top notch. 

 

On the fighting side you have Art of Fighting, a basic fighter that has some huge character models to choose from and a great zoom function on the camera. Fatal Fury is where you choose one of three fighters including the Bogard brothers to take down the evil Geese Howard. Samurai Showdown is set in the 18th Century and allows for some great weapon based fighting and finally The King of Fighters 94 which has 2 grades of punch and kick plus an avoid and high damage attack, as well as 8 countries to choose from, the graphics and backgrounds are great for this fighter and it is no doubt the best fighter on the disc.

  

The 2D scrolling games offer some of the best on the market including the original Metal Slug, one of the best 2D scrolling shooters out there, even by today’s standards the animation and action is very hard to beat. Burning Fight is a classic double dragon fare with punching and the use of broken bottles and knifes as weapons. King of Monsters is a fun monster smash-em-up where you get to rampage over cities as one of 6 monsters, to win you need to get a wrestling style three count on your opponent monster, not as fun as I remember but it has a few good moments like picking up a train and throwing it at your enemy. In Magician Lord you play as a magician in a platform beat-em-up, however you tend to get killed a lot and the jump does not feel right, a bit slow on the command. Shock Troopers is a 2D shooter with a top down view, you choose from a team of 8 mercs to battle it out with the bad guys, each character has a different weapon set like a bazooka, bow and arrow or grenades and you can change your weapons mid game by defeating enemies and breaking crates. This has a novel approach as you can choose to play either alone or form a team and switch characters on the fly to use their strengths. Top Hunter is a really weird scrolling beat-em-up, there are 2 platform levels to jump between, the characters have stretchy arms to punch the foes and you can also pick up weapons and use large mechanical robots, it’s a strange mixture that is madly addictive, if not slightly weird to play. 

 

On the space shooter front you have Last Resort, a R-type clone that has you using a satellite bot that you can charge and throw at enemies, plus you can also move around your ship for different shooting directions. 

 

And finally you have the sports titles, Baseball Stars 2 is a fun arcade baseball game, there are 6 teams to choose from with great character designs. Batting takes a bit of good timing but the fielding is fun, pressing the correct part of the d-pad for the diamond point to try and run them out. Neo Turf Masters is pretty good quick-play arcade golf game and Super Sidekicks 3: The Next Glory is an arcade football game where you choose your team then select from a list of power-ups like stronger defence or attack, you can then play a selection of tournaments. There is no radar to see where other players are but the arcade style is perfect and has that end of the pier feel.

 

 

Ignition have included a medal system when you complete certain criteria, most of the time this just involves completing a game, though to see what is required you can check the game pause screen. Most unlockables are move lists for the fighting games but there are also soundtracks, artwork and you can also unlock World Heroes when you unlock 10 medals. 

 

The Wii version does not really offer much more than the other PS2 and PSP games that came out late last year. Control wise you are able to use the Wii's full selection, the Wii-mote is good for the beat-em-ups whilst the Gamecube and Classic controller are great on the fighters. 

 

With the Sega compilation just out this has a good stab at bringing SNK's arcade games to the Wii and with only a couple of poor games in there this is a good collection to pick up, especially at the bargain retail price.