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SNK CLASSICS VOL.1 Posted by Dan Pearson on Nov 20, 2008 16:20 (Nov 20, 2008 16:20) |
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SNK Classics Vol.1 has now arrived on both the PSP and PS2, however which version fares better or do they both have their charms?
There are 16 games to choose from, a mixture of fighters, beat-em-ups, shooters and sports. 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 to take down the evil Geese Howard. In Samurai Showdown, The King of Fighters 94 meanwhile you have 2 grades of punch and kick plus an avoid and high damage attack, as well as 8 countries to choose from each of which has a 3 player team, the graphics and backgrounds are great for this fighter and it no doubt the best fighter on the disc.
The 2D scrolling games offer some of the best on the market including the great 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 meanwhile 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 which is a 2D shooter with a top down view, allows you to 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, you can also change you 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 planes to jump between plus some platform elements, 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 an 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 to play 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 right 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.
To stay in line with the PS3 and Xbox 360 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 PSP version has a few advantages over the PS2 disc, first off the controls feel more solid and more importantly the screen size really helps make the dated graphics look stunning. There does seem to be a little bit of a loading delay at the start of each game but this is resolved by the fact that each game plays so well on this little handheld.
No matter what version you go for this disc has a great selection of titles and throw into the mix most of the games are 2 player ad-hoc and its every retro gamers dream. 16 games for a budget price, plus all of the games are winners, give it a go or even ask Santa to pop it in your stockings this Christmas.
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