SNK’s Neo Geo Pocket Color returns courtesy of the Nintendo Switch
For 12 glorious months between 1999 and 2000, Neo Geo competed against the Nintendo Game Boy Color with the Neo Geo Pocket Color. Sporting a clicking joystick, graphically impressive software including a Capcom Vs. SNK fighting mashup and the first system to have a “sleep” mode, the system eventually couldn’t compete against Nintendo in a market they had already dominated since 1989.
Imagine my surprise when, as part of a 30th anniversary celebration of the Neo Geo brand, SNK quietly released a perfect port of Gals Fighters back in April for the Nintendo Switch. For $8 the faithful port features more than just the game you remember. The touchscreen of your switch becomes a NGPC you can change to whichever case you had for your original. Players can also recreate the old link cable experience through local networking to play against each other or play a Tabletop Mode where each side of the Switch corresponds to a system, and the instruction book is even reproduced for you to thumb through for tips on each fighter.
For a 2 button fighting game Gals Fighters and the others released on the NGPC were surprisingly deep and featured some cute, sprite-based versions of characters from SNK’s King of Fighters, Samurai Showdown, Metal Slug. Even better, a few weeks ago King of Fighters R2 and Samurai Showdown 2 were added to the mix at a similar price point with more titles to come! Here’s to hoping they can bring back more titles including the excellent card game I spent hundreds of hours playing some 20 years ago.