Very cool to see this re-reviewed. Brings back a lot of great memories for me.
I remember picking up the Neo Geo Pocket Color on a whim back in 1999. I hadn't had a handheld system since the original game boy and around this time Pokemon was huge, and I hated it. So the choice: GBC or NGPC? Obvious.
When I got card fighteres clash (capcom ver., still never played the snk ver) I probably logged about 24 hours of gameplay in the first week alone. Then many more in the bathroom, but thats another story.
Words cannot sum up how great of a handheld the NGPC actually was, despite it's humble game catalog. My only gripe about the system was lack of buttons, hitting the start button to toss grenades in the Metal Slug games was about as tedious as it got.