Xeno Crisis coming to Neo Geo

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I've been waiting with baited breath for the MD version for quite a while now, i love arena shooters and this looks something special, henk nieborg is a legend when it comes to pixel art, lomax and flink still look amazing even today in my opinion.
I jumped on the MVS CE when pre orders were announced by the way.

Yes I'd say Henk Nieborg is one of the finest pixel artists on the planet, and it's amazing to be working with him - his work on Contra DS was what convinced us that we should approach him:

contra4_03.png

And you're right - Flink and Lomax both still look amazing today - great pixel art is timless. :)
 
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Just pre-ordered the MVS CE.
After watching the video on Youtube, it seems to be fun and dynamic ...
but I have some doubts about how the controls will be managed and responsive !
As far as I remember playing that kind of games in the past, It was only really enjoyable with a mouse and a keyboard :)

Hey Damasco, I can assure you that the game plays great on all setups - the controls are based on Shock Troopers', so check it out if you haven't already - it's an amazing game that every Neo owner should have in their collection. :) I play the game on keyboard myself whilst developing and can just about complete it - it's no pushover though whichever device you use. ;)
 
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bitmapbureau :
I ordered CE version.
I forgot the serial number on my order, can i give you by PM ?
Can you put my pseudo rather than my name in the game ?
Thanks

Hey zouzzz, just email me (mike(at)bitmapbureau.com) and I'll take care of that for you - thanks for your order. :)
 

neo_mao

Been There., Done That., It Was Shit.,
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Yeah the video doesn't do a good job of showing the size of the various levels as I had to get through the first area as quickly as possible to keep the video length down for Twitter in particular - next time I'll post some 2 player co-op footage of the second area and do a more realistic playthrough without adhering to Twitter's time limit. The areas do get progressively longer as the game goes on, so yes, the final areas are considerably longer than the first area, which is meant as more of an introduction. Also, I got pretty lucky with the level generation in that video - I'd normally have to go through another room or two on the way to the boss.

I'd say the total playtime is around 40 - 60 minutes dependant on your skill and how much you want to explore the complex, which I think is about right for an arcade game - always good to hear other's opinions though!

Sounds awesome - i’m sold!
 

Neo Alec

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We're certainly hoping to make use of the Neo's memory cards and have one ready for testing, and I know Matt's talking with the Unibios creator. I've not really had much experience with unibios - can you give an example of a game that takes advantage of it? And what's the problem with 'start' being used for pause? You'll have to excuse my memory a bit as I sold my AES collection some years ago and I'm still familiarising myself with all things Neo Geo again!
Razoola did an awesome job answering most of this. The thing about the pause button - most official Neo Geo games, with a small handful of exceptions use Select to pause as the standard. It's such a small detail, but when homebrew uses Start instead it just feels like something was overlooked. To me it's an obvious indication of the developer's lack of familiarity with the Neo Geo platform.

But everything Raz mentioned about having the game play nice with the bios and allow an arcade cab to work properly is more important. Also soft dip settings (operator settings) in the hardware menu as well as a proper home mode are important details.
 
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Razoola did an awesome job answering most of this. The thing about the pause button - most official Neo Geo games, with a small handful of exceptions use Select to pause as the standard. It's such a small detail, but when homebrew uses Start instead it just feels like something was overlooked. To me it's an obvious indication of the developer's lack of familiarity with the Neo Geo platform.

But everything Raz mentioned about having the game play nice with the bios and allow an arcade cab to work properly is more important. Also soft dip settings (operator settings) in the hardware menu as well as a proper home mode are important details.

Ah yes, I remember that now - we'll be sure to do that. And I'm sure between them Matt and Raz will have the bios side of things covered.
 

ysselcneogeo

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Yes it's an aggressive target and it does depend somewhat on plastic molding and PCB manufacturing, but we publish updates on our Kickstarter page every month where you can keep informed of progress right up until release.


What about the neocd version? I mean pressing disk isnt that big of deal. Or are you not open to the idea of staggered releases?

Also will the neo cd version have an arranged sound track? Kinda the best part of neo cd games.

Lastly is there gonna be a spine card?
 
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There will be a spine card but we're yet to design and print it - we'll get round to that soon enough. What do you mean regarding staggered releases? :) We're still finalising details on the various Neo Geo versions, but Savaged Regime's music is some of the best I've heard on any system, so doing an arranged version seems like overkill - we could at least use the version on the OST though which will be processed differently and use improved drum samples. I'm sure both the AES / MVS and Neo CD versions of Viewpoint all used the same music too as it was just so good.
 

Ir0n

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I really like how you're doing orders for this game..everyone has a chance to get a copy and it isn't just sold out in 10 minutes.
 
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I really like how you're doing orders for this game..everyone has a chance to get a copy and it isn't just sold out in 10 minutes.

Cheers! Just a shame that it's a tough time of year for most people with Christmas and all that - we couldn't wait any longer with opening up pre-orders for the Neo Geo versions though as we need to know roughly how many units we need to manufacture ahead of time.
 

ShootTheCore

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The Christmas season is why I'm having to wait. I'll be placing an order for a Collector's Edition ASAP after the holiday is over.
 

neo_mao

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How long are preorders open? Thought I saw January somewhere but can’t find it now!
 
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How long are preorders open? Thought I saw January somewhere but can’t find it now!

Hey neo_moe, the Collector's Editions will only be available to pre-order until the end of January, but hopefully that gives everyone enough time - the standard editions will be available beyond January but at some point we'll have to close pre-orders so that we know how many units we need to commit to manufacturing.
 

DevilRedeemed

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How about

You release just 3 copies of the game and fuck Kizuna where it hurts (in the ego)
 

theMot

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Looks interesting but is there a legit reason why the Neo version is almost 5x more expensive than the Mega Drive boxed cart? Or is it just “cause Neo Geo”
 
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Excellent, thanks a lot Mike.
The hero can kill the hostages ?

It's something we considered but it probably would have happened far too often with all of the bullets and explosions flying around, besides, it would have increased our age rating on modern platforms considerably! ;)
 
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Looks interesting but is there a legit reason why the Neo version is almost 5x more expensive than the Mega Drive boxed cart? Or is it just “cause Neo Geo”

No, not at all - the amount of PCB we need to produce for each cartridge is way higher than the Mega Drive version, and it's also likely we'll have to produce our own molds (at great cost) for both the cartridge shells and shockboxes. On top of that, the Neo Geo version is a far more niche product than the Mega Drive, so the limited production runs inflate the cost too. We've tried to price Xeno Crisis as aggressively as possible, undercutting the NG:Dev Team titles by a considerable margin.

If all goes well then we will most likely consider developing more titles for the Neo Geo hardware, and having been through the process once already will make things easier the second time around.
 

gameofyou

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That would be excellent. I hope the Neo Geo versions sell well enough to warrant future releases.

In my opinion, you have priced the cartridges at a perfect price point. The circuit boards are much larger, and will require more memory than the Genesis. Most people understand this. And as you say, it is much less than NgDev games cost. I hope this is a successful venture, and you sell far more than expected. Good luck!
 

suicidekiller

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If all goes well then we will most likely consider developing more titles for the Neo Geo hardware, and having been through the process once already will make things easier the second time around.

Well that sounds really sweet. Looking forward to Xeno Crisis and of course any other possible projects. It's good to see we finally have some competition on the NG developer market as NGDev have been relaxing on their "monopoly" for way too long imo. If you can fullfil your announcements in a reasonable time frame I'm sure you will have a lot of support from loyal Neo Geo fans thirsting for more games now and in the future. (Or "The future is now" if you will ;) )
 

VGC1612

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If all goes well then we will most likely consider developing more titles for the Neo Geo hardware, and having been through the process once already will make things easier the second time around.


Really good news!Cant wait to see more Neo Geo project in future.I did my part and got my Xeno AES US (Hypernoid deserve a release too if you want to help the guy)
 
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