Physical ACA NEOGEO Collections announced

[NeoCverA]

So they DO hold the Neo Turf Masters license! Why those fuckers haven’t allowed other hardware companies use it is beyond me.

 

[BlackaneseNiNjA]

So they DO hold the Neo Turf Masters license! Why those fuckers haven’t allowed other hardware companies use it is beyond me.

The same goes for Art of Fighting 2. That title is also one of the roughly 108 neo geo games that have been released on modern consoles as part of the ACA series (with an edited Takuma stage background), yet is glaringly omitted on the licensed consoles, with usually only AoF 1 and 3 being included. Perhaps the altered AoF2 rom was edited by ACA rather than being provided by SNK directly, which may explain why no other licensee has it available for their use.

Regarding Neo Turf Masters, if I am not mistaken, there was a legal issue with the “Masters” part of the name (via trademark claim by Augusta National Inc.), requiring ACA to release the game with only the “Big Tournament Golf” title across all regions. Similar to the edited AoF 2 rom that ACA is using (and assuming additional licensing costs are not a factor), perhaps the other licensees do not have the option to use this edited/altered version of the rom to avoid potential issues.

 

[bloodfire3]

Volumes 3 and 4 announced.

ACA NEOGEO Selection Vol. 3 and 4 announced for Switch

SNK has announced ACA NEOGEO Selection Vol. 3 and ACA NEOGEO Selection Vol. 4 for Switch. Both will launch on April 10, 2025 in Japan for 5,940 yen each. Each collection includes 10 games previousl…

www.gematsu.com

 

[Hazard_747]

Well, I guess this is nice for people who never played these games, or want them in a more affordable physical format, but I doubt many people in this forum would be interested in them.

 

[KGRAMR]

Well, I guess this is nice for people who never played these games, or want them in a more affordable physical format, but I doubt many people in this forum would be interested in them.

I think is very neat and having physical version of the ACA versions is great in case the Switch eShop is killed someday... Just staying

 

[BlackaneseNiNjA]

For those interested, Vol. 3 and 4 was just announced:



ACA NEOGEO Selection Vol. 3

• 3 Count Bout
• Baseball Stars 2
• Blazing Star
• Fatal Fury: King of Fighters
• The King of Fighters 96
• Last Resort
• Ninja Combat
• Samurai Shodown III: Blades of Blood
• Sengoku
• World Heroes Perfect

ACA NEOGEO Selection Vol. 4

• Art of Fighting 3
• The King of Fighters 2000
• The Last Blade
• Metal Slug
• Neo Geo Cup ’98: The Road to the Victory
• Ninja Commando
• Pulstar
• Puzzled
• Ragnagard
• The Super Spy

Both will launch on April 10, 2025 in Japan for 5,940 yen each. Each collection includes 10 games previously released digitally as ACA NEOGEO titles.

 

[NeoSneth]

I love buying roms in small packs. Can't wait to get more of this series!!!

 

[Hazard_747]

Any word on a North American release? Limited Run will probably do one I figure.

 

[SouthtownKid]

I like how each volume has one installment of KOF. '94, '95, '96... 2000? The purposely skipped the popular ones, I guess to try to keep people buying these as they come out on the hook.

 

[HellioN]

Sticking to that $40/ea price...

 

[2Dfan]

After all 10 (?) have released, they will come with a TREU COLLECTORZ PACKAGGE. Right?

 

[BlackaneseNiNjA]

After all 10 (?) have released, they will come with a TREU COLLECTORZ PACKAGGE. Right?

Unfortunately, if past is prologue, then most likely . I definitely remember when the “complete box” version of the ps2 online collection dropped in japan after all 12 volumes had finally released, and even then, fans still needed the separate KOF’94 Re-bout release to play the original neo geo version of kof94 since it was excluded from the box set:

NEOGEO オンラインコレクション

NEOGEO歴代の人気タイトルがオンライン対応になって続々復刻！NEOGEOオンラインコレクションシリーズ。

game.snk-corp.co.jp

Admittedly, I still play some titles from this set every now and then due to the fact that the games can be toggled to play with their arranged soundtracks from the Neo Geo CD versions, but with zero load times. Considering that the arranged soundtracks are always excluded from modern releases, it’s a nice option. For example, Fatal Fury 1 finally received an arranged in-game soundtrack just for the ps2 release.

 

[Hazard_747]

Unfortunately, if past is prologue, then most likely . I definitely remember when the “complete box” version of the ps2 online collection dropped in japan after all 12 volumes had finally released, and even then, fans still needed the separate KOF’94 Re-bout release to play the original neo geo version of kof94 since it was excluded from the box set:

View attachment 81479

NEOGEO オンラインコレクション

NEOGEO歴代の人気タイトルがオンライン対応になって続々復刻！NEOGEOオンラインコレクションシリーズ。

game.snk-corp.co.jp

Admittedly, I still play some titles from this set every now and then due to the fact that the games can be toggled to play with their arranged soundtracks from the Neo Geo CD versions, but with zero load times. Considering that the arranged soundtracks are always excluded from modern releases, it’s a nice option. For example, Fatal Fury 1 finally received an arranged in-game soundtrack just for the ps2 release.

Would you say playing the games on this set is on par with the actual Neo-Geo hardware?

 

[Hattori Hanzo]

It's not in general. PS2 is 480i most of the time. Bought some PAL releases for 10 € each back then because nobody cared.
Imported the others separately before the complete box was released. Avoid the censored US releases if I remember correctly.

 

[BlackaneseNiNjA]

Would you say playing the games on this set is on par with the actual Neo-Geo hardware?

Whats up Hazard_747, nah though some of the ports were handled better than others. Avoid the western releases (especially the western ps2 KOF collection) due to glitches, censorship (though Blue Mary’s out of bounds animation is also censored in the japanese ps2 release as well), and odd oversights such as being unable to activate the hidden desperation moves in Fatal Fury 3 (this is not an issue in the japanese version of the collection). The Last Blade collection volume was also not handled as well as the others for some reason (but dammit if that beautiful orchestral soundtrack isn’t worth the playthrough sometimes lol).

From a gameplay perspective, the majority of the japanese volumes play just fine (especially with a ps2 Neo Geo 2 stick) and allow the arranged music tracks to continue playing even between rounds. The japanese KOF Nests volume also includes a port of KOF 99 Evolution in the compilation which was a nice bonus back in the day if you don’t have a dreamcast handy.

They aren’t superior to the home/mvs carts, but I do play them over their NGCD counterparts sometimes due to their arranged tracks, bonuses, lack of load times, all without the missing frames and animations that some of the NGCD versions had.

 

[Hazard_747]

Thanks for the insights.

Has there been a Neo port you’ve played that you thought “hey this is better than playing on the original hardware”?

 

[BlackaneseNiNjA]

Personally, I’d say no…but the old genesis/megadrive ports of King of the Monsters 2 and Fatal Fury 2 (after the dip switch code) featured major gameplay mechanic changes that some fans feel can be more fun/interesting than their respective neo geo originals.

See Terry’s triple guyser (00:08 mark), etc possible in the sega port by Takara, but absent from the FF2 neo geo original:

To be fair, many of the old console ports featured interesting additions for the time:

• Versus mode featuring characters that were previously cpu-only in the home ports of Fatal Fury 1
• Nakoruru being playable in KOF95 on gameboy (though a full Samurai Shodown team was originally planned for the neo geo original)
• Mr. Karate and hidden exclusive supers in KOF96 on gameboy
• Added secret characters in Fatal Fury Wild Ambition on playstation
• Exclusive strikers in the console ports for KOF99, etc, etc

As interesting as the additions were, all console ports up until around ps2 (even the dreamcast ports had sound issues) were always compromised in some major way and really only improved once the consoles started outright just emulating the titles/featuring the roms themselves. I feel that will always be a part of the mystique of the Neo Geo in general. Apart from the rise of both home and commercial product emulation, the Neo Geo hardware itself was the only place to play these games completely uncompromised warts and all for over a decade. Sure, capcom tried their own home arcade solution, but it seems only SNK was stubborn enough to stick with their aging arcade hardware until the wheels fell off (especially after the HNG64 failed) and as a result, the system and its library remains fairly unique among every other console out there in my humble opinion lol

 

[2Dfan]

To be honest with you all, I will buy the box set once it comes for switch. I sadly sold my Pulstar AES for like $300 many year ago and Blazing Star for about double that. Yeah, woe is me.

BTW, I never read anything about how accurate ports are these days. M2 ports are mostly spot on, but the rest? No clue.

 

[BlackaneseNiNjA]

To be honest with you all, I will buy the box set once it comes for switch. I sadly sold my Pulstar AES for like $300 many year ago and Blazing Star for about double that. Yeah, woe is me.

BTW, I never read anything about how accurate ports are these days. M2 ports are mostly spot on, but the rest? No clue.

Hey whats up 2Dfan, that’s fair. I know many have jumped ship from actual hardware to emulation and FPGA solutions these days rather than the commercial releases. The ACA versions of the Neo Geo games on ps4 have been great (but a bit bare bones with no added online versus, online co-op, etc outside of share play). Myself and a few others have enjoyed the online scoreboards, but that isn’t a major draw for most. I have all 108 of the ACA Neo Geo titles on ps4 and all 92 that they’ve released on iOS, but I usually only play the switch for exclusives so these switch versions will be completely new to me as well.

 

[lithy]

Collection Vol. 5 and Vol. 6 announced

SNK has announced another two ACA NEOGEO collections. ACA NEOGEO Selection Vol. 5 and ACA NEGO Selection Vol. 2 will be coming to the Nintendo Switch on 7th August 2025 in Japan. There's no mention of a local release.

Each collection will contain 10 previously released games. Here's what's included in each package via Gematsu:

ACA NEOGEO Selection Vol. 5​

• Aero Fighters 2
• Aggressors Of Dark Kombat
• Art Of Fighting 2
• Burning Fight
• Cyber-Lip
• The King Of Fighters 2002
• Real Bout Fatal Fury
• Super Sidekicks
• Thrash Rally
• Twinkle Star Sprites

ACA NEOGEO Selection Vol. 6​

• Aero Fighters 3
• Football Frenzy
• The King of Fighters ’98
• The Last Blade 2
• Over Top
• Real Bout Fatal Fury Special
• Samurai Shodown IV: Amakusa’s Revenge
• Sengoku 3
• The Ultimate 11: SNK Football Championship
• Zed Blade

SNK Announces ACA NEOGEO Selection Vol. 5 And Vol. 6 For Switch

Update: Multi-language release confirmed

www.nintendolife.com

 

[kernow]

What was swapped on takumas stage in aof2, and why ?

 

[Neo Alec]

Crossed Swords 2

 

[KGRAMR]

Six collections so far and why are both Magician Lord and NAM-1975 still missing? That is ridiculous XD

 

[Stefan]

What was swapped on takumas stage in aof2, and why ?

Probably another instance of needless flag censorship to placate Chinese & South Korean retailers, nationalist media, politicians, etc.

 

[lithy]

Volume 6 is the closest they've come so far in accidentally putting too many good games in a single collection. Instead of the typical 2-3, it's more like 4-5 big names.