SNK 40th Anniversary Collection Review

By Daemon Hatfield

Whereas normally a review would try to get to the heart of what makes a game fun (or not), in the case of a compilation like the SNK 40th Anniversary Collection I’m judging the work that was put into curating, presenting, contextualizing, and enhancing the artifacts on display. These games are relics of another time, and in some cases not much fun to play today. But video game history is important, and I’m grateful developer Digital Eclipse is willing to do the work to preserve games that most people today probably haven’t even heard of.

Digital Eclipse, known for its work on the Mega Man Legacy Collection and the Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection, has put together another attractive museum exhibit for retro game fans to stroll through. The SNK 40th Anniversary Collection focuses on the pre-Neo Geo years of the company — basically the ‘80s (or The Greatest Decade, as I like to call it). Fourteen games are included at launch:

Several of these games have historical significance. Psycho Soldier (1987) features the first vocal soundtrack in an arcade game. Vanguard (1981) might be the earliest game that allowed players to continue — there’s even a screen that explains the feature in detail. SNK would go on to make popular fighting games like Samurai Shodown and King of Fighters, but Street Smart (1989) was its first effort in the genre.

These are mostly arcade games, and if they received NES/Famicom ports, those versions are included, as well. Some of these represent happy chunks of my childhood — Ikari Warriors and P.O.W., especially. But they’re all very simple affairs that probably won’t hold interest for long in the year almost-2019.

Crystalis, an NES action-RPG, is probably the deepest game in the collection. There is a lot of adventure in this one, but its obtuse, dated design will make it difficult to see much of it. Much like the original Legend of Zelda, it lacks much in-game guidance and the solutions to problems can’t always be solved with logic.

Ikari Warriors I and II, meanwhile, benefit from their relative simplicity and are still fun, top-down run-and-gun shooters with great soundtracks. These games, which have unusual rotary joystick controls in the arcade, have been implemented here very well as twin-stick shooters. Ikari III, on the other hand, switched the formula up too much and is a clumsy top-down brawler.

P.O.W. was SNK’s riff on Double Dragon, and while the prison camp setting is unique, it suffers from the same shallowness that most arcade brawlers designed to keep you pumping quarters in do.

The most pleasant surprise for me was Prehistoric Isle, a side-scrolling shooter involving a biplane, giant cavemen, and dinosaurs that I missed as a kid but would have been pretty radical to my young eyes. It’s a blast.

Fourteen games feels a little light for a collection that spans 12 years and 40+ releases. However, Digital Eclipse has promised 11 more games coming on December 11 at no additional cost: Chopper, Fantasy, Munch Mobile, Sasuke vs Commander, Time Soldiers, Bermuda Triangle, Paddle Mania, Ozma Wars, Beast Busters, Search & Rescue, and World Wars. Time Soldiers is similar to Ikari Warriors and will be a nice addition to the collection. Munch Mobile is a really weird top-down driving game about a car with eyes and arms.

Your enjoyment of the individual games here will be heavily reliant on nostalgia and a pre-existing affinity for old-timey quarter munchers. What is undeniably impressive about this gallery, though, is the care with which it’s been assembled.

Every game has been graced with a rewind feature and save states, making games that were meant to be unfriendly much more manageable. There is also a “Watch” feature that will show you a tool-assisted demonstration of how to play the arcade versions. You’re even given access to the virtual arcade cabinets’ DIP switches to adjust difficulty, lives, and other options. Ikari Warriors II allowed arcade operators to turn friendly fire on or off. Now that power is in your hands!

As mentioned, both the arcade and home console versions are included where applicable, and it’s fun to compare the two. In many cases, the graphics are superior in the arcade but gameplay was improved or expanded for the home release. The NES version of Ikari Warriors added new vehicles, levels, and a new final boss, for instance. Ikari II on NES added cutscenes and a currency system to purchase upgrades.

Outside of the arcade there is a fascinating Museum mode that includes an interactive SNK Complete Works 1978-1990 timeline that walks you through all the key releases of the company’s first 12 years. The guided tour includes information, screenshots, and artwork for over 70 games, many of them obscure works that never made it out of Japan. It’s a goldmine for a retro gaming enthusiast like myself. The entry for 1981’s ninja game Sasuke vs. Commander explains it might feature the first example of boss fights!

One questionable inclusion is the ability to switch regions for each game in the arcade from Japan to North America. There’s nothing wrong with including both, but aside from different logo designs, it isn’t immediately clear what the differences between regions are — if there are any at all. Digging through a specific game’s entry in the Museum may provide you with an explanation, but you have to look for it. For a collection that is so thoroughly cataloged in other respects, it’s too bad those differences weren’t highlighted so that I could appreciate them.

There is a “day-one” patch planned that should add several quality of life improvements and bug fixes to the SNK 40th Anniversary Collection. Publisher NIS tells me these include a new “single-stick” mode for the twin-stick shooters so that two players can each play with a single Joy Con, and an “auto fire” mode for the twin-stick games. It’s also supposed to fix a bug that sometimes causes the rewind feature to stop working (something I have encountered). But these forthcoming features and updates were not included in the copy I was provided for review.