SNK Arcade Classics Vol. 1 (Wii)

GameSpot editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 3.0 stars Good
  Detailed editors' rating
  Overall score: 6.0 (3.0 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  Joe Dodson
• Reviewed on: 09/15/2008
• Released on: 07/29/2008
• Originally published on GameSpot: SNK Arcade Classics Vol. 1 (Wii) Review

The NeoGeo lives on in SNK Arcade Classics Vol. 1. This new collection for the Nintendo Wii features 16 classic arcade games of uneven quality for an affordable price. If you spent any amount of time in arcades as a kid or a teen, this game will take you back. However, you might find that not all of your memories are good ones.

Even though the title says this is a collection of classics, some of these games are actually just old. Metal Slug is awesome, and Last Resort (a 2D side-scrolling space shooter) is pretty good, too. But these games won't take you very long to beat, considering that both are set to unlimited continues, and Metal Slug is already available elsewhere. The classic fighting games, including Art of Fighting, Fatal Fury, King of Fighters '94, and Samurai Shodown, are also reasonable inclusions, even though the GameCube controller isn't suited to fighting games and the remote is outright allergic to them. If you want SNK Arcade Classics for the above fighting games, the classic controller is your best bet if the PlayStation 2 version isn't an option.

The rest of the offerings aren't nearly as much fun to play at home as they were in the arcades. Top Hunter, Super Sidekicks 3, King of the Monsters, Shock Troopers, Sengoku, Neo Turf Masters, Magician Lord, Burning Fight, and Baseball Stars 2 are generally not worth playing. Neo Turf Masters, Super Sidekicks 3, and Baseball Stars 2 are the easiest and most accessible games of the bunch; you could burn a pleasant hour and a half of your time between those three. The rest are entertaining only for the moments when you can tell that they are positively and intentionally killing you for your quarters. They contain regular and rhythmic moments of unavoidable death: Enemies close in from the top and bottom of the screen, and then they all shoot you at once. It is interesting to see the guts of the arcade coin-sucking machine laid so bare, but not much fun. If anything, it's anesthetic; you feel numb.

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