"SNK shows Capcom how it's done."

I'm surprised that this great game has been out for half a year now and not a single review is up. Well, time to do something about that =)

This is NeoGeo Battle Coliseum, SNK's answer to Capcom's utter failure, Capcom Fighting Jam(Evolution in USA). Don't get me wrong, the whole idea and concept were what all 2D fighting fans dreamed of, the ultimate dream match. The problem with that game? Capcom put no work or effort into it and simply compiled a bunch of old codes thrown together, the result is obvious. So now, SNK show's Capcom how it's done. That's right you guessed it, NeoGeo Battle Coliseum is a dreamatch from various SNK fighting universes into one game. King of Fighters vs Fatal Fury vs Art of Fighting vs Samurai Spirits vs Last Blade vs World Heroes vs random other games. All are great series. But will this game promise to give us fighting fans an experience to remember? Or will it die like Capcom Fighting Jam did?

Graphics: 8/10
SNK has a habit of re-using their old sprites for their new games. It's understandable, after all, remaking sprites and making others hi-res requires a LOT of time, more than you may think. But surprise surprise, SNK have redone all of the characters in this game. Many characters from old games like World Heroes, received a much needed update. A couple characters, namely Mr.Karate and Robert, received a totally new look, while everyone else was updated to hi-res. This is already a very good sign showing us that SNK is actually trying. And the result is far from disapointing. The game is 2D, as SNK is famous for, but some stages are fully 3D dynamic. And thats not a bad thing, because those are very nice too. Lots of cameos makes appearances in the background too, such as Kain from Garou Mark of the Wolves and the Ikari warriors.

Content: 10/10
SNK fans dream come true. The roster packs 30 characters (plus 4 unlockable bosses). And the majority consist of fan favorites and main characters and villains from various SNK titles. Kyo Kusanagi, Iori Yagami and K' from the King of Fighters, Terry Bogard, Rock Howard and Geese Howard from Fatal Fury, Hanzo and Fuuma from World Heroes, Haomaru and Genjuro from Samurai Spirits, Kaede and Moriya from The Last Blade, those are just a few of the characters that make appearances in this game. Other characters comes as total surprises, such as Marco Rosi from Metal Slug and Kisarah from an almost nameless SNK game called Aggressor of Dark Kombat. Two original characters also makes their debut in this game. This game also contains four bosses, each from a different fighting universe, such as Mizuchi,an Orochi look-alike, which was the boss of KoF 97, Neo Dio from World Heroes, King Leo (Shishio) from Kizuna Encounter, and the final boss, Goodman. Simply speaking, this game packs full of fan service. As this game was intended. Of course you can't fit in everybody that people wants, but the selection of characters are more than fair.

Gameplay: 9/10
Now the question is, since each of the fighting series who made it into this game plays totaly differently, how do you find the perfect engine to fit them all together? The answer is quite simple. Battles are fought in tag-teams 2 vs 2. You can switch anytime during a fight, while the partner recovers their red portion of their life. Unlike the Capcom VS series, the red portion of your life in this game is quite large, and a switched out character near death may end up coming back with near full life. Which comes the part of the tag team attack. This attack doesn't consume any super gauges, but rather a whole separate method. This attack can only be done if both you and your partner are alive, and if it connect, it will barely scratch your opponent, but greatly damage the red portion of the targets life. And to give a more beneficial use for this attack, once connected, your partner's life bar will glow, hence if you tag him in this instant, he'll be fighting with rised attack power for a short while. Instead of the KoF's classic rolling, each characters can do a zip forward. It dodges attacks like rolling does, but you cant bypass your opponent to his backside with it. This move consumes half a gauge, hence cant be abused. On the topic of super gauges, it recovers by itself slowly, you may think this is a bad thing but it really is not, as many moves beside supers will consume the gauge, such as the guard cancel and certain special moves. Those are the basics for everyone. Now to the series, each characters has the ability of what their game titles are known of. This means, Haohmaru and Genjuru and go in rage mode, increasing their already high attack power further at the cost of 3 super gauges. The Last Blade warriors can do their deflect attack as a special move available only to them. Some Fatal Fury characters can do minor chain combos like they could in their respective game. And to top it all off, the game is balanced. Of course a perfectly balanced game don't exist, and some characters will prove to have an edge over others, but not so much that they are unbeatable.

Music/Sound: 7/10
The music for the most part suffers in this game, there were only about 5 tunes that I liked (4 of which being the boss musics). The sound effects however are great. Many are re-used from previous games, but some characters are redone. The punch, kick and grabs all fits in perfectly with their sound effect. There's nothing really worth mentioning about the music/sound department of this game.

Replay Value: 5/10 (1P), 10/10 (2P)
There isn't very much to do by yourself in this game, beating the tag team mode will earn an artwork of the characters you beat the game with, and survival has 4 bosses you can unlock. After that there really isn't much else to do. But with 2 players (or online play), obviously this is where games like these shine the most. Its very hard to put down once you and a friend go at it, as there are so many possible styles to play this game thanks to the huge variety of characters universe.

Buy/Rent:
If you are a 2D fighting game fan, this game is highly recommended. If you are an SNK fan, it is a crime to not have this game in your library. The problem is, not everyone import games or can play imported games. This game will be coming to the Xbox 360, but I doubt many people who owns one are also 2D fighting fans. But, this game is highly recommended to any fighting game fan out there.

Final Score: 9/10
This game would've gotten a 10, but I usually don't give a perfect score unless there is absolutely NOTHING I had problems with, and in my case, I wish a couple other characters could've mad it over a few that I found were unecessary. But hey, you can't make everyone happy.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 06/12/06, Updated 09/04/07

Game Release: NeoGeo Battle Coliseum (JP, 12/22/05)