"SNKP's love letter to the fans"

Roughly four (five?) years ago, Capcom released a game called Capcom Fighting Evolution (Capcom Fighting Jam in Japan). It was meant to be a salvaged version of a great-looking 3D fighter that was sadly canned, even with the power of Haggar's epically rendered mustache. Of course, if you know your fighting games, you know CFE was a massive flop. For one, the character sprites were pretty much straight rips from their respective games. Second, there was NO balance: the systems from each game were ported over with disatrous results. The whole package felt like it was made with the MUGEN engine, which is certainly not something you want people to compare your "dream-match" fighter to.

Fast forward to 2005, and SNK Playmore seems poised to make the same mistake by announcing their own dream-match game, known as NeoGeo Battle Coliseum. The idea was met with extreme skepticism, due to CFE's critical and commercial failure.

However...SNK Playmore learned from Capcom's mistake and made sure to do the concept justice.

And thus, a legend was born. [/cheesy intro]

Unfortunately, we in the US had to wait for two years for this gem to be available to us without having to learn Japanese and/or spend $60.

Now that NGBC has made it over, will it succeed amongst the hardcore crowd who have been quartering up since SF2? Have the bugs from the Euro version been fixed at long last? ARE THERE ENDINGS IN THIS VERSION?!

Yes, yes, and yes.

GRAPHICS: 10/10

All I have to say is "wow". The character sprites are (depending on the series) A) Upgraded to Hi-Res (KoF2k3/Neowave and Garou:MOTW characters) or B) Completely redrawn (pretty much everyone else). The backgrounds are breathtaking and fully animated in glorious 3D. SNKP even added various other SNK personalities into said backgrounds; I'll admit, I would rather have seen Kain Heinlein be playable, but still!

CHARACTERS: 10/10

A cast that you care about is something every fighter needs. Whereas some games have useless, forgettable characters (who actually LIKES Twelve, Chang, and/or Maxima? Anyone?), every single character here is worth playing as, even the new characters (a wrist-laser wearing guy? A girl who rides a balloon and drops freaking Tetris blocks out of nowhere? Only SNK could make them worth using).

The selection they chose is quite nice, as well, including the company's go-to mainstays such as Terry, Geese, Iori, Kyo, and K', some of the lesser-known (to the casual crowd, at least) like Kaede, Moriya, Hanzo, and Fuuma, and even the downright obscure, like Kisarah (from Aggressors of Dark Kombat), Shishioh/King Lion (Savage Reign/Kizuna Encounter), and Cyber Woo (King of the Monsters). SNK knows how to please their fans, hardcore or otherwise.

But what good would the cast be if they weren't balanced? SNKP thought of this and made sure that everyone has their good and bad points (well, other than the bosses, who still suffer from SNK Syndrome, even at level 2 difficulty); Haohmaru is amazingly powerful (what with his unblockable HCB+SK that takes off 30% of a lifebar), but that power comes at the cost of speed and a range deficiency (SP Senpuu Retsu Zan doesn't travel the whole screen's length for example): Hanzo and Fuuma are fast but seem to take more damage than the rest of the cast. The only negative of this amazing cast is that they left out some of my favorites (Where are Joe, Andy, Amano, Kagami, and Setsuna at?!), but that's only a minor gripe at best.

GAMEPLAY: 9/10

Certain characters keep their series' signature traits (Haohmaru and Genjuro still have Rage Explosion; Kaede, Akari, Washizuka, and Moriya still have the repel technique). Amazingly, these traits are integrated into the gameplay perfectly, as if they were meant to be specials (or in the RE's case, supers). The game plays like a legit SNK fighter, surpassing even KoFXI in required skill, shockingly. You can't pull off ridiculous chain combos here or launch your opponent five miles into the sky and shoot them down with a screen-filling fireball-beam hybrid like in other dream-match fighters: instead, the game is more down-to-Earth in its presentation (well, as down-to-Earth as a game where people who shoot lightning from katanas and flaming waves from their fingertips fight aliens and robot apes can be) . Button mashing gets you nowhere here, except for an early grave. Instead, as in most SNK fighters, skill and patience is rewarded. The oft-talked about Double Assault feature plays three roles when it connects: one, it inflicts damage (altough very minor). Two, it lowers the amount of health the victim will recover when they are resting, and three, it puts your partner into "Hyper Charge" mode, meaning that they gain an effect similar to, but to a lesser extent than, Rage Explosion (increased damage) for ten seconds (or until they switch back out). There are special D-Assaults (mostly for characters from the same series, such as Hanzo/Fuuma or Kaede/Moriya) that only can occur under special circumstances (ten seconds after a certain move hits, for example), but they are more of a chore to execute than it sounds.

The bosses, as I stated, suffer from SNK Syndrome, meaning they deal ridiculous damage, take very little damage (even more so, thanks to their ultra-fast healing feature that renders a lot of moves near-useless against them, like Ryo's Zan Retsu Ken), and are generally a pain. Then again, this is an SNK trademark, and it would be gaming blasphemy to not include megacheese bosses.

SOUND: 8/10

The character voices are mostly new, AFAIK (again, only for those who weren't in Kof2k3/Neowave and Garou:MOTW), and fit with them well. The music is only slightly memorable, and the announcer is as annoying as Street Fighter Alpha 3's. Otherwise, it's fine as is. The arrange tracks, suprisingly, are pretty decent.

STORY: 7/10

Some guys called WAREZ (I wonder what SNKP's stand on emulation is! [/sarcasm]) are trying to take over the NeoGeo world. Whoo. Who plays a fighter other than Soul Calibur for its story?

OVERALL: 9/10

If there was an option to change the announcer's voice, a better story, and less megacheese from the bosses (shades of Lucifeller and Mizuki!), NGBC would be perfect.

Unfortunately, since this was released as a bargain title, copies are few and far between; due to lack of preorders (or so I was told by my local GameStop's clerks), very few retailers carry more than a few copies, if any (good luck getting it at Wal-Mart...). If fortune smiles upon you, pick it up. You'd be suprised how much value and depth $20 can buy.

~Crunkman2000~

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 01/06/08

Game Release: NeoGeo Battle Coliseum (US, 12/17/07)