Summary
When arcades died out, an entire facet of video game culture disappeared. Though you canstill experience the games through remastersand emulation, nothing can capture the joy of going to arcades in their heyday. You didn’t go there just because you wanted to: you went there becauseyouhadto. If you wanted to experience the best graphics, see the largest sprites, and experience the smoothest gameplay, it was off to the arcades you went.
And in the rush to take our quarters were two developers who reigned supreme. One was Capcom; the other was SNK. The latter company’s arcade hardware was among the best on the planet, and it had the games to match. Here are the ones you should seek out first.
Tetris is often called a perfect game: so tight in its fundamentals that it cannot possibly be improved upon. If that is the case, what about Pong? Pong is so perfect that many people play it in real life and call it tennis.
Windjammers is Pong with an anime sheen. It takes the classic head-to-head gameplay and imbues it with gorgeous sprite artwork. Though there are minor changes, such as the addition of a timer rather than stopping sets when you score points, the gameplay is simple. And it’s great that way - Windjammers is great fun when played multiplayer.
9The Last Blade 2
The Last Blade series was supposed to be SNK’sspiritual successorto Samurai Shodown; things didn’t work out that way. Regardless, the second title is one of the best titles the company has ever produced - so much so that dedicated Neo Geo fans all but knew it would get remastered one day.
That day came in 2016, when the game was ported to the PS4 and PS Vita. A PC port was launched the following year. This weapon-based fighter is deep enough to demand countless hours of practice: the combo list is much bigger than its predecessor.
SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos was not kindly received when it came out - in the early 2000s, the once-proud Neo Geo arcade hardware was finally becoming outdated, and the game was deemed to be visually subpar.
Yet as the years went on, SVC Chaos opened itself up to re-evaluation from series fans. Its large and eclectic roster - featuring characters like the Mars People from Metal Slug - made it much more interesting than other crossovers that justfeature Terry Bogardand call it a day. Once deemed a weak crossover, SVC Chaos is now a certified classic.
7Super Dodge Ball
TheKunio-kun serieshas seen a few strange spin-offs over the years, but Super Dodge Ball is the most underrated one. This anime sports game is incredibly fun to play: it takes the base sport and gives it shounen energy and smashing visuals.
Is it balanced? No - like many ’90s arcade games, Super Dodge Ball starts cheating at the halfway point. That doesn’t take away from the game’s personality though: it remains incredibly compelling and is still beatable, provided you have enough quarters.
Due to SNK’s bankruptcy, Super Dodge Ball was never launched in Japan despite the US cartridge containing a full Japanese translation. Inserting the US cartridge in a Japanese Neo Geo AES system makes the game playable in Japanese.
Neo Geo games had an identity all of their own, and Sengoku 3 is the proof. This title mixes side-scrolling beat ‘em up gameplay with hack and slash sensibilities, serving it up in a gorgeous sprite-based anime art style. And what’s are the main ingredients in this concoction? Ninjas and undead spirits.
One of SNK’s final titles published by the company before its 2001 bankruptcy, Sengoku 3 shows how the parent company’s financial issues didn’t affect the quality of its games. Handled by second-party developer Noise Factory, Sengoku 3 is a joy to play even today.
Waku Waku 7 oozes personality in both name and practice. Developed by Sunsoft, it follows the convention of many other Neo Geo fighters but has some obvious differences.
While it may share its button mapping with games like King of Fighters, Waku Waku 7 has a flatter, more pastel-like visual style and weirder character designs. It was also miles ahead of its contemporaries in its wake-up game: though it’s taken for granted now, being able to attack downed opponents or counter while you got up were not common features of fighting games at this point.
We’ve made the case forlicensed games that are actually good- now it’s time forunlicensedgames that are downright stellar. Though Neo Geo Cup ‘98 failed to secure FIFA branding, this is one of the best arcade sports sims ever made.
Featuring a massive roster of 64 countries, Neo Geo Cup ‘98 sneakily bypassed copyright laws by slightly changing athletes’ names while keeping them recognizable. This allowed it to come out and delight football fans with its fun gameplay, catchy soundtrack, and hilarious animations. Even if you’ve never played this game, if you’ve spent any length of time in the retro gaming community, you’ve probably seen a GIF or two of it.
Neo Geo Cup ‘98 had commendable attention to detail. Each bracket in the game is based on the real-life match that took place at that spot in the 1998 FIFA World Cup.
This game was subtitled Dream Match Never Ends in Japan, and boy, they weren’t lying. Bringing together characters from Art of Fighting, Ikari Warriors, Psycho Soldier and - of course - Fatal Fury, as well as new debutants, this was one of the most definitive and comprehensive fighters of its time.
The King of Fighters ‘98 proof is that, done right, there is no issue with annual franchises. Whatever it recycled, it refined - its backgrounds were gorgeous, its gameplay was sleek, and its soundtrack was incredible. Even though the KOF series has received many entries since this one, fans still return to KOF ‘98, with many declaring it the best in the series. If SNK ever needs to make some quick cash, all the company has to do is announce King of Fighters ‘98 2.
In all great art, there comes a work that you can just tell is the magnum opus. Garou: Mark of the Wolves is that for the Neo Geo era. This was the culmination of all that was good about the Neo Geo MVS arcade hardware: no game had ever looked as good or played as nice.
Garou did away with Fatal Fury’s lane-based combat in favour of rewarding clever positioning and parries. This simplified combat made it more approachable, but there were moves like counterattacks and stuns, as well as a healing mechanism, that kept things interesting.
As for the characters themselves: Garou aged up Fatal Fury’s cast, making them more mature. Their subdued designs made the game feel like a farewell, and indeed it was - this was the last Fatal Fury game for 26 years, until 2025’s City of the Wolves.
Though the Neo Geo hardware is best known for its fighting games, there’s something to be said for its run and gun titles too. After cutting its teeth on Ikari Warriors, SNK displayed its mastery of the run and gun genre with the Metal Slug titles. These hectic and eccentric shooters oozed personality in every fine pixel.
Metal Slug 3 was SNK’s goodbye to the fans that had put the company at the top of the arcade scene. Metal Slug 3 clocks in at over an hour long - an absurd length for an arcade title. There is no reason for the game to be this long, to have this many new features, and to even boast branching paths when its developer was on the brink of bankruptcy. No reason, that is, except that the developer actually cared.
After SNK went bankrupt, most of the staff moved to Playmore. The succeeding company was eventually rebranded SNK Playmore, and then once more as just SNK.
