SNK 40th Anniversary Collection is the new standard for retro gaming ⊟
A compilation of pre-Neo Geo SNK games was an unexpected choice for the renewed Digital Eclipse, after excellent Mega Man and Disney collections for Capcom. But the turn away from universally loved childhood classics and toward lesser-known works is part of what makes this – big statement incoming – the best console retro collection ever made.
I didn’t know most of the games on the collection when I started. For some reason I had the NES releases of both Athena and Ikari Warriors II: Victory Road as a kid, and so I knew those were very distinctively bad, but I’d never played the arcade versions of either. I’d played a bit of Crystalis and knew that was a cool Zelda-like game. I’d heard of many of the others, like Alpha Mission and Guerrilla War, but never played them. And there was stuff like Prehistoric Isle that had never entered my consciousness.
By playing this collection, I learned that Prehistoric Isle, a shmup about airplanes shooting at dinosaurs and cavemen, rules, as does the power-up-laden Alpha Mission. I also got to re-experience those terrible NES games, and get crucial context from their arcade counterparts. The garbled voice samples in Ikari Warriors II? Clear as day, and silly as heck, in the arcade version! By playing the arcade version, I can see what the starkly creepy graphics of the NES game are supposed to be. And most shocking of all, I discovered that the arcade game is cool and exciting, not at all the sluggish, garish mess I played on NES. Digital Eclipse also preserved the neat rotary-stick aiming of the arcade game in the form of twin-stick controls – with a “single stick” mode also coming in via patch.
It is, of course, easier to experience these games on the Switch than it is to track down an old arcade unit or whatever, but Digital Eclipse has made them more accessible on another level. As seen in their Mega Man collections, a rewind button is available, so I can fight unfair quarter-eating difficulty with guilt-free cheating. Even more convenient: for each game on the collection, there is a recorded tool-assisted playthrough – which you can stop at any time and take over. It’s a perfect middle ground between “I just watched this on YouTube” and “I earned this Street Smart cred and demand respect.”
Further context comes from the “museum” feature, which includes descriptions of every SNK game through 1990, along with screenshots and artwork. I didn’t expect to find hand-drawn production art from the computer port of Ikari Warriors here, but I’m glad I did. There’s even a soundtrack player with full soundtracks for twelve games.
Most retro collections are about the greatest hits. How many Namco Museums have had Pac-Man and Galaga on them? I love Pac-Man and Galaga. But I’ve played those many times. I know their whole deal. SNK 40th Anniversary Collection seeks not to present games I grew up with (though it does in some cases),but to preserve and highlight games I might not have known about – which may or may not be “classics” but are interesting and unique. And it uses modern conveniences to make even the most cruel of those games more accessible and playable. I can’t wait to play even more games, including SNK’s ancient Ozma Wars, when the free DLC hits.
I came into this expecting to enjoy some weird old games, and came out inspired. This is a caring presentation of under-the-radar game history. This is even better than finding a game on Virtual Console that I’ve never heard of. It’s arguably better than just playing them on MAME or something, for more than just ethical reasons. This is the kind of project I’d be trying to make if I had any qualifications to do so. I’m glad the people who have the necessary skills are doing it, and for now I’ll settle for being able to tell you how great it is.
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