SNK 40TH ANNIVERSARY COLLECTION
Real men wear bandanas
Things we’ve learned from dipping back into the golden years of SNK: zombies can use guns, game characters should always sing their own theme songs, and if your name’s Johnny Justice you’re destined to kick some butt. “Times were different back then,” quips Milf as I battle a fire-breathing T-rex in Time Soldiers. They certainly were, and that’s why time capsules like SNK 40th Anniversary Collection really shine.
The Museum mode is wonderful; filled with rare art and teasing trivia about the very games in this collection, it’s an addictive trawl through some of SNK’s forgotten classics. Even better, you can leave the Museum and play the hits, hunting out the easter eggs the Museum baited – what really happens when you clash swords in Victory Road?
GOLDEN YEARS
Naturally in a collection this broad (there are 24 titles) and covering the earliest years of game design, from ’79 to ’90, the quality is always going to vary. But for every poorly aged Fantasy there’s a genuine classic – Ikari Warriors is still a masterpiece, its single vertically scrolling map a challenge for any shooter fan. Better still, the famous rotary stick of the arcade original is replicated perfectly on the DualShock 4, turning this ’80s icon into twin-stick heaven.
There’s more relevance in some of SNK’s older hits, too. The adventure Athena is a fantastic blend of platform and RPG, while Crystalis is pure pixel-art role-playing nostalgia, and shooter Prehistoric Isle – pilot a biplane against dinosaurs – is madcap fun.
However, you’ll probably only ever play half of this collection through curiosity, and then only briefly. As vaunted as the likes of Vanguard and Ozma Wars are, you won’t hang around too long.
Luckily developer Digital Eclipse understands this, which is why SNK 40th Anniversary Collection features some neat additions, such at the option to watch a pro play (jump in at any point) or rewind the game when you’re in control – how our ten-year-old selves would have loved that one.
VERDICT
As mixed in quality as you’d expect of an arcade collection spanning the ’80s, it’s the rare gems and added extras that make this a treat. Ian Dean