Developer: SNK
Publisher: NIS America
Platform: Switch
Tested on: Switch
SNK 40th Anniversary Collection (newly added games) – Review
In November of last year, SNK (short for Shin Nihon Kikaku) collected fourteen of their most popular arcade games they made in the 80s, including Alpha Mission, Ikari Warriors and Street Smart, and put them in a grand collection for Nintendo Switch to celebrate their 40th anniversary. A month later they added nine more games to the collection, which now consists of up to 23 classic arcade games to be enjoyed completely to the fullest and without the cost of a single over-expensive arcade gallery coin.
BERMUDA TRIANGLE (1987)
Bermuda Triangle is a shoot ‘em up arcade game released in 1987. Just like any other space based arcade shooter released in that era, your objective is to destroy as many obstacles as you can to try and get the highest score possible. An additional hazard in this game is that at some point the scrolling will stop and reverse, which means you’re suddenly moving backwards instead of forwards. Now there will be obstacles behind you, which are far harder, if not Impossible, to shoot and hit, which means you now have two things to worry about instead of just the one. This adds a fun little challenge to the game and makes it stand out amongst all other shoot ‘em ups in this game collection.
CHOPPER I (1988)
Chopper I is an arcade shoot ‘em up released in 1988. Your objective is to infiltrate enemy territory in a well-equipped helicopter and defeat the enemy. The bigger the enemy’s vehicle, the more shots it takes to be destroyed. Be careful though, because your helicopter seems to be way more susceptible to damage and imminent defeat than your enemy’s vehicles are. They will swarm you with more than one or two vehicles at a time, so gameplay is rather challenging. This is also one of the only games in the collection that has (however scarce) a tiny bit of voice acting, which even if it hasn’t aged well adds a nice nostalgic touch to the game. At the end of every stage is a boss that is obviously the toughest opponent you will face as you progress through the different stages.
FANTASY (1981)
Fantasy is an arcade action/adventure game released in 1981. The game starts with a woman being abducted by a pirate ship. Your character then decides to take a hot air balloon to chase the pirate ship and save his damsel in distress. As this game is only played with the D-pad and no other buttons, you’re mostly just passively moving about in the game, trying to dodge enemy hazards. At a certain point you get a sword and you can actually “fight” your enemies, but since you don’t have to choose to attack, this takes away a little bit of the engagement that this game could have had.
MUNCH MOBILE (1983)
Munch Mobile is a top-scroller arcade game released in 1983. This is one of the only games, if not the only one, on this collection that doesn’t involve fighting in any way. In this game, you’re a car trying to grab as many food items and bags of money whilst staying on the road and not hitting any cars that are coming towards you. To gain even more points, you can throw away the leftovers of the food items you pick up. Throughout all of this, one other thing to think about is your fuel running out. To refill your fuel tank, you can pick up jerrycans of gas and reel them into the car. Even though there is no fighting aspect to the game, it’s still pretty challenging, since sometimes you only have a rather tiny spot to park your car into in order to avoid getting hit head-on by other cars.
OZMA WARS (1979)
Ozma Wars is a fixed shooter arcade game released in 1979, which makes it the oldest game on the entire collection. In this game, which is yet another space shooter, your objective is to defeat as many oncoming enemy space ships as possible in order to get the highest score possible. You can only move your ship in the left and right directions, and not forwards and backwards. This may or may not make the game more difficult depending on how you usually play space shooters. One thing’s for sure, the game is just as challenging as the other space shooters on this collection, and there’s nothing that is really unique about this game when it’s compared to other space shooters from that era. One bad thing to point out about this game is that the sound design in this game terribly annoying, since every sound in the game is incredibly high-pitched.
PADDLE MANIA (1988)
Paddle Mania is a top-down tennis game released in 1988. You have a handful of options to play the game, and they depend on whether you’re playing on your own or with a friend. You can also choose between three difficulties: A: Hard, B: Medium and C: Easy. Your objective is to hit the ball into the goal that is behind your opponent, and scoring more points than your opponent. You do this by positioning your character in the right place and hit the ball towards either the right or the left. You win by scoring more goals than your opponent within the set time limit. If you manage to win, you will proceed to the next match, which is more difficult than the last one.
SASUKE VS. COMMANDER (1980)
Sasuke vs. Commander is a shooting gallery arcade game released in 1980. There are many similarities with many of the space shooters released in this era, but there are also very significant differences. One of those differences is that instead of playing as a space ship shooting enemy space ships, you play as Sasuke, a ninja that is being asked to protect someone from ninjas. You can move your character from left to right as you throw tiny shuriken at your enemies. They will throw themselves around between the trees above you, and if they manage to hit you once with their magic attacks, the game is over. At the end of every stage you will have to fight a boss, labeled in-game as “magical bonuses”. In total there are eight stages to play through.
TIME SOLDIERS (1987)
Time Soldiers is a run and gun arcade game released in 1987. The plot involves the player travelling through time to rescue his comrades. There are five levels set in different time periods: The Primitive Age, The Age of Rome, The World Wars, The Age of War and Future World. Every levels has its own types of enemies. When you happen to die and get game over, you have unlimited continues in every level except for the last one. The game has many similarities to Ikari Warriors, which is also in this collection.
WORLD WARS (1987)
World Wars is a shoot ‘em up arcade game released in 1987. The game is essentially exactly the same as Bermuda Triangle, as it is just a different release of that game. While gameplay is exactly the same as the afore-mentioned game, the difference lies in the graphics. World Wars has a different ship and backgrounds for stages. There are multiple worlds to travel through in this game, every one of which has it s own types of enemies. At the end of every world there is a boss which has to be defeated in order to progress to the next world.
Conclusion
Most of the nine newly added games don’t add a lot of unique gameplay elements to the collection. However, there are some that do, and they’re a welcome addition to a collection that had mostly shooters in the first place. It would have been nice if the controls for every game would have been altered so they would be the same for every game, but that is sadly not the case. Nonetheless, it is clear that shooters in whatever form were very popular in the 80s, which leads to the conclusion that there just isn’t a lot of variation and added value to this collection with these newly added games.
SNK 40th Anniversary Collection (newly added games) - Review,
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