SNK ARCADE CLASSICS VOL 1 is exactly what the name describes; a collection of old SNK arcade games that were played on the then highly powered NEO GEO arcade system. For the time, the NEO GEO was the leader in great looking titles, and SNK was behind a lot of the more entertaining titles – some of which are featured on this collection. With gems like
Baseball Stars 2,
Metal Slug, and
Magician Lord, the collection covers a wide selection of titles with side-scrolling fighters like
Fatal Fury, beat-'em-ups like
Art of Fighting and
King of Fighters '94, and run 'n' gun titles like
Metal Slug and
Shock Troopers.
The title is organized through a main menu, with the games appearing in alphabetical order and represented on the main title screen as they originally appeared in arcades. Along with this is some basic information on the type of game, the number of players that can play, the year it was released, and a list of the medals you can unlock by playing the game. Each of the 16 titles has multiple challenges to meet, ranging from finishing the game with a particular character or playing a full game of baseball. Oddly enough, unlocking a challenge from one game may open up move lists or artwork from other titles in the game. While this is a good way to encourage playing all the titles, it seems strange to have to play a game of soccer to unlock the move list for a fighting game.