SNK arcade classics [PS2 / Wii / PSP]

evil_ash_xero · Post by **evil_ash_xero** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 12:26 pm

So, is there absolutely positively no input lag on Metal Slug this time? The MSA pissed me off so much. I would like to have MS on a new console, rather than just have my Saturn version, but i'm not putting up with any lag.

s/m

Milkgoat · Post by **Milkgoat** » Thu May 01, 2008 2:16 am

Anyone have this yet? How is the emulation? I've been hearing some horror stories about loading and slowdown.

Post by **BulletMagnet** » Thu May 01, 2008 3:17 am

I attempted to pick it up earlier today (shipping date was yesterday according to Gamestop's site) but it hadn't come in yet...will have another go over the weekend.

it290 · Post by **it290** » Thu May 01, 2008 2:41 pm

Shatterhand wrote:Last Resort and Shock Troopers are the selling points of this compilation. Still Shock Troopers 2 would had been much better

No way.. the original Shock Troopers is far superior to the sequel. The second one isn't a bad game by any means, but the first has way more variety in characters and routes, better control, better music, and better graphics. I've played both quite a bit, and the first continues to crop up in my MVS rotation far more often.

BBH · Post by **BBH** » Fri May 02, 2008 12:45 pm

it290 wrote:
Shatterhand wrote:Last Resort and Shock Troopers are the selling points of this compilation. Still Shock Troopers 2 would had been much better
No way.. the original Shock Troopers is far superior to the sequel. The second one isn't a bad game by any means, but the first has way more variety in characters and routes, better control, better music, and better graphics. I've played both quite a bit, and the first continues to crop up in my MVS rotation far more often.

Word. Shock Troopers is the best Neo-Geo game ever. 2nd Squad is still a good game, and has some nice ideas, but the game as a whole is nowhere near as polished and as fun as the original.

Getting back to this, I've learned that they've done exactly what I feared they would do with Shock Troopers on this compilation - only the 1-life version is selectable, no way to change to the more common 3-lives version. Maybe it's an unlockable thing or something, but somehow I doubt it

Post by **Shatterhand** » Fri May 02, 2008 1:10 pm

it290 wrote:
Shatterhand wrote:Last Resort and Shock Troopers are the selling points of this compilation. Still Shock Troopers 2 would had been much better
No way.. the original Shock Troopers is far superior to the sequel. The second one isn't a bad game by any means, but the first has way more variety in characters and routes, better control, better music, and better graphics. I've played both quite a bit, and the first continues to crop up in my MVS rotation far more often.

I think the level design and balance of 2 is a lot better than 1. Also, regarding characters, in this case less is more IMO. The action on 2 is more hectic than in 1 also.

Like you said, I also don't find 1 a bad game, but I enjoyed 2 more than 1.

MR_Soren · Post by **MR_Soren** » Fri May 02, 2008 1:57 pm

The slowdown reports are disappointing. I wonder if the Wii version will be better in some ways?

yojo! · Post by **yojo!** » Fri May 02, 2008 7:32 pm

MR_Soren wrote:The slowdown reports are disappointing.

Could someone who played the game confirm this please ?

dave4shmups · Post by **dave4shmups** » Fri May 02, 2008 11:34 pm

I just bought MS Anthology for my PS2, and I'm loving it!

6 is my favorite so far, the innovations (like the characters having different stats) really make it feel fresh-if SNK-P can keep this up with 7 on the DS, we're in for a real treat!

I don't mind the load times at all. I don't know how Metal Slug on this SNK collection will compare, it will be interesting to play it and see.

OT, I've been waaaay to harsh on the Dualshock2, as the D-Pad is more then adequate for these games.

dave4shmups · Post by **dave4shmups** » Fri May 02, 2008 11:35 pm

yojo! wrote:
MR_Soren wrote:The slowdown reports are disappointing.
Could someone who played the game confirm this please ?

Yeah, I'd like to know about this too, as well as which games it occurs in.

yojo! · Post by **yojo!** » Sat May 03, 2008 12:26 am

Apparently this game is only sold online ? I checked the major retailers (Best Buy, WallMart, Target, EBGames, GameStop) and they won't have it in store.

The Coop · Post by **The Coop** » Sat May 03, 2008 2:07 am

Edit: Skip it.

Post by **BulletMagnet** » Sat May 03, 2008 2:07 am

yojo! wrote:Apparently this game is only sold online ? I checked the major retailers (Best Buy, WallMart, Target, EBGames, GameStop) and they won't have it in store.

The Gamestop near me said they're expecting it in (and even had some mock-up cases on display), though as I said earlier it's late...one thing the guy told me that's interesting is that not all of their stores get the "under-the-radar" titles, so maybe that's the case with the place/s you went?

dave4shmups · Post by **dave4shmups** » Sat May 03, 2008 5:47 pm

BulletMagnet wrote:
yojo! wrote:Apparently this game is only sold online ? I checked the major retailers (Best Buy, WallMart, Target, EBGames, GameStop) and they won't have it in store.
The Gamestop near me said they're expecting it in (and even had some mock-up cases on display), though as I said earlier it's late...one thing the guy told me that's interesting is that not all of their stores get the "under-the-radar" titles, so maybe that's the case with the place/s you went?

All I can say as an employee of GameStop is that they're primary focus is getting GTA IV into the hands of people who want it but didn't pre-order it, and has been for the last several days. The location I work at is tiny, but they still got in SNK-P games like KOF XII, Neo Geo Battle Coliseum, and if a store that small get's titles like that, I would keep checking in-store.

J-Manic · Post by **J-Manic** » Sun May 04, 2008 6:09 am

Yeah, GameCrazy is bullshitting with me right now. I walked in today to see if they a copy came in, and their computer said it was "pending". lol

I'll wait a few more days, since I thre $5 on it. After that, I'm seeing eBay.

BBH · Post by **BBH** » Sun May 04, 2008 12:20 pm

Shatterhand wrote:I think the level design and balance of 2 is a lot better than 1. Also, regarding characters, in this case less is more IMO. The action on 2 is more hectic than in 1 also.

Like you said, I also don't find 1 a bad game, but I enjoyed 2 more than 1.

What do you mean by balance? Because the things I primarily don't like about 2nd Squad are balance-related issues. Namely, the amount of damage you take from enemy attacks. Most of the time when you take one hit you end up losing more than half your life bar, putting you in danger for the next hit. This wouldn't be a problem if there were plenty of life-ups like in Shock Troopers 1, but there aren't. There are no designated spots anywhere in the level to receive life-ups, no end-of-level life bonus... no, the only way to get them back is to get them from close-range kills. Except even then they don't show up anywhere near as frequently, I've even often gone entire levels getting close-range kils on damn near everyone, and not receiving a single life-up. And even in the event that an enemy does drop one, it restores less than 25% of the bar... meaning you need like 3 of them just to fully recover from one enemy hit.

I guess the thing that offsets this is how when you pick up a special weapon, the ammo for that replaces your life bar. But... does that really make sense? This always felt weird to me, and is probably the reason they ramped the damage so high. It's not a very good case of balance IMO.

Oh, and then the characters. I preferred Team Mode in part 1, but I will admit the characters have more differences to them in this game. However, the characters aren't "balanced" in the slightest. If you're playing for survival, Leon is by far the best choice - he gets up to 20 bombs that have the capability to destroy all bullets on the screen. This is a godsend on the last boss and almost feels like cheating. Toy has the same capability with his bomb, although he only gets 10 of them... and although it's a close-range bomb blast, it's absurdly powerful and wipes out bosses fast. So two characters have the ability to wipe out all bullets on the screen whenever they feel like it, while the female characters get shafted. Lulu at least has speed going for her and a decent spread shot, but Angel is the worst character by far. Second-slowest, horrible gun, horrible bomb... the only thing she has going for her are some big ol' titties...

Well those are just part of why I think 2nd Squad doesn't measure up to the first, but to each their own.

dave4shmups · Post by **dave4shmups** » Mon May 05, 2008 5:51 pm

Well, it looks like I won't be picking this up on the PS2:

http://ps2.ign.com/articles/870/870098p1.html

Ridiculous SNK!

And I tire of arguments about why companies like SNK or Midway can't get old arcade games to run properly across all platforms; the newer consoles have superior power, so either make it work or don't bother.

The PSP port doesn't have any slowdown in single player mode, according to the IGN review of that port. I don't own a PSP, so I guess I'll have to wait until Q4 of this year (despite the fact that other companies can manage simultaneous Wii/PS2 releases).

BrianC · Post by **BrianC** » Mon May 05, 2008 7:07 pm

dave4shmups wrote:Well, it looks like I won't be picking this up on the PS2:

http://ps2.ign.com/articles/870/870098p1.html

Ridiculous SNK! And I tire of arguments about why companies like SNK or Midway can't get old arcade games to run properly across all platforms; the newer consoles have superior power, so either make it work or don't bother.

The PSP port doesn't have any slowdown in single player mode, according to the IGN review of that port. I don't own a PSP, so I guess I'll have to wait until Q4 of this year (despite the fact that other companies can manage simultaneous Wii/PS2 releases).

Yeah, I mentioned this in my previous post in this topic. I was thinking of getting this with something else on Amazon for the free shipping, but I got Williams Pinball PS2 instead. I heard that one plays very well on PS2, but is missing two tables. However, the two tables aren't the best and $14.99 is cheaper than the other versions (though I don't have a Wii or PSP yet either). I ordered it with this $12 Sherlock Holmes book that includes all four novels and 56 short stories.

Daigohji · Post by **Daigohji** » Mon May 05, 2008 8:13 pm

BrianC wrote:I ordered it with this $12 Sherlock Holmes book that includes all four novels and 56 short stories.

Sounds like a good buy to me. I've been meaning to read Holmes again and I see that the volume you're referring to is only £5 on Amazon UK. Tempting.

On topic, this talk of slowdown in the PS2 version is depressing, since I can't play import Wii games. IIRC, a recent Nintendo firmware update has frozen out Freeloader.

CMoon · Post by **CMoon** » Mon May 05, 2008 8:13 pm

Has anyone actually played this yet?

D · Post by D » Mon May 05, 2008 9:47 pm

CMoon wrote:Has anyone actually played this yet?

Has anyone actually friggin' played this yet?
And what about 480p mode dammit!

MX7 · Post by **MX7** » Mon May 05, 2008 10:23 pm

Whoa, this is seriously cheap on Play Asia. Fuck the problems with it, I might just give it a go!

Post by **BulletMagnet** » Tue May 06, 2008 12:56 am

CMoon wrote:Has anyone actually played this yet?

Tried to pick it up again today, still not in.

The Coop · Post by **The Coop** » Tue May 06, 2008 1:10 am

I'm still waiting for mine.

black flag nc · Post by **black flag nc** » Tue May 06, 2008 2:10 am

Got my copy in the mail today!

Best I can tell, there's no slowdown. I played most of the non-fighting games and they're smooth. Load times are fairly short. Man, for 20 bucks, I think it's a steal.

The Coop · Post by **The Coop** » Tue May 06, 2008 2:16 am

black flag nc wrote: Got my copy in the mail today!

Best I can tell, there's no slowdown. I played most of the non-fighting games and they're smooth. Load times are fairly short. Man, for 20 bucks, I think it's a steal.

The fighting games are where the slowdown was supposed to be.

black flag nc · Post by **black flag nc** » Tue May 06, 2008 2:23 am

The Coop wrote:The fighting games are where the slowdown was supposed to be.

Samurai Showdown only slows down when you get hit with a strong attack, but that's how the arcade version was. I wasn't interested in the fighting games anyway. I was all about Last Resort, Shock Troopers, Baseball Stars 2, Magician Lord, and Burning Fight.

Dude, I really like everything about this collection so far. I like the goal driven unlockables, which was another bitch about this game.

iatneH · Post by **iatneH** » Tue May 06, 2008 2:41 am

I have a general question about Shock Troopers. I have a MVS cart which I play on a Japanese AES using an old Phantom-1. It plays with 3 lives, but I have used a ROM in shocktro.zip for emulators on PSP and DS, even when I try to set the BIOS region to Japan, I still get English text and 1 life with a gigantic lifebar.

Is there an actual ROM difference or did I just not do the BIOS settings properly?

And Shock Troopers > 2nd Squad, for the record.

yojo! · Post by **yojo!** » Tue May 06, 2008 2:53 am

black flag nc wrote: Got my copy in the mail today!

Best I can tell, there's no slowdown. I played most of the non-fighting games and they're smooth. Load times are fairly short. Man, for 20 bucks, I think it's a steal.

How about Metal Slug ? Have they finally achieved an arcade perfect port after 10 years of subpar console ports ?

Post by **BulletMagnet** » Fri May 16, 2008 1:00 am

Finally got sick of waiting and ordered it online this past weekend - came in today. I haven't tried everything yet, though I did notice a little slowdown in one or two games...oddly enough, neither of them were the one fighter I tried (Samurai Shodown).

Some of the unlockables are kind of dumb (movelists?), and it's kind of annoying to have to wait for the thing to save every time you change a game's settings (if you don't save your changes, they'll be reset once you leave the config screen), but still not a bad deal for 20 bucks.