NeoGeo Battle Coliseum (XBLA) – Review – Xbox 360

Gamers may be familiar with the Japanese game company SNK Playmore for many reasons. Two of the most common reasons are for their 2D games released in the 90′s and their NEOGEO hardware. SNK is known for games like Metal Slug, The King of Fighters, and Fatal Fury which were released on their own NeoGeo arcade cabinets. Years later, they released a game called NeoGeo Battle Coliseum which was released on the Atomiswave and later, the PS2. With the Xbox Live Arcade, we’ve seen many of these classic SNK games re-released on the platform. To be honest, when I first heard of the XBLA, I assumed that’s exactly what the service was intended for – classic arcade games. Yes, the service does have these games, but they also have many original games. Lately though, I’ve noticed a huge trend of classic games hitting the service; the latest – NeoGeo Battle Coliseum.

Story: The game has a “Story Mode” but, like most SNK Playmore games, you won’t actually see any story within the game. Essentially, the year is 2017 and a Japanese man is trying to rule the “NEOGEO World”. He sets up a WAREZ sponsored fighting competition called NeoGeo Battle Coliseum. To stop this competition and ultimately the Japanese man from taking over the world, the federal government sends its’ best agents, Yuki and Ai, to compete and put an end to this potential world domination.

Gameplay: NeoGeo Battle Coliseum is a 2D versus fighter. However, instead of the traditional 1v1 fights seen in other games, players must choose another character for 2v2 tag team battles. At any time during the fight, players can swap these characters and continue fighting. While out of play, the character will regain health until they are brought back into play. Like any fighting game, NGBC features a lot of combos. Combined with the right characters, players can also perform a Double Assault where both characters are briefly on screen at once to deal double the damage to the opponent.

As previously mentioned in the story section, there is a Story Mode but it acts more like a survival mode. This is confusing because there is also a Survival Mode which puts players into rounds of 3 battles; complete a round and you are given the option to use a “game service” for the next round. These services allow you to gain an advantage in the next battle.

The Story Mode on the other hand puts you against numerous opponents and bosses until you win the overall competition. A battle lasts 300 seconds (5 minutes). Within this time, you really only have to defeat one enemy, but defeating both will ensure a win. In other words, if you don’t defeat them before the time runs out, you may have to fight a boss depending on how you did within the fight. If both of your characters end up dying, you will have the option to continue as well as choose a continue service which will hopefully help out when you try again.

Graphics: From the menus to the backgrounds, the graphics look great. But, when you look at the characters in a battle, they are pixelated. I know this was a limitation for the arcade version and having them like this gives that nostalgic feeling, but having an updated option – the ability to play with classic graphics or updated version – would have been nice to see; with that said, you really only notice the pixelation before the fight. During the fight, it’s not as noticeable as it is all fast paced combos. Being a Japanese game, the art style is very much anime-esque but for a 2D fighting game, that works great.

Multiplayer: The game features online and local versus modes. You essentially set up one battle and fight. Being a noob in fighting games and using a 360 controller, I got dominated while playing online, but then again, there was literally no one playing a player match so I had to play a ranked match. I maybe got one or two hits in and before I knew it, the game was over.

Overall: To be honest, I rarely play 2D fighting games so I don’t entirely know what to expect between each fighting game or have the time to master combos and timing and all the stuff that is required in these games. The game isn’t easy to begin with but I did notice that it was difficult to play with a 360 controller due to the use of thumbstick or D-pad for combos. This is quite challenging as they aren’t really set up for these types of games. For hardcore players and those that regularly play 2D fighters, you will most likely have a fight stick controller which mimics the arcade cabinet controls. I rarely play 2D versus fighters so I don’t have one of these available, but I imagine it’d be much better. With that said, I did find the game to be enjoyable while playing the easier computer opponents. There are a lot of characters to choose from which are characters from previous SNK Playmore games.

So overall, as a 2D fighting game noob, I found this game to be enjoyable but not something I would pick up if I wanted to enter and get to know the genre. For hardcore fighting fans, I feel this game would be great especially without a controller. The combos and fast paced fighting was cool, but it was very tricky to hit those combos. If you are looking for a classic arcade cabinet game that will provide endless hours of arcade action, NeoGeo Battle Coliseum is for you.

Pros:
-Almost direct port giving fans nostalgic gameplay
-Features many characters from previous SNK Playmore games
-Online versus mode

Cons:
-Controls are tough on 360 gamepad; requires an 8 directional joystick (fight stick controller) for proper gameplay.
-A tough game; not for newcomers

Score: 6.5 out of 10

An XBLA copy of this game was provided to the reviewer for reviewing purposes from the publisher.

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