The Neo Geo Pocket Fighters - which are the best?

[Asura]

After getting my NGPC recently and gradually accumulating a stack of games, like all NGPC owners I have a fair few fighting games.

Given how the console and games have aged, what do people feel about them now? Which do people consider the best?

To recap, the games are...
King of Fighters R-1
King of Fighters R-2
Fatal Fury (B&W NGP version)
Fatal Fury First Contact
Samurai Showdown (B&W NGP version)
Samurai Showdown 2
The Match of the Millennium
The Last Blade
Gals Fighters

I think that's all of them as I don't think KoF R-3 was ever released.

One of the reasons I ask this is because I've recently had two surprises, playing them now.

First one is that Fatal Fury First Contact, to my recollection, was often reviewed as a bit pointless because it came out in the west at the same time as KoF R-2, and KoF was supposedly a far superior game (plus of course KoF includes several key fighters from FF). However, a recent look at it has made me wonder if that was a poor assessment. Perhaps it's just me, but I could swear that the sprites are larger and the backgrounds are more detailed than in KoF, and the combat feels a lot more impactful.

Conversely, the traditional wisdom seemed to suggest that the Last Blade was better than Samurai Showdown 2, but I don't buy that either. Firstly, after tracking down Last Blade (which was a bit more awkward than SS2, which seems ten-a-penny on eBay) I was a bit disappointed to see how much of a reskin of SS2 it is! The character select screens, for example, are literally reskins of each other. I knew the games were similar, but that's taking it a bit far. Plus, Last Blade might be slightly more realistic, but I feel SS2's larger-than-life visuals work better on the handheld format.

The end result of this is that there are 9 games in that list, but I'd prefer to only keep three at the most, as I tend to only keep games I actively play. One of those is going to be Match of the Millennium, but I need to work out what the other two will be!

So, what do other people think of the NGPC fighters? I still think that even at their worst, their great sprite work and the NGPC's little stick makes them clearly the best handheld fighters ever, even when compared to the likes of DoA and Street Fighter for the 3DS, or the PSP Guilty Gear games. I'm curious to know how they compare to other formats I haven't tried, such as the fighters for the Wonderswan.

[speedlolita]

I think they lack the depth of a "real" fighting game. Fairly enjoyable for handheld titles though. Wasn't until games such as Guilty Gear on the PSP that I'd consider portable fighting games as enjoyable as their arcade/home console port counterparts.

[Asura]

Whilst there's some truth to that, I honestly prefer the NGPC games. I love deep fighters; I have a shelf of them on console and play them regularly, but I've never got into the PSP ones (for example) in the way I got into the NGPC ones.

Maybe it's the controllers - I can't stand playing most fighters on pads, especially the likes of Street Fighter and KoF. Consequently I never got into SF Alpha 3 for the PSP, despite it otherwise being a pretty good conversion.

Conversely, I think that handheld fighters need something that the first PSP Guilty Gear game didn't have - novelty. Match of the Millennium remains my favourite handheld fighter ever not because of the fighting gameplay (which I do really like nonetheless) but rather because of the various modes, minigames and characters to unlock. That and, of course, that little clicky stick.

I honestly think that handheld fighters should be made in the model of stuff like MotM and Soul Calibur 1/2/3, with various RPG-esque modes and suchlike, rather than straight-up fighting gameplay, because I never end up playing handheld fighters in versus mode and regular solo play in fighting games bores me unless it's practice for multiplayer.

[highlandcattle]

I don't think there is a B/W fatal fury

[Baseley09]

MOTM is one of the best handheld games they ever brought out! Its a game i actually got some mileage out of.

[_SD_]

All of the Pocket fighters are quality, and highlandcattle is correct; there's no B/W Fatal Fury.

MotM, Gals Fighters and Last Blade Pocket are fantastic games.... definitely among the best on the system. It's a shame that things like World Heroes Pocket and Windjammers didn't make it to retail.

[Asura]

Point taken about the lack of a black and white Fatal Fury.

SD, do you really consider Last Blade as better than Samurai Showdown on the NGPC? Having played both back-to-back, I can't seem to understand why people prefer it, but I haven't got under the skin of either game yet.

[_SD_]

It's honestly a difficult choice as they're both excellent games. However, as far as I'm concerned, Last Blade 1 & 2 are the finest fighting games ever created.... so I might be a little bias when it comes to the Pocket game. But the more that you play, and the more you unlock, you'll discover how great it really is.

I understand you only want games you're gonna actually play, but all the Pocket fighters are worth it. Although there's no point going for an R-1 unless you really are into collecting. You'll go mad actually locating one (trust me on this) and R-2 is better overall. Same goes for the Samurai Shodown! games, just get the colour sequel.

This only leaves you with six colour games, all of which are well worth getting.

[Asura]

I certainly agree about KoF R1*&2.

This might sound daft, but is there a hidden baseball game in The Last Blade? I'm sure I recall seeing screenshots of a baseball game played as Last Blade characters.

It's starting to shape up to be Fatal Fury, MotM, and Samurai Showdown 2, though I'm going to play a load of KoF's RPG-esque "making" mode before getting rid. Gals Fighters is the one I find particularly redundant, given how much of the content it contains is found in those other four games.

I think those, along with Cardfighters Clash, Dive Alert and Faselei will round off the collection.

Out of curiosity, I've got Metal Slug First Mission, and something surprises me. Do you "unlock" levels for selection later as you play? Or do you start from the beginning every time you turn it on? Whilst it's an old-school arcade title it's still a bit of a pain, because naturally I don't tend to play handheld games for long stretches and those titles are surprisingly long. I think that's why I like the NGPC fighters so much because fighting games are great for "burst gameplay", i.e. turn it on, play a few rounds then you can switch it off.

[_SD_]

I'll admit it's been quite a while since I've played either of the Slugs, although the second is definitely much better with all the secret areas to find.

Have a look at the Flashmasta on Flavor's website; well worth getting, and not just for sailing the seven seas. It looks like translations of Ogre Battle Gaiden and Biomotor Unitron 2 might be on the horizon. Card Fighters Clash 2 has already been translated and it's well worth paying.

[Asura]

Oh, forgot Neo Turf Masters! Definitely keeping that

And I did consider going for that flash cart, but $125 was too steep for me. If I could get one for ?30, I might consider it, but given that I've managed to get every game I wanted for the system for less than ?60, it seemed a bit of an extravagance. I'd really only be interested in the Card Fighters 2 translation; whilst Ogre Battle is probably great, there's no shortage of good SRPGs on the DS and other platforms I own (whereas I consider Card Fighters to be quite unique).

[tokyochojin]

Wasn't it released on DS though?

[Asura]

No. There was a game called SNK Vs Capcom Cardfighters released for the DS, but it was a totally different game which was just based around the same high level concept (collecting and battling with Capcom and SNK themed cards). Everything else about it was different; even the central card game itself was a very different game.

It was poorly reviewed and has a game-breaking bug that makes it impossible to fully complete, as it'll crash and fry your save on the second playthrough.

Conversely, the first one is among the best handheld games ever put together. Incredibly compulsive.

[tokyochojin]

Ah, I wondered why it could be picked up for peanuts. Might have to seriously look at picking up a NGP again. Only thing which bothers me is the lack of backlight on the screen.

[Asura]

Ah, I wondered why it could be picked up for peanuts. Might have to seriously look at picking up a NGP again. Only thing which bothers me is the lack of backlight on the screen.

Yeah, it is a bit of a pain. I can just about play it under my living room lighting or a desk lamp, but really you need to play it during the day outdoors, so it's not the best console to own in the winter! You can mod it with a GBA SP frontlight, which I've considered trying.

What I've been thinking about, though, is whether you could make a frontlight to go on top of the unit with two 1" cold-cathode tubes (like the ones you mod PC's with), so you don't have to take the machine apart - you could just route the cables around to the battery compartment. I think it'd give a better result too.

Bear in mind though that the screen is significantly better than the original GBA's in terms of brightness, and arguably better than the Game Boy Color's too. I've often wondered though if these consoles are a product of the Tokyo/Osaka summertime, with their long and generally sunny days of diffuse light from the humidity. I doubt they could have ever been made by an English manufacturer.