@Dimjimmer
Yes I just heard the news this morning! A nice little surprise extension of Ake-Aka’s Namco Festival. 3 weeks of sales in a row! This is truly exceptional.
I may have to pick up Xevious in honor of the occasion! 😁
Switch FC: SW-5760-3019-8223
(player name is Beesh)
There is currently a sale on in North America ending Wednesday, May 29, 2024. (the 30th after midnight ET). See post #34 on page 2 for more info on that.
There is also a new sale on in North America ending Wednesday, June 5, 2024. (the 6th after midnight ET).
That's right, there have been 3 Hamster sales in quick succession, including 2 overlapping ones on now!
Keep in mind, there are over 100 ACA NEOGEO games and nearly 300 Arcade Archives games. And only 5 to 10 of each go on sale at a time, and games from these collections only go on sale a couple of times a year. So you really have to jump on them, because if you miss it, it could be years before any individual title goes on sale again.
ACA NEOGEO METAL SLUG 5
ACA NEOGEO CYBER-LIP
ACA NEOGEO SAMURAI SHODOWN V
ACA NEOGEO NINJA COMBAT
ACA NEOGEO BASEBALL STARS PROFESSIONAL
Arcade Archives XEVIOUS
Arcade Archives PAC-MANIA
Arcade Archives NEW RALLY-X
Arcade Archives TANK FORCE
Arcade Archives BARADUKE
Neo Geo games are on sale for 50% off. Namco Arcade Archives games are on sale for 30% off.
A while ago I googled for lists of the best Neo Geo games. I looked for ranked lists at least 25 games long. I ended up finding 7 qualifying lists with 132 unique games and a total of 410 separate entries.
Metal Slug 5 ended up the #37 best Neo Geo game Cyber-Lip ended up the #48 best Neo Geo game Samurai Shodown V ended up the #55 best Neo Geo game
But I wouldn't recommend any of these 5 Neo Geo games for a variety of reasons.
Metal Slug 4 & 5 were made by a different company, and are a bit slap-dash in comparison to the best of the series (Metal Slug, Metal Slug X and Metal Slug 3).
Cyber-Lip was a Neo Geo launch year title, and as a run and gun game, does not hold a candle to the Metal Slug series that would launch 6 years later.
Samurai Shodown V is a fine game, but there are 3 better-regarded games in the series on Neo Geo. Add to that, there is an enhanced version Samurai Shodown V Special, that is the best version of that game. And if you're that interested in the game, you might as well just get the SAMURAI SHODOWN NEOGEO COLLECTION which includes 7 games in the series. It tends to go on sale over New Year's, every 2 years.
Ninja Combat is another poor launch year title, this one is a beat 'em up, which as NintendoLife reports, all playable characters and enemies walking animations look like they have crapped their pants.
Baseball Stars Professional is an actual Neo Geo launch DAY title. And if you're itching for some arcade baseball action, ACA NEOGEO BASEBALL STARS 2 is much better, so much so that it is the #14 best game on the system.
Xevious, all vertical shmups made after 1983 built off of its template. If you're interested in early shmup history, it is a must have. If you have the NAMCO MUSEUM ARCHIVES Vol 1 collection, then you already have its NES port.
Pac-Mania, it's already in the PAC-MAN MUSEUM+ collection.
New Rally-X, interesting story. At the biggest North American arcade game trade show in 1980, there were 4 hit games that had everyone abuzz: Battlezone, Defender, Pac-Man and Rally-X. The consensus sure-fire biggest hit game of those 4 was? Rally-X.
There are 4 cool things about Rally-X that might not all quite be gaming "FIRST!"s, but they were all pretty novel, especially when packaged together:
In-game background music
Bonus round
A game play area bigger than the screen
A radar/map
A common complaint about Rally-X was that it was too difficult. So they made this New Rally-X (which some Rally-X fans complain is now too easy!), with some added features, graphical improvements etc. I remember playing both versions, so I enjoy it nostalgically, but it is not as well-regarded as the best Namco had to offer.
Tank Force, is already included in the NAMCO MUSEUM collection.
Baraduke is a mostly forgotten game, except for its numerous strange similarities to Metroid, interesting because Baraduke came first! The sequel Baraduke 2 never left Japan, and is hated for it's hellish, brutal, unfair difficulty. For example, if you die on stage 2, you start your next life on stage 1! Screw that!
So I would say Xevious is the crown jewels of this sale, on an individual purchase level, with the other "good" games in existing collections.
I'd still recommend Metal Slug 5 tbh, I always found it kinda underrated. It's not as polished as the first three, but it's very ambitious, has some of the wildest setpieces in the series, and the soundtrack goes ridiculously hard.
@canaryfarmer I've played a few KoF games here and there, but it's not a series I'm super familiar with. Out of those on sale, which would you consider the best?
@OldManHermit'98 and 2002 are often regarded as the 'best' from this batch; they are the two "dream match" fighting games in the series that just take everyone from the previous games (even if they've been killed or whatever in the ongoing, fairly-inscrutable narrative) and lets you go to town with everyone. I like the later games more overall, personally, from like 99 on...
KOF XIII has a deluxe, very cool edition available on Switch which is great fun, but not an ACA release so it's only 20% off right now during this KOF 30th anniversary period.
This page is a pretty handy resource for how the games progress and you can see character sprites/backgrounds to see if any visually appeal to you more.
(and make sure to go back a page in this thread and read my comments about setting up Hamster visual/audio options before diving in and playing)
@canaryfarmer I've played a few KoF games here and there, but it's not a series I'm super familiar with. Out of those on sale, which would you consider the best?
I found a 7 year-old poll, over 200 GameFAQs users voted on "So which is the best KOF game?"
Of the current Switch games, the best in order were:
1.) '98
2.) 2002
3.) XIII
'98 was waaaay out in front of the next 2 (and actually won the whole poll, ahead of the newest XIV).
And 2002 and XIII were comfortably ahead of the rest of the pack.
It's a mystery to me why they made a Samurai Shodown collection but not a King of Fighters?
For a good price I probably would have bought them all instead of picking and choosing.
@MontyCircus Die-hard fans aside, classic SamSho might be a harder sell to the masses individually. I think putting them all in one collection was the right move. Especially with all the museum content. It might even encourage those who got into SamSho 7 (2019) to pick it up. That said, it’s not like they can’t do the Orochi collection again. Or better yet, this time they can lock the NEOGEO releases to one collection (Orochi and NESTS saga) and the rest up until XII in another (XI, Neo Wave, MI 1&2, XII)
The King of Fighters sale is ending in some hours, just in time for a new batch of Arcade Archive games, this time by Taito. The following games are discounted by 30% for the next two weeks:
Alpine Ski
Ben Bero Beh
Bonze Adventure
Dino Rex
Don Doko Don
The Fairyland Story
Gun Frontier
Liquid Kids
Metal Black
The NewZealand Story
Hamster has an Arcade Archives sale on now until Wednesday October 9, 2024 for 10 Taito games:
Included in "Darius Cozmic Collection Arcade" collection: Arcade Archives DARIUS Arcade Archives DARIUS II
Included in "Taito Milestones" collection: Arcade Archives WILD WESTERN Arcade Archives SPACE SEEKER
Included in "Taito Milestones 2" collection: Arcade Archives DARIUS II Arcade Archives THE LEGEND OF KAGE
Not part of any collection currently: Arcade Archives WATER SKI Arcade Archives MEGABLAST Arcade Archives SPACE CRUISER Arcade Archives HIGHWAY RACE Arcade Archives SEA FIGHTER POSEIDON
Forums
Topic: Arcade Archives / ACA NEOGEO eShop sales
Posts 41 to 57 of 57
Please login or sign up to reply to this topic