NeoGeo Set to Make its Return
Take a step back with me won’t you? To a simpler time when pizza joints and 7-Elevens were a good way to get your video game fix. When having a pocketful of quarters meant a day with the promise of an arcade, not a laundromat. A time when NeoGeo was a system ahead of its time, allowing players to take a memory card from their home system to the arcades in order to continue their play.
What? You didn’t have a NeoGeo Home System? 800 bucks a little steep? Yeah, us too. But there was something to be said for what it COULD have done, not to mention the quality games each multi-titled machine contained like Art of Fighting, Fatal Fury, Samurai Shodown II and the timeless Metal Slug. 20 years since hitting arcade floors, Tommo, Inc. and SNK Playmore have announced a return of the console as a handheld gaming device with a twist. The NeoGeo X Gold is a portable powerhouse due out for the holidays for about 200 bucks. Here’s what you get:
- NEOGEO X Station
- NEOGEO X Handheld, preloaded with 20 classic titles
- NEOGEO X Joystick
NeoGeo X Handheld, Station and Joystick
The handheld unit sports a 4.3″ screen, game card slot, built in stereo speakers and finally, a headphone jack, for those private moments. Working with the joystick and X Station, the handheld unit charges while transferring the video, via HDMI or A/V cable, to your TV. As for games, here’s what you get:
- 3 Count Bout
- Art of Fighting II
- Alpha Mission II
- Baseball Stars II
- Cyber Lip
- Fatal Fury
- Fatal Fury Special
- The King of Fighters ’95
- King of the Monsters
- Last Resort
- League Bowling
- Magician Lord
- Metal Slug
- Mutation Nation
- Nam 1975
- Puzzled
- Real Bout – Fatal Fury Special
- Samurai Shodown II
- Super Sidekicks
- World Heroes Perfect
Except that you’re getting no less than 3 version of one game (looking at you, Fatal Fury), it’s not a bad deal. The home/portable play seems considerably more feasible, not to mention affordable, for today’s players, but one has to wonder if this is too little too late. $200 for twenty 20 year old games? It remains to be seen if the NEOGEO X will be able to compete with the Nintendo 3DS or the waning PS Vita, but its unique portable-to-TV function may yet prove a device hard core gamers and NEOGEO nostalgia lovers might want to pocket.
NeoGeo X Handheld
