SNK just revealed the 20 pre-installed titles for their upcoming Neo Geo Arcade Stick Pro system/controller, and they’re all fighting games!
While a big portion of the Neo Geo MVS/AES/CD ‘s repertoire consists of one-on-one fighting games, over-the-top action games/series like Metal Slug, Aero Fighters and Shock Troopers brought forward a whole new audience to the system. With its forthcoming plug-and-play hardware, SNK decided to purely focus on the former and completely ignore the latter; a highly questionable step in my opinion. Without further ado, here’s the list of games that we’ll be getting, when the Arcade Stick Pro sees the light of day (the date hasn’t been disclosed yet):
- THE KING OF FIGHTERS ’95
- THE KING OF FIGHTERS ’97
- THE KING OF FIGHTERS ’98
- THE KING OF FIGHTERS ’99
- THE KING OF FIGHTERS 2000
- THE KING OF FIGHTERS 2002
- FATAL FURY SPECIAL
- FATAL FURY 3
- GAROU: MARK OF THE WOLVES
- SAMURAI SHODOWN Ⅱ
- SAMURAI SHODOWN Ⅲ
- SAMURAI SHODOWN IV
- SAMURAI SHODOWN Ⅴ SPECIAL
- ART OF FIGHTING
- WORLD HEROES 2
- WORLD HEROES 2 JET
- WORLD HEROES PERFECT
- NINJA MASTER’S
- THE LAST BLADE 2
- KIZUNA ENCOUNTER
Alongside the above list, a few more features were announced in SNK‘s latest press release:
- the button layout is completely customizable.
- both the joystick and buttons are equipped with microswitches, an option that was notably missing with the Neo Geo Mini.
- 3x pixel scaling and scanlines, for an “improved display“.
The Arcade Stick Pro will undoubtedly compete head-to-head against Capcom’s Home Arcade System (although we’re still waiting on SNK‘s price reveal), a battle that’s very reminiscent of the early/mid-90s fight for arcade dominance. So, what’s next? Konami releasing an arcade stick with 20 built-in shoot-em-ups?
Check out Ray‘s article about some previously announced details: https://www.retrorgb.com/new-neo-geo-arcade-stick-pro-details-revealed-by-snk-japan.html
SNK’s full press release: https://www.snk-corp.co.jp/us/press/2019/092001/