Though you may never hear it in the game, NeGeo Battle Coliseum is set in February 2017 by new Japanese calendar. A man is trying to take over the NeoGeo world by defeating the strongest warriors and claiming the title. If that power were to fall into his hands, contol of the enter world would only be a step away.

Mortal Combat 2 for Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo had better graphics than NeoGeo Battle Coliseum. Sound too.

To that effect, if this game came out in the early 90s, it would have been a miserable failure going up against Street Fighter and Mortal Combat.

But that just sort of makes sense, because the game is a collection of all the characters from the classic NeoGeo fighting games, which sorta did get their asses kicked by Capcom and Midway.

The NeoGeo fighters have always been looked on by the gaming world with a certain nostalgic level of respect. The games weren’t as good as their competitors. The graphics were excellent on the NeoGeo, but that was years ago, and not much has changed in the games.

What you get with Battle Coliseum is some serious hardcore fighting game value. This is a game that literally just came out a few weeks ago, brand new, and it’s $14.95. This is astonishing considering one of the games represented, World Heroes, went for $200 in 1993.

You get to play as characters from World Heroes, Art of Fighting, Fatal Fury, Samurai Showdown, Last Blade, Metal Slug and Kizuna Encounter — over 40 total characters.

Battle Coliseum is a great pick-up-and-go multiplayer game. There are tons of special moves, and the fights are based on tag-team action where you pick two fighters and swap back and forth.

In the end, however, NeoGeo Battle Coliseum is fun for about an hour unless you consistently have someone to fight against. The story elements just aren’t there to keep you company for a long solo journey. Most of all, this D-pad-using game turns into a button masher for most.

This is a classic late release for a previous generation platform.

If you’re a veteran fighting gamer, this is technically a must have if even for its historical significance — plus it’s like 15 bucks, so you really won’t have any regrets either way.

Quick hits:

Publisher: SNK Playmore
Developer: SNK Playmore
Platform: PS2
Genre: 2D Fighter
Players: 1-2
Launch Date: December 17, 2007

Playability: [rating:2.5]
Learning Curve: [rating:4/5]
Sound: [rating:2/5]
Graphics: [rating:2.5]
Overall: [rating:3/5]

About The Author

John Guilfoil is the editor-in-chief of Blast: Boston's Online Magazine and the Blast Magazine Network. He can be reached at [email protected]. Tweet @johnguilfoil.

One Response

  1. Check

    This is one of the worst articles I have ever read. The writer clearly doesn’t play fighting games and has no idea what they’re talking about.

    Reply

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