Genre: Action RPG
Developer: SNK
Publisher: SNK

Dark Arms is played entirely from an overhead perspective, utilizing static, hand-drawn tiles and clean, well-animated sprites. The stage tilesets are exceptionally rich with detail, and the gothic-themed levels have a very definite aesthetic appeal to them. The cut-scenes, especially the intro, are probably the most fantastic bits of imagery in the entire NeoGeo Pocket Color's library.

Technically, the music and sound effects do a good job of utilising all six of the NGPC's PSG sound chip, and many of the melodies are both catchy and melodic. Unfortunately, the soundtrack is very Halloween-esque and many of the tunes are painfully cheesy; if you can grimace past the irritating tunes, you will be at least somewhat recompensed.

If you've ever played Ikari Warriors, or perhaps Zombies Ate My Neighbors, you'll be instantly familiar with Dark Arms' skoot 'n shoot gameplay. Except the twist in Dark Arms is that when you kill an enemy, you can capture their soul and use the captured souls to create new and more powerful weapons. Maps are easy to play in short bursts, and the pacing is pretty good, but the core mechanics have been present since the 1980s and show their age a little.

While Dark Arms can be pretty fun to play, the entire game is too short: the whole single player mode takes between three and four hours, there are only thirty-one different variations of weapons to make, there are only six or so stages, and there is a very finite number of baddies. Dark Arms certainly isn't a terrible game, but you can do a lot better when picking from the NGPC's library.