Genre: Compilation
Developer: Code Mystics
Publisher: SNK

This reviewer actually critiqued many of the games in this collection back in 1999 and 2000. As noted in those reviews, the NGPC's games had remarkable, nearly "Street Fighter III"-levels of animation, and a colorful, shaded pixel art aesthetic. This collection can optionally be played with one of several, super high resolution pictures of various colored NGPCs "skinned" around the playing field. Further, the entire view-- skin or not-- can be scaled smoothly from a small square all the way to the TV's vertical height. Unfortunately, it's tough to get a clean "1:1" pixel mapping, and the full-height mode makes the NGPC's 160x152 resolution look like a patchwork quilt.

The NGPC used a mildly enhanced version of the SN76489 PSG found in systems like the Game Gear. Put into the hands of SNK's stable of talented composers, faithful reproductions of classic tunes from "Samurai Shodown", "Metal Slug", "Fatal Fury", and all manner of other famous series are all present. The minor key, neoclassical compositions in "Dark Arms" are a treat especially. All of the PSG audio in the collection has never sounded better than it does playing out of the Switch hardware.

This collection has several of the best games on the system. Over twenty years since initial release, it's still incredible how SNK was able to make 2D fighters that rival the "real deals", on a handheld with minimal RAM and only two buttons-- yet here we are. To this reviewer's taste, the two "Metal Slug" games have always been and are more fun than their arcade counterparts. There is a smidgen of input latency, but in general everything controls nicely, as the "A" and "B" buttons can be mapped to the Switch's "B" and "A", respectively.

Games can be rewound, but there is no save state support. That said, NGPC games tend to be designed either around frequent automatic SRAM saving, or simply use bite-sized gameplay structures. The collection has full-color, zoomable scans of the manuals, which is something every collection like this should contain. They even modeled the cartridges and boxes in 3D. All-in-all, this collection is well done, striking a game selection balance between "strong titles" and "opportunity for a second volume". Hopefully just such a follow-up volume does arise, and that it will have titles like "Card Fighter's Clash" and "Faselei" in it.