SNK 40th Anniversary Collection Review for Xbox One

Get ready to kick it old school with Digital Eclipse’s arcade game SNK 40^th Anniversary Collection for Xbox One. It’s bound to satisfy those nostalgic desires by offering over 25 of your favorite arcade games including Ikari Warriors, P.O.W., Paddle Mania, Baseball Stars, Prehistoric Isle, and many more. When re-releasing an old game, one of the primary concerns us as gamers have is the developer’s ability to convert it. Many times, when going from arcade to console, developers fail miserably. But worry not players! With SNK 40^th Anniversary Collection this is not the case so if you’re an arcade enthusiast expecting the best, I cannot recommend it enough.

Graphically, I was astonished by the way Digital Eclipse was able to utilize all of the modern technological advancements while also maintaining the edgy retro vibes. For instance, while playing Prehistoric Isle, a game whose graphics cannot be described in a way other than 16-bit, I was impressed by the way Digital Eclipse was able to add a modern twist while also maintaining the same old school appearance. It satisfied my need for nostalgia while also showing me what they can do with Xbox One graphics and CPU.

Xbox One is the perfect candidate for SNK 40^th Anniversary Collection. Utilizing simplistic controls and the classic START two/three button gaming format truly makes the player feel like they are at their favorite arcade! I’ve found it quite a struggle for some developers to translate arcade machine games to console due to their lingering question, “what will I do with these extra buttons?”. It seems each developer wants to unnecessarily use every button on the controller even if it means adding in extra moves that weren’t in the original game and to be honest that ruins the game, it doesn’t improve it. The reason Digital Eclipse has executed this transition so well is because they have stayed true to their controls, focusing on maintaining and comfortability rather than expansion! Excellent job!

Just because Digital Eclipse converted these arcade games to console doesn’t mean they made them any easier. For instance, while playing P.O.W. (which provides both the arcade and console version of the game) I found myself quite cocky thinking that they might have made the arcade adaptation easier on console! But, five continues later I realized how many quarters I’d be eating up if my Xbox One were a pay-to-play and that cockiness was short-lived so, I warn players not to get too arrogant. It’s harder than it seems! But if you’re one of the people who can run through these games in minutes and do need an extra challenge, try increasing the difficulty or change it to two-player!

For players who yearn for nostalgia, hurry over to the Xbox One store and buy SNK 40^th Anniversary Collection. There are very few arcade adaptations that stay true to their originals but this one does. Difficulty, music, controls, graphics: everything about this game will send you into a frenzy of excitement and perhaps even a little frustration as you sink into the suppressed memory of, “ah so that’s where all my money went as a kid”. But worry not, there’s no pay to play and you don’t have to insert a quarter every time you die… until you take a trip back to the arcade, that is.

Rating: 9.3

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