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We bet that when you think of SNK you think of the NEOGEO, however SNK was developing and publishing pretty decent arcade games well before the NEOGEO.

When the SNK 40th Anniversary Collection was announced earlier this year, we immediately took note, as we got quite excited at the prospect of playing SNK’s library of awesome classic games on our Nintendo Switch.

This collection represents SNK’s golden age of arcade games, a true arcade connoisseurs anthology, which is already proving quite popular in the office – we have to wait our turn on the shared Switch (Ed: perhaps we need to leave a coin on the screen!).

So which SNK games can you play straight away? The current list of titles, which is a mix of arcade and console ports, are a great start for the trip down memory lane:

• Alpha Mission (Console/Arcade)
• Athena (Console/Arcade)
• Crystalis (Console)
• Ikari Warriors (Console/Arcade)
• Ikari Warriors II: Victory Road (Console/Arcade)
• Ikari Warriors III: The Rescue (Console/Arcade)
• Guerrilla War (Console/Arcade)
• P.O.W. (Console/Arcade)
• Prehistoric Isle (Arcade)
• Psycho Soldier (Arcade)
• Street Smart (Arcade)
• TNK III (Console/Arcade)
• Vanguard (Arcade)

But wait, there is more! On December 11, there will be an additional 11 games added (for free!) to the already packed collection – check out these beauties:

• Munch Mobile (Arcade)
• Fantasy (Arcade)
• Sasuke vs. Commander (Arcade)
• Chopper I (Arcade)
• Time Soldiers (Arcade)
• Bermuda Triangle (Arcade)
• Paddle Mania (Arcade)
• Ozma Wars (Arcade)
• Beast Busters (Arcade)
• Search and Rescue (Arcade)
• World Wars (Arcade)

With regular patches being released to enhance gameplay experience (like the Day 1 patch adding ‘Single Stick’ mode amongst a raft of other improvements), this compilation truly gets better and better. The emulation has a few bumps here and there, but nothing that detracts from the overall gameplay experience – If you have never played these games or played them long ago, you would never notice. And as mentioned, patches are being released to tighten up any loose ends.

Speaking of user experience, the overall presentation is simply awesome, with an easy to use menu system that not only provides access to the arcade games with enhanced features (like rewind gameplay, auto-fire and 1080p resolution to name just a few), but also a brilliant museum mode where a lot of painstaking effort was made to catalogue and preserve the legacy of one of Japan’s leading developers, which includes high definition artwork and original promotional assets. We actually spent a lot of time in the museum going through each game and finding out information we could not find anywhere else – those of you that are into history and research will love this mode.

We are really glad that SNK chose to celebrate their extraordinary milestone by giving us, the gamers, a brilliant high quality compilation. The SNK 40th ANNIVERSARY COLLECTION is packed full of retro gaming goodness with top-notch features with a complimentary museum mode which tops off what is an already solid package for those of you craving for nostalgia.

This is an essential collection to add to your Nintendo Switch games library. The only problem you’ll have is making the choice between physical or download – either way, you can’t go wrong!

image source: NIS America

Disclosure: SNK 40th Anniversary Collection [Nintendo Switch – download] was kindly provided by NIS America for this review.