Neo Geo Pocket Colour Best Games

[shallowgamer]

I have one of these on the way, and also have The Last Blade, Sonic Pocket Adventure, and Puzzle Bobble Mini. What else should I pick up? Any good shooters other than the Metal Slug games? What's only available for this system?

There's a cotton shooter (fantastic night dreams) available on the system as well. Not bad for what it is. From a collector's standpoint, I was upset when it showed up and it didn't have the clamshell treatment; just a cardboard box with book style opening.

[shallowgamer]

You should just get one. The thumb stick can't be emulated!

I agree. They're not that expensive either. Years ago (2001??) when the whole NGPC effort folded, the systems were packaged loose, with 4 loose (and somewhat random if I recall) games in a blister pack. They were liquidated at EB games dirt cheap. I don't even think they had SNK's name on the package. I always kicked myself for not picking up a package as a backup. Once again my pomposity kept me from taking part in such a bastardization of the NGPC.

[pompeyparsons]

Are there any good RPG's for the NGPC besides Biomotor Unitron?

Dive Alert: Both Matt's and Becky's Version are both pretty decent in my opinion not really traditional RPGs however.

I'll agree with General Chaos however and say Dark Arms: Beast Buster '99 is probably the most solid of the very few RPGs avaiable for the NGPC.

Faselei! Is fantastic but again its going to run you between $30-40 for just the cart. For a complete clamshell UK copy its going to cost between $70-80.

Biomotor Unitron for my money is edges out the Pokemon games by just a little and is great fun to play. But it'll really only take you about 8 hours to beat it.

Those are really about the only english language RPGs that I personally know of but they're pretty decent have to remember there were only 32 NTSC releases for the system and in my opinion you can't go wrong with any of them as the Fighting Games are all excelent, the puzzle games are great, the sports titles are quality and then the franchise games like the Metal Slugs and Sonic Pocket Adventure are fantastic. Great little system no doubt.

[zarathstra]

You should just get one. The thumb stick can't be emulated!

I agree. They're not that expensive either. Years ago (2001??) when the whole NGPC effort folded, the systems were packaged loose, with 4 loose (and somewhat random if I recall) games in a blister pack. They were liquidated at EB games dirt cheap. I don't even think they had SNK's name on the package. I always kicked myself for not picking up a package as a backup. Once again my pomposity kept me from taking part in such a bastardization of the NGPC.

That's how I got mine back in December. It came in a blsiter type case with the unit, 6 games, and some batteries. Its awesome, especially considering the price tag.

[Ivo]

I hear good things about the Golf game (Turf Masters). Is Pocket Tennis a good game as well, or not so much?

Ivo.

[itsmattxp]

a lot of neo pocket games have both languages on the cart, and it changes automatically based on your system setting.

So basically if I buy a japanese cart I'll be able to play it on my american NGPC? So region really doesn't matter on the system eh?

[Ivo]

a lot of neo pocket games have both languages on the cart, and it changes automatically based on your system setting.

So basically if I buy a japanese cart I'll be able to play it on my american NGPC? So region really doesn't matter on the system eh?

Most handhelds are not region locked - however note that not all japanese carts have english language support, even if some do.

[Ack]

I am reviving this ancient topic to discuss Cardfighter's Clash. I own both the Capcom and SNK release, and after knocking out a few other NGPC games, I decided to sit down and give the Capcom version a go.

I'm not gonna lie, I'm only a handful of battles into the game, and I'm still getting a feel for it. In short, I suck, but I am getting a better understanding. I do have some questions though.

First, do opponents get better if I replay them? I did a battle against Yuri in the Resident Evil mansion and stomped her, then immediately fought her again and found myself in a grueling slugfest that went blow for blow until I finished her off. Is this something I should expect, or is it merely that I got lucky the first time?

Second, did my character choice at the beginning matter in terms of gameplay or starting cards?

Third, I have a bunch of low power cards, and my strategies are still lackluster. I have managed some great combos with Ryu, Ken, Sean, and Sakura, but there are many folks with ? listed as their backup, and many cards which feel like I'm using as throwaways or purely for SP for big moves much later in the game. How do I find out what the '?' means? And should I stick to my SF characters are try to Branch out?

And finally, is there any reason I should look at SNK cards at all? Or should I stick to Capcom?

[PartridgeSenpai]

This is one of my FAVORITE games ever (or it would be if the second didn't so thoroughly replace it in my eyes) so I'm so glad you're getting into it some more

First, do opponents get better if I replay them? I did a battle against Yuri in the Resident Evil mansion and stomped her, then immediately fought her again and found myself in a grueling slugfest that went blow for blow until I finished her off. Is this something I should expect, or is it merely that I got lucky the first time?

I never noticed NPC decks changing. It's very possible you just got lucky the first time. It is a TCG RPG, so it's certainly possible she got bad draw and you got good draw.

Second, did my character choice at the beginning matter in terms of gameplay or starting cards?

Gameplay is exactly the same sans for the character you don't pick being your rival. Other than that, I'm fairly sure dialogue and such is still exactly the same or very very similar (Capcom's version has Cap and Comet, while SNK version has Shin and Kei). I also don't believe it affects your starting deck either. Your starting deck is determined by game version, not by your gender choice (iirc).

Third, I have a bunch of low power cards, and my strategies are still lackluster. I have managed some great combos with Ryu, Ken, Sean, and Sakura, but there are many folks with ? listed as their backup, and many cards which feel like I'm using as throwaways or purely for SP for big moves much later in the game. How do I find out what the '?' means? And should I stick to my SF characters are try to Branch out?

And finally, is there any reason I should look at SNK cards at all? Or should I stick to Capcom?

It's easier to just answer both of these questions at once.

First of all, Card Fighters has some really serious power creep. There are a lot of cards that are just flat out bad and not worth having because other cards are better. They try to balance this out by lower power cards usually giving more SP, but there are plenty of higher value cards that have both great BP and give 5 SP. That said, most cards with very good abilities often have little to no SP (like Akuma), but even Akuma still has 800 BP to back up an incredibly overpowered ability. Keeping lower power cards is alright if you want to play around their abilities, but I rarely found it worth it. A winning strategy with the AI can easily just revolve around smashing them into the dirt hard enough with little focus on abilities. They work on that a lot in the sequel as far as changing around how some better abilities work and making some less good ones better, but power creep is a really serious issue in the first game.

Power creep aside, the other thing you have to consider, as you rightfully point out, is back-ups. Lower-power cards make for great back-ups, and can also be good for a big burst of SP if you have Actions cards you want to play and weaker cards in hand. Keeping Capcom guys with Capcom guys and SNK with SNK can be a good way to build a deck for back ups. However, the '???' back-ups challenge that assumption. ??? back-ups are back-ups from the opposite company's cards. There is no way to find them out in-game. You either need to just use trial and error, look them up online, or try and associate similar roles between the respective company's corresponding series to make educated guesses. For example, Terry and Ryu (although I think only the 1000 BP Ryu, not the SFA 500BP one) can back up one another. Back-ups are something I totally ignored in my first playthrough and did fine, but it's certainly something to take into account in the early game to try and take some of the RNG away from winning the "gym leader" fights.

Ahhhh, just talking about this is making me wanna play through CFC2 again! That game is SOOO good and the plot is SOOOO stupid (standard Yu-Gi-Oh-esque "use card battles to save the world" type thing, but that just makes it so much more funny). You even go to a card battling high school

[Ack]

Ok, that helps a lot. I do use back up a fair bit with some cards, like Juli, Juni, and Cammy as a combo, or Ken with Sean and Ryu (A). There are a lot of folks I use as throwaways for SP still, but hopefully I will keep getting folks. The only weak card I've ever really used in a definitive strategy beyond that was a hilarious match where my opponent and I kept trading a Zombie card back and forth.

I've noticed that as I use cards as backup, the name gets a star symbol beside it. Does that do anything? And if I were to use an SNK card to backup a Capcom one, would the '?' disappear? I don't have too many SNK cards, but if I have the means just to clear up who can support folks like T. Hawk, it might be worth doing in a throwaway match.

Also, I'm still pretty weak in terms of card rarity. I have a couple of B-rated cards like Morrigan, but mostly I'm still stuck with the C and D designations.