Neo Geo Pocket Color

[A Black Falcon]

So as I said in the 'games I got' thread, I got one of these a few days ago. I have six games so far, and probably will get some more on EBay soon (not much hope of seeing more in person anytime soon... NGPCs/NGPC games are a "once every couple years" kind of thing around here, it was pretty cool I managed to find this one). So, my thoughts.

This post, which will be long, has several major parts:

History (history of the console)
System (overview of the system design)
Games List (a list of all releases for the console)
Game Reviews/Summaries (including reviews of the six titles I have)



History
--
SNK released the Neo Geo Pocket in Japan in late 1998. However, Nintendo released the Game Boy Color around the same time, so the monochrome NGP didn't do well. SNK released the NGP in Europe at some point perhaps in late 1998, that is what most sites say, but maybe in early 1999, but didn't release the B&W system or its games in the US. There were only nine B&W-only games released in Japan during the system's short five month lifespan before the Neo Geo Pocket Color released, though, so we didn't miss too much. Europe, as a note, got four of the B&W titles there. However, many NPGC games are backwards compatible, so there is a decent library of games that can be played on the B&W systems even if very few games are B&W only. All B&W games play on color systems just fine, though I know of no way to play the dual-mode titles in B&W mode on a color system (similarly, there's no way to do that on a GBC either).

The NGPC launched in Japan in March 1999. The system launched in the US a bit afterwards, and Europe some time after that. Unfortunately, while it did better than the NGP, the NGPC was also a failure in the end. It lost money for SNK and has a short lifespan -- just about a year in the US, a couple years in Japan. Because the NGPC wasn't taking off, because the arcade market in the West had completely collapsed, and because of lots of piracy (and I mean "counterfeit arcade boards", not just downloading roms) of Neo-Geo arcade games, SNK went bankrupt and was bought out by the pachinko and slot machine maker Aruze in 2000.

Oh, I'm having some issues figuring out exactly when the NGPC was released in the US. I see some date it to April 1999, but others put it in August. The sources do say that the system first launched with six games, and in a limited manner, sold only on the web retailer EToys.com, though. Perhaps it launched there in April, then in stores later that summer? That sounds plausible. Either way, the NGPC's last game was released in the US in May 2000, barely a year after its release. The system lasted a bit longer in Europe, and there are six or seven games that got European releases in 2000 but were not released in the US, but after that, the system was gone. Even in Japan, it didn't last much longer -- while a thinning string of games were released through 2000 for the system, all 2001 saw were three or four titles, including several pachislot games (Aruze released many pachislot games for the NGPC), a mahjong game, and a sequel to the popular NGPC game SNK vs Capcom Cardfighters Clash. It's odd that that last one was actually released, given that no other non mahjong/pachislot games released that year... nice, though. Oh, there is no region locking of course. Some Japanese titles are only in Japanese, but a few do have English text; it varies from game to game, just like with the Neo-Geo itself.

The US-region games that had been produced but not sold yet when SNK shut down its US division in June 2000 were believed to have been reflahsed and sold in Asia or destroyed. However, suddenly, several years later, in 2003, many thousands of them surfaced in the form of blister-pack releases of the NGPC. This got the purchaser a NGPC system and six games. Not a bad deal, even if finding many other games would at that point have been tricky... and also, two games which had been produced but not sold in the US yet (though they had gotten European release) when SNK shut down finally got US releases, which greatly reduced the prices of European import copies of those two titles, The Last Blade and Faselei!. That means those two games do not have official US boxes, but oh well, the carts are what matter.

Overall, despite the small library of about 81 games, maybe 15-20 of which are stupid casino and mahjong titles, the NGPC is a pretty nice little system that is worth a look, particularly if you're an SNK fan of course but maybe also generally beyond that.



System
--
But anyway, the system itself. The system -- The NGPC looks nice. It's small, similar in size to a GBC/GBA/etc, except a little thicker. Still, it'd easily fit in a pocket. The system doesn't have a backlight, but the screen is fairly easy to get lit up, like the GBC, so you won't have GBA-like "have a light directly pointing at the screen if you want to see well" situation (though I do like the original GBA, it does have a darker screen.). I don't mind the lack of backlight, that's part of why the NGPC gets such great battery life -- this thing gets 30-40 hours on 2 AAs, which is two to three times what the GBC and GBA get on the same number of batteries. Impressive work there. With a backlight battery life would be much, much worse. The system also uses a CR2032 battery that saves the system settings and clock -- the NGPC has a basic menu that opens if you turn the system on without a game in it that shows you the time and has functions for a calendar, language setting (English or Japanese; this affects the menus and some games that have multiple language versions in them and display the one that your system is set to), a horoscope, and a timer alarm. Nothing special, but I guess it's nice to have. The system having a clock in it means that games don't need to do that themselves, which is nice -- GB/GBC games that have clocks in them drain their batteries much faster than other games, and you can't exactly just easily switch those batteries like you can the NGPC's. Games themselves save onto the carts, and they all use flash memory to save, not on-cart batteries, which is nice. Most carts have saving, though a few, such as Pac-Man, don't.

As for power, the NGPC is a bit more powerful than a Game Boy Color. It's 16 bit, and can put about 150 colors on screen from a palette of 4000; the GBC could put 52 on screen from a palette of 32,000. The system is faster overall, and the graphics look better. Audio is good, nice Game Boy-esque music. I like it. My main complaint would be that sprites are limited to three colors each, which really is annoying; backgrounds can be very colorful, but the sprites themselves are usually black, white/skin tone, and one color. Kind of distracting. Oh well...

The most unique thing about the NGP and NGPC's design is, of course, for anyone who has seen one, that digital joystick thing it uses for input. It looks like a small analog stick, but it's not analog, it's a clicky (really, it makes loud, audible clicks as you move it) arcade stick style thing that SNK developed. The NGPC's one is a descendant of the Neo-Geo CD gamepad's joystick, which had a similar small, clicky digital stick on it. SNK wanted people to be able to get the closest thing they could to the feel of a real arcade stick, and a d-pad just doesn't do this. It works -- this feels like an arcade stick, not a d-pad, and it's pretty great. It took a little while to get used to, but I did in not too long and now I think it's a seriously great control mechanism... I wish something else used something like it. It's too bad nothing does.

Apart from that, the system has A and B buttons (in the left to right order seen on most non-Nintendo consoles, not Nintendo's right to left design) and an Option button, which is the start button. Like the Game Gear, there are just the three buttons. I wish the system had more buttons; there are lots of fighting games on this system, and while they tried, they'd be more fun with two more buttons so they could have as many buttons as the arcade versions. If they really thought that they couldn't fit four face buttons on this thing (and I think they could have, maybe), maybe they should have looked into putting shoulder buttons on this... oh well. It's kind of disappointing, as this does lead to some reduction in complexity in the games, but doesn't hurt the system too much. It helps that the stick, and the A and B buttons, are so well built -- these buttons feel very solid and high quality. No cheap, lame handheld-system buttons here, that's for sure! SNK did a good job with the controls.

The NGPC also has the usual power button (hold it down for a second to turn it on), headphone jack, link cable port (for a multiplayer link cable or for a cable to hook the NGPC up to a Dreamcast; the NGPC, not the GBA, was the first handheld with a link cable that could hook it up to a console for transfer bonus stuff.), and volume knob (the speaker is nice and loud, well above the volume of that weak GBC speaker, which is nice). The system is comfortable to hold.

There were six NGPC colors released in the US. There are several more in Japan, including a redesigned NGPC that is a tiny bit smaller, but the redesign changed nothing major. I have the metallic blue one and it looks nice.

NGP/NGPC Games List
--
The list is separated into three categories, first black and white titles, second dual-mode games, and third color only games. Within each the games are separated by the regions they were released in. I also try to roughly put the games in order by release date (US dates for US-released titles) within each category.

Note that as far as I know, all games that save use on-cart saving -- I don't know of any that are password only saving, unlike the GBC. Also most games (Pac-Man and maybe a few more are the few exception(s)) have on-cart saving. Pretty cool.

*Asterisks note that that game is a third party published game, ie not something by SNK, ADK, Yumekobo, or Aruze, or a game from a third party but published by SNK. Yeah, there weren't many.


B&W Only Games
Note - the NGP (B&W system) and all B&W games were not released in the US, though a few did get limited European releases.)
--
Japan and Europe
--
Pocket Tennis - 1998 JP / 1999 EU - Sports (Tennis)
The King of Fighters R-1 - 1998 JP / 1999 EU - Fighting
Samurai Shodown! - 1998 JP / 1999 EU - Fighting
NeoGeo Cup '98 Plus - 1998 - Sports (Soccer)

Japan Only
--
Baseball Stars - 10/1998 - Sports (Baseball)
Melon-chan no Seichouki - 1998 (Melon-Chan's Growth Diary) - Raising Sim
Renketsu Puzzle Tsunagete Pon! - 10/1998 (Puzzle Link) - Puzzle
Shogi no Tatsujin - 11/1998 - Shogi (Japanese Chess)
Neo Cherry Master - 12/1998 - Gambling (Slots)


Color or B&W games (dual mode)

All Region releases (maybe a couple weren't released in Europe, but not many)
--
NeoGeo Cup '98 Plus Color - 4/1999; 10/1999 (EU) - Sports
Neo Turf Masters - 7/1999 (US/JP); 10/1999 (EU) - Sports
Crush Roller Pocket - 4/1999 - Arcade Action
The King of Fighters R-2 - 3 and 4/1999 (JP/US) - Fighting
Bust-A-Move Pocket - 3 and 4/1999 (JP/US) - Puzzle
Pocket Tennis Color - 3 and 4/1999 (JP/US); 10/1999 (EU) - Sports
Neo Cherry Master Color - 3 and 4/1999 (JP/US); 10/1999 (EU) - Gambling (Slots)
Neo Mystery Bonus - 3 and 4/1999 (JP/US); 10/1999 (EU) - Gambling (Slots)
Neo Dragon's Wild - 3 and 4/1999 (JP/US); 10/1999 (EU) - Gambling (Poker)
Samurai Shodown! 2 - 4 and 6/1999 (US/JP) - Fighting
Baseball Stars Color - 5/1999 - Sports
Fatal Fury: First Contact - 5/1999 - Fighting
Metal Slug: 1st Mission - 5/1999 (JP); 1999 (US/EU) - Platform/Action
*Pac-Man - 7/1999 (US); 8/1999 (JP); 10/1999 (EU) - Arcade Action
Biomotor Unitron - 4 and 7/1999 (JP/US) - RPG/Strategy
Puyo Pop - 7/1999 (JP); 9/1999 (US); 11/1999 (EU) - Puzzle
Puzzle Link - 3/1999 (JP); 9/1999 (US) - Puzzle
Dark Arms: Beast Busters - 10 and 11/1999 (JP/US) - Action/RPG
Magical Drop Pocket - 6/1999 (JP); 12/1999 (US); 3/2000 (EU) - Puzzle
SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters Clash: Capcom Version - 10/1999 (JP); 11/1999 (US); 1999 (EU)
SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters Clash: SNK Version - 10/1999 (JP); 11/1999 (US); 1999 (EU)
Neo 21 - 12/1999 (JP); 1/2000 (US); 2/2000 (EU) - Gambling (Blackjack)
Shanghai Mini - 7/1999 (JP date); 2000 (US/EU) - Puzzle
Dive Alert: Becky's Version - 4/2000 (US date); 8/1999 (JP date) - RPG/Sim
Dive Alert: Matt's Version - 4/2000 (US date); 8/1999 (JP date) - RPG/Sim
Puzzle Link 2 - 4/2000 (US date); 11/1999 (JP date) - Puzzle
Faselei! - 12/1999 (JP); 2000 (EU); 2003 (US, cart only, packin release) - Strategy

Japan and Europe Only releases
--
Evolution: Eternal Dungeons - 2000 (EU version is very rare, and the JP version is Japanese text only. Third party developed, but SNK published.) - RPG
*Cotton: Fantastic Night Dreams - 2000 (rare and expensive) - shmup
Picture Puzzle - 4/2000 (JP); 6/2000 (EU) - Picross clone

Also note that only Europe got English-language boxed releases of Faselei! and The Last Blade in 2000.

Japan Only (Japanese text only unless noted)
--
Shogi no Tatsujin Color - 3/1999 - Shogi (Japanese Chess)
Doko Demo Mahjong - 4/1999 - Mahjong
Neo Derby Champ Daiyosou - 4/1999 - Horse Racing
*Pocket Love If - 10/1999 (KID) - visual novel
Densha de Go! 2 - 10/1999 (Taito/SNK) - Train Sim
Pachi-Slot Aruze Oukoku Pocket: Hanabi - 10/1999 (Aruze) - Pachislot
*Pachinko Hisshou Guide: Pocket Parlor - 11/1999 (Vistec) (Pachinko Pocket Parlor Guide)
Soreyuke!! Hanafuda Doujou - 12/1999 - Card (Hanafuda)
Party Mail - 12/1999
Pachi-Slot Aruze Oukoku Pocket: Azteca - 2/2000 (Aruze) - Pachislot
Neo Baccarat - 6/2000 - Gambling (Baccarat). This may have also been released in Europe, though I'm doubtful. Has English text option.
*Rockman: Battle & Fighters - 7/2000 (Capcom) - Fighting


Color Only games (not backwards compatible)

All Region
--
SNK vs. Capcom: Match of the Millenium - 11/1999 (US); 12/1999 (JP); 1999 (EU)
*Sonic Pocket Adventure - 12/1999 (US); 2000 (EU); 5/2000 (JP) (Sega) - Platformer
SNK Gals' Fighters - 1 and 2/2000 (JP/US) - Fighting
Metal Slug: 2nd Mission - 3/2000 (JP); 5/2000 (US); 4/2000 (EU) - Platform/Action
The Last Blade - 2000 (Japan and Europe, normal retail release); 2003 (US, cart only, packin release) - Fighting


Japan and Europe, not the US
--
Dynamite Slugger - 5/2000 - baseball. This may have only been released in Japan, though the game does have a full English text option available (as well as Japanese).

Japan Only (Japanese text only unless noted)
--
Mizuki Shigeru no Youkai Shashinkan - 1999 (Mizuki Shigeru's Ghost Photo Gallery)
Mezase! Kanji-Ou - 1/2000
Kikou Seiki Unitron - 1/2000 (Biomotor Unitron 2) - RPG/Strategy
*Cool Boarders Pocket - 2/2000 (UEP Systems) - Isometric Platform/Action with touches of Racing
*Koi Koi Mahjong - 3/2000 (Visco) - Mahjong
*Memories Off Pure - 4/2000 (KID) - Visual novel
Neo Poke Pro Yakyuu - 5/2000 - Sports (Baseball)
Ganbare Neo Poke-Kun - 2000 - weird raising game
Densetsu no Ogre Battle: Zenobia no Ouji - 6/2000 (Riverhillsoft/SNK)
The King of Fighters: Battle de Paradies - 7/2000 - board game
*Bikkuriman Viva! Pocket Festival - 3/2000 (Sega) - minigame collection?
Pachi-Slot Aruze Oukoku Pocket: Ward of Lights - 3/2000 (Aruze) - Pachislot
Pachi-Slot Aruze Oukoku Pocket: Porcano 2 - 7/2000 (Aruze) - Pachislot
*Delta Warp - 8/2000 (Iosys) - puzzle game, mostly in English
Cool Cool Jam - 10/2000 - music game
Pachi-Slot Aruze Oukoku Pocket: Del Sol 2 - 10/2000 (Aruze) - Pachislot
Big Bang Pro Wrestling - 11/2000 - wrestling (has full English text option)
*Infinity Cure - 11/2000 (KID) - visual novel
*Nige-ron-pa - 11/2000 - (Dennou Club) - RPG
Pachi-Slot Aruze Oukoku Pocket: Daihanabi - 12/2000 (Aruze) - Pachislot
Pachi-Slot Aruze Oukoku Pocket: DH2 - 1/2001 (Aruze) - Pachislot
Super Real Mahjong Premium Collection - 3/2001 - Mahjong
Pachi Slot Aruze Oukoku: e-CUP - 3/2001 (Aruze) - Pachislot
SNK vs. Capcom Card Fighters Clash 2: Expand Edition - 9/2001 - Card


Games
--
Now, on to the games. As I said above, the NGPC has about 81 games. Approximately 30 were released in the US in 1999-2000, while Europe got several more, maybe 40 or so, including the four B&W titles (though there were a couple that got US released but not European ones, I believe, there were quite a few more they got but we didn't). At least the US did get two more of those when the blister-pack release of the system in 2003 got use US The Last Blade and Faselei... the rest. though, stayed in Japan.

The library has some real strengths and weaknesses. As I said before, there are a LOT of casino and pachislot games on the system, far more than most anyone would like given the small size of the library. That's a weakness, darn you Aruze... :( Also, there are very few platformers. While the sidescrolling platformer was the bread and butter genre of all other handhelds from the Game Boy to the GBA, the NGPC has very few of them; indeed, apart from Sonic Pocket Adventure, the only other ones are the two Metal Slug titles. At least the NGPC Metal Slug games play as much like platform-action games as they do Metal Slug. The system does have a lot of fighting games, though -- there are at least 10 for the system. Given that it's from SNK that should be expected, but that fighting game focus is there. At least they did try to branch out with things like RPGs (Biomotor Unitron), strategy games (Faselei!), platformers (NGPC Metal Slug), etc, so it's not quite as focused on one genre as the Neo-Geo was. There aren't any racing games, though; well, there's one horse racing game, and one snowboarding game that's as much an isometric platformer as it is racing, but no car racing titles at all. Also, on a related note, the NGPC has very few third party titles. SNK was always pretty bad at getting third party support, and that showed here as much as anywhere. There are far more first party NGPC games than there are third party.

Below, I'll talk about games I have for the system. I have six games so far, basically the six that came in the blister-pack the person who bought this NGPC purchased I assume (given the titles and number, I'm sure that's what I have, a blister-pack release). As I get more I'll add my comments on them of course. Three are fighting games, three other types. All six games do have their plastic cases, which is nice.

Fatal Fury: First Contact - A fighting game. SNK's nine fighting games for the NGP/NGPC all have a somewhat samey feel, and probably share an engine, but it's a really good engine so that's okay. The games all use superdeformed-style cartoonish art, which fits the small screen well. The long, extending limbs they have do look kind of funny though. :) In general character selections are much smaller than the major console titles, though there's still a decent variety in each game. For this game in specific, there are 11 characters to choose from. The game doesn't have the multiple plane design of the Fatal Fury games it's copying, though (this claims to be a Real Bout title, not Mark of the Wolves), which is perhaps too bad because that was one of pre-MotW FF's defining design features, but still it's simple fun. The game's somewhat of a button masher, and there are better games on the system, but it's decent fun. Difficulty is moderate.


The King of Fighters R-2 - Better game than the above one. The graphics are similar, but maybe a bit nicer, and there are a few more characters. Also I like KOF more than I do Fatal Fury; I like MotW, but the rest of the Fatal Fury games have never really grabbed me. KOF, though, I like a lot. KOF EX2 for the GBA is one of my more played games for that system, so I can't help but compare this to its handheld descendant. Obviously here the graphics are nowhere near as good, and there aren't quite as many features or modes either, but still it's great fun. I wasn't sure if the NGPC fighting games would be worth getting given that I do have KOFEX2, which is one reason I hadn't bought one before, but now that I do have one, I know it was worth it -- sure the sprites are only three colors, and they're all small superdeformed things, but the games are great fun and play really well. The fighting is very smooth and they do as well as they can with only two buttons. It does reduce complexity, which as I said is too bad, but this feels a lot like a KOF game even so. I like it. (Oh, the first game, KOF R-1, was B&W title, so there was no US release. It was released in Europe though.)


Samurai Shodown! 2 - Another sequel to a JP/EU only B&W NGP title, Samurai Shodown! 2 is, well, a handheld Samurai Shodown game. It has the slower, more deliberate pace you expect from SamSho, and is a great game. This is far better than SamSho 1 for the Game Boy, as decent as that title was... The controls are a bit odd, though -- the A button is slash, and B does several things depending on context including kicking, deflecting, etc. I kind of wish there were two slash attacks, my favorite SamSho button layout on the Neo-Geo itself was SS4, which had three buttons for attacks and one for kick (instead of two and two, like the first two games). I know you get used to it, but it's a bit odd. Apart from that, though, this is pretty cool. The character lineup is interesting, as a bunch of characters from the 3d Samurai Shodown 64 titles show up here -- Shiki, etc. are in this game. Cool. The game's a challenge too, much more so than, say, Fatal Fury. Control issues aside this is a good game.


Metal Slug: 1st Mission - This game is amazing! It might be my favorite of these six games, in fact... MS 1M is an incredible, addictive game. As I said above, the two Metal Slug NGPC games, much like their followup Metal Slug Advance, are quite different from other Metal Slug titles. Instead of walking to the right on a screen that can't scroll back, you go in all four directions and can freely move around. Instead of having one hit deaths and lives, you get just one life per continue, but have a health bar. And instead of spending most of your time shooting, you'll be doing more platform jumping and exploration in these games than you will standard Metal Slug style shooting. Fortunately, it all works brilliantly. In fact, I think I might like this game even more than MS Advance. While that one obviously has far better (nearly Neo-Geo perfect) graphics, it also has far too few levels, with only five; the NGPC games have many stages each. This one has like 15 or 20, and the second game apparently has 39 or something. They aren't all as long as those five levels are, sure, but still it provides more content. The game has fair replay value too, as it's just so much fun to play that I imagine I won't just be playing it once. In this game you just play as Marco; the later two (2nd Mission and Advance) both have a male or female character to choose. The game saves, but you have limited continues so be careful. If you use a continue you pick up from right where you died, but lose 10 coins. Sometimes it's smarter to reset the system and load up your save and try to do it without dying this time. Along the way, there are lots of items to collect for points and POWs to rescue in standard Metal Slug fashion. The continue limit makes it harder, but oh well. It is a little annoying that you have to switch between your gun and grenades with the Option button, so you can only pause if you hold the button down, but oh well, as I said the system could have used more buttons. It's not too bad. But yeah, the game is great.

Pac-Man - This is, well, Pac-Man. It's Namco's only NGPC game, and it's based on the Game Boy and Game Gear versions of the game, clearly. While the details are different -- versus the GG version there are different numbers of dots (yeah, that surprised me, but the number of dots is different) and some different graphics in this version, for instance -- both have the same very basic presentation and options. Both versions, and the GB version also I assume, though the GBC special edition, released just a month after this version, does include Pac-Attack as well as Pac-Man. It's too bad that isn't in this version as well. Pac-Man itself has the same (lack of) options across all three platforms though. You only have two options, fullscreen (with the whole thing shrunken down so you can see it all at once) or scrolling, so you can see the full detail but can only see one part of the field at once. Neither is perfect, but with a handheld it's all you can do. Also, neither version has saving. While on the GG that was understandable, here it's much less so; almost all NGPC games save! It's annoying Namco was too cheap to have a save chip in the cart so it could save your best scores.

Neo Turf Masters - This is a golf game. The game's a pretty decent golf game, and is based on the very popular Neo-Geo golf title Neo Turf Masters, but I just don't like golf very much, so I find it boring. People who like 8/16-bit style golf games probably would like it, though. It seems well made and has multiple characters to choose from, three courses, and more. Choose a club, aim, press the button at the swing power you want, and try to get it in the hole...

[A Black Falcon]

The Last Blade - cart in case. This game is the most valuable of these; complete copies sell for well over $31, and loose ones don't sell for too much less than that either. Finding a group of games with a copy of this in it for that price was a great find. This game is incredible, and is the best NGPC fighting game I've played yet for sure. Outstanding game, it does a good job of translating The Last Blade to the handheld. It has the stories from both of the Last Blade games in it too, and unlocks the Last Blade 2 characters eventually if you play it more. I haven't done that yet, but did beat it once. It feels a little simpler than the Neo-Geo games, but still has good depth and complexity. Outstanding game. Great backgrounds too, they look just like the Last Blade 2 backgrounds! I'll give this a longer review later, I'm still only in the Last Blade 1 portion of the game, but I will say that this game is truly exceptional, and is easily the best of the four NGPC fighting games I own. There are a bunch of modes -- Story, Survival, Time Attack, and Practice, for starters -- lots to buy in the shop (you get money when you win matches that you can use to buy things in the shop), good graphics, great gameplay, and more. I am a huge Last Blade series fan on the Neo-Geo, and this is a great portable conversion of the gameplay. Just awesome stuff.

Puzzle Bobble Mini - cart and case. Bust-A-Move. I assume this is a European (or Japanese, if the game is multilanguage) copy, because of the different title. This is an okay version of Bust-A-Move, but it's got some issues. Like the Game Boy/GBC versions, the playfield is small and cramped, and the bubbles are tiny. Telling some of the colors apart, and accurately aiming in the small field, is tough. For content, it's basic -- the game has an endless mode, a puzzle mode with 99 puzzles, and versus/vs. cpu. This is basically the same feature set as Bust-A-Move for Game Gear, so I imagine this is a port of the first game, just with more characters added in the versus mode. This version allows you to access all 99 puzzles from the start, so you don't need to actually progress, unlike the GG (which used password save for that because there's no battery in the cart). It's supposed to save your best times in each stage, but either my cart is messed up or it doesn't. That's annoying. Vs. CPU mode works as you'd expect. Endless is fun, and is like the GG's endless mode, except it actually does save your high scores in this one (there of course it didn't). Overall though, honestly I'd almost actually rather play the GG version; yes, it doesn't save scores and has lots of slowdown that this version doesn't have, but the larger graphics (and wider screen) make the game easier to play.

Sonic Pocket Adventure - cart only. This was apparently Dimps' first Sonic game, and it's basically a handheld version of Sonic 2, but with some new levels in it as well as ones out of Sonic 2. There's a link versus mode too, and some other mini modes. Pretty solid port, and I like that it actually saves, unlike the Game Gear Sonic games... but gameplay-wise it's nothing above GG Sonic, apart from having less slowdown. Of course, the NGPC isn't exactly a big leap in tech over handhelds from eight years before it (in fact, the Lynx was almost certainly the most powerful handheld ever all the way up until the Game Boy Advance came out), so that makes sense. Anyway, Sonic Pocket Adventure is a quality game. My first impression, though, is that Metal Slug 1st Mission is my favorite NGPC sidescroller so far... though of course there are only three, the two Metal Slug games on Sonic, so there's not exactly a lot of competition.

SNK vs. Capcom: Cardfighters Clash (SNK Version) - This is a card battle game, like the various card battle games popular then and now (pokemon cards, magic, etc). This isn't a port of something though, it's an original title. I've only played it a very little, but it seems pretty solid for the genre. Nice graphics on the cards too. It does explain how to play, which is good, because there's a good bit to learn.

[A Black Falcon]

Here's a longer review of Puzzle Bobble Mini.

Puzzle Bobble Mini / Bust-A-Move Pocket - This essentially is a port of the first Bust-A-Move game, years after its sequels had released on other platforms. In that respect, I find this disappointing -- of the BAM games I own, the closest comparison for this one is the Game Gear version of BAM1. There are small differences, like that the NGPC version has on-cart saving while the GG version doesn't, but the basic features are quite similar. Like that version, the central mode is a puzzle mode where you play 99 puzzles, one after another. There is no grid where you choose a path, no variety, nothing, just 99 puzzles. It doesn't even require you to play them in order -- all 99 are unlocked from the beginning, and you can play them in any order. At least on the GG version you have to play them in order, and it uses passwords to save your progress! However, the NGPC version does save your top times for each stage, which is nice. Obviously, on the GG, or SNES, the game won't do that as those versions don't have oncart saving. My copy is broken however, so it won't even do that, it won't save times in puzzle mode. Bah, I might need another copy... though I'm not sure, this isn't one of my favorite versions of BAM, for sure.

Apart from the link-up versus mode, the other two modes are a Vs. CPU mode and an Endless mode. Endless mode was what I play the most in the GG game, and it's just as good here, except it saves your best scores, which is great (and this does actually save on my copy, so the save chip isn't completely shot, just partially corrupted or something). Vs. CPU mode is a bit different though -- here you choose which enemy you want to face next, so you can fight the eight enemies in any order, while on the GG you fight them in a preset order. Otherwise it's pretty much the same.

Apart from features and modes, the other obvious question is, how well does it play? Controls are identical to the GG version -- the dpad moves, one button shoots bubbles, and the other button slows down movement so you can get pixel-perfect accuracy. However, one thing isn't similar -- screen size, and thus the size of the graphics. The NGPC, like the Game Boy, has a small, nearly square screen. The bubbles, while clear and well drawn, are tiny on the screen. It's hard to tell some of the colors apart, too; indeed, the pink bubbles are particularly tough to tell apart from some of the others. However, the Game Gear version has a larger screen, and larger graphics. It does have a fairly significant amount of slowdown, while the NGPC version has one, but still, the bigger, easier to see graphics make that version more fun to play, in my opinion.

Or, of course, you could play one of the GBA, DS, etc. versions of Bust-A-Move, many of which have much better visibility than the NGPC or Game Boy versions of the game (the GB and GBC versions have that same "tiny little bubbles" issue that the NGPC has), and have lots more features and content too, in many cases.

So yeah, Puzzle Bobble Mini is okay, but flawed. I know there's nothing they could do about the size of the screen, but it is too bad that they chose to base it off of the first Bust-A-Move. It's too bad that this wasn't a conversion of Bust-A-Move 3 for instance, that game has a crazy number of modes and options, and the N64 and PSX versions of BAM3 were released in the US in 1999, the same year as this one (the Saturn version had released a year or two earlier here). BAM4 was out by that point too. I guess SNK was using the original as the basis because the original was the version that had been released on the Neo-Geo, and not the sequels (the original BAM arcade game, and the BAM Again version, are Neo-Geo, but not BAM2, BAM3, etc.), but it results in a somewhat feature-lacking version of the game. And my copy is kind of broken, too.